Part I. Mythological Concepts

TRE BAGOBO PANTHEON
The number of supernatural beings that figure in Bagobo mythology and that form the main source of stimulation for ceremonial rites must reach an extremely high count. At present we know but few of these mythical personalities, even by name, and only a very long and intimate acquaintance with the people, with their cere- monies, and with their oral literature, would enable one to make a satisfactory analysis of the polytheistic system. In reply to a question touching this matter, any well-informed Bagobo will prob- ably give the names of several gods, and remark that there are "no more." Presumably, at the moment, there are no more present in his consciousness. Yet, when the investigator has even limited opportunities of assisting at Bagobo ceremonies; of listening to mythical tales; of learning little songs; of joining in the spontaneous talk of the young people, the mention of one and another divine being, each in a natural setting, gives something like familiarity with a few of the gods, and suggests that the larger number of them still await discovery.
What we do find is a number of divine personalities whose in- dividual characteristics can often be identified with such associations as would be made, perhaps non-reflectively, by the Bagobo in the daily activities of work and combat and worship, or in connection with those emotional responses that -natural phenomena would draw forth. We have here a people whose simple agricultural existence — spent in the care of hemp and rice and corn, and in the enjoyment of family relations that are remarkably pure and tender — is varied by sacrificial acts of (to us) relentless cruelty and of not infrequent occurrence. We find, correspondingly, supernatural individuals who
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seem to be identified, more or less completely, with these wide- ranging interests of the Bagobo. Yet many of these gods may be of foreign origin, for. the chances for the diffusion of religious cul- ture in this entire area have been considerable for a long period; and gods borrowed from other peoples drift easily into places where they hold a permanent relation to the native gods and to the native worshipers. At the same time, a simple ritual while growing slowly into an organized scheme stimulates the appearance of newly-created beings with the functions of supernatural agencies, as soon as the need for them rises into consciousness. It is clear enough that investigations into the native cultures of the Islands, and of their relations to adjoining cultures, are as yet in too rudi- mentary a stage for us to determine definitely which of the unseen beings reverenced by the Bagobo are exotic and which are indig- enous.
The Sanscrit-Malay word dkvata^ which has long been in wide use by many tribes throughout the Philippine Islands, is employed by the Bagobo in reference to all of the gods, or to any one god, but it has no specific content. -" On hearing casual remarks like the following, from various persons, one is led at first to infer that diwata is some particular divine being: "Diwata cares for the rice;" "Diwata watches over the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the people;" "Diwata is a good manobo who lives in the sky;" "Diwata is the highest god." In the first statement, however, the diwata meant is Tarabume ; in the second, Pamulak Manobo is very possibly referred to; the "good manobo" in the sky may be one of several deities, while the "highest god" suggests Salamiawan or Lumabat or, perhaps, Pamulak Manobo.
I should take with some caution any statement that assigned one or another of the supernatural personalities to the rank of "the supreme god of the Bagobo." It all depends upon the point of view of the Bagobo who happens to be talking. The story-teller
*'*Thi8 seems to be the ordinary Malay connotation of the word. Favre defines dewata as, "condition divine, Jes dieux." Dictionnaire malais-francais, vol. l,p. 848. 1875.
Mr. Cole, on the contrary, has reached the conclusion that the diwata are "a class of numerous spirits who serve Eugpamolak Manobo." "The wild tribes of Davao district, Mindanao." Field Museum of Natural History: Publication 170, Anthropological series, vol. 13, no. 2, p. 107. 1913.
This very interesting work has come to hand too late for discussion in the body of my paper; but in time, fortunately, for the incorporation of a part of Mr. Cole's valuable material in the form of footnotes, so that a wider comparative viewpoint may be gained.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 15
who gave me the myth of Lumabat wound up by saying that, after entering heaven, "he became the greatest of all the diwata." At another time the same young man mediatively proffered the remark that he thought Salamiawan was the highest god. That many Bagobo regard Pamulak Manobo, in his function of creator, as the supreme divinity, is undoubtedly true; but I have been present at a ceremony when the aged celebrant addressed the Malaki t'OIu k'Waig as "the head of all the anito," and this god is appealed to, again and again, as the all-knowing and the all-powerful helper. Yet it is not to any one of the above-named spirits, but toward Mandarangan and the Tolus ka Balekat that the central ritual acts of the fundamental ceremonies are directed.
Therefore, in speaking of the composition of the Bagobo pantheon, I shall make no attempt to place the supernatural beings according to rank, but shall try to cluster them with a view to their special functions as determined by the interests of the Bagobo, or in relation to mythical associations. Two main groups may be recognized: —
A. The myth-gods of the nine heavens;
B. Grods associated with human interests.
Myth-Gods of the Nine Heavens
Above the sky is a region of indefinite topography in which lie nine heavens, perhaps one directly above another, perhaps spread out more or less irregularly in space. They are inhabited by a considerable number of diwata and are ruled over by nine deities, some male, some female, of whom one hears occasionally in the songs and in mythical romances. Two or three of them were once mortals.'-^ All of the diwata in these upper regions exist bliss- fully, without ever experiencing hunger, yet able to summon food magically by a word; chewing betel like the Bagobo; riding on horses and sailing in boats; living in houses built on the con- ventional Malay pattern. The manner of this celestial life is not very clearly visualized by the Bagobo, nor does it at all concern them, for the diwata of the nine heavens have only an abstract
*^The Sarasin brothers note that in Miuahassa the gods who have their dwellings on mountain-tops, in water-falls, among great trees or under the earth, are simply deified herons of antiquity. Cf. Reisen in Celebes, vol. 1, p. 44. 1905.
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interest for man. So far as my observation goes, worship is not directed toward these myth-gods, '^^ and sacrifices are not offered to them. Of gifts of rice and sugar cane wine they apparently have no need, for they are without bodily wants; perhaps worship would be wasted on them, since they pay so little attention to the affairs of man, and seem to exert no influence, either malign or friendly.
The god of the first heaven is Lumabat, one of the first of mortals to achieve the sky. A myth relates that he alone, of a large family who started for the sky-country, succeeded in jumping between the sharp edges of the horizon as it opened and closed in rapid sequence; and that one of the diwata above the sky changed him into a god by cutting out his alimentary canal, so that he hungered no more. ^^ One tradition says that he became the greatest of all the diwata.-* The second heaven is presided over by Sala- miawan, who, in his turn, is sometimes called "the greatest god of all." His home is in "the shrine of the sky" (tambara^^ ka Imigit), which is mentioned in one of the mythical romances that I have heard Bagobo women recite. A quotation from this story will be found below, in connection with the reference to Pangulili. Sala- miawan married Bia-t'odan of- the fifth heaven. Ubnuling rules over the third heaven; he is the father of Pangulili of the ninth celestial region. The divine rulers of the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh heavens are women. Tiun is goddess of the fourth heaven; she is a virgin (daraga) and is elder sister to
** According to Rizal, the chief deity of the Tagal people was not the object ot wor- ship. He says, "it appears that temples were never dedicated to baihala maykapal, nor was sacrifice ever offered to him." Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 16, p. 122. 1904.
*^ A similar episode occurs in Indian myth, in the story in which the hero says of himself that 'when he had attained the divine nature, from that moment his hunger and thirst disappeared.' Cf. Somadeva: The Katha Sarit Sagara; tr. by C. H. Tawney, vol. 1, p. 36. 1880.
** For the details of Lumabat's adventures and of his deification, see L.W.Benedict: "Bagobo myths." Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 20—24. Jan.-Mar., 1913.
According to one of the traditions collected by Spanish missionaries, Lumabat "represents the divine name of this hero, who, on earth, bore the name of Tagadium." According to another story, Lumabat and Tagadium were two different individnals. Cf. F. Blumen- TiiiTT: Vocabulario mitologico, pp. 73 — 74. 1895. (Bound with W. E. Retana: Archivo del bibliofilo filipino, vol. 2, 1896).
^ ^ Tambara, a house altar consisting of a bamboo standard and a white bowl — a shrine which is fully described in Part II, pp. 87 — 90; ka, prep, "of;" lanffii, "s\:y," "heaven." See p. 17 for further mention of Salamiawan.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 17
Kadeyuna. In the fifth heaven reigns the divine lady, Bia-t*odan,^® spouse of Salamiawan, who himself is sometimes assigned to the iifth heaven. This apparent confusion is easily explained in view of the Bagobo custom requiring a newly married man to take up A temporary residence, at least, at the parental home of his bride. There is a little song containing the lines: "Gro to the city far away, to a sky above this sky .... where Diwata rides the heavens in a banca^^^'^ — a reference which is said to indicate the fifth heaven. The sixth heavenly region is ruled by one whose name is Bia-ka-pusud-an-langit, ^^ a word-cluster which means, "Lady of the navel of heaven." Kadeyuna, queen of the seventh heaven, is the younger sister of Tiun, and wife of Malaki Lunsud, one of the heroes of romantic tales. Malaki Lunsud presides over the eighth heaven. The name Lunsud is that of a great town known in the prehistoric days of fable, and in the old story, "Adventures of the Tuglay," ^'^ there are many men bearing the name of Malaki Lunsud that figure as characters in the action. The one who presides over the eighth heaven married the goddess Kadeyuna, but the myth of how he achieved divinity for himself is yet to be unrolled. Pangulili is god of the ninth heaven; he is the son of Ubnuling, the ruler of the third heaven. In the romance above- mentioned, we find the following reference to Pangulili and Sala- miawan.
"After these exploits, the Malaki t'Olu k'Waig went on his way... From the mountain peaks, exultant over his foes, he gave a good war cry that re-echoed through the mountains, and went up to the ears of the gods. Pangulili and Salamiawan heard it from their home in the Shrine of the Sky {Tambara ka Langit), and they said: 'Who chants the song of war... ? Without doubt, it is the Malaki t'Olu k'Waig, for none of all the other malaki could shout just like that'." "^o
The attitude of the Bagobo toward the myth-gods of the nine heavens suggests that these gods are not of native origin, ^^ but
*' Bia, "lady;" t'ftoj, "the;" odan, a word which sometimes has the meaning of "a shower;" but it is questionable whether this divinity is associated with rain.
* ' Boats of the dug-out type, some of which have out-riggers.
*® Pusud, "navel"; -an, a locative particle; langit, "heaven."
*« Cf. Jour. Am. Folk-lore. vol. 26, pp. 33—34. 1913.
=»« Ibid., p. 28.
* ^ For Skeat's discussion of this question in connection with the peninsular Malays, ■cf. his Malay magic, p. 85. 1900. "The evidence of folk-lore, taken in conjunction with that supplied by charm-books and romances, goes to show that the greater gods of the
2
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probably imported divinities, whose place is in song and in romance and whose interest for the Bagobo is purely of a literary sort, like that of characters in a story-book.
Gods Associated with Human Interests
In intimate relation to the daily life of the Bagobo, we find the names of many unseen beings who have charge of the physical world ; who act as divine protectors and helpers of man ; who direct industries; who stimulate brave men to fight; and who, in their several departments, receive the prayers and gifts of the people. Nature-spirits, as such, are not readily separated from the guardians of industry, for their provinces and functions are closely associated. The gods of rivers, the gods of mountains, the gods of the sky and of vegetation tend to be characterized, as groups, by a typical behavior which answers directly to some corresponding human interest.
In any discussion of Bagobo animism, it will be observed that very many, perhaps the larger number, of supernatural beings^ associated with natural objects and with physical phenomena are evil spirits who, under the names of buso or tigbanua, are. pro- pitiated at wayside shrines. It is far from easy to distinguish the buso from the nature-gods — a difficulty that is emphasized by the use that many Bagobo make of the word dios. Even mountain Bagobo, who visit the coast and have caught up a word or two of Spanish, find dios a convenient and flexible term to designate any unseen personality, whether a friendly god or a malignant demon : the diwata are dios, but a buso also may be called dios. In the secluded mountain home of Datu Imbal, at Tubison, the young^ girls led me from one to another of the out-of-door shrines, and pointed out this one as belonging to the dios ka tana^'^ (god of the ground), and that one as sacred to the dios ka ivaig (god of water). The impression made upon me was that of altars erected to beneficent nature deities; but later, at Talun, when observing the devotions performed before shrines answering exactly to those •at Tubison, the possible significance of dios, as they had used the
Malay Pantheon, though modified in some respects hy Malay ideas, were really borrowed Hindu divinities, and that only the lesser gods and spirits are native to the Malay religious system. / * Ka, prep, "of j" tana^ "earth*' in the sense of "ground," or "soil," but never "the world."
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 49
word, occurred to me. That those shrines were dedicated to the tigbanua of the ground, the tigbanua of the water, etc., is quite as likely as that they belonged to nature-gods. However, one is helped out by the phrase rnadiger manobo (good person) or tnalaki — terms commonly used by the Bagobo in referring to a god — as well as by the description given of the spirit's behaviour and functions.
The Bagobo creator is Pamulak Manobo, ^^ who made the earth, the sky, the heavenly bodies, the trees and small plants, and all races of men. He takes care of every tribe known to the Bagobo — except the hostile Moro, abhorred by wild tribes and rigorously excluded from the divine protection. "When a Bagobo says: "Diwata made the world," he means us to understand Pa- mulak Manobo. On ceremonial occasions, one hears devotional reci- tations made to this much-loved god, and as a desired guest he is summoned to a festival. Some form of relief is confidently expected from him in answer to prayer; and indeed a deeper emotion may make itself apparent. I have heard an old man speak with real gratitude of Pamulak Manobo, as the one who had made the earth and the sky — something which no human being could have done. It should be noted, however, that to Pamulak Manobo pacificatory rites are not paid, ^* nor are bloody sacrifices offered before him, because with him there is no association of dread or fear.
