D. Aduarte: "Historia..." 1640. Bid., vol.30, p. 296. 1905. See also, "Early Recollect

Missions," 1624. Ibid., vol. 21, p. 213. 1905.
''^^ Cf. the following passages.
A. Pigafetta: "Eirst voyage ... 1519— 1522." Op. cit., vol. 33, pp. 165, 167. 1906.
Mendoza: "History of... China," 1583—1588. Ibid., vol. 6, p. 146. 1903.
P. Chirino: "Relacion . . ." 1604. Ibid., vol. 12, pp. 265—270; 272—275. 1904.
"Early Recollect Missions." 1624. Ibid., vol. 21, pp. 314-315, et cet. 1905.
"'• Cf. P. Chirino, loc. cit. vol. 12, pp. 205—206. D. Aduarte, loc. cit., vol. 30, p. 292; A. MoRGA, loc. cit., vol. 16, p. 72; Artieda, loc. cit., vol. 3, p. 200.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 265
gious significance in all cases, as we know it to have had in the painting of certain figures, was so widespread a custom among the Visayan that the Spaniards gave them the name of Pintados. In my work with the Bagobo, I saw only a few cases of tattooing, and they said that an Ubu (Ata) man, from a place in the far north, had done the work.
In many Filipino groups, there was a more distinctly devotional attitude toward the sun, the moon and the stars *'^ than we find among the Bagobo, so far as is indicated by the attention given to certain constellations, to which they look for the setting of times and seasons, and to which they give offerings at certain times. The Filipino is said to have paid worship to the sun, the moon and the stars, but the records are brief.
There seems, also, to have been a tendency toward some forms of ancestor worship among the early Filipino of a more distinct type than the mere placing of a few areca-nuts for the ghosts, with the intention of driving them away. It is possible that the stronger influence of the Chinese in the north may have been a factor in directing this tendency. It may be, however, that the impression gained by Spanish missionaries in regard to the extent of ancestor- worship throughout the Islands would have to be modified if all of the facts were at our disposal. One of the Recollect Fathers says of the inhabitants of the Yisayas: "When they became sick, they invoked their ancestors to aid them, as we do the saints."**^ Now the custom of placing offerings at shrines in order to induce the dead to keep away from the living might easily lead astray an observer with a theological bent of mind. ^^'-^ In fact, the dividing line between ancestor-worship and magical spells intended to influence the dead is so hazy that perhaps it is hardly fair to name this custom as one peculiar to Filipino usage. A belief, perhaps unique,
"""* Cf. Mendoza, loc. cii., vol. 6, p. 146; A. Morga, loc. cit., vol. 16, ]}. 131; Recollect Missions, loc. cit., vol. 21, pp. 138, 202, 314.
^'^ Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 21, p. 207. 1905.
"•'^Warneck seems to use the term as the Spanish writers used it; for he finds ancestor-worship and soul-cults and fear of ghosts to be central elements in the religion of all Malay people. He says: "Die Religion der heidnischen Bewohner des Indischen Archipels zeigen im wesentlichen einen Typus. Mogeo Zahl, Namen und Mythen der Gotter differieren, bei alien malaiischen Volkern ist der Ahnen- und Geisterdienst, auf- gebaut auf animistischen Seelenvorstellungen, der gleiche; in alien ist Seelenkult und Geisterfurcht, das Zentrale der Religion." Joh. Warneck: Die Religion der Batak, p. 1, 1909.
266 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
was found by Aduarte among the Tagal, to the effect that their departed ancestors would come to life again, and that they would look to find the people faithful to old religious customs. ^^^
While methods of treating the sick show a general similarity, one peculiar custom seems to be local to Nueva Segovia — that of killing a young child and bathing the sick person in its blood, or of anointing the patient with the blood of a bird in place of the infant's blood. *^*
The above points are noted as fairly representative of numerous religious customs and beliefs that doubtless could be cited as evidence of variation from that great body of tradition which prob- ably dominated the entire archipelago in prehistoric times. In spite, however, of local differences and even of important peculiari- ties, there still remains the fact of the existence of a mass of ceremonial rites and magical usages common alike to Filipino and Bagobo, and perhaps to a great number of mountain tribes in the north and in the south. A range of ceremonies that reaches from central Luzon to southeastern Mindanao, through groups where transfusion of ideas would be an easy process, surely casts doubt upon any hypothesis of independent local development in single groups. The student is impelled to look for some common origin that may date back even to a pre-migration period, and to recog- nize, also, a development modified by a marked degree of dissem- ination within the Philippines of ritual forms and of religious practices. In this connection, Rizal's historical comments on the interrelations between the tribes in Spanish times are in point.
