ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 109 



RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



ANIMISM. They believed in the immortality of the soul, which 

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

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

 its home in that basket in place of the body 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. " a 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 dying 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 

 destiny 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 

 be powerful for evil if not duly respected and propitiated. In times 

 of distress the} 7 were called upon and their aid was invoked to keep 

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

 offered. The natives held the aniti in dread, and they sometimes paid 

 them 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. 6 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 

 flattery of the aniti, lest they punish them by driving away the fish or 

 visit them in dreams 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 

 rather as demons than as divinities. To this day there is among 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 ma3 r be seen sitting motionless fishing in 

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

 the nunu or banyan tree (.Ficus sp.) and haunt the sites of ancient 

 houses (casas do los antiguas). 6 ' 



Garcia, Vida y Martyrio de Sanvitores, p. 205, 1683. 

 b Idem., p. 204. 

 c See p. 97. 