Manama is a deity referred to as "a person in the clouds," but his characteristics are not specified. At Sibulan, Cole^*' found this deity identified with Pamulak Manobo. Blumentritt, ^^ quoting a Spanish writer not named, says that 'Manama, called also Uguis- manama, is a god of the Bagobos, who preserves all and who punishes the bad and rewards the good'.
In very intimate relation to man, stands Tigyama, ^^ protector of the household and healer of the sick. The word yama in the
" Pamula is the general term for growing plants, and it is possible that the name of this god should be written Pamula-ka-manobo (Plants for man), or the Plant-Man. The preposition ka has a number of different meanings, as related to the context.
•* It has been noted that no worship of any sort, either of praise or of pacification, is paid to the gods of the nine heavens.
»*» Philippine Jour, of Sci., vol. 6, p. 132. 1911.
'* Cf. his Diccionario mitologico de filipinas, p. 79. 1895. (Bound with W. E. Retana: Archivo del bibliofilo filipino, vol. 2. 1896.)
'" Father Gisbert understood Tigyama to be the creator. "God, Tiquiama, is very good, they say, and has created all things, although he has been aided by other small gods who are under his guidance . . ."Blair and Robertson: op. «V., vol. 43, p. 235. 1906.
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Bagobo dialect carries the idea of "something to be taken care of," "a pet," like a tame bird. I have seen a boy pull from a snare a little wood-pigeon and hold it to his breast with a caressing touch, as he murmured, "It is my yama." He had caught the bird in order to cage, to tame and to care for it. Tigyama means "One who takes care of or protects." Like Pamulak Manobo, Tigyama is lovingly summoned to come and be present at a ceremony ;^^ a little hanging altar, also called tigyama^ is placed in many Bagobo houses, and on it betel is laid for this god when anybody in the family falls sick. ^^ It is possible that Tigyama is a divinity borrowed originally from Indian myth and given somewhat different attributes, for, in the Yedas and in the Sagas, Yama was god of the dead. ^^ The character of the Bagobo Tigyama seems more nearly identical with that of Yima of Mazdeism, *^ the protector of the Iranians and the mythical founder of their postdiluvian culture. Among the chief of those unseen beings that care for the Bagobo, there is a divine man called Malaki t'Olu k'Waig** who, unques- tionably, represents the highest ideal of goodness and of purity, as the native visualizes that ideal. He figures as a hero in mythical romance, where, indeed, one finds many malaki t'olu k'waig, who go through remarkable adventures and achieve distinction. On the devotional side, however, all of these fabulous characters are fused into the impersonation of one beloved individual, whose home is associated with a legendary spring far up in the mountains which is called "the source of the waters." Here two rivers are said to take their rise, and it is just at the point where the two streams separate that the Malaki t'Olu k'Waig lives. He is the great
' ' See Ceremony of Pamalugu, Part II.
^^See Various types of Altar, Part II.
^» Cf. Somadeva: Katha Sarit Sagara, tr. by C. H. Tawney, vol. 2, ^. 188. 1884. In the story, Sinhavikrama is led off by Death to the hall of Yama, where he is to be judged. See also "A funeral hymn," in the Rigveda, where the following lines occur. "To him that passed along great heights and sought out a path for many, Vivasvant's son, the gatherer of men, Yama the king, to him bring worship and offering." Peter Peterson (tr): Hymns from the Rigveda, p. 288. 1888. In the same hymn, the by- standers are thus addressed: "Stand aside, go away, disperse, the fathers have made this place for him, furnished with days and waters and nights: Yama will give him rest." lb. p. 289.
''^ Cf. James Darmesteter (ed.): The Zendavesta; part I, The Vendidad, pp. Iviii — lii. 1895. (Sacred books of the East, vol. 4).
*^ Malaki, "good man;" t'CioJ, "the;" k'(ka), "of;" waig, "water:" the Divine Man (or the god) at the Source of the Waters.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 21
healer, and to his home are carried all the diseases which the Bagobo, by magic rites, have coaxed into leaf-dishes or into little manikins. Here, at the mythical spring, the Malaki destroys all sickness that is sent to him. He winds one end of a string, or fibre, around the neck of each disease, ties the other end to some post or tree, and quickly strangles the disease. The Malaki t'Olu k'Waig is believed to know the whole world; he never sleeps; he answers prayer wherever offered. The range of his influence is now generously extended to include even recently-known foreign- ers, for I was] told that if I, while praying in the United States, should ask anything of the Malaki, he would give me an answer. In ceremonies^- on the mountains, this god is invoked again and again — indeed, there is no other divine person who is so often appealed to for help, who is so frequently mentioned in song and story, or who is so affectionately regarded by all of the Bagobo.
There is also a family of gods — a male deity, his wife, and two children — known as Olu k'Waig, and associated with the mountain streams. All of them are said to be extremely small in size, but otherwise they are not definitely described, although it is currently reported that Datu Yting once caught sight of them on the mountain trails. In spite of the identity in name, they do not appear to be traditionally associated with the Malaki t'Olu k'Waig.
There is said to be "a Bagobo god who lives everywhere" and is called Tambara. This is the name given to the bamboo prayer- stand found in many Bagobo houses, yet I have heard but a single mention of a divine personality called by the same name. While possibly this extremely common type of altar was once associated primarily with the worship of the god Tambara, it is certain that its use is not now so limited, for tambara are set up in honor of many different spirits.
A supernatural protector to whom at least one ceremonial chant is addressed is Duma-Tango, who is otherwise called, "the god who keeps the people," and a shrine is sometimes set up in the festival house for this divinity. The word duma is variously used to mean companion, wife, or husband, and it is possible that Duma- Tango will eventually be found to be related to one of the other Bagobo deities, for we have to bear in mind, continually, the Malay fondness for paraphrase and for indirect allusions.
*»See Part II.
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Yalatandin (var. Yanatandin) is a diwata whose office it is to protect solitary women in the meadows, and to permit no man to molest them. In one Bagobo song, there is a reference, in highly allegorical language, to a maiden alone in a field where the blades of rank cogon grass *^ are sharp like needles; but from whose sting she is saved when Yalatandin spreads over the ground a richly- embroidered textile, the tambayang^ for her to lie down upon.
One other mythical person associated with the meadow grass is called Malaki Lisu Karan, ^* who, from his name, would be con- ceived to live in the very densest part of the tall, waving, cogon growth. He is mentioned in the songs together with malaki who live in various species of bamboo.
Of high importance in relation to daily life, is Tarabume, *^ who cares for the growing rice and for the hemp plants, and who, if the ritual at planting is properly performed, gives an abundant rice crop. *^ The beautiful ceremonial called marummas, with its waving of plumes and its striking of clappers is carried on for the pleasure of Tarabume. "We make the digging-stick pretty to please Tarabume; when the clapper goes, he can hear the pretty sound." "Diwata makes the rice and the hemp grow; he lives in the sky;'' and again, in this connection the Bagobo say that they mean Tarabume.
In close association with the industry of casting brass, stands the god Paneyangen, another so-called good manobo, of huge size, who dwells far up on the mountains where he protects the swarms of wild bees that hive in the flowering trees. That the comb-building and the honey-making of the bees should go on unmolested and under divine care, is of vital interest to the Bagobo, for the young men must secure wax for the moulds used in the process of casting bells, betel-boxes, armlets and leglets. The honey gathered with the wax is a favorite article of diet, and the young bees are relished too, the tablet-shaped comb containing the newly hatched
*^ Coffon saccharum koenigii a meadow grass that grows rankly in the mountains of Mindanao, large areas of it alternating with dense forests.
""Lisu, "pit, kernel, center;" karan, "meadow grass."
*®The same name is recorded by Mr. Cole as Taragomi. Op. cit , p. 85.
*"The Recollect fathers wrote of the Calamianes, in 1624, that "they adored a deity who resembled Ceres, to whom they commended their fields and offered their fruits." Blaie and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 21, p. 228. 1905. The ceremonial at ice sowing is described in Part U.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 23
bees being lightly toasted and dipped into liquid honey, or eaten unbrowned. Thus the office of Paneyangen, as protector of the bees, is a highly important one and a special dance, performed by one girl alone, is danced in his honor. Several legendary episodes -cluster about bees, which are visualized in the myths as white. *'
The god who controls success in the hunt is Abog (var. Ubog), an old man with a big belly who is engaged much of the time in killing game. He is reputed to have his home on the small island named Samal, in the gulf of Davao, and here he keeps a great store of bows and arrows for shooting the wild boar and the deer, which he brings down in great numbers. Offerings of arrows are made to him by the Bagobo, and in return he helps them to track and to spear their game.
Certain interesting water-gods, known as Gamo-Gamo, are distin- guished in bodily aspect by mermaid characters, though they behave in a different manner from the traditional mermaid. The female ^amo-gamo are divinities of little streams, while the gamo-gamo men are in charge of large rivers. Both sexes are human down to the waist ; below that, fish — resembling a big fish called mung- agat. In the test for theft, these river-people seize the guilty one, and torment him with pricks from their sharp iron punches. Another type of gamo-gamo is a good manobo who lives in the ocean, and takes care of large vessels. He is said to be of enor- mous height, with a head as high as a Bagobo man's full stature.
Gods of the sky^^ are Sebandal and Salangayd. There is a beautiful dance called salangayd that I saw performed by Saliman, one of the most artistic dancers on the mountains. They said it was done for the sky-god, Salangayd. Another pretty dance is ■executed by one girl for the "God-brother in the sky," who, it was explained to me, is brother to girls only, and is hence called Ug-Tube. *^ A myth accounting for the origin of the "god-brother" is yet to be discovered.
* ' In an unpublished manuscript, I have a song that refers to a certain malaki who was nurtured by a white bee. Note also a Spanish version of the story of Lum^bat which represents this hero as passing up into heaven escorted by a swarm of white bees. Cf. F. Blumentritt: Diccionario mitologico, p. 73. 1895.
* " The Bagobo very commonly speak of this or of that divinity as a "god in the sky," without specific limitation as to place.
*"A word indicating the relationship between sister and brother, each of whom is ^ube to the other. The prefix uff appears to have a purely formal or a phonetifc value.
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Mountain-gods are Renerungen and Sindar. Of Sindar we know- nothing. Renerungan is the name of a family of friendly gods — a man, his wife, and four children.
Another supernatural being associated with the mountains is- Tagamaling, ^"^ who is, traditionally, a god on the alternate months only, and at other times a demon. In a later chapter, ^* under the caption, "the Demons called Buso," Tagamaling finds his place, but he ought to be mentioned at this point because he is god half of the time, and one hears him mentioned with the other dios of the mountains. As the special protector, too, of deer and of pigs,- Tagamaling cannot be excluded from the spirits that are closely related to the interests of the Bagobo. Primarily, there are twa chief tagamaling, a male god and his wife, but, according to folk-^ lore, there must be very many spirits by that name.
The gods ruling over the ground and the air are known as Linug, some of whom are male, some female; the former being in charge of large areas of ground, while the latter are rulers of small section* of land. As linug is also the word for earthquake, it may be in- ferred that these divinities are held responsible for all tremblings^ and convulsions of the earth, although I did not hear a statement to that effect.
The names of two deities are forbidden to the lips of the Bagobo : the god of fire and the god of the sea. Old men at Tubison, while mentioning other gods, told me that, if they should speak the name of the god of fire, the buso would come; and that they must not utter the name of the god of the sea. In one corner of the Long^ House at Tubison, I noticed a bamboo prayer-stand (tambara), set up for a divinity of the fire (apuy); but no other bit of evidence has come under my observation that would justify us in calling the Bagobo "fire- worshippers," as reputed. ^^ Fire does not appear to be held by them as a sacred object to any greater extent than streams or trees or dense thickets may chance to be so regarded, though it is true that spirits throng the earth and the air in such number* that any interesting phenomenon, like a flame, is likely to be referred to a supernatural agency. The reverenc^ of the Bagobo- for the names of fire-deities and sea-deities may be an extraneous
'•See pp. 35—36. '' See p. 29.
* * Cf. United States Bureau of the Census : Census of the Philippine Islands, vol. 1 ,. p. 561, 1905.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 25
element, possibly due to some very early dissemination of an Indo- Iranian tradition of the sacredness of the four elements. It has been noted, however, in preceding paragraphs, that gods of earth, of air, of fresh water, are freely mentioned, and that one gamo- gamo is associated with marine life.
We have now to consider the Mandarangan, a class of war-gods ^^ of very high rank who, in their ceremonial capacity and in their relation to individuals, are of first-rate importance. Ordinarily, one hears only the chief of these war-gods mentioned, Mandarangan proper, who is the mighty god of warriors, as well as of all brave men who have actually taken human life in fair fight or by the orders of the datu, and thus are privileged to wear the peculiar kerchief known as tankulu. Mandarangan is one of the divinities to whom the higher rites of the ceremonial are paid, ^* and for whose pleasure human sacrifices are offered. He is called "the God of the Sky for Men," but he is conceived to live at will on Mount Matutun^^ and on Mount Apo. ^"^ He fills a man's heart with fierce courage stimulating him to fight, and thus give blood to him (Mandarangan) to drink ; and any man who has killed many persons is under the special protection of Mandarangan. In part, because of his residence on the volcano Apo; in part, because of his love for blood, there has been some tendency among those Spanish priests who have left documents on native customs to identify Mandarangan with Buso, ^^ but his personality stands out sharply distinct from that of Buso. Carefully it was explained to me that Mandarangan eats the flesh of those only who have been slain in fight, and of victims offered in sacrifice; while Buso, on the contrary, eats any dead body that he can get hold of, whether
* ' The Calamianes are said to have "worshiped ... a petty deity who resembled Mars, ia order to gain protection in their battles." Blair and Robertson : op. cit., vol. 21, p. 228. 1905.