"This fundamental agreement of laws, and this general uniformity, prove that the mutual relations of the islands were widespread, and the bonds of friendship more frequent than were wars and quarrels. There may have existed a confederation, since we know from the first Spaniards that the chief of Manila was commander- in-chief of the sultan of Borneo. In addition, documents of the twelfth century that exist testify the same thing." ^^'^
In any attempt to trace the mythology and rites of these island tribes back to a common origin, we are at a profound disadvantage because of our great lack of native Filipino documents. Although
"''^ Cf. D. Aduarte: "Historia . . ." 1640. Blair ^nd Robertson: of. cit., vol. 30, pp. 290, 292, 293. 1905.
*'* Cf. D. Aduarte: "Historia . . ." 1640. Op. cit., vol. 32, pp. 42—43, 55. 1905.
*'* Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 16, p. 121. 1904 (a note by Rizal to Morga's "Sucesos").
BENEDICT, BACrOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 267
the Tagal and Visayan were possessed of an alphabet, and were accustomed to writing with a point of metal on palm-leaves and on the inner sheath of bamboo, they had preserved few, if any, written records of their mythology and ceremonial practices.*'^ It was largely by oral tradition that each generation became acquainted with ancestral myths, and under the tremendous pressure of the new religion let down on them by Spain these oral traditions were slowly smothered. Origin myths disappeared ; folk-stories vanished, and tribal narratives that might have thrown light on the historical development of the ceremonial passed out of existence. *^^ In ref- erence to this unfortunate situation, Rizal says: '^The ancient traditions made Sumatra the original home of the Filipino Indians. These traditions, as well as the mythology and genealogies men- tioned by the ancient historians, were entirely lost, thanks to the zeal of the Religious in rooting out every national pagan or idol- atrous record. ^"^^
The material before us indicates that the religion of the pre- Spanish Filipino and that of the present day Bagobo have more points of essential agreement than of difference, and may point to a common origin. From the Bagobo, we get no help in seeking for the source of the ceremonial, for according to Bagobo tradition both their own tribe and the neighboring tribes were aboriginal to Mindanao. Here, again, a comparative study alone may throw light upon the problem. Throughout the present discussion, various types of religious behavior among the Bagobo have found their analogies in the peoples of the mainland on the other side of the south China sea, as shown by the accounts of Martin, Skeat and others. The geographical position of the Philippine Islands, as well as manifest resemblances in material culture between the Islands
*'* C/*. E. G. Bouene: Historical introduction to Blair and Robertson: The Philippine Islands, vol. 1, p. 44, and footnotes from Spanish and French documents. 1903.
* " Since writing this paragraph, there has come to hand Beyer's "Origin Myths among the Mountain People of the Philippines," in which be calls attention to the dis- covery of ancient Filipino manuscripts in a cave in Negros, He says: "Until recent years, it has been believed that all ancient records written in the syllabic alphabets which the Filipinos possessed at the time of the Spanish conquest had been lost. It is now known, however, that two of these alphabets are still in use, to a limited extent, by the wild peoples of Palawan and Mindoro; and ancient manuscripts written in the old Bisaya alphabet have lately been discovered in a cave in the island of Negros. Many of these Negros manuscripts are written myths, and translations of them are shortly to be published." Philippine Jour. Sci., vol. 8, p. 35. April, 1913.
*'8 An annotation by Rizal to A. Morga's "Sucesos." Op. cit, vol. 16, p. 74. 1904.
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and the peninsula of Malaysia, suggests a brief comparison of the religious elements in the two areas.
Certain constant factors in worship that appear pretty regularly in the religious system both of the Bagobo and of several penin- sular tribes seem to indicate a relationship — that is to say, so far as those religious practices that are fixed below the veneer ^of Islam are concerned. In addition to the points that have already been noted in our treatment of Bagobo ceremonial and mythology, other similarities may now be considered.
