ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 109 



RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



Animism. — Tho^^ believed in the immortality of the soul, which 

 they called "ante.'' At the death of a person the}' put upon the head 

 of the corpse a little basket, "as though inviting the spirit to make 

 its home in that basket in place of the bodj' it leaves, or in order that 

 it may have a nesting place when it shall come from the other life to 

 pay them a visit from the place of its sojourn. •'« The souls of those 

 who died a violent death were supposed to go to Sasalaguan, or the 

 dwelling place of Chayfi, who heats them in a forge and beats them 

 incessantly. Those d^nng a natural death were supposed to descend 

 to a paradise in the underworld, where there are bananas, coconuts, 

 sugar cane, and other fruits of the earth. In determining the future 

 destin}' of the soul good and evil conduct apparently had no part. 

 The souls of the dead, especially of ancestors, were looked upon as 

 demons (aniti) and venerated. 



The spirits of the dead, like the lares of the Romans, were regarded 

 as natural protectors. They were called aniti, and were thought to 

 l)e powerful for evil if not duly respected and propitiated. In times 

 of distress they were called upon and their aid was invoked to keep 

 awav evil and to bring good luck to those for whom prayers were 

 offered. The natives heki the aniti in dread, and the}' sometimes paid 

 thoni homage for self -protection; "for," says Padre Garcia, "the 

 devil, in order in some fashion to retain this respect and servile fear, 

 is wont to appear to them in the form of their fathers and ancestors 

 and to terrify them and maltreat them.'' They had no temples, sacri- 

 fices, idols, nor defined creed.'' They had. however, certain supersti- 

 tions, especially in connection with their fisheries, during which they 

 kept profound silence and practiced great abstinence for fear or for 

 fiatter}- of the aniti, lest they punish them bv driving away the fish or 

 visit them in di'eams to frighten them, which the natives really believed 

 they had the power to do. These aniti, it thus appears, were of an 

 unkindly disposition rather than beneficent, and may be considered 

 ratlier as demons than as divinities. To this dav there is amono- the 

 natives a superstitious dread of the aniti, who are supposed to dwell in 

 the forest. Sometimes benighted travelers going through the bush 

 are seized by the throat or scratched with sharp claws; sometimes 

 stones are hurled by unseen hands, and sometimes in solitary places by 

 the shore a headless figure may be seen sitting motionless fishing in 

 the sea. The aniti are supposed to lurk among the many trunks of 

 the nunu or banyan tree {Ftcus sp.) and haunt the sites of ancient 

 houses (casas de los antiguas).'' 



« Garcia, Vida y Martyrio de Sanvitores, p. 205, 1083. 

 ''Idem., p. 204. 

 c See p. 97. 



