exercised by certain old men, ceremonious
in the extreme, and not less by old women called _catalonas_--witches,
superstitious creatures, diviners, and casters of lots--who were
esteemed and so thoroughly believed that whatever they said, although
lies, was taken as an infallible oracle. The manner of their sacrifices
(which they called by the name _maganitos_), on meeting to make them
in the place that we have spoken of above, was none other than that,
having prepared an unclean animal, very well grown--or for lack of
it, a large cock--they offered it to the devil by means of one of
those witches, with peculiar and curious ceremonies. For, dancing
to the sound of a bell, she took in her hands a small idol, made to
imitate the form in which the father of deceit was wont to appear
to them at times; it was of human form, with very ugly features, and
a long beard. She spoke certain words to it, invoking its presence,
whereupon the iniquitous spirit came, and entered into her miserable
body in order to dictate to her the deceits that are its custom in
such acts. After having declared their false notions to those present,
they ate the animal or bird, and they drank to intoxication, whereupon
the wicked sacrifice was brought to an end. Besides that adoration
which they gave to the devil, they revered several false gods--one,
in especial, called _bathala mey capal_, whose false genealogies
and fabulous deeds they celebrated in certain tunes and verses like
hymns. Their whole religion was based on those songs, and they were
passed on from generation to generation, and were sung in their feasts
and most solemn assemblies. Those who were ignorant of the teachings
of Mahomet adored not less the sun, the moon, the rainbow, birds,
and animals--but especially the cayman or crocodile; a blue bird
closely resembling the thrush; the crow; rocks placed on the shores
of the sea, and those that they see in the sea, such as sunken rocks
and shoals. [35]

Their ancestors also enjoyed that worship, and more especially those
who had been famous in arms, and in the virtues native to their mode
of belief; and they believed that reward was the lot of the good,
and punishment that of the wicked. From this arose among them the
knowledge of the immortality of the soul. Accordingly, when anyone
died, they bathed the body and buried it with benzoin, storax, and
other aromatic substances, and clothed it then in the best of its
possessions. Before bur