Observances in sowing*'^ and in reaping *^° and the magical spells employed to ensure the success of rice crops in Malacca, while forming a much more elaborate complex than the simple Bagobo ceremonies, carry the same spirit and offer a like plan in the general form. We may note, in particular, the following details: the necessity of planting rice in early morning *^^ and at a set season of the year ; *^"- the platform altar erected in the rice-field for offerings, ^^^ and the branches surrounding it for magical pur- poses; the gifts to the gods of textiles, rice, etc.,^^* at harvest; the ceremonial use of yellow rice stained with saffron ;^®^ rules regarding exactness in posture, movements ^^•^ and so forth. Of course, a Malay ceremonial in Malacca is so overlaid with Moham- medan ritual that the analogy is to be found rather in the whole animistic attitude toward rice culture than in identity of rites. Perhaps the sacrifice of blood that Filipino tribes offered shortly before the sowing, or at the time of tilling the fields, finds its counterpart in the peninsular custom of sacrificing a goat^^^ to the earth hantu at the rice sowing season.
The ceremony of purification by water, which plays such an im- portant part in Bagobo ritual, is common among peninsular Malays, who have "annual bathing expeditions . . . which are supposed to purify the persons of the bathers and to protect them from evil." *®^
*'»W. W. Skeat: Malay magic, pp. 218—223, 228—235. 1900.
"«« (^. ibid., pp. 235—249.
"81 (y. ibid., pp. 218.
"«»(?/. ibid., p. 219.
"^^ Cf. ibid., p. 231.
"«" C/-. ibid., p. 237.
*«= Cf. ibid., p. 243.
*«« C/. ibid., p. 248 et seq.
"«' 6/. ibid., pp, 232, 233—234.
"«« (y. ibid., p. 81.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 269
Like the Bagobo, they resort to lustration in cases of sickness; at weddings the ceremony of bathing the bride and the bridegroom is present, and the essential ceremonial object in purification is a medicine-brush made up of a wide variety of magic plants by means of which rice-paste is applied to the candidate, *^^ just as water is poured from the green sagmo bouquet in the Bagobo rite of Pamalugu at the river. At first sight, perhaps it might seem that lustration by water held no noteworthy place in Filipino rites, or some record of such custom would have been made by the missionaries; yet it is also true that purification ceremonies might not have come forcibly to the attention of the Fathers for the reason that ritual bathing, if it were like the same rite among wild people, would not have involved accessories of permanent value, such as religious zeal was hunting down for destruction. A bunch of magic twigs and leaves would hardly be brought to a priest, along with a white china dish.
That peculiar form of shrine called tambara that is used every- where by the Bagobo, and apparently was a frequent type of altar among some of the Filipino groups in their pagan days, consists of a slender rod of bamboo split at the upper end to hold a dish for offerings. A shrine of essentially the same type was found by Sir W. Maxwell at several kramats in Perak, the shrines being formed by little stands made of bamboo rods, one end being "stuck in the ground and the other split into four or five, and then opened out and plaited with basket work so as to hold a little earth," on which incense is burned. ^^"^ From this account, it would appear that if the dish were ever an element of the shrine, it has now gone out of use. Small pieces of white cloth are used by the Perak Malays as votive offerings, just as white cotton textile is a favorite gift to Bagobo gods.
Regarding the nature of the soul, the Bagobo and the peninsular Malay, like primitive groups all over the world, fancy the soul of man to be a tenuous, unsubstantial image or phantom *^^ that sep- arates itself from the human body in sleep, in trance and finally at death, and that functions during these absences like the physical body. The Malay notion, however, of the soul as a manikin, or
" ° 9 W. W. Skeat : Malay magic, pp. 77—80.
"««• C/. ibid.y p. 67.
"^^ Cf. ibid., pp. 47—50.
270 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
thumbling, is absent from Bagobo ideas, for they, on the contrary, identify the soul with the shadow cast by the body. Skeat says that the number of souls recognized by peninsular Malays is seven in each human body; while animal and material objects are sup- posed to have souls *^^ — a belief common to all Malays. Like details in funeral customs may he noted: the arraying of the body in fine material ;*^^ the observance of the wake; the measuring the depth of the grave on the body of the digger ;*^^ the placing of the corpse with head toward the north ; ^^^ a burial exhortation addressed to the deceased, to which he is supposed to listen with close attention ; *^^ the funeral feast following the burial.