* * See index for references to Mandarangan.
^* An extinct volcano, just north of Saraugani bay.
* • An active volcano in southern Mindanao, and the highest peak in the Philippines, with a height of 10, 312 feet. Cf. Census of the Philippine Islands, vol. l.pp. 71, 202. J905.
* ' Popular writers, as well as missionaries, have drawn the inference that Mandarangan is "a devil" and "responsible for all ailments." See A. H. Savage Landor: "The Gems of the East," p. 362. 1904. So far, however, from being in any manner identified with evil, Mandarangan is represented as placing himself in opposition to evil in the combat with Buso. Mandarangan's presence is desired in the ceremonial house, where food and drink and entertainment are prepared for him; while every art is used to drive away the buso from the festival. Cf. section, "the Demons called Buso," pp. 29 — 43.
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the death has occurred by sickness or by violence. Mandarangan, according to tradition, often fights with Buso and invariably puts the mean demon to flight.
' There is a belief, not precisely formulated, in the existence of a great number of minor spirits also called mandarangan, that are closely related to those Bagobo men who have distinguished them- selves by exploit. It is said that a mandarangan lives in the head of a brave man and that this is what makes him brave. "When the brave man is asleep at night," Islao told me, "the mandarangan stands under the house, under the bed. When you go out, he goes too; when you come back, he comes too."
As Mandarangan is called "God of the Sky for Men," there is •correspondingly a "God of the Sky for Women," whose name is Tot-dariigo. This is, undoubtedly, the same spirit that was called by Father Gisbert, Darago, and was by him identified with Manda- rangan. This investigator makes practically no distinction between the war-gods and the demons, any more than between Mandarangan and Darago, according to his letter of July 26, 1886. "There is no rancheria in which they do not annually make their feasts to the demon — Busao, Mandarangan, or Darago, for they are wont to give him these and many other names .... There . . . they drink toasts . . in honor of the great Darago, whom they promise to follow and honor forever, offering to him, as did their ancestors, the blood of many human victims, so that he may be their friend and aid them in their wars." ^^ I heard Dariigo's name coupled closely with that of Mandarangan, and mentioned as holding a like relation to women as his toward men ; but while Mandarangan's name was -constantly used in connection with the ceremonies, I rarely heard an allusion to Dariigo. I am inclined to the opinion, however, that ■she is included in the honors paid to Mandarangan at sacrificial Tites.
There remains to be discussed a class of omniscient beings whose personal names, perhaps through fear of desecration, are never mentioned, but who are invariably referred to as Tolus, ^^ a word which is explained as meaning "One who knows everything."
*"Blaie and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 43, p. 249. 1906.
* ' The derived adjective, matolus, is applied to great heroes of romance who have fiuperhuman understanding and who slay a multitude of foes by magical power. The Malaki t' Olu k' Waig has the quality of being matolus ; but it is questionable whether clu, "head" or "scarce," and olus are etymologically related.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 27
The most deeply reverenced of them all is Tolus ka B^lekat, the god of the b^lekat, which is the highest type of altar, and the one before which the culminating act of Ginum is performed on the last night. In honor of this divinity, the ceremonial bamboos are set up; before him the sacrificial food is placed on a sacred shelf, and he is apostrophized by the priest in some such words as these: "Tolus ka B^lekat, we are making a Ginum for you; we are killing a victim for you." Many manufactured articles are hung on the altar for this god, who is said to wear a shell bracelet into which the spirit of each offering passes for his enjoyment, and he makes known, through the lips of a medium, that he is extremely jealous of his rights, not permitting the sale of any object that should come to the balekat. Yet he is not indifferent to the interests of the Bagobo, for he warns them against sickness, and informs them of the source whence the disease comes.
The god called Tolus ka Kawayan is the "All-knowing One of the Bamboo." He is particular about the punctual performance of the Ginum, and threatens to send sickness if there be undue delay.
The Tolus ka Balekayo^^ is a female divinity who is associated with the sections of forest made up of that slender, thorny variety of bamboo called halekayo. She is also interested in the proper conduct of the great festival and gives directions, through a priestess, on this subject.
Another woman-god is the Tolus ka Talegit, called the "All- knowing Medicine of the Loom," who understands perfectly the art of weaving and knows all about the work of the women.
At present, it is impossible to state in how many connections the unseen beings called tolus appear, but that a very large number of them function as the mysterious, impelling forces of industry, is highly probable. The little bamboo prayer-stand beside a black- smith's forge ^^ suggests the existence of a tolus for workers in
"** There is some evidence that a Tolus may be associated with each of the magic plants and trees which are employed for repelling the approach of Buso ; one of these is the balekayo, another the dalinding. At a certain devotional office, the spirits of these vegetable growths are addressed, and they are asked not to let the Buso pass by, but to prevent him from getting into the ceremonial house. The dalinding, as well as the balekayo, is asked to be "all-knowing" in respect to the Bagobo — the form of address used to a Tolus. It seems to be understood that the spirits residing in those plants which have a charm value shall shield the people from evil beings, and I am inclined to think that it is a Tolus that gives such plants their magical effect.
• * It is interesting to note that Cole found at Sibulan the belief that the "workers in
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iron, ^^ and the discovery of other such guardian divinities of in- dustrial arts is to be expected. While the personality of the various tolus is but vaguely outlined, this fact, at all events, is clear: that their relationship with the people is a very intimate one, as con- cerns daily work and daily needs; and it is equally true that the wisdom of a tolus is considered infallible, whether the question be one of a ceremonial detail, or of a wasting illness.
The anito, so often mentioned by the early writers on the Philippines, even as far back as the Saavedra voyage ^^ of 1527 — 1528, and used with so many different connotations, in Bagobo theo- logy are simply divinities under a certain aspect; that is to say, they are gods coming into direct communication with the people through the instrumentality of mediums who convey the divine oracle. Almost any god or spirit, with the exception of the diwata of the nine heavens, may assume for a brief time the character of anito. My conclusion that the word anito refers to the temporary functioning of any god, rather than to some well-defined class of gods, is borne out by the fact that the spirit of a particular sick- ness, or the spirit of a living individual, when speaking through the mouth of an official intermediary in the conventional manner is termed anito, equally with the divinities. This entire subject will be more fully considered under the caption, "Interviews with the gods called Manganito." ^*
As for guardian spirits of individual Bagobo, all that we know is comprised in a few scanty allusions. The personal mandarangan of brave men have been mentioned in an earlier paragraph. To this I have only to add that, while attending the festival at Tubison, I saw, in one corner of the Long House, a bamboo prayer-stand which, they told me, was for the dios of Datu Imbal, our host. At Yting's harvest, the god of at least one member of the family was invoked at a certain point in the ceremony. This was the dios of Hebe, Yting's younger wife.
brass and copper are under the care and guidance of a spirit, Tolus ka Towangan, for whom they make a yearly ceremony, Gomek toioangan" Op. cii., p. 82.
' ' For the position of the blacksmith among the natives of central Celebes, and for the ceremonial paraphernalia of his smithy, see P. and F. Saeasin : Reisen in Celebes, vol. 1. pp. 230—231. 1905.
"' The chronicler of this voyage states that the natives of Cebu offered haman sacrifices to the anito. Cf, Blaib and Robeetson: op. cit., vol. 2, p. 42. 1903.
•*See Part. III.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 29
The following divinities are mentioned by the Spanish fathers, and collected by Blumentritt in his "Diccionario mitologico." ^^ Although there may be question as to their respective attributes, they no doubt have their place in the Bagobo pantheon.
Domakolen, creator of the mountains.
Makakoret, creator of the air.
Makaponguis, creator of the water.
Mamale, creator of the earth,
Malibud, the deity who created women.
Salibud, a god who taught the first men to cultivate the fields, to trade, and to carry on various industries.
Todlay, 66 a god who presides over marriages and was creator of the male sex. Todlibon, wife of Todlay, yet a goddess ever-virgin.
I will conclude this section with a little word-picture of the gods, as given by Uan, son of Kaba. "Diwata are good manobo who live in the sky. They protect Bagobo, Americans, Kulaman, Tagakaola, Kalagan, Ata — not the Moro ; Moro are bad people. The diwata are male and female. The diwata are rich. They never eat; they sleep at night; they have very good clothes, fine and shining clothes. They take care of all the living; they do not care for the dead. No, indeed ! Buso looks after the dead. Datu Yting knows a diwata; he saw him once far up in the mountains; he spoke Bagobo."
THE DEMONS CALLED BUSO
All demons, spirits of diseases, evil supernatural beings of what- ever form, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic, are classed by the Bagobo under the generic name of buso. The fundamental concept underlying all of these manifestations of evil is that of a being that preys upon human flesh, that sends sickness to the living in order to kill them and thus have their dead bodies for food. There is, for the most part, no idea of an interaction between stimuli from bad spirits and the religious or ethical transgressions of man. ^'
"* Cf. under each letter in its alphabetical position. The "Mamale" that he refers to is perhaps identical with the constellation Mamare, since I and r are interchangeable sounds, according to the location of the Bagobo group.
""For myths concerning Tuglay and Tuglibung, (Blumentritt's Todlay and Todlibon), see pp. 65—74 C/. also F. C. Cole: op. cii., p. 106, where "Toglai" and "Toglibon" are mentioned as spirits in charge of marriages, and as having given langnage and customs to the Bagobo.
"' The demons, Tagareso and Balinsugu, should be excepted from this general statement. See pp. 36—37.
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Buso does not incite a Bagobo to break tabu or to steal rice. Though a spiritual foe, his attacks are aimed, ordinarily, against the body alone.
Toward securing some means of propitiating Buso, or of shunting off his attacks, the attention of the Bagobo is constantly directed. They pray to Buso; they prepare for him offerings of areca-nuts and betel-leaf; they erect to him tiny houses for shrines, under forest trees, by the wayside, at the river, near the dwelling-houses — particularly at the time of a festival. ^^ There are altars for the buso of the woods, for the buso of the ground, for the buso of the rattan, for the buso of the nearer side of the river, for the buso of the farther side of the river. The shrines are like many of those put up in honor of the friendly gods, and the form of the devotions is outwardly much the same, but the intention of the rites is altogether different. In the first place, altars to Buso are never placed within the home or within the ceremonial house, like altars to friendly deities, but at strategic points that command the approaches to the house, or else in the deep forest. Secondly, as regards the substance of the prayers, the gods are implored to baffle the operations of disease-bringing demons; but a buso, the recognized source of sickness, is conjured in various ways. Every single devotion to Buso is a mere magical device for inducing him to go away. It must be noted, too, that in those cases where a god sends sickness, it is because the Bagobo have broken some religious mandate or have failed in the technique of a ritual, and the sickness is felt to be the logical outcome of a clumsy per- formance. The diseases with which a buso tortures the body come, avowedly, to cause death so that the food supply of dead bodies for the buso may be increased. These distinguishing features give to each form of devotion its own peculiar atmosphere.
Associated closely with the buso are the ghosts of the dead, since it is believed that the evil soul, ^^ or tebang^ of a person becomes at death a burkan, which in its nature is practically identical with a buso. It haunts graves and lonely trails; it eats dead bodies, and is commonly called a buso. Tradition indicates vaguely that long ago nobody died, and that the attitude of Buso toward man at that time was friendly, '^ by which tradition we
®^ See Ceremony of Awas, Part II.
*^ For a discussion of the character of the evil soul, see pp. 58 — 61.
'« Cf. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 42—43. 1913.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 31
are led to infer that not all buso are ghosts. It will not do to> press this inference too far, however, for the Malay may not feel a contradiction that, to us, is at once apparent. Yet the most malignant buso, called tigbanud, seem to be distinguished from burkan, or ghosts, for I have heard an old man, while explaining a ceremony, make this remark: "We offer betel to all the tigbanua and to all the dead buso." Again, the statement is made that "there are many buso and many burkan." Moreover, there are a great number of zoomorphic forms called tigbanua or buso that are not identified with ghosts. The fact is, that so great is the mul- titude of mental images associated with evil spirits in their diverse shapes and functions, that some little confusion in dealing with the subject is almost inevitable. There are different lines of approach, according to whether a native is talking of sickness, or of death,, or of a ceremonial, or of a haunted tree, or of an episode in a story ; and he makes no attempt to correlate these various lines of approach, or to define exactly the groups of evil personalities that he happens to be dealing with.
The volcano Apo, whose intermittent eruptions of sulphurous vapor and whose matchless height suggest mysterious dwelling- places for spirits, has long been regarded as the home of the worst buso or tigbanua, of many less malevolent buso or tagamaling, and of a vast throng of bad ghosts (burkan), all of whom live in an enormous house within the mountain into which the crater lead& as a vast passageway, or as an open door. Great numbers of wild animals, reptiles and flying creatures live on the summit of the volcano — deer, pigs, cats, dogs, civets, mice, flying lemurs, mon- keys, birds, jungle fowl, snakes and monitor lizards — all of which belong to Buso. Around the edge of the crater, the prints of these animals may be seen by those persons who have the temerity to> make the ascent (so say the old men); but the fabulous animals^ are invisible, except to all the buso. There are also living on Mount Apo great numbers of the so-called "bad animals," that i& to say, buso under the form of beasts. Here is one of the little folk tales of Apo.
