t the object itself, that counts. Even Aguinaldo has
been invested by his followers with superhuman power. Just before
he resorted to arms against the Americans the natives knew that the
time for rebellion had come, for a woman in Biacnabato gave birth
to a child dressed in a general's uniform, and above Tondo a woman's
figure crowned with snakes was painted in fire upon the night-sky.

In details of their faiths the tribes differ, but there is a prevalent
belief in a principle of good that the Moros call Tuhan. The sun,
moon, and stars are the light that shines from him,--he is everywhere,
all-seeing, all-powerful; he has given fleeting souls to brutes
and eternal souls to men. The soul enters a child's body at birth,
through the soft space in the top of the head, and leaves through the
skull at death. Their first men were giants, and Eve was fifty feet
high, but as men's minds grew their bodies became of less account,
and they will shrink and shrink until, at the world's end, they will
be only three feet high, but will consist mostly of brains. Comparing
a brawny savage with an anaemic scholar, one fancies there is reason
in this forecast. The Tagbanuas have no Adam and Eve. Those of them
who live beside the ocean say they are the children of Bulalacao,
a falling star that descended to the shore and became a beautiful
woman. The gods of these people are like men, but are stronger,
living in caves, eating an ambrosia-like boiled rice that has the
power of moving. Their gods sometimes steal their children.

Old Testament traditions are commonly accepted by the Moros, who
believe in No (Noah), Adam, Mosa (Moses), Ibrahim (Abraham), Sulaiman
(Solomon), Daud (David), and Yakub (Jacob); but creation myths are
locally modified, and some tales of recent emergence of islands out
of the sea are probably true. In all volcanic districts mountains may
be shaken down and hills cast up in a day. Siquijor formerly bore the
name of the Isle of Fire, for the natives say that in the days of their
grandfathers a cloud brooded on the sea for a week, uttering thunders
and hisses and flashing forth bolts of fire. When the cloud lifted,
Siquijor stood there. The geology of the island supports the tradition.

The future is differently conceived by different sects and families,
some panditas teaching that the soul, having come from God, will
return to him at death; others that it will sleep in the earth or
the air until the world has ended,