VIII, D, 2 Beyer: Myths Among Mountain Peoples 87 



Chicago, and have not yet been published. Relating to the 

 Mangyans, there are three important papers by Worcester,' 

 Gardner,^ and Miller,' but these likewise deal chiefly w^ith the 

 material and general social culture, and give only fragmentary 

 notes regarding the religious beliefs. Two papers, one by 

 Worcester^ and one by Venturello,® relate to the Tagbanwas. 

 The religion of these people is interesting, although primitive. 

 The general character of their beliefs may be seen by the follow- 

 ing quotation from Worcester:^" 



I was especially interested in their views as to a future life. They 

 scouted the idea of a home in the skies, urging that it would be inacces- 

 sible. Their notion was that when a Tagbanua died he entered a cave, from 

 which a road led down into the bowels of the earth. After passing along 

 this road for some time, he came suddenly into the presence of one Talia- 

 kood, a man of gigantic stature, who tended a fire which burned forever 

 between two tree-trunks without consuming them. Taliakood inquired of 

 the new arrival whether he had led a good or a bad life in the world 

 above. The answer came, not from the individual himself, but from a 

 louse on his body. 



I asked what would happen, should the man not chance to possess any 

 of these interesting arthropoda, and was informed that such an occurrence 

 was unprecedented! The louse was the witness, and would always be 

 found, even on the body of a little dead child. 



According to the answer of this singular arbiter, the fate of the de- 

 ceased person was decided. If he was adjudged to have been a bad man, 

 Taliakood pitched him into the fire, where he was promptly and completely 

 burned up. If the verdict was in his favour, he was allowed to pass on, 

 and soon found himself in a happy place, where the crops were always 

 abundant and the hunting was good. A house awaited him. If he had 

 died before his wife, he married again, selecting a partner from among 

 the wives who had preceded their husbands; but if husband and wife 

 chanced to die at the same time, they remarried in the world below. Every 

 one was well off in this happy underground abode, but those who had been 

 wealthy on earth were less comfortable than those who had been poor. 

 In the course of time sickness and death again overtook one. In fact, 

 one died seven times in all, going ever deeper into the earth and improving 

 his surroundings with each successive inward migration, without running 

 a second risk of getting into Taliakood's fire. 



I could not persuade the Tagbanuas to advance any theories as to the 

 nature or origin of the sun, moon, and stars. Clouds they called "the 

 breath of the wind." 



'The Philippine Islands and Their People. New York (1898), 362-434. 



* A typewritten manuscript of 60 pages, entitled "The Hampangan Maiig- 

 yans of Mindoro" by Dr. Fletcher Gardner. U. S. A. (1905). In the 

 records of the division of ethnology. Bureau of Science, Manila. 



'This Journal, Sec. D (1912), 7, 135-156. 



'Loc. cit., 76-122. 



^Smithsonian Misc. Colls. (Paper No. 1700), 48, 514-558. 



"Loc. cit., 109-111. 