All the old Bagobo men say that in the crater of Apo lives a rich man. He is a Chinaman, and he keeps a store there. Long ago a Bagobo man climbed up to see the volcano. He saw a big hole in the top of it. He went down into the hole and found a big house with a store in it. He went in and rested there a while. A Chinaman was keeping the store. By and by
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the Chinaman told him that he must go away. "Why," asked the Bagobo. "^'Because the buso will be here in a few minutes and he eats people." Then the man went home. In a few minutes the Buso came to rest in the store. He smiled and said: "Who has been here?" "Nobody but a dog," replied the Chinaman.
That Americans are not afraid to ascend the volcano without the use of protective charms, is a source of bewilderment to the Bagobo, and that no fatal illness follows the rash act is still more astonish- ing; but the native explanation is that we treat Buso with pro- nounced courtesy, and thus win his favor. "The American people oan go to Apo, because they are very polite to Buso. If they were not polite, Buso would eat them."
Though having their special habitat on Mount Apo, and on another mountain called Mabanisan, ^ * the buso are said to frequent, in general, all localities where there are graves, empty houses, solitary mountain trails. At any time, indeed, or in any place outside of the house, there is the chance of a buso making his appearance. The young people are impressed with the idea that "Buso lives everywhere out-of-doors;" and that a buso is "in every way." For this reason, a Bagobo rarely walks alone for any con- siderable distance over the mountains; two, or several, go in com- pany, the more easily to ward off Buso's influence, for, although unable to attack directly a living man or openly kill him, he works under covert by entering, in the form of some disease, the body of his victim; or by some other means he makes him sick.
An empty house is likely to be buso-haunted, even if its owner has gone away for but a short time, and the neighbors are cautious about entering during his absence. One often sees several Bagobo sitting on the bamboo rounds of the house-ladder, and waiting patiently for some member of the family to return, when they will all go up the steps together. Barely does a buso dare to enter a house while people are living there, at least during the day, for the demons are supposed to be afraid of meeting, face to face, people in health and action; but in case of mortal illness Buso scents from afar the flesh of the dying, and flies through the air until he comes to rest under the house, or even inside of the sick- room. Unless by some magical means he can be driven away, he seizes the body as soon as life is extinct, puts into its place a
^ The situation of this mountain is not known to the writer.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 33
section of a banana-trunk, to deceive the friends, and goes off, riding on the corpse.
Certain species of forest trees are traditionally haunted by demons, particularly the baliti, '-^ the mararag, '^ the pananag, the barayung, the magbok, and the lanaon ^* — all of which are mentioned in folklore and myth as sacred to Buso. In general, too, any individ- ual tree" having spreading branches and heavy, straggling roots protruding above the surface of the earth is associated with the possible home of a buso, and is pointed out, fearfully, as an object to be avoided after dark. Throughout the island tribes, indeed, a tree of such appearance is almost universally held to be haunted.
Both mythology and current folklore represent the number of individual buso as practically unlimited; they people the air and the mountains and the forests by myriads; their number is legion.'^
' * Spelled by some writers as balete ; the form balUi is here adopted as a matter of uniformity with other Malay words throughout this paper. The tree is a species of Ficus, :and is very generally associated with spirit habitation, in the beliefs of the Filipino as well as of the wild tribes. It is a tall tree, with large branches, dark-green leaves — long, narrow, firm-textured and glossy — and with roots that grow out from the trunk for some distance above the ground. Sawyer observes that the baliti corresponds to our witch elm. Cf. The Inhabitants of the Philippines, p. 343. 1900. Cf. also Chirino's observations on the baliii. Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 12, p. 214; and footnote. 1904. ' ' The Bagobo word for yellow.
"•Presumably the tree called, variously, linan, lanaon, lauan, lauaan, and identified by Foreman and by Blair and Robertson as Lipterocarpus thurifera; it is characterized by wood that is reddish-white or ash-colored with brown spots and is light in weight, and by its yield of fragant white resin that is used for incense. Cf. J. Foreman : The Philippine Islands, 2 ed., p 370. J899. Cf. also. Blair and Robertson : ojo. cit., vol. 18, p. 171. 1904. '5 Cf. "Bagobo myths."' Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 44, 49, 50. 1913. Skeat says that the peninsular Malays associate the hantus, or spirits of evil, with particular trees which they suppose these spirits to frequent after dark. Cf Malay magic, pp. 64 — 65. 1900. For similar traditions in the southern islands, cf Blumentritt's discus- sion of sacred trees in Sumatra, Nias, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Burn, etc., in Biccionario mitologico, pp. 29 — 31. 1895. The ancient Tagal and Visayan believed that the spirits of ancestors, called nono or nonok, resided in the baliti and in certain other trees, all of which, by a figure of speech, were similarly named nono. For a treatment of this subject, ■see the extract from Tomas Ortiz : "Practica del ministerio." Blair and Robertson : Of. cit., vol. 43, pp. 104—105. 1906. Among the Bagobo, I have not heard the grand- father, or nono, conception mentioned. With them, it is the buso that haunt the trees; and, although the bad ghost is a kind of buso, this is not the ancestral spirit idea.
'"Here, again the Bagobo Follows the great body of Malay tradition. Cf. the dis- •cussion of the hantu among pagan tribes of the peninsula, as given by Stevens, and by Martin, who says: "Wenn Stevens schreiht: 'Jeder Baum hat seine besondere Art Han- tu's,' und wenn er ferner von Hantu redet, die 'durch Regen, durch Hitze, in Bergen, Seen, Steinen, Baumen, u. s. w.' wirken, so kommt dies einer Beseelung der Ganzen Na- tur gleich . . ." "Die Mehrzahl dieser letztgenannten Hantu scheint nicht spezialisiert zu
3
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Of course, like the ghosts and demons of all other peoples, it is in darkness" that the buso are particularly busy in their evil deeds, although, here and there, they have been known to make their presence felt by day.
These vast throngs of evil personalities, known under the col- lective term of buso, are subdivided into several groups, and in these, again, we find a great number of individual names, each of which suggests some peculiar external buso-character, or some par- ticular buso-trait, or some set mode of preying upon the human- kind. Of such sub-groups and individuals, the following are typical.
The tigbanua'^*^ are representative fiends of the most dangerous sort. To them, more than to any other buso, shrines are erected, magic formulae are recited, and propitiatory offerings are made; while numerous spells are constantly worked to frustrate their evil designs. A tigbanua is reported to live in a state of perpetual cannibalism and to be most repulsive in aspect, having one eye in the middle of the forehead, a hooked chin two spans long and upturned to catch the drops of blood that may chance to drip from the mouth, and a body covered with coarse black hair. From Mount Apo and from the deep forest the tigbanua come flying or running to every fresh-dug grave, whether it be on mountain or
sein, d. h. man spricht meist einfach von Berg-, Wald-, und Baum-Hantu im Hinblick auf einen einzelnen Fall. ..,„Die Inlandstamme der malayischen Halbinsel, pp. 946 — 947. 1905.
"Those evil spirits that figure in Indian saga under the names of Rakshasa, Yaksha and Pisacha are said to "have no power in the day, being dazed with the brightness of the sun; they delight in the night." Somadeva: Katha Sarit Sagara; ed. cil., vol. 1, p. 47. 1880. See also the prayer in the Atharva-Veda. "Shelter us . . . from greedy fiends who rise in troops at night-time when the moon is dark." R. T. H. Griffith (tr.): Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, vol. 1, p. 19. 1895.
' " Tigbanua is practically identical with Banuanhon, of Visayan myth, and with Tig- balang, a Tagal demon, as indicated in the following passage from the writings of Fray Casemiro Diaz, 1638 — 1640, trans, by Blair and Robertson. "Moreover, in those moun- tains of Panay, are many demons, who appear to the natives in horrible forms — as hideous savages, covered with bristles, having very long claws, with terrifying eyes and features, who attack and maltreat those whom they encounter. These beings are called by the Indians Banuanhon, who are equivalent to the satyrs aud fauns of ancient times .. . They are called in the Tagal language Tigbalang, and many persons who have seen them have described to me, in the same terms, the aspect of the monster. They say that he has a face like a cat's, with a head that is flattened above, not round, with thick beard,^ and covered with long hair; his legs are so long that, when he squats on his buttocks, his knees stand a vara above his head; and he is so swift in running that there is no quadruped that can be compared with him." The Philippine Islands, vol. 29, pp. 269— 270. 1905.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 35
beside the sea; they drink the blood from the corpse, and gnaw the flesh from the bones, and then throw away the skeleton. Gruesome as is the situation, however, it is relieved by flashes of quaint hu- mor, such as invariably dart into Bagobo talk and story. According to the folktales, a tigbanua is often very dull of perception, very credulous; so much so that a child, a cat, the moon, even a wo- man's comb may fool him and make a jest of him, '^ in much the same manner that the trickster Coyote, of American myth, is him- self, in turn, tricked by others.
The Tigbanua most often invoked are the following:
Tigbanua kayo (of the timber, or forest trees);
Tigbanua balagan (of the rattan); ^
Tigbanua tana (of the ground);
Tigbanua waig (of the water);
Tigbanua batu (of the rocks, or stones) ;
Tigbanua dipag-dini-ka-waig (of this side of the river);
Tigbanua dipag-dutun-ka-waig (of the other side of the river);
Tigbanua buis (of the hut-shrine).
Another group of supernatural beings, the Tagamaling, are some- times termed "good buso" on account of their extreme moderation in eating human flesh, a practice in which they indulge only on alternate months. The tagamaling are thought to resemble the Bagobo in physiognomy and in manner of dressing. A few of them, however, have eight faces. Their houses, invisible to man, are hidden in dense foliage up on the mountains or the hills. I quote from the "Story of Duling and the Tagamaling"®^ a tale of two young men who are enticed to the house of a tagamaling by two taga- maling girls; as a result of which adventure one of the youths is turned into stone.
"Before the world was made, there were Tagamaling. The Tagamaling is the best Buso, because he does not want to hurt man all of the time. Tagamaling is actually Buso only a part of the time ; that is, the month when he eats people. One month he eats human flesh, and then he is Buso; the next month he eats no human flesh, and then he is a god. So he alternates, month by month. The month he is Buso, he wants to eat man
' ' Stories of the tricking of Buso will be found in my "Bagobo myths." Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 43—46, 48—50. 1913. With equal ease the Rakshasa of Indian myth is duped, as shown in one of Somadeva's tales: c/. op. cit.,'\o\. 1, pp. 363 — 864. 1880.
■"Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, vol. 26, pp. 50—51. Jan.— Mar., 1913.
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during the dark of the moon; that is, between the phases that the moon is full in the east and new in the west ....
"The Tagamaling makes his house in trees that have hard wood, and low, broad-spreading branches. His house is almost like gold, and is called "Palimbing", but it is made so that you cannot see it; and, when you pass by, you think, 'Oh! what a fine tree with big branches', not dreaming that it is the house of a Tagamaling. Sometimes, when you walk in the forest, you think you see one of their houses ; but when you come near to the place, there is nothing. Yet you can smell the good things to eat in the house."
Another literary reference to these legendary tree-dwellings of the spirits is in a little poem, the text of which I have in manu- script. A young man says to the girl whom he has seduced:
"In the mountains hide you.
Like Tagamaling's house concealed."
A rustic demon well known in folklore is S'iring, ^^ who, under the guise of some relative or friend, lures a young person into the densest part of the forest, causes him to lose memory and judgment, and finally brings him to his death in some indirect manner. What we call echo is the call of S'iring, who answers in a faint voice the shout of some wanderer whom he is trying to entice from the familiar trails. The S'iring is represented as having long sharp nails and curly hair.
The demon who "makes men dizzy" is Tagasoro, and his presence at a ceremonial is greatly feared.
Tagareso is an ugly fiend who stimulates ill-feeling and arouses a quarrelsome spirit on festival occasions. He tries to make mar- ried men dissatisfied with their wives, so that they will want to run off and leave them.
Balinsugu is another dangerous spirit that stirs up enmity at ceremonies, in the hope that good men may be induced to fight and kill one another in the house where many are assembled, and
*^For folklore of the S'iring, see Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, vol. 26, pp. 51 — 53; aud cf. Katha Sarit Sagara, ed. cit., vol. 1, p. 337: "Whoever remains in the forest falls prey to Yakshivi who bewilder him . . ."
Capricious forest demons, having certain characteristic marks of the Bagobo S'iring, are mentioned by Aduarte, Bishop of Nueva Segovia. "They also tell of some very mischievous tricks which the devil has played upon them. It happened sometimes that when a man was alone in the field he came upon some creatures resembling little women. They would deceive him, and either by alluring words or force would place him within a thicket, and then toss him in the air as if he had been a ball; they then left him half-dead." Blair and Robertson: op. cit. vol. 30, p. 293. 1905.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 37
thus give him blood to drink. I was present at a devotional meeting at Oleng's house when one of the anito urged the Bagobo to be on their guard against Tagareso and Balinsugu.
The Mantianak, ®^ as everywhere throughout the Malay country, is associated with childbirth, but there are local variations. Bagobo tradition says that if a woman dies during her trial her spirit is angry at the husband, since he is held responsible for the conditions that caused his wife's death. The ghost of the woman becomes a mantianak that hovers in the air near her former home and utters peculiar cries, resembling the mewing of a cat. When the man hears that sound at night, he knows that it is the voice of the mantianak of his dead wife. This form of buso is characterized by a hole in the breast and by the long claws, and it is called "a bad thing." They say that the mantianak is constantly trying to kill men and boys, but that it is afraid of women and girls.