Popular folklore regarding sacred trees that are set apart as the abode of hantu ^^^ is practically the same in Malacca as through the Islands. Current beliefs concerning the nature of patianak (mati- anak) ; ^^^ the vampire (penangalan) that sucks the blood of children ; the significance of omens drawn from earthquakes, from eclipses, from thunder, from lizards and snakes, ^^^ from the cries of certain pigeons, of night-owls and of other birds that suggest traditional associations ^^^ — these are but few of the great number of portents and popular traditions that differ little in the two areas that we are considering. We find also in Malaysia the use of the ordeal by water, from which the thief is forced to emerge in proof of his guilt. 501
Bagobo custom in the matter of boring the ears of children agrees with the peninsular Malays rather than with Sumatra, for the ears of Bagobo babies less than a year old are pierced. If it were ever a ceremony of adolescence, it is not now so regarded. Concerning this matter, Skeat says: "The ear-boring ceremony (bertindek) appears to have lost much of its ceremonial character in Selangor, where I was told that it is now usually performed when the child is quite small, i. e. as the earliest, when the child is some
"^'W. W. Skeat : Malay magic, p. 52.
"^^ Cf. ibid., pp. 397—398.
*«*(:/. ibid., p. 405.
*»^ C/. ibid., p. 401.
"»••• Cf. ibid., pp. 406—408.
*»' r/. ibid., pp. 203—217.
*««(:/. ibid., pp. 320, 325—327.
*»« C/. ibid., pp. 532—535.
^'>'> Cf. ibid., p. 354.
*°^ Cf. ibid., pp. 542-544.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 271
five or seven months old, and when it is about a year old at the latest, whereas in Sumatra (according to Marsden) it is not performed until the child is eight or nine."^^- The filing of teeth in Ma- laysia is purely an adolescent ceremony, but the Bagobo boy under ten years old may often be seen with filed teeth. The discarding of ear-plugs by a girl at marriage is the custom in Malaysia, but it is not so in the Bagobo country, for I knew many married women who wore their ear-plugs.
Attention has been called, during the present discussion, to cere- monial and myth and religious customs throughout the East Indies — in Sumatra, in Nias, in Sarawak, in East Borneo, in Minahassa and elsewhere in Celebes — which correspond very closely with Bagobo ceremonial and myth and religious customs, or are even identical with them. ^^^ In particular, the pagan tribes of Sarawak have a ceremonial of peculiar interest for the present question. Among the Berawan, slaves are killed at the death of a chief, and the sacrifice is made a group sacrifice, just as with the Bagobo, everyone present being allowed to give a spear-thrust to the un- fortunate victim. Certain ceremonial details that characterize the Bagobo Ginum, and which are not mentioned in the accounts of Filipino rites, are noted by Furness of the proceedings at the return of a Kenyah and Kayan war expedition. ^^* Among these ritual details are the decorating of the ceremonial poles by shaving off the outer sheath into curled frills that extend down the entire length of the pole; the cooking of rice in bamboo joints by a steaming process, and the tabu on earthen pots for this ceremonial cooking; the substitution of the blood of a fowl for a newly-taken head; the placing of wooden effigies by the path near the festival house; the declaration of exploits by the warriors; the festival songs and the dances and feasting. All of these elements, and others that have previously been considered, give the impression of a celebration not at all unlike the Bagobo Ginum.
Were it possible to make a full comparative analysis of rites and myths that would be representative of the entire Malay area, it might be discovered that no single religious custom or belief is peculiar to the Bagobo. At present, there are many myths and a
*«> C/. ibid., p. 359.
'^°"See pp. 33, 37, 45, 47, 64, 75, 90, 94, 96, 107, 113—114, 160, 161 of this paper.
*«*(;/■. W. H. Furness: The Home Life of Borneo Head-huaters, pp. 90—92. 1902.
272 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
number of ceremonial elements characteristic of Bagobo tradition and Bagobo worship that have not as yet been reported from other Malay peoples.
