they call nono, signifying grandfather, and make offerings to it.  Every old tree they look upon as a superior being, and think it a crime to cut it down.  They worship also stones, rocks, and points of land, shooting arrows at these last as they pass them.  They have priests who, at their sacrifices, make many contortions and grimaces, as if possessed with a devil.  The first man and woman, they say, were produced from a bamboo, which burst in the island of Sumatra; and they quarrelled about their marriage.  The people mark their bodies in various figures, and render them of the colour of ashes, have large holes in their ears, blacken and file their teeth, and make an opening which they fill up with gold, they used to write from top to bottom till the Spaniards taught them to write from left to right, bamboos and palm leaves serve them for paper.  They cover their houses with straw, leaves of trees, or bamboos split in two which serve for tiles.  They hire people to sing and weep at their funerals, burn benzoin, bury their dead on the third day in strong coffins, and sometimes kill slaves to accompany their deceased masters.”)

The latter account is more particular, and appears of modern date.

They held the caiman, or alligator, in great reverence, and when they saw him they called him nono, or grandfather, praying with great tenderness that he would do them no harm, and to this end, offered him of whatever they had in their boats, throwing it into the water.  There was not an old tree to which they did not offer divine worship, especially that called balete; and even at this time they have some respect for them.  Beside these they had certain idols inherited from their ancestors, which the Tagalas called Anita, and the Bisayans, Divata.  Some of these were for the mountains and plains, and they asked their leave when they would pass them:  others for the corn fields, and to these they recommend them, that they might be fertile, placing meat and drink in the fields for the use of the Anitos.  There was one, of the sea, who had care of their fishing and navigation; another of the house, whose favour they implored at the birth of a child, and under whose protection they placed it.  They made Anitos also of their deceased ancestors, and to these were their first invocations in all difficulties and dangers.  They reckoned amongst these beings, all those who were killed by lightning or alligators, or had any disastrous death, and believed that they were carried up to the happy state, by the rainbow, which they call Balan-gao.  In general they endeavoured to attribute this kind of divinity to their fathers, when they died in years, and the old men, vain with this barbarous notion, affected in their sickness a gravity and composure of mind, as they conceived, more than human, because they thought themselves commencing Anitos.  They were to be interred at places marked out by themselves, that they might be discovered at a distance and worshipped.  The missionaries have had great trouble in demolishing their tombs and idols; but the Indians, inland, still continue the custom of pasing tabi sa nano, or asking permission of their dead ancestors, when they enter any wood, mountain, or corn field, for hunting or sowing; and if they omit this ceremony imagine their nonos will punish them with bad fortune.