h they were guilty.

Two evil-doing demons play an important part among them, and in which
all believed before the conquest of the Philippine islands. One
of those malevolent demons is the Tic-balan which I have already
mentioned, who dwells in the forests, in the interior of the large
fig-trees. This demon can do every possible harm to anyone who dares
not to respect him, or who does not carry certain herbs about his
person; every time an Indian passes under one of these fig-trees
he makes a movement towards it with his hand, saying: "Tavit-po,"
Tagal words, signifying: "Lord! with your permission!" The lord of
the place is the Tic-balan.

The other demon is called Azuan. She presides especially over
parturitions in an evil manner, and an Indian is often seen, when his
wife is in labour, perched upon the roof of his hut, with a sabre in
his hand, thrusting the point into the air, and striking on all sides
with the edge, to drive away, as he says, the Azuan. Sometimes he
continues this manoeuvring for hours, until the labour is over. One
of their beliefs--and one that Europeans might envy--is, that when
a child that has not reached the age of reason dies, it is happy for
all the family, since it is an angel that has gone to heaven, to be
the protector of all its relations. The day of the interment is a
grand fete-day; relations and friends are invited; they drink, they
dance, and they sing all night in the hut where the child died. But I
perceive that the superstitions of the Indians are drawing me from my
subject. I shall have occasion, further on, to describe the manners
and customs of these singular people.

I now resume my statement, at the moment when my lieutenant tried to
assure me that I had some anten-anten, and that consequently I could
not be wounded by a shot fired at me.

He then addressed the young girl, who had remained in the corner,
more dead than alive.

"Ah! cursed creature!" said he to her; "you are Cajoui's mistress:
now your turn is come!"

At this moment he advanced towards her with his dagger in his hand. I
ran between him and the poor girl, for I knew he was capable of
killing anyone, particularly after I had been attacked in a manner
that had placed me in danger.

"Wretch!" said I to him, "what are you going to do?"

"No great things, master; only to cut off the hair and ears of this
vile woman, and then send her to tell Cajoui that we shall soon
catch him!"

It cost me much troubl