Perhaps the most striking of these characteristic elements is the treatment of the sugar cane liquor at the agong ceremony, and also on the last night of Ginum, during the rites before the balekat. The old men stir the balabba with a green spray and dip out a few drops with a leaf spoon having a knotted handle. The officiating functionary offers the sacred liquor to the gods with these words: "Do you take the first draught, and we will drink the rest." The part which balabba plays in the ceremonial suggests the cult of the soma in Indian rites, and the Iranian cult of the sacred haoma. Many passages in the Vedas and in the Avestas contain allusions to ceremonies associated with the sacred liquor. ^^^
Another feature of Bagobo worship that has a distinctly Indo- Iranian flavor is the use of a cluster of medicinal branches and leaves for the lavations at the river. Lines of frequent occurrence in the Vendidad refer to the bunches of sacred twigs bound up with a vegetal tie. This is the Baresma^^^^ which is one of the essential instruments in the purification of the body, at the offering of sacrifice and when reciting the prayers. This element of puri- fication occurs also, as has been noted, in Peninsular rites ; but there, too, it may have a non-Malay origin. Swettenham inclines to the opinion that seven hundred years ago the faith of Malaya was a form of Brahmanism, which had succeeded the original form of spirit worship. ^"^*
Other ceremonial elements which may, perhaps, hark back to an Aryan source are the attitude toward the creator of the world and of man ; ^^^ the importance of making the agricultural or blood-
^"^ Of. J. Darmesteteb (tr.) "The Zend-Avesta: pt. 1, The Vendidad." The sacred books of the East, vol. 4, pp. 61, 74, 126, 169, 212, 289. 1895. Cf. also, P. Peterson (ed.): Hymns from the Rigveda, pp. 26, 46, 57, 119. 1888.
^^^ Cf. J. Darmesteter (tr.) : op. cit., p. 22. (Editor's note) : "The Baresma (now called barsom) is a bundle of sacred twigs which the priest holds in his hand while reciting the prayers." Cf. also ibid., p. 215. "The priest shall cut off a twig of Baresma . . . The faithful one, holding it in his left hand, shall keep his eyes upon it without ceasing, whilst he is offering up to the Ahura Mazda ... the high and beautiful golden Haomas . . ." See also p. 150. "You shall wash your bodies three times, you shall wash your clothes three times . . . you shall bind up the bundles of Baresma, you shall bring libations to the good waters..." See also pp. 214—215, 367 et cet.
^•" (y. Malay sketches, p. 192. 1903.
^°* Cf. J. Darmesteter (tr.): op. cit., p. Ixiv.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 273
less offering, as well as the bloody sacrifice ; "^^^ the virtue of the sacrifice for curing sickness and for securing material goods ;^^'^ the ■cleansing and generative power of the waters ;''''^ the celebration of a festival during the bright fortnight of the moon. These and other ritual aspects make one feel that the last word has not been said when all the single Malay characters in worship have been exactly compared and checked up.
Yet, after all, it is in hearing Bagobo songs recited and in listening to Bagobo romantic tales that one is conscious of a pre- vailing Hindu atmosphere. Without going too much into detail in the direction of the myths, since a careful analysis of episodes cannot be included within the limits of this discussion, there may be named a few constantly recurring elements: such as methods of magical manipulation; certain regularly appearing personalities; distinguishing marks of exalted individuals; the character of con- ventional incidents that are repeated so often as to form the woof of mythical situations — all these methods of literary treatment •characterize Bagobo song and story as they characterized the Sagas of ancient India, though the respective settings are very different. As illustrations of this characterization, we might name, particularly, the stress laid on the distinction of chaste men and of virtuous women, from whose bodies rays of light emanate, and on whose heads are halos inseparable from them;^^^ the auspicious marks on the bodies of semi-divine heroes ;^^^ the essential coordination be- tween rich apparel and a pure and lovely character ;^^* the dis- appearance of thirst and of hunger on attainment of the divine nature ;^*^ the appearance of celestial women from trees in which are cities or palaces ; ^^^ the growth to partial maturity at the moment of birth ;^^' a magical covering of physical distance by flight through the air, ^^^ or in response to a mental suggestion; the summoning
*"* Cf. J. Darmesteter (tr.): op. cit., p. Ixii.
