by them, and shall not enlarge upon other details.
In the first place, the men are of medium size, and dark. They wear their hair clipped short, like the Spaniards. They wear a little cloth headdress and a small piece of cloth to conceal their private parts. From the belt upward, some wear a short doublet of coarse material, with half-sleeves and open in front. There is no manner of footwear. Among them the manner of dress and ornamentation is very indecent. The women are exceedingly ugly and most indecent. They clothe themselves with a piece of cloth hanging down from the belt, and a very small doublet, so that their bellies are left exposed. They can only be compared to mares glutted with hay. They have no personality or rank whatever, and eat and drink most vulgarly. There is no difference between the chief and his slave, or between the slave and his master, in the matter of eating and drinking.
As for their sacrifices, each one of the natives, so far as I have seen, has in his house many idols, to whom they pray. They call God, Batala, and the chief idol which they have is thus named; but others call him Diobata[1]—at least among the Pintados they
- ↑ Blumentritt says (Dic. mitólogico de Filipinas, pp. 34, 35), of the appellation Bathala: "This name, of Sanscrit origin, is or was given to various gods of the Malay Filipinos. The ancient Tagalos called their principal god Badhala, or Bathala mey-kapal ["God the creator"], and gave the same name to the bird Tigmamanukin, . . . and sometimes to the comets or other heavenly bodies, which, in their opinion, predicted future events." This is analogous to the manner in which the North American Indians apply such terms as "Manitou," "wakan," or "medicine," not only to their divinities, but to any phenomenon that is mysterious or incomprehensible to them.The term Diwata (devata, diobata), also of Sanscrit origin, is applied variously by different races in the archipelago—sometimes to the souls of ancestors (whom they invoke); sometimes to any inferior spirits, whether good or bad (ut supra pp. 45, 46).