Some buso live in the sky, like the eight-eyed Riwa-riwa, ^^ who
** A Malay compound of two elements: mati, "to die," ''dead;" anak, "child." The Bagobo and certain other tribes interpolate a nasal. The Tagal makes the initial sound a surd, p.
Concerning a parallel myth amoiig the Tagal tribes, Father Plasencia wrote in 1589: "If any woman died in child-birth, she and her child suffered punishment ... at night she could be heard lamenting. This was called patianac. See Blair and Robertson: op. cit. vol. 7, p. 196, 1903. If the missionary drew a correct inference from the wail of the woman's spirit, the significance of the mantianak's cry is distinctly different from that given to it by the Bagobo, who put the burden upon the man. Birth-charms for driving away this spirit are given by Ortiz, op. cit., vol. 43, p. 107, 1905. He states, further, that when travelers lose their road, the patianac is to blame. lb. p. 108.
Cole found among the Mandaya a belief in Muntianak, which was regarded as "the spirit of a child whose mother died while pregnant, and who for this reason was born in the ground." Op. cit., p. 177.
In the tradition of the peninsular Malays, the matianak (or pontianak) is a stillborn child which takes the form of a night-owl that disturbs women and children at the time of childbirth. If a woman dies in childbirth, she is popularly supposed to become a lansugu, or flying demon, much like the pole-cat called bajang. Of. W. W. Skeat: Malay magic, pp. 329, 325, 327. 1900. Among certain inland tribes, according to Dr. Martin, the matianak, as a jin or haniu, is the demon of puerperal fever, and occasionally takes the form of a frog or a bird. Die Inlandstamme der malayischen Halbinsel, pp. 944, 946. 1905. The natives of Nias have a bechu matidna which has the power of tor- menting a woman in childbirth, and of procuring abortion. Cf. Elio Modigliani: Un viaggio a Nias, p. 625. 1890. For allied conceptions among the natives of Sarawak and the tribes of south-east Borneo, and in other parts of the Malay area, cf. Blumentritt: op. cit., article, "Patianak."
"* Blumentritt quotes the following description of Riwa-Riwa: "Segun los Bagobos es Rioa-rioa un ser espantoso y malo que, suspendido en el cenit, a manera de pendulo
38 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
listens to the talk of mortals. If anybody makes a random remark that offends Riwa-riwa, his eight eyes "turn big;" he drops to the ground, and brings sickness with him.
Of Busu buntud it is reported that he is black as soot, and has nine faces.
Buso lisu t'kayo, on the contrary, is pure white, being probably associated with the pith of forest trees.
Buso t'abo is a mere torso of a demon, with head, chest, shoul- ders and arms; but having no legs or abdomen. In pictures, his body is cut off sharply at the waist.
One of the disease-bringers, named Karokung, is a white woman with long black hair, whose home is in rivers. Her characteristics will be described under the caption, "Disease and Healing." ^*
In the native arts there are no figures or symbols of Buso to be found, either in animal or in human form; but Bagobo boys and girls who have learned to use the pencil a little and who also come from families conversant with a wide range of buso folktales, agree in stressing certain features that are traditionally character- istic of the demon in his anthropomorphic guise — big round eyes, tongue lolling from large mouth, branched horns, wings of varying sizes, enormous feet, heavily clawed or hoofed. The characters that are emphasized are those that stand out most prominently in folk- lore, while the rest of the body takes its chance, so to speak, being merely a "filler" for the really important buso traits. Such traits characterize, in particular, the entire class of tigbanua. On the other hand, the tagamaling are pictured as looking like the Bagobo, both in face and in costume; but their hair is curly rather than wavy, and they carry small circular shields of an ancient pattern.
We now turn to the distinctly zoomorphic forms of the buso. "While the tigbanua, the s'iring, and perhaps other buso in human form, have the power of assuming at will the appearance of certain
largo, llega con su boca a J a tierra para devorar a los hombres que su servidor Tabankak le presenta." Diccionario mitologico, p. 100. 1895.
Blumentritt finds mentioned by the Spaniards a Bagobo demon named Pelubatan; and in association with Riwa-Riwa another evil spirit called Tabanka that is characterized as follows: "Un demonio de los Bagobos. Es el espirita de impureza y libertinaje, cuyo officio es tentar a hombres y mujeres contra el sexto y nono mandamientos de la Ley de Dios, para que, habiendo muchos escandalos, rifias y asesinatos, tenga que comer en abun- dancia su amo Riva-riva." Ibid, p. 111.
»*See Part III.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 39
animals, ^^ there are, in addition, a large number of evil personal- ities that have peculiar and permanent bestial shapes. These are myth animals — the so-called bad animals — of strange shapes and ill-matched members, that are visualised as curious modifica- tions of familiar beasts and birds, or, more often, are purely fanciful products. Doubtless there are hundreds of such fabulous animals awaiting the discovery of the field worker, but the following names will at least suggest what sort of creature a myth animal may be.
Most important of all, probably, is Kilat, ®^ that gigantic un- gulate — it may be horse or it may be carabao — that runs through the sky, and during a storm makes his voice heard in Xilat to fall to the earth, and to bring in his train numerous ■diseases.
Many buso have the form of deer, notable among which is Naat, with his one good horn, and his one bad horn that has a branch pointing downward.®'
Numbers of buso are snakes, whose chief is Mamili, called "king of snakes."
The Buso-monkey is well known in myth, ®^ and even at this time not only are there many buso who are lutung, or monkeys, but a normal ape occasionally turns into a buso.
Timbalung is a disease-bringer whose home is on the mountains, and who is said to be "a big bad animal that goes into the belly and makes the Bagobo very sick." It is thought dangerous to speak the name of this buso, and children are so instructed; but occasion- ally somebody will mention him in connection with the sickness he causes.
" * Aduarte writes of the natives of Nueva Segovia that, "The aniteras . . . dreamed that they saw their anitos in the form of carabaos or of buffaloes, and of black men." Blair and Robertson: op. cit, vol. 31, p. 35. 1905. Chirino, 1603, writes in like phrases that "another Indian, while very ill, was afflicted with horrible apparitions; when he was left alone, hideous and furious black men appeared to him, threatening him with death." Ibid., vol. 13, p. 78. 1904.
Morga, 1609, writes of the Pintados (Visayan) : "The devil usually deceived them with a thousand errors and blindnesses. He appeared to them in various horrible and frightful forms, and as lierce animals, so that they feared him and trembled before him." Ibid., vol. 16, p. 131. 1904.
■• For the myth concerning Kilat, see pp. 48 — 49.
" ' See "Ceremony of Awas."
•" Cf. op. cit. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 46—48. 1913.
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Blanga is a cursorial animal, distinguished by enormous branching- horns. Pungatu is pictured as a fat quadruped, with a bird-like head, and several humps on his back. He lives up on the moun- tains. Limbago is a long-necked quadruped, that carries sickness wherever he goes. Abuy and Riiii are pig-like forms, the lat- ter being an underground animal, with a big belly and extremely pointed teeth. Any intruder into Riiii's house below the ground is punished by having his strength taken from him. Straightway he becomes so weak that he cannot walk, and his feet give way under him. Then E-iiu attacks him with his sharp teeth. Sekiir is a big-eared quadruped, a mountain climber, sometimes called Sakar. Marina is an arboreal animal with a snake-like body, that climbs by means of long arms. Ubag looks like a horse with a. hump on his back, and is said to smite with mortal illness those whom he attacks. Kogang is a bad animal which is visualized under several shapes.
Still other diseases are brought by the Buso Tulung, who resembles- a jungle fowl.
The most famous mythical birds are, perhaps, the following:
Minokawa^^ is an enormous bird that swallows the moon at the time of a lunar eclipse, a feat accomplished easily, since this bird is conceived to be as large as the island of Negros, or the island of Bohol.
Kulago appears in myth as the bird into which Wari, brother of Lumabat, was metamorphosed^^ as a punishment for his diso- bedience to one of the gods. Its cry is that of the screech-owl^ but its body is covered by both hair and feathers representing every sort of animal and bird and jungle fowl.
The most rapacious bird of folklore is Wak-Wak, a fierce mythical crow that flies headless, and feeds on human flesh, and must be charmed away by a formula of suggestive magic. ^'
"" Of. "Bagobo myths." Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, p. 19. 1913.
'" The story of Wari's transformation into a screech-owl is given in the same Jour- nal, vol. 26, pp. 22—23.
** For the Visayan asuang, see p. 42 — 43. The buso and the asuang that have the form of birds of prey resemble the Penggalan of the Peninsula, that is characterized as "a sort of n^onstrous vampire which delights in sucking the blood of children." The head of this bird flies separately from the body, but the intestines are attached. Qf, Skeat: op. cit., pp. 327 — 328; and for other folklore touching fabulous Malay birds, cf. ibid., pp. 110 — 132. See also Somadeva: op. cit., vol. 1, p. 54, 1880. "A bird of
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 4i
Of course, none of the above-mentioned demons, whatever its form, can be seen by the Bagobo, ^^ unless it be, rarely, by some old man. But in response to what is, perhaps, a primitive psychical impulse — that of attributing to other peoples and to other forms of living organisms (with whose mental processes one is unfamiliar) the power of perceiving things beyond one's own sense-range — the Bagobo say that the Kulaman folk can see Buso; and that Buso is plainly visible to the domesticated animals, whether dog or cat or chick or horse or carabao. When a dog bays mournfully inta the air at night, he is baying at Buso; when the carabao leave their wallow and dash wildly through the lanes of the villages, they are fleeing from Buso. It is always Buso that makes animals behave in a strange manner after dark, and it is currently believed that Buso walks in the rain, for the dogs, seeing him, at once begin to bark. This is the reason why dogs bark more often in shower than in sunshine.
Charms against Buso are more numerous than any other class of charms. A considerable number are described in the section entitled,, "Charms and Magical Kites," where they are grouped with other sorts of spells, according to their several psychological aspects. For convenience, however, the forms of buso magic in most common use are briefly listed together at this point. To forestall the approach of a buso:
Repeat magical formulae;
Set up images of wood to represent living men; Make a thicket of "medicinal" plants near the house; Lay pieces of lemon and red peppers under the house; Circumambulate the house while holding a lemon; ^^
the race of Garuda pounced on her, thinking she was raw flesh;" and c/., in the same volume, Tawney's notes on fabulous birds of prey in other literatures : tli% Roc of Arabian romance, etc. Ibid., p. 572.
** According to Aduarte, the Filipino of Nueva Segovia (in Luzon), "sometimes asked the devil that he would permit them to see him; but he answered that his body was- so subtile that they could not see it." Blair and Robertson: op. cii., vol. 30, p. 290. 1905.
• ' The use of lemons as an antidote to the machinations of demons is not confined to- the Bagobo tribe. Mr. J. M. Garvan found that among the Manobo of Mindanao both lemons and limes were thus used, as shown in "The Legend of Ango, the Petrified Ma- nobo." C/. H. 0. Beyer: "Origin myths among the mountain peoples of the Philip- pines." Philippine Jour. Sci., vol. 8, p. 90. April, 1913.
On one occasion, I had an opportunity of taking part in the formation of such a magic
42 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Wear a bit of dried lemon on the necklace;
Hang a crab-shell over the door;
Hold a rice-winnower before the face;
Weave into textiles a crocodile design;
Paint the figure of a crocodile on bamboo rice-cases, on stringed instru- ments, and on other manufactured objects of wood;
Carve the figure of a crocodile on the coffin, or decorate the coffin with a conventional crocodile figure, made of strips of cloth;
Rub a dying person with sweet-smelling plants of magical value;
Hold a wake in the house of death ;
Surround with all kinds of knives the bed of an expectant mother before «he sleeps at night. 9*
In Yisayan myth, (as I learned in a number of conversations with Visayans) the asuang is functionally identical with the buso of the Bagobo: both haunt desolate places, tear open freshly-made ^graves, feed on corpses, prowl over the earth at night in shadowy shapes, or fly through the air and, having entered a death-chamber by the window, suck the blood of the dead as soon as the soul leaves the body. Yet there is a fundamental distinction between the two many of the asuang are able to metamorphose themselves into human beings, and thus live in intimate relationship with the people — an extension of the sphere of demoniac influence quite foreign to Bagobo ideas. The Yisayan young people insist that a large number of the asuang are men and women who live and work as near neighbors of their own. In certain parts of their villages these human demons cluster. In Davao, there is a short street, named Claveria, where whole families of asuang are popularly believed to have their residence, and their houses are pointed out to visitors. At nightfall, the asuang resume their proper forms, put on wings, become shadowy, and go flying off in search of dead bodies for
the house was kept always on our right, just as in the circumambulatious of ancient In- dia ; but I did not hear a statement that the dextral circuit must necessarily be followed for this charm. Of. Somadeva: Katha Sarit Sagara, vol. 1, p. 98. 1880.
It is possible that Buso's alleged fear of lemons may be associated with the myth in which Buso is killed by thorns while he is trying to climb a lemon-tree. On the •other hand, perhaps the episode grew out of the wide spread tradition that all demons are afraid of lemons. C/. the tale, "The Buso-Monkey." Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, p. 46—48. Jan.— March, 1913.
