Anting-antings constitute the remnants of what was once, what might
be called the religion of the peoples of the Philippines. They are
most commonly met with in the form of amulets which their possessors
carry about with them to ward off dangers of all kinds. There are
amulets for protection against fire arms, against sword thrust
or bolo slash; against diseases of all parts of the body; amulets
against the bursting of fire arms or to prevent them making a noise
when discharged by the wearer of the amulet; against snakes and their
bites, against lightning; amulets to protect their wearers against the
courts of justice and against the authorities when they pursue them
for robbery. In a word amulets or anting-anting against everything.
As a rules these amulets consist of small booklets containing prayers
composed of Latin and Spanish words mixed with words and abbreviations
of the native dialects. Some times they are stones or mineral deposits
found in the bodies of animals, or the seed portion of petrified
fruits, or even parts of the skeletons of children.
Although one would suppose that such superstitions had long since
ceased to exist among the indians of the archipelago such is not the
case; and it is more than probable that the majority of the members
of the federal party and may be two out of the three native members
of the Commission carry their anting-anting carefully guarded in
one of their pockets. However their use is most common among native
doctors, that is those who have not studied medicine, but who dabble
in the art for what they can get out of it, and by tulisanes or armed
robbers. They were also much in vogue among the enlightened officers
and men of the insurgent ranks, many of whom considered themselves
perfectly safe from the bullets of their enemies when they carried
in their person an amulet or anting-anting.
The following are samples of pages of one of the booklets found on
the person of a wounded tulisan. The first of these two pages contains
a prayer against fire-arms, and the second a conglomeration which no
one has never been able to decipher.
+---------------------------+ +-----------------------------+
| talis misererenobis | | |
| Amin. | | Prele queno niar en res |
| | | tom Domi nom nos tom |
| Oracion de S. Pablo | | |
| contra armas de foigo | | |
| ip. Ntro. y Av. | | h [+] a |
| | | [+] [+] [+] |
| Jesus S. Pablo Ponitom | | Q [+] n |
| quiter Deus Salucam tuam, | | |
| Amin. | | |
+---------------------------+ +-----------------------------+
Anting-anting is also found in other forms, sometimes merely a strip
of paper bearing some inscription, and which receives its virtue from
some action performed over it, such as the saying of the mass whilst
the paper is on the altar.
A parish priest of a pueblo in a neighboring province once related
to me the discovery of one such an anting-anting in his church. He
approached the altar to recite the Mass, and upon genuflecting at
the centre of the altar noticed that there was something unusual,
although small, under the altar cloth. He put his hand under the
cloth to see what it was and found there a slip of paper bearing
three crosses, thus:
+ + +
This paper had been carelessly folded and placed where he found it,
upon the altar stone. Had it remained undisturbed and the service of
Mass been said over it, it would have, in the belief of the indian
who put it there, become infused with marvelous virtues and could
have protected its wearer from the dangers to be incurred in the
armed rising against the Spaniards which they were about to attempt.
In all probability Buencamino carried some anting-anting with him to
Washington to protect him from assassination or from ... nausea.