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RELIGION 177 
cestors as a Chinaman worships them with filial piety 
and respect for their memory. He extends to the spirit 
world the same conflicting desires and passions and sel- 
fishness which exist on this earth, and tries to make his 
way successful among the anito by much the same 
devices which he uses in his dealings with his fellow-men. 
As a point in the history of religious development, it 
would be very interesting to know whether the Filipino 
began with an idea of the anito as a sort of god and later 
extended the concept to include lesser spirits and those 
that were once human; or whether the origin of his 
faith was a belief in the power of the souls of his dead, 
and that from this original cult his anito concept was 
extended to include greater spirits and gods. The latter 
is perhaps the simpler and more plausible hypothesis. 
But we cannot be sure, since the anito religion is un- 
doubtedly extremely ancient even in its present form. 
Moreover, this type of religious belief is so fundamental 
in the whole of the East Indies that the problem can 
only be settled by comparative studies. 
The classes of spirits recognized by the Filipino are 
innumerable and their names often differ from tribe to 
tribe. There are spirits of the mountains, of the forest, 
of the water, and so on, ad infinitum. Some of these are 
demons that hunt human beings, or live on corpses, or 
work mischief in various ways. Others are protective 
or at least neutral in their attitude toward humanity, 
and these when offended can be propitiated, and when 
they are benevolent can do much to further the affairs 
of men. Above these are the great gods, who do not 
fall into classes like devils or angels, but possess in- 
dividual personalities and are addressed by their proper 
names. The number of these is enormously large. The 
Ifugao, for instance, are said to distinguish several 
thousand such deities by name. 

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