' * The folklore material in regard to this spell will be found in a story entitled. "The Buso-Child." Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 45—46. 1913.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 43
food. It is said that all asuang have oil in their bodies for lubri- cating their wings, so that flight is easy. A human asuang is ordinarily a person of tall stature, extremely thin, with a shiny skin, and with eye-balls slightly protruding. However other bodily characters may differ, there is one sure mark of an asuang to be found in the pupil of the eye. Suppose that some neighbor is suspected of being an asuang. One must examine his eyes, and if in the pupil there is detected the figure of a boy upside down, that person is unmistakably an asuang.
Among the Yisayan on the coast of Davao gulf, it is said that the asuang systematically propagates the baliti by making use of rotten tree trunks as a suitable soil. An old tree of which the native name is ononang was shown me by Manuel, a clever Yisayan boy, who assured me that that was an asuang-haunted tree. It had a hollow trunk, into the decaying texture of which an adven- titious shoot of a baliti had intruded, aud had pressed its way upward through the soft material, its roots intertwined within the trunk, its glossy, sharp-pointed leaves growing out through nume- rous crevices in the bark. "Nobody but an asuang," explained Manuel, "can make the trunk of any tree hollow. You see, the asuang works himself through some small hole in the bark and, with his long nails, scoops out the trunk and claws away until only a hollow shell remains. That done, he plants a seed or root of baliti to grow there, and then he goes off to work at another tree." ^^
INTERPRETATION OF FHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Natural objects or natural phenomena, as such, a Bagobo rarely worships; but the larger processes of the physical universe, that take shape in air and sky and earth and sea, are associated in his mental processes with spirits, and these spirits are made the objects of varied cults, some in the capacity of gods, some in that of demons. The functions of nature spirits are rather sharply distin- guished one from another, for the underlying concepts of the Bagobo would not lend themselves readily to expression in terms of a pantheistic religion. So far from conceiving of one common vital principle as pervading nature and unifying it, he puts different
•* For other asaang myths, cf. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 19, pp. 205—211, 1906; vol. 26, pp. 25—28, 31—32, 42—53, 57. 1913.
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intelligent personalities back of as many physical phases; so far from fusing gods and the visible world into one substance, his nature-spirits are persons who can leave at will the natural objects with which they are identified.
Nor does the Bagobo, from the polytheistic standpoint, regard every single object in nature as controlled immediately by an in- dwelling spirit. One highly-honored god, Pamulak Manobo, made the world and the things in it; certain minor deities assist him in regulating set departments, as Tarabume, who has charge of the growing rice; while a throng of spiritual beings of which some few hold a friendly attitude toward man, but many more a hostile attitude, are associated with large classes of natural objects. There is, as we have said, a tigbanua of the woods, a tigbanua of the water, a tigbanua of the rattan. In regard to individual objects, it cannot be assumed that spirits inhabit every tree, every rock, every stream ; yet any particular rock or stream or tree may happen to be the home of some supernatural being. Rarely, again, the natural object itself which is supposed to have peculiar functions attracts devotions at fixed seasons, solely in connection with that functioning, and, perhaps, at no other time. The stars are not worshiped in mass, as stars, yet to certain constellations that tra- dition makes responsible for the success of crops, offerings are made at seed-time and at harvest, but on no other occasion. Further- more, any special manifestation of natural processes, like a trem- bling of the earth or a violent thunder-clap, that occurs at irregular intervals and that stimulates a sudden emotional discharge, is in- stantly referred to a supernatural agency either working within the phenomenon or operating from a distance.
Thus the Bagobo tends to hold a receptive attitude toward nature, for in the background of his consciousness lies a mass of fragments of nature myths, nature songs, customary interpretations, any one of which may, at any moment, become embodied in his own expe- rience. To the play of natural phenomena, he reacts with emotions of wonder, awe, fear, pleasure. Any shift out of the ordinary, any unusual sound or shape, impresses itself insistently upon his consciousness, until it comes to be associated with other and more familiar mental images; and, finally, the entire complex takes shape as some new episode in romance, or as some fresh exploit of god or of demon. Of course, the range of fanciful associations that he can make is strictly limited by a traditional myth-pattern, to which
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 45
he clings with characteristic conservatism; but with an emotional response to the unexpected in nature, he is always ready. When a Bagobo walks out of doors, his manner tends to be more serious and contemplative than indoors. Anything may happen, for nobody can predict the possible freaks of spiritual beings. While, perhaps, no buso may be in that particular trail; while this special clump of trees may be uninhabited ; while the entire journey may be free from spiritual encounter, yet one must be on the alert, and it is safer to behave with gravity toward nature in all of her phases. This attitude of quiet seriousness finds expression in a curious nature myth, which is repeated to the young people and possibly tends to inhibit in them some of the propensities of youth. They are taught that they must not laugh at their reflection in the water; that they must not laugh at small animals; that no monkey or rat or lizard or spider or fly may be put to ridicule. ^^ In a word, as one boy expressed the idea: "You must not laugh at anything you see; for, if you do, Kilat will break your neck." Whether such little creatures are under the special protection of Kilat, the Thunder Spirit, is not clear, but to make fun of them is regarded as a presumptuous act, to which a severe penalty is attached, nothing less than having one's neck dislocated and one's head twisted about. ^^ Bagobo mothers tell their daughters that long ago,
^^ In Beyers's recent publication, it is interesting to note that among the Manobo people of Mindanao there exists a tabu against ridiculing or mocking frogs, monkeys and cats; and Garvan states that laughing at other animals, too, is forbidden. With both, the Bagobo and the Manobo, we find that the punishment for such levity is associated with thunder; although the punishment takes different forms, for Manobo tradition says that the transgressor is turned to stone. Cf. "Origin myths among the mountain peoples of the Philippines." Philippine Jour. Sci., pp. 89 — 90. April, 1913.
"A tradition, corresponding, in every detail, to that repeated by Bagobo women, was found by Dr. Nieuwenhuis, among the Bahau tribes of East Borneo. They say, there, that laughing at animals is punished by the Thunder Spirits, who twist round the neck of the offender, and that it is incautious to place a domestic animal even in a situation that would cause laughter.
„Diese Naturgeister iiben auch direkten Einfluss auf das Leben der Menschen aus; so werden bestimmte Vergehen durch die in heklare, Donnergeister, bestraft. Das Lachen iiber Tiere z. B., das bei den Bahau als Verbrechen gilt, wird durch die to leklare sogleich gestraft, indem sie dem Schuldigen den Hals umdrehen. Es ist daher sehr unvorsichtig, mit einem Huhn, Hund oder Schwein etwas vorzunehmen, was die Laute zum Lachen bringen konnte, Als am Mahakam plotzlich ein kleines Madchen, wahrscheinlich an Ver- giftung, starb, schrieben die Dorfbewohner ihren Tod dem Umstand zu, dass sie iiber irgend ein Tier gelacht haben sollte." A. W, Nieuwenhuis: Quer durch Borneo, vol. 1, pp. 97-98. 1904.
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in another part of the world, there were some girls who laughed at small animals, and that Kilat turned their heads around so that they had to walk facing backward.
The Bagobo is highly imitative, very ready to incorporate the myths and customs of other tribes, yet he borrows and assimilates in a manner peculiarly Bagobo. The interpretation that he will make of a bamboo trunk mottled with darkish spots, or of the baying of a dog at night, while it may conform in general outline to wide-sweeping Malay tradition, will yet have a characteristic Bagobo touch, since the background of Bagobo experience is not identical with the background of Bilaan, or of Tagakaola, or of Visayan experience. His response to natural phenomena will be somewhat different from that of any other group having a similar environment.
Below are sketched in outline a few typical myths concerning natural phenomena.
Before time began, the sky, the sun and moon, and all of the heavenly bodies, the land and all green things that grow on the earth, the sea and rivers and rocks, were created by Pamulak Manobo. He also made people of every race and tribe that are now in the world. Another widely-told story, ^^ that is repeated in slightlyvarying versions, gives a different origin to the stars. The moon is the mother of the stars and the sun is their father. Each star is one small fragment of the body of the moon's little daughter, whom the sun killed at her birth and cut into small pieces, because of his bitter disappointment that the child was not a boy. He scattered the bright sherds by handfuls over the sky, and they became the stars. ^^
The earth is flat, and is shaped like a circle, over which the sky fits down snug, like a cap or a circular box-lid; and thus we get the line of the horizon, commonly called the "root of the sky," or the "border of the heaven." At first, the sky hung low over the earth, and through it the sun and the moon traveled close together, for then they were on friendly terms; but the sky was
"" This story, and several other myths associated with natural phenomena, are given in Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 15—19. 1913. Cf. also Beyer's Manobo tale, "The origin of the stars." Philippine, Jour. Sci., vol. 8, p. 91. April, 1913.
"'A Mantra legend represents the sun as engaged in a perpetual attempt to destroy the star-children. Cf. R. Martin: Die Inlandstamme der malayiscben Halbinsel. p. 977. 1905.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 47
so near to the earth that the people could not work, and so Pa- mulak Manobo commanded it to come up higher. '^^ At about the same time, the sun and moon had their altercation over the fate of the baby, and no longer wished to journey together. For this- reason, after the sky moved up, they began the custom of takings passage over the earth at different times. Both sun and moon travel above the earth, from east to west, and then pass down below the earth and go back from west to east. During our night,, the sun illumines the place where the dead spirits are staying.
An eclipse '^* of the moon is believed to be caused by the rapa- cious bird named Minokawa that lives just outside of the eastern horizon, and has beak and claws of steel. Eight holes the moon makes in the eastern horizon by which to enter for her passage over the earth, and eight holes in the western horizon, by any one of which she can get out again when she takes her course under the earth, back from west to east. Every day, when she comes in at one of the eastern entrances, she runs the risk of being snatched up and swallowed by the mammoth Minokawa-bird, in which event an eclipse occurs. Then the Bagobo, following a widespread Malay custom, begin to utter shouts and to beat agongs and to make a tremendous din, in the hope of making the bird disgorge the moon. '^'^
^""Another version, still more common among tho Bagobo, is given in the Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol.26, p. 16. 1913. The old woman, called Tuglibung, cannot pound her rice because the sky hangs so low, and she chides the sky until it rushes up to its present place. Almost precisely the same story is known among the Manobo. Cf. H.O. Beyer : op. cit. p. 89; and compare the Ifugao tale, ibid, p. 105, which, like the version in mj text, calls in the help of a god to raise the sky.
^ " ^ Among Malays of the Peninsula and of Sumatra, the belief is widespread that ai> eclipse is caused by a serpent, a dragon, or a dog devouring the sun or the moon; and that the setting up of a din and clamor will frighten away the monster. Cf. Skeat:: op. cit., p. 11. In the Mantra myth, just quoted, the pursuit of the moon by the sun is continually going on, and when the sun bites the moon a lunar eclipse occurs. Op. cit., p. 977. For the Bagobo story of the eclipse, see Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, p. 19; and, for the Visayan legend, cf. Maxwell and Millington's collection, in the same jour- nal, vol. 19, p. 209. 1906.
In an Indian saga we find an episode of Rahu's head swallowing the sun and the moon. Somadeva: op. cit., vol. 1, p. 151.
^"'The Batak of Sumatra give a slightly different explanation of an eclipse. Accor- ding to Warneck's story, the sun in the beginning had seven sons, each of whom gave out a heat as intense as the sun herself. The plants on earth withered, and men could not stand up against the heat. They asked the help of the moon. He called all the stars to him and hid them; then, by the ruse of spitting betel juice into seven dishes,, and showing to the sun the dishes full of red juice, persuaded her that he had eaten his children. Then the sun killed and ate her seven sons. On discovering that the moon had
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Tradition says that in the moon live many people who are like the Bagobo. There is a great pananag tree there, with a white monkey sitting on one of its branches. This is what causes the phenomenon of "spots" '^^ on the face of the moon. We can make out the shape of the monkey and of the tree rather indistinctly, but all the old men know that they are there. They say, however, that if anybody should clearly see the white monkey sitting on the tree he would instantly drop dead, or be taken with a fatal illness. It appears that the clouds are all afraid of this monkey, and this is the reason why, on a moonlight night, the clouds are often seen ilitting over the face of the moon, and then fleeing away into the sky. Yet the monkey in the moon is a good animal, and the friend of man, for he is continually fighting with the evil buso. According to another myth, the clouds are not personified but are said to be the white smoke arising from the fires of the diwata in the heavens.
The phenomena of thunder and lightning are referred to an •enormous horse, Kilat by name, that belongs to one of the diwata. Kilat runs and fights, prances and gambols in the sky, making lightning flash when he shakes his bright mane, sending out thunder- claps when he neighs in a mighty, roaring voice. The power of this mythical animal is feared like that of buso, since the heaviest peals of thunder indicate that Kilat is about to drop down to earth, bringing sickness and death to domestic animals and to the Bagobo. When Kilat's voice is heard at its loudest, they cut up a lemon in water and throw the water here and there on the ground, since this will frighten him back to his place in the sky. There is an interesting tradition connected with certain small, bluish-black stones, several inches long, that are, perhaps, of meteoric origin. The Bagobo use them for whetstones and for scouring-bricks, but they say that they are the teeth of Kilat which dropped out of his mouth when it was wide open for emitting thunder-claps, or that
let out the stars, the sun sent the fighting spirits lau to attack him. When the moon is hard pressed by the lau, an eclipse occurs. Then all the people on earth, mindful of the moon's kindness to them, cry out "Set the moon free, you laul" Sometimes these spirits attack the sun, and then an eclipse of the sun takes place. Cf. Die Religion der Batak, pp. 43—44. 1909.