5 1 « C/. ibid., p. 87.
*ii Cf. ibid., pp. hxx, Ixxxi, 87, 232. Cf. also, R. T. H. Griffith (tr.): The hymns of the Atharva-Veda, vol. 1, pp. 37—38, 43—44.
*i* Cf. SoMADEVA: The Katha sarit sagara; tr. by C. H. Tawney, vol. 1, pp. 121, 166, 415, 418; vol. 2, p. 246. 1880—1884.
^^^ Cf. ibid., vol. 1, pp. 25—26, 189; vol. 2, p. 141.
5^" Cf. ibid., vol. 1, p. 333; vol. 2, p. 159.
5^5 Cf. ibid., vol. 1, p. 36.
^i« Cf ibid., vol. 1, pp. 121, 229, 574; vol. 2, p. 150.
*!' Cf ibid., vol. 1, pp. 119, 156.
^>« Cf ibid., vol. 1, pp. 142, 278, 327, 328, 344, 346; 457. 494.
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of another by a mere thinking of him, ^^^ and the accomplishing of great exploits by a simple wish; the importance of auspicious omens at the beginning of an enterprise ; ^'-^ metamorphosis into other shapes ;^^' the slaying of hundreds by one having magical endowment ^^- and magic weapons ; ^'^^ the averting of evil spirits by conjuring the four cardinal points; the role of the bewildering charm possessed by forest deities ; ^^* the behavior of the flesh-eating demons called Edkshasa ; the characteristics of rapacious birds that have lances for teeth and that prey upon man, and of demons that lose all power on the approach of day, being dazed by the sunlight. ^^^ One might extend such a list to great length.
This unmistakable Hindu tinge to Bagobo mythology seems to imply a rather intimate association with Indian myth at some time in Bagobo history, and suggests that the ancestors of the Bagobo received their mythical impressions through indirect transmission from Hindu religious teachers; and that, while clinging steadfastly to the simple spirit worship or demon worship that probably under- lies all Malay religions, they came to borrow, to assimilate and to modify, until the complete fusion of Malay, Hindu and Buddhist elements gave a new religious complex that was not all Malay, and very far from being pure Indian in any phase.
Some of the elements just mentioned are obviously present, as well, in Filipino myth and tradition, and that we fail to find there such a deep impress of Indian influence as in Bagobo myth and tradition may be due, wholly, to the extremely fragmentary character of those vestiges of ancient religious practices which the Filipino now possesses, and to the scantiness of the mythology recorded by the missionaries. Diego de Bobadilla, writing in 1640, says: "All the religion of those Indians is founded on tradition, and on a custom introduced by the devil himself, who formerly spoke to them by the mouth of their idols and of their priests. That tradition is preserved by the songs that they learn by heart in their childhood,
^'^ Of. Somadeva: op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 421, 436, 567. ^*« Cf. ibid., vol. 1, pp. 127, 283, 285, 465, 490; vol. 2, pp. 160, 162. ^^^ Cf. ibid., vol. 1, pp. 46, 179, 339, 525; vol. 2, p. 168. ^^^ Cf. ibid., vol. 1, pp. 84, 455, 456.
^*' Cf. ibid., vol. 1, pp. 69, 503, 559; vol. 2, pp. 150, 164, 172, 527. *** Cf. ibid., vol. 1, pp. 337, 439; vol. 2, p. 150.
^** Cf. ibid., vol. 1, pp. 47, 60, 70, 167, 210, 263, 265, 338, 363—364, 572; vol.2, p. 164.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 275
by hearing them sung in their sailing, in their work, in their amusements, and in their festivals, and, better yet, when they bewail their dead. In those barbarous songs, they recount the
fabulous genealogies and deeds of their gods " ^^^ A record to a
like effect was made by a Recollect Father in Zambales, on the west coast of Luzon. "Besides that adoration which they give to the devil, they revered several false gods — one, in especial, called hathala mey capal^ whose false genealogies and fabulous deeds they celebrated in certain tunes and verses like hymns. Their whole religion was based on those songs, and they were passed on from generation to generation, and were sung in their feasts and most solemn assemblies." ^'-^
The failure of the Filipino to preserve in written form their mythical epics and ceremonial recitations, coupled with the almost complete extermination of the songs and stories that had passed by word of mouth down through a great number of generations, ^^® leaves us no means of drawing a comparison between the religious literature of the Tagal and that of the Bagobo. We do not know but that the vanished romantic myths of the Tagal, and of the Yisayan too, were characterized by the same literary quality as the ulit and the ogan^^'^ that are sung or recited by the mountain Bagobo of to-day.
