ying "Grandfather." They asked it pleasantly and tenderly not
to harm them, and for that purpose offered it a portion of what they
carried in their boat, by throwing it into the water. There was no
old tree to which they did not attribute divine honors, and it was a
sacrilege to think of cutting it under any consideration. Even the
very rocks, crags, reefs, and points along the seashore and rivers
were adored, and an offering made to them on passing, by stopping
there and placing the offering upon the rock or reef. The river of
Manila had a rock that served as an idol of that wretched people for
many years, and its scandal lasted and it gave rise to many evils,
until the fathers of St. Augustine, who were near there, broke it,
through their holy zeal, into small bits and set up a cross in its
place. Today there is an image of St. Nicholas of Tolentino in that
place, in a small shrine or chapel. When sailing to the island of
Panay, one saw on the point called Nasso, near Potol, a rock upon
which were dishes and other pieces of crockery-ware, which were
offered to it by those who went on the sea. In the island of Mindanao,
between La Caldera and the river, there is a great point of land, on
a rough and very high coast. The sea is forever dashing against these
headlands, and it is difficult and dangerous to double them. When
the people passed by that one, as it was so high, they offered it
arrows, which they shot at the cliff itself with so great force that
they stuck there, offering them as if in sacrifice so that it would
allow them to pass. There were so many of those arrows that, although
the Spaniards set fire to them and burned a countless number of them
in hatred of so cursed a superstition, many remained there, and the
number increased in less than one year to more than four thousand.

106. They also adored private idols, which each one inherited from
his ancestors. The Visayans called them divata, and the Tagalogs
anito. Of those idols some had jurisdiction over the mountains and open
country, and permission was asked from them to go thither. Others had
jurisdiction over the sowed fields, and the fields were commended to
them so that they might prove fruitful; and besides the sacrifices
they placed articles of food in the fields for the anitos to eat,
in order to place them under greater obligations. There was an anito
of the sea, to whom they commended their fisheries and navigations;
an anito of the house, whose