^"* Some peninsular Malay groups think the spots on the moon to be an inverted banyan tree. Cf. W. W. Skeat: Malay magic, p. 13. 1900. The Manobo call the spots a bunch of taro leaves that the sun, in anger, threw at the face of the moon. Cf. H. O. Betee: op. cii., p. 91. The same author calls attention to the beliefs of other groups: that the spots are a cluster of bamboos, or a baliti tree. Cf. loc. cit., footnote.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 49
he lost some teeth while eating. It is the action of Kilat's teeth that splits open cocoanuts and makes them fall to the ground. This is the reason that cocoanuts are so often heard to drop, when no man has climbed the tree to cut them off. Bananas, also, are found lying on the ground, spoiled evidently by the teeth of Kilat, for the dents may be seen in the skin.
There are several distinct notions connected with rainstorms and showers. One belief is that when the diwata throw out water from the sky, or when they spit, the rain falls ; another, that the tears of the little sister of the Malaki t'Olu k'Waig fall down in drops of rain. Again, it is said that showers come when the spirits of dead friends are weeping, because they are lonely and are calling other Bagobo individuals to accompany them to the lower world. Very commonly, however, rain is associated directly with the mythical source of thunder and lightning, and said to be due to Kilat, who is dropping water from his body. That Buso walks in the rain is generally believed, and hence children are instructed to remain indoors during a storm. Only dogs and other domestic animals may safely walk with Buso in a heavy shower. Finally, a thunderstorm may be brought to a close by some strong and fierce buso who is able to devour Kilat himself.
THE SOVLS OF MAN AND LIFE AFTER DEATH
Characterization of the two souls
Like other Malay peoples, the Bagobo have a great body of myth and of folklore concerning the behavior of the souls of man, events connected with death, and the nature of future existence. Inhabiting every individual, two souls called gimokud are recognized ^^*
*"* Father Gisbert writes that, "The Bagobos recognize two beginnings, and say that they have two souls ... Of the two souls, one goes to heaven and the other to hell." Bla.ie] and Robeetson: op. ciL, vol. 43, p. 235. 1906. As will be seen later, in our treatment of the subject, the fate of the two souls is such that the Father's use of the words, "heaven" and "hell" is a broad extension of the popular meaning of those words. The important point, however, is that he found two to be the generally received number of souls belonging to each individual. It is clear that the conception of soul varies somewhat in different Bagobo communities, since Cole found at Sibulan a belief in eight souls for every individual. Cf. op cit., p. 105. The Malays of the peninsula, according to Skeat;., distinguish seven different souls. Cf. op. cit., p. 50.
The ntuves of Nias believe that there are three souls, according to Wilken, who, as Modigliani quotes him, agrees with the missionary, Sundermann, in the statement that
4
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— shadowy, etherial personalities, that dominate the body more or less completely. The right-hand soul, known in Bagobo terminology as the Gimokud Takawanan, is the so-called "good soul" that manifests itself as the shadow on the right hand side of one's path. The left-hand soul, called Gimokud Tehang^ is said to be a "bad soul" and shows itself as the shadow on the left side of the path. The name for either shadow is alung. The takawanan is associated, in native thinking, with those factors of existence that stand for life, health, activity, joy; while the tebang is associated with factors that tend toward death, sickness, sluggishness, pain. The left-hand soul often departs from the human body and does unlooked-for things that have an unhappy influence on the body: it undertakes alarming exploits; it wanders about as a dream-spirit, thus producing nightmare, or, at least, horrible mental images during sleep. The right-hand soul, on the contrary, is associated with the normal continuity of existence, for it never leaves the body from birth until death, except to lie, at times, as the right-hand shadow, still attached clingingly to the physical frame. Death is the simple fact of the passing of the right-hand soul out from the body, and becoming permanently separated from it. But the stream of indi- vidual existence is not checked by death, for the takawanan goes at once to the Great Country below the earth, and there continues to live, in much the same manner as on earth, except for the non- corporeal and ghostly appearance that characterizes all of its activities.
Right-hand Soul or Gimokud Takawanan Brown in color like a Bagobo, they say the takawanan would
these souls belong, respectively, to the breath the shadow and the heart. The first soul is nbso, which, at death, returns to the wind and ceases to exist, except where it survives as a hereditary soul. The second is the soul of man's shadow, and can be seen only in the light of the sun or in the brightness of love, though a priest may see it at all times. At death, this soul becomes the becku zi mate, which goes to the realm of the dead in the subterranean world. The third soul has its seat in the heart, and is known as nbso- dodo, or soul of the heart, and this is the most noble of the three, since there is nothing in man which does not take its origin from the heart.
Modigliani, however, differs from Wilken and distinguishes between the statements of the natives of Nias concerning the soul of the dead, and the soul of the living. During life, the noso dodo, located in the heart, is the soul most commonly spoken of, and the source of all emotions. At death, this soul resolves itself into three: the eheha, or hered- itary soul; the \noso, or spiritual principle of all human existence, and the bechu zi mate, or spirit of the dead. Cf. Un viaggio a Nias, pp. 287—290. 1890.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 51
look, could one but clearly glimpse it, and in all other character- istics, it is like the living Bagabo, except for its tenuous substance. It is identified with the activities and the life itself of the body, and hence remains in the body throughout life; for the event of its removing itself to a distance would spell death. I have heard the opinion hazarded by a Bagobo youth that the takawanan might go away for just a little while without the body dying, but this idea may have been suggested by observing his shadow, and fan- cying that it might move away from him. The customary concept of the takawanan, as well as the conduct observed at a deathbed, implies that this soul inhabits the human body perpetually, or as a shadow remains closely attached to it, until death.
Signs of death. The beating of the pulse at the wrist and the pulsations that are to be felt "on top of the head" are signs of the presence of the gimokud takawanan in the living body. When a Bagobo is mortally sick and death is imminent, an attendant holds the wrist of the patient, with the index and the middle fingers at the dorsal side, and the thumb on the pulse, in order to note whether the gimokud is still there. When the pulse ceases to throb, the gimokud is ready to take leave of the body, but, since it cannot find an exit through the wrist or the finger-tips, it passes up to the head of the dying man and goes out through that point in the crown whefe a pulsation is apparent (probably the anterior fontanelle). Somebody lays fingers or palm of the hand on top of the head to ascertain the exact moment when gimokud takes its flight. ^^^ The cessation of heart-beat, laginatva^ is often noted also. The signs of death are therefore three : {a) The stilling of the pulse ; {h) The cessation of throbbing on the skullcap; (c) The stopping of heartbeat.
Sometimes they make efforts to detain the takawanan in the body : they seize and shake the arms of the dying man; they grasp his head and make it wag to and fro, in the hope of checking the spirit's departure; but as the sure signs of death become apparent they cease all efforts to hold the gimokud.
Summons to the livinj?. Between the time of death and
^ ° * The Moro say that the soul enters the body through the top of the skull, and makes its exit by the same hole at death. Cf. C. H. Forbes-Lindsay: The Philippines under Spanish and American rules, pp. 502 — 505. 1906. Perhaps the Bagobo have bor- bowed the idea.
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burial it is still possible for the right-hand soul to communicate with the living, and this it does on a vast scale. Immediately after leaving the body, it is customary for the spirit to give notice of its last journey, and at the same time try to secure a com- panion, by visiting in the form of an insect every house in the world. The entire series of visits is supposed to be made during the short period — say, from twenty-four to thirty-six hours — that elapses between death and burial. ^^^ The insect enters a house and sings in a small voice that is like the chirp of a cricket, or the soft tinkling of a little bell called korimg-korung. Nobody can see the gimokud, but at night when "the bug with the sweet voice chirps on the wall" one knows that somebody is dead. Then the person listening must say: "Who are you? my brother? my sister?" If the singing stops immediately, it is a sign that a near relative is dead, ^but if the sound keeps on it indicates that some other family has been bereaved.
Sometimes the chirping is interpreted as a summons to some friend or relative to follow the dead one, who asks for a fellow traveler to the lower world. Fearful of sickness and death coming upon him, the listener quickly replies: "You can come here no more because you are now going to the Great City. You have still a little love (diluk ginawa) for me; do not bring me sick- ness." This formula is usually potent to banish the importunate spirit. It is said that when a gimokud is very insistent for a companion, a friend may die within a day or two, an example quoted being that of Adela, the Bagobo wife of a Yisayan. Of her, they narrate that she caused a woman friend to die one or two days after herself, because she feared to journey alone to the lower world.
This form of spiritual manipulation is considered quite proper for a timid person or for a youth, but there is a feeling among the Bagobo that a gimokud who is strong and brave will not wait around for a friend to die, but will start alone for the Great City. A boy of fourteen, nephew of Adela, confided to me his fears of the gruesome journey.
"If a gimokud is not brave, he waits for a companion to die. I am afraid to go alone to the Great City. When I am dead, my spirit will wait near
^"^ The body of a datu may be kept much longer, but I failed to ascertain the process of embalming that would be used.
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my friend, Karlos, and will say to his spirit: 'I want you to go with me to the One City.' Then my friend will get a sickness and die, and I shall have a companion; but if he does not want to go with me, I do not force him, but I ask other friends — many."
After the burial, the ghost-bug can sing no more, for the spirit has started for Gimokudan, and can never again disturb the living by chirping at night. The gimokud is now known also as Kayimg,
A rain lasting several days, or even a week, is a phenomenon very significant when it occurs immediately after the death of a Bagobo, for it is caused by the tears of the dead gimokud, who is lingering about, waiting for a friend to accompany him. A magical rite must then be performed to still the lamentations of the spirit. Suppose that showers fall incessantly after the death of a boy. Forthwith, his father places a few areca-nuts and betel-leaves, with perhaps a little tobacco, on the ground as an offering to the gimo- kud, and cajoles him with words like these: "Do not cry any more, for you know you do not love your father; you would rather go to the Great City." The spell is efficacious; the rain ceases; the gimokud stops its weeping and starts alone on the last journey. This case does not appear to be reconcilable with the belief that the soul leaves the earth for Gimokudan immediately after the funeral, for in the tropics a body cannot be kept for several days unless embalmed, while the metaphorical showers may last for a week. A Malay, however, does not think in exact dialectic, and perhaps would not be conscious of the contradiction.
Onong or travel outfit for the soul. The time required for the journey from earth down to the land of the dead, called Kilut, is variously estimated at from two days to one week. A traveling outfit, technically known as onong, is prepared by the friends of the deceased so that he may lack for nothing on the road. The onong includes those articles which are in constant use by the living — betel-box and lime-case, areca-nuts, buyo-leaf, tobacco (for a man), boiled rice, and other necessaries — all of which are placed in carrying-bag or basket and buried with the body.
In common with the animistic conceptions of many another prim- itive tribe, the belief is held by the Bagobo that it is the spirit- ual substratum or essence of the rice, the buyo or the tobacco, that the gimokud abstracts and enjoys, while the material element is left in the grave with the corpse. This spiritual substance is
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regarded as the gimokud of the object, for, as stated in a later section, every manufactured thing has its own soul : there is a gimokud of the betel-box, a gimokud of the lime-case, a gimokud of the carrying bag, and all these go down to Kilut with the human gimokud. Only what is buried with a person can go with him to the home of the dead, although it is thought that other of his possessions may later reach him, after the material parts have been worn out and thus have lost their gimokud.
The one country of the dead. The place of the dead is variously called Kilut, Gimokudan, '^^ the Great Country (to Dakul Banud ^°^), the One Country {to Sebad Banud). It lies directly below the earth, which, in the form of a flat disc or circle, rests upon it. The soul is conceived to go from the grave straight down through the earth to reach the lower world. In talking of such matters, a Bagobo will say that his kayung, or his gimokud "goes into the ground" when he dies.
On reaching Gimokudan, it is necessary to pass, first, through the City of the Black River {Banud ka Metum Waig ^^^), which has also the name of Alamiawan. Here, under the direction of Mebuyan, ^^° chief priestess of the place, the soul undergoes a cere- monial lustration in the dark waters of the river, a bathing of head and joints. This process stands for naturalization in the world of spirits, and serves also to infuse a feeling of restfulness and content into the newly arrived gimokud and to dispel any lingering desire that it may have to return to earth. Failing this rite, the spirit might slip away, go back to the world and reanimate the body. The name given to this ceremonial bathing is ^Jama?w^^^ — the same term that is applied to that important function at the Ginum festival when water, applied with a bunch of plant charms, is poured over the head of the candidate. While it would be
^ *" Gimo&nd, "souls or spirits" ; -an, "place of, place where." The particle -an, used as a nominal suffix, has several meanings; sometimes it is a plural ending, sebad pamarangi; dua pamarangan ; "one ear-plug, two ear-plugs ;" sebad kalati, dua kalatidn ; "one pearl disc, two pearl discs." Again, in many cases, this particle is locative, as in Gimokudan; and I wish to correct the footnote made by me, in the story of "Lumabat and Mebuyan," Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, p. 20, which gives to this particle a plural force in the word gimokudan.
108 2V)j "the;" dakul, "big, great;" banud, a term variously applied to a town, a country, or the world itself, as well as to the place of the dead.
^°^ Ka, particle, "of;" metum, "black or dark-colored;" waig, "water."
*^° For the story of Mebuyan, see Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 20—21. 1913.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 55
going too far to assume that the Ginum rite is in any way typical of the final bathing in the Black River, it is fair to say that the two rites are closely analogous.