If the wild tribes and the Filipino received the fundamentals common to them all from the Indian archipelago, with which area they share so many cultural traits, both material and religious, some infiltration of Hindu elements into their rites and myths would naturally be looked for, in view of the long occupancy of the southern Malay islands by people from the mainland of India.
The more or less mythical chronology of the Javanese dates the introduction of the Hindu religion into Java as far back as 149A.D., or even earlier, since the first Indian prince is reputed to have arrived at Java in the 75tli year of our era. ^^^^ Crawfurd regards these dates as presumably fabulous, and suggests the sixth century as the earliest period to which, with any high degree of proba-
^28 Blair and Robertson: The Philippine Islands, vol. 29, pp. 282—283. 1905. "■''' Ihid., vol. 21, pp. 137—138. 1905. ^*^ See, however, footnote 477, on the Negros manuscript.
**^The ulit is an epic, or long mythical romance; while the ogan is a short song, often accompanied by the guitar.
0 30 cf. T. S. Raffles: History of Java, vol. 2, p. 67. 1817.
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bility, the introduction of Hinduism into Java can be referred. ^^' He states, also, that western Sumatra was the first Malay insular region to be influenced by the religion of India. ^^^ Clifford has reached the conclusion that the Hindu settled both Java and Sumatra not later, probably, than the fourth century of our era. ^^^
However traditional the period of first occupancy, and however uncertain the dates given by native historians and the dates of the inscriptions on the monuments, there must have been a gradual extension of Indian influence for a very long time, and an enormous opportunity for the dissemination of Hindu myth and of ceremonial elements, even so far as those remoter parts of Java and Sumatra that are said to have remained in "a state of complete savagery." ^^* For many ages, the dominant influence in the southern Malay is- lands was Hindu, for Mohammedanism was not established in the western part of the archipelago until 1320;^^^ while Java, where Hinduism had made the deepest impression, resisted the encroach- ments of Islam successfully until the fall of her last capital in 1478. ^^^ The period of Hindu rule in the Malay islands could not have been less than six centuries, and probably covered a period of more than ten hundred years. ^^'
A number of scholars have put forth the theory that the Philip- pines, as well as the more southern islands, were anciently peopled by an Aryan stock — an argument based on the physical type of the mountain tribes, and on the fact that numerous Sanscrit words are found in various of the dialects of the Philippines. Another piece of evidence sometimes quoted to establish this hypothesis is a paper by the Chinese official, Chao Ju-Kua, who wrote, in the thirteenth century, of the finding of numerous copper statues of Buddha scattered in the forests of Luzon. ^^^
*^^ Of. A descriptive dictionary of the Indian Islands and adjacent countries, p. 185. 1856.
= =«» Cf. ibid., p. 150.
^^^ Cf. Clifford's article, "Malays."" Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11 ed., vol. 17, p. 475. 1911.
^^'* Cf. K. G. Jayne: "The Malay archipelago." Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11 ed., vol. 17, p. 469. 1911.
*^^ Cf. J. Cra-svfurd: History of the Indian archipelago, vol. 2, p. 221. 1820.
^^^ Ibid., vol. 2, p. 85.
^ " Raffles says that in the ninth century the records of the native historians begin to correspond in all essentials. Cf. History of Java, vol. 2, p. 64. 1817.
