The only literature accessible to the Filipinos of little culture
and also to those of the better class consisted of Corridos which
constitute the profane literature, and the Pasion and the Novenas
which formed the religious reading. Corridos, Pasiones, and Novenas
were printed in abundance, in cheap editions, in Spanish as well as
in the dialects of the country.
The Corridos are stories in verse about historic events, falsified and
fanciful, and love tragedies full of wonderful events mixed with divine
prodigies and diabolical magics--all lengthy, exaggerated, puerile, and
absurd in the extreme. None of the characters is native. All are Turks,
Arabs, knights, errants, ambassadors, dukes, warriors in armor provided
with magic arms and with balsams like the famous one of Fierabras,
good Castilians and bad strangers. All the characters are antipodal
to Philippine realities and with the semblance of the real and true
being from unknown lands and prodigious races. The same is true with
the scene of activities; wonderful lands, Palestine, the kingdom of
Navarra, the Empire of Great Kahn, the Palace of Macedonia, and not
only are they ignorant of, and do they falsify, the face of the earth,
but the planetary system itself suffers a radical change. Palms and
tamarind grow in the vicinities of Moscow; Palestine and Macedonia are
covered with prairies like Norway and Switzerland, and whales appear
in the Mediterranean. Events which begin in the morning in Macedonia
and in the most natural manner in the afternoon of the same day in a
palace of Babylonia, and a princess of Aragon captured early in the
morning in Sicily discusses at midnight and without an interpreter
with a Moro of Samarcanda.
The Pasion, a work in verse in the different Filipino dialects, is
not only the passion of Christ, but it consists of a sort of abridged
edition of sacred history.
The Novenas are religious booklets dedicated to a saint whose favor
is invoked in order to obtain from God such and such favors. They
consist of a system of prayers in relation to certain miracles with
reflections about the saint, which are said every day for a period
of nine consecutive days. To Virgin Mary is attributed the origin of
the Novenas because she venerated the number 9 in memory of the fact
that nine days it was when she was apprised of the incarnation of
the divine Messiah, and also because of the nine months in which she
carried Him in her virgin womb. (Novena to Jesus, Maria, and Jose,
Manila, 1903, in the Exordium.)
The Novenas offer a very simple way of obtaining from heaven what
is asked in them from a protector saint. If the sympathy and aid
of a patron or a patroness whose mediation is implored is won, one
can obtain everything, be it appertaining to earthly life or future
life. It is a very easy means. It is like a magic ceremony with
its ritual composed of praises and acts of humiliation, devotion,
submission, admiration, and other propitiatory manifestations looking
toward gaining the sympathy and the protection of the saint. This
follows an enumeration of favors which may be requested and which are
always attended to by God as demonstrated by the numerous examples
which are mentioned with scrupulous care in the Novena. All the
Novenas are published with ecclesiastical permit after the censorship
of the prelate who examines scrupulously the writings to see if there
is anything that is contrary to morals, good customs, and absolute
orthodoxy. In a word, all are printed with the necessary licenses.
The prodigies mentioned in these Novenas compare very well with
the enchantments, magics, and sorceries of the primitive Filipinos
who invoked the propitiation of their divine spirits by means of
ceremonies, sacrifices, charms, and incantations performed by their
mangkukulam (witch), babailanas, and other prestidigitators, priests,
medicine men, charmers, and fortune-tellers, which are referred to
and are enumerated in the old chronicles written by the missionaries
in the Philippines.