ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. Ill 



from the people and place of their origin they forgot their language. 

 On this account the people of other nations knew no language and 

 talked like fools without understanding one another nor knowing what 

 they said. Thus they attributed to the ignorance of the foreigners 

 their own inability to understand a language strange to their ears." 



The particular spot from which the first men originated was a rock 

 situated on the west coast of the southern portion of the island, at a 

 place called Fuuna, a short distance north of Umatag. It rose 6 or 8 

 fathoms from the sea. From its summit vessels going and coming 

 could be seen at a great distance. It was washed by the sea on three 

 sides, on which it was inaccessible; on the east-southeast, at the point 

 where it connected with the mainland, it could be easily fortified. On 

 this rock the missionaries established themselves and built a church, 

 which they dedicated to San Jose, and the}'' soon succeeded in convinc- 

 ing the people of the falsity of the myth concerning Fuuna, the 

 alleged mother of the human race.* 



SoKCEBEES. — Their priests, called makahna, were supposed to have 

 the power of communication with the spirits of the dead, to cause 

 sickness and bring health, to produce rain and bring good luck in fish- 

 ing. To accomplish a desired object they invoked the favor of the 

 deceased, whose skulls, inclosed in baskets, were kept in the dwellings 

 of their descendants. At the time of the arrival of the early mission- 

 aries some of the natives showed veneration for the bones and skulls 

 of their ancestors, and represented their images on the bark of trees 

 and in carvings of wood. Garcia attributed this custom to the influ- 

 ence of a Chinaman who had been shipwrecked on the island and who 

 had gained ascendency over the natives. He was probably wrong in 

 this, since he compared the makahnas.with Indian bonzes, who carried 

 on the worship of the devil for their own interests. After describing 

 the veneration or worship of the aniti, he says: 



This is the most that the devil has been able to obtain from these poor Marianos; 

 not temples, nor sacrifices, nor idols, nor profession of any sect whatever — a condi- 

 tion of affairs which greatly facilitates the introduction of the faith; for it is easier to 

 introduce a religion where none exists than to abolish one and introduce another. 



The makahnas naturally opposed with all their might the introduc- 

 tion of Christianity and put every possible obstacle in the way of the 

 missionaries, who tried to bring them into disrepute, and each party 

 declared that the other were charlatans and impostors. '■' In their excess 

 of zeal to overthrow the religious practices of the islanders some of 

 the missionaries adopted radical measures. Padre Luis de Medina, 

 "in order to root out once for all the superstition of these Marianos," 



a Garcia, Vida y Martyrio de Sanvitores, p. 203, 1683. 

 6 Idem., p. 468-469. 

 cidem., p. 204. 