^^^ Cf. Chao Ju-Kua's "Description of the Philippines." (from his "Geography," ch. 40 ca. 1280.) Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 34, p. 185. 1906.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH Til
This entire question, of course, is one that must be left to oriental scholars; but, whatever the final conclusion in regard to a hypo- thetical occupation of the Philippines by an Indonesian people, we are in no wise dependant upon this theory for an explanation of Indian elements in Bagobo myth, or for the presence of such ele- ments in the religion of any other tribe in the Philippines. Even setting aside the possibility of premigration influences, there are records showing that a few centuries ago a much more intimate relation ^^-^ held between the Philippines and the East Indies than has been the case since the Spanish occupation. More than that, if these interrelations had been much less close, there would still have been abundant opportunity for the diffusion of religious tradition and story, from the most southern of the-%ice islands to Mindanao, to the Yisayas and to Luzon, so that we would surely look for a blending of Malay and Indian material in the customs and the ceremonies of these peoples of the Philippines.
Diffusion of myth and of ceremonial rites is a cultural phenom- enon found occurring all over the world, throughout very extended areas, and, as Professor Boas has repeatedly pointed out, diffusion of any sort requires no large movements of peoples, but only such continuous transmission of cultural elements through the agency of individuals as may give opportunity for imitation, borrowing and permanent assimilation.
As for the Bagobo, whatever the time and manner of their emi- gration, they and the neighboring mountain tribes were in possession of Mindanao long before Islam dominated the southern coast, and the way was open for communication with the southern archipelago. Their Malay heritage may easily have been enriched by increments from Hindu Buddhism, during the long centuries that the great Indian empire flourished in Java, in Sumatra and the adjacent islands.
The entire problem is an intricate one, and must remain open until further research work in the Philippines and among the wild tribes of the southern Malay islands shall have secured such de- tailed records of ceremonial and such full collections of songs, stories and folklore as to make possible an intensive study of this entire area. A few general conclusions, however, may be drawn from the material that has been presented in the preceding pages.
The religious culture of the Bagobo is essentially like that of
'•See footnote 475.
278 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
the entire Malay region, and in ceremonial usages, magic rites and folklore there is to be observed a marked resemblance to the cere- monial usages, the magic rites and the folklore of other pagan tribes in the Philippines, in the interior of the Malay Peninsula and on the islands of the Indian archipelago.
The close correspondence of Bagobo ceremonies and popular beliefs to those of many other mountain tribes in the Philippines, and to those of the Filipino in the times of pre- Spanish culture, points toward a common origin in the fundamentals of religion, and also to a very wide diffusion of religio-cultural elements through a long period of time. Both the complex character of certain cere- monial factors, and a geographical situation that would lend itself to ease of diffusion, negative the hypothesis of parallel development, as well as that of convergence. ^^^
Many Bagobo rites and myths answer, very closely, to corres- ponding rites and myths in Celebes, East Borneo, Sarawak, Sumatra and Mas. In particular, the higher ceremonial of the Bagobo, on its sacrificial side, finds its counterpart in the ceremonial of several tribes of Borneo.
There are still some peculiarities in ritual details and in a number of other forms of religious response among the Bagobo that, with our present knowledge, seem distinctive to this tribe and would indicate a considerable degree of local variation that has proceeded independently of the continuous transmission of cultural elements from without. Only after we become acquainted with the detailed ceremonial of the various groups concerned in our discussion, shall we be able to pick out what is peculiar to one group and what is common to all.
Several ceremonial factors offer a strong presumption of derivation from Hindu sources; while in the mythical romances or epics, that are recited by the Bagobo, there appears a literary quality sug- gestive of an appreciable Indo-Iranian infusion.
The influence of the Chinese seems to have been less apparent on the Bagobo than on the northern tribes, although the white dishes in use at shrines are referable to the Chinese.
Contact with the Moro has given mythical episodes, perhaps.
^"^ C/. Dr. Goldenweiser's discussion of parallelism and convergence in his "The Principle of Limited Possibilities in the Development of Culture." Jour. Am. Folk-Lore; vol. 26, pp. 259—290. 1913.
BENEDICT, BACrOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 279
which have been incorporated into Bagobo tales, while a few be- liefs and magical practices may be referable to Moro influence; but, considering that this contact has lasted for three or four centuries and has had a decided effect on the material culture of the Bagobo, it is remarkable that there has been no weakening of the ancient faith, and no concession to Islam. ^^^
Spanish Catholicism had no effect at all upon the mountain Bagobo, and at the coast the ancient faith of the Bagobo has under- gone but a superficial disturbance, while ceremonial observances have remained fairly intact.
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