I 
132 PHILIPPINES. 
stomacliSj and estraordinan' head of hair, give them 
the appearance of furies, or old witches. 
* * * * 
" The Ajctas have no religion, and adore no star. It 
appears, however, that they have transmitted to the Tan- 
gnianes (a brown race inhabiting the neighbourhood), or 
have learned from the latter, the practice of worshipping 
for a day a rock, or the trunk of a tree, in which they find 
a reaemblance to some animal or other. Then they leave 
it, and think no more about idols until they meet with 
some other fantastical form, which beoomes s new object 
of an equally frivolous worship. They hold the dead in 
great veneration. For several years they resort to their 
graves for the purpose of depositing a little tobacco and 
betel upon it. The how and aiTOWs of the ' deceased are 
suspended over his grave on the day of interment, and 
according to their bchef he emerges every night fi-om the 
grave to go htmting.*' 
Jff # * 
As I have already stated, the Ajetas do not always 
wait for the death of the afflicted before they hmy him. 
Immediately after the body has been deposited in the 
grave, it becomes neceaaaiy, according to their usages, 
that his death should be avenged. The hnnters of the 
tribe go out with their lances and arrows to kill the first 
living creature they meet with, whether a man, a stag, a 
wild hog, or a buffalo. ^Yhen on their journey in search 
of a victim, they take the precaution of breaking off the 
young shoots of the shrubs they pass by, leaving the ends 