The country through which the dark river runs is said to be a good place to stay in, for the cocoanut trees grow in abundance and the areca palms are loaded with nuts; yet after the close of the lustration, the spirits pass on *^' to join the rest of the dead in Gimokudan proper, except the little children, who during their period of helplessness remain under the care of Mebuyan.
Manner of existence in Gimokudan. No radical change in manner of life is conceived to be incident upon the shift of the soul to a new country. The spirit goes on with the same occupa- tions that fill the time of the Bagobo during life, and everything that is used on the earth may be obtained down there. Whatever a spirit lacks in his traveling outfit (onong) that he brought with him, he can buy down there from the supplies laid in abundance before him. He may buy a jacket or a spear or a cock; since any manufactured article that wears out, 6r any animal that dies, forthwith gives up its immaterial gimokud, which then passes down to supply the needs of the spirits in the Great City — a mythical situation quite in accordance with the common primitive concepts touching the souls of animals and of inanimate objects.
The same sun that shines on us by day travels around under the earth, and illuminates the world of the dead while we are in darkness, so that our day is synchronous with night in Kilut, and our night, with their day. It is during their period of darkness that all the dead are in action: the gimokud — weak, attenuated, shadowy, as they are conceived to be — work and dance and play and eat in the customary Bagobo manner; they sow and harvest rice; they dig camotes and cut sugar cane. The rice of Kilut is of immaculate whiteness, and each grain as big as a kernel of corn; the camotes are the size of a great round pot, and every stick of sugar cane is as large as the trunk of a cocoanut-palm. All night long, even until dawn, this glad existence continues.
At the rising of the sun, or just before sunrise, all of these
^ * * I have not yet found mention among the Bagobo of the belief held by many pagan peninsular Malays, that there is a bridge leading into heaven, and that all souls must cross this bridge, the good alone succeeding in maknig the passage. Martin derives this tradition from an Iranian source. Cf. op. cit., pp. 951 — 952.
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activities come to a halt. Every gimokud plucks one of the broad leaves of a plant called haguidn^ and twists it into a vessel sug- gesting the form of a boat, of a like pattern to the ceremonial dishes of hemp-leaf in use at Bagobo festivals, and called by the same name, kinudok. Each one of the gimokud seats himself upon his individual leaf-vessel, and there sits, waiting, until the hot rays of the sun cause him to dissolve, leaving the leaf-vessel full of water. Not until our day begins, and darkness spreads over the land of the dead, does the life of the ghosts swing back into action ; but as soon as the sun has passed up above the earth every gimo- kud resumes his personality, and takes up his work or his dance or his feasting, apparently as if no break had occurred. Then, again, the next morning, he makes a new leaf-vessel for himself from a fresh leaf (the old one having withered dry), sits down on it, and once more melts away under the sun's heat. This conception of a periodically interrupted existence would seem to imply that during twelve hours out of the twenty-four Kilut is empty of inhabitants, but it is questionable whether the Bagobo has ever made that gener- alization.
Fresh accretions are being added by individuals, from time to time, to the myths concerning the legendary home of the dead, though always along those lines that accepted tradition has drawn out. Dreams of the One Country, as well as phantasies incident to sickness and delirium, reveal fresh features that are deftly in- corporated with the old. "My uncle," said a young girl, Igula, "was very sick, and he went down to Gimokudan. A man there asked him to stay, but he did not like to stay; he wanted to come back to earth. They have cinnamon down there — much cinna- mon — and the streets are made of good boards; there is plenty of white stone too. My uncle told us about it when he came back."
Topography of the one country. The subdivisions of Gimokudan are correlated, first, with age, and second, with the manner of death. The primary grouping consists in a segregation of young children from adults. A part of the country through which the Black River runs is set apart specially for nursing in- fants. As narrated in an ancient tale, one of Lumabat's sisters descended into the lower world, took the name of Mebuyan, and became chief of a special section of Gimokudan, which is named for her, Banud Mebuyan, Little children who die when they are still being nourished at their mothers' breasts (a long period with
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 57
Bagobo children"-^) go at once to Mebuyan, *^^ who welcomes them and gives milk to all; for not merely her breasts, but her arms and her whole body, are plentifully supplied with milk glands. Under her protection, the babies remain until they cease to be parasites and can shift for themselves, when they are sent to join their own families in the main banua of Gimokudan.
A special region, called Kag-hunoan,^^^ is reserved for those who are slain by sword or spear, and it is said to be situated at some distance from the other divisions of the country of the dead. In Kag-bunoan there are everywhere suggestions of blood, or of death by violence; for example, all the plants are of a blood-red color, and the spiritual bodies of the inhabitants retain the scars of their wounds. All occupations, however, go on just as in the other parts of Gimokudan.
The Great Country, that is to say, Dakul Banua proper, forms the most extensive section of Gimokudan, since it is intended for all people, good and bad, who die from disease, or from sickness in any form. Hither, too, come trooping all the children who are old enough to leave the fostering care of Mebuyan. Pale in color, or pure white, are all the plants and trees here.
^ ^ ' A Bagobo mother does not wean her dhild, but suckles it as long as it wants to come to her, even when it grows old enough to run about. There conies a day when the child, intent on play, forgets to run to the mother's breast for food. In such case, she does not call her child, but by and by gives it a little rice, and thus the change is gently accomplished.
^^' Mebuyan's position in the spirit world suggests the worship of the "Great Mothers'* in northern India. See W. Crooke : The popular religion and folk-lore of northern India, vol. 1, pp. 111—117. 1896. Cf. "Bagobo myths." Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 20—21. 1913.
^ ^ * From biino, "to thrust, to spear."
The concept that different colors characterize different localities in the land of the dead appears in the north of the Philippines, and it is found among the pagan tribes of Malaysia. In the "Relation of the Filipinas Islands," 1640, supposed to have been written by Fr. Diego de Bobadilla, occurs the following passage, referring, apparently, to both Tagal and Visayan groups: "They believed that when the soul left the body, it went to an island, where the trees, birds, waters, and all other things were black; that it passed thence to another island, where all things were of different colors; and that finally it arrived at one where everything was white." Blair and Robertson, vol. 29, p. 283. 1905. Of the Mintera, Professor Martin writes as follows, quoting from Logan: "Als Gegensatz zum Himmel treffen wir bei den Mintera auf die Vorstellung einer 'Roten Erde' (Tanah Merah), d.h. auf ein verlassenes und elendes Land, in das die Seelen deijenigen Menschen eingehen, die eines blutigen Todes gestorben sind." Op. cit., p. 953 (taken from J. R. Logan: "The Superstitions of the Miutira." Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, vol. 1, p. 326. 1847).
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Idea of retribution. As a factor in the manner of life after death, the concept of retribution for behavior on earth is practi- cally non-existent. "^ Only one myth has come under my obser- vation that hints at the possibility of a painful aftermath being the punishment for an evil life. This was an episode in the story of Lumabat and Wari where the foreign flavor was distinctly apparent. ' *^ My question as to whether a bad Bagobo would be punished in Oimokudan brought the prompt answer, "No;" but when I asked whether a certain boy who had a reputation for small thievery would be allowed to live with the other Bagobo, they told me that there were many different towns in Gimokudan. Perhaps we may infer that the spirits may group themselves according to inclination.
Left-hand Soul or Gimokud Tehang
Diametrically opposed to the takawanan, as regards its character and its final fate, is that other soul of man, the Gimokud Tebang, which shows itself as a shadow on the left side of one's path, and appears also as the reflection in the water. This left-hand soul is hurtful to the body it inhabits, and is the direct cause of many a pain and sickness.
When a Bagobo catches sight of his reflection ^'^ in a clear stream, he must look at it soberly ; he must not betray any feeling of pleasure or of amusement. If he laughs at his image in the water, he will die (presumably because he has mocked his left- hand soul)v
Dream exploits. It is the left-hand soul which leaves the body at night and goes flying about the world, where it encounters
^ ^ * According to Mr. Cole, there is among the Bagobo of Sibulan a belief in retribu- tion. He says: "The gimokod of evil men are punished by being crowded into poor houses." Op. cit. p. 105.
^^« (y. Jour. Am. Folk -lore. vol. 26, p. 22. 1913.
^ ^ ' Reflections in the water are held by certain other tribes in the Philippines to be of great import, being sometimes used as means of divination. The Recollect Fathers wrote, in 1624, of the inhabitants of the Calamianes and Cuyo groups: "Their priests were highly revered . . . The devil showed them what they asked from him, in water, with certain shadows or figures.'' Blair and Robertson, vol. 21, p. 228. 1905. As yet, I have not seen that anybody has recorded, of other tribes, a tabu against laughing at one's reflection, or has stated that this image is, specifically, the evil soul of man. Specialized observances, however, and local variations in belief might easily develop from the suggestion of mystery and of wonder associated with a reflection in the water.
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various dangers. All these adventures, with their accompanying sensations, are experienced by the Bagobo in his dreams. As a Bagobo youth explained to me: "When I dream at night, my gimokud tebang is flying and the buso is catching me, or I am falling from a cliff. I dream that I am riding on a boat and fishing in the sea. Many ships I see there that the buso are riding. They look like men with ugly faces and coarse black hair all over their bodies, and some have wings. Then I try to run away."
There is an element of real danger in these dream exploits of the left-hand soul, for it is stated that if the tebang should be caught and eaten by a buso, the human body to which it belongs must die, for the buso, having swallowed the soul, instantly goes in search of the body itself.
One startling exploit of the left-hand soul, that has become known to the Bagobo in dreams, is an attempt to reach the Great City and there join the good spirits in their pleasant home. The tebang gets as far as the City of the Black River, but there is stopped by Mebuyan, who asks, "Are you alive?" The tebang replies, "Yes, Lady," and then Mebuyan dismisses him with the words: "Go back to where you came from." Now, if the left-hand soul still persists in forcing an entrance, and tries to bathe his joints in the dark river, like the more fortunate right-hand soul, he gets wet feet and becomes very sick, and is obliged to return to earth.
Closely connected with dreams, are the delusions experienced in trance by diseased or neurotic individuals, who, on waking, describe frightful visions in graphic detail. I quote from a story given by the boy, Islao.
"There are two kinds of dreams: the tagenup and the orup. In the orup, you see nothing; you hear nothing. You will die. The Buso will kill you, if you have no companion to waken you. The orup is making noise without words. A man who wakens from orup tells about it: he says his body is heavy; all the time he hears a sound like the leaves moving in the wind, or like the noise in your ears when you swim. He sees a big man with one eye holding him; the eye looks like a great bowl in the middle of his forehead. Many men who wake up from orup say this. The big man is a buso who wants to carry him off and eat him."
Thus we have the ordinary adventure dream, called tagenup; and the trance or the delirium accompanying a pathological condition, called oruj). In both cases, the left-hand soul is supposed to ab-
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sent itself from the body, and to become an actor in situations that imperil the body, and that are remembered on waking.
Yet not alone in nightmare and in delusions, is a malign influence exerted over the body when this evil soul escapes from it; for other forms of suffering are connected, sympathetically, with the varied exploits of Grimokud Tebang. He swims in the deep sea and sends shivers through the person to whom he belongs; he strikes his foot on a sharp stone and drives pains through the material foot; he drinks poison, thus causing agony in the stomach; and, by various other sorts of behavior, he brings about a corres- ponding condition in the body which he dominates.
Fate at de.ath. At the moment of death, the tebang leaves the body for the last time, now to become a buso-ghost, and to join the innumerable company of buso that haunt graves and tall trees and lonely places. Now he is lonely, they say, and wants a com- panion to prowl around with him at night, everywhere. Like the right-hand soul, he lingers about until the body is buried, in a gruesome attempt to give a summons to some living friend. Folk- lore tells us that the tebang wanders alone through the forests until he finds an old rotten tree, to which he puts the question : "Can you kill me?" and to this the dead tree answers, "No." Then the tebang bunts his head against the weak and hollow trunk, and instantly the old tree comes crashing to the ground. This means that somebody is going to die soon. Therefore, when one hears at night the sound of a tree cracking and breaking down, when there is no man near to fell it, one knows, straightway, that the left-head soul is thrusting his head against the trunk, for a signal to some companion. It is a sign of death.
Up to the time that the body is buried, the left-hand soul still bears his old name of tebang, but after the funeral ^'^ he is called
^ ^ " The conception of a ghost haunting the places connected with its life activities is, of course, very widespread. In Malaysia, certain inland tribes carry this idea so far that, according to Dr. Martin, they have a regular custom of forsaking their houses after a death has occurred in them.
"Dagegen scbeint es moglich, die Hantu je nach ihrer Beziehung entweder zur mensch- lichen Psyche oder zu Erscheinungen in der Natur in zwei Gruppen einzuteilen. Die ersteren kniipfen an die Seele des Verstorbenen an, die den Hinterbliebenen in irgend einer Form Schaden tun kann. Darum verlassen ja Senoi (und Semang) nach jedemTodes- fall ihre Wohnstatte, auch wenn das Grab sich entfernt von der Hiitte im Jungle befindet* oder wenn sie selbst eine Anpflanzung damit aufgeben miissen." Op cit., p. 945. A like custom has found some following among the Bagobo.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 61
hiirkan^ or kamatoyan. We may speak of him as a buso-ghost, for convenience in designation, but there is now little distinction, if any, between himself and the rest of the demons. Like other buso, he digs up dead bodies, tears the flesh from the skeleton, and devours the flesh; like other buso, he stands under the house of the dying, or hovers over it, ready to drink the watery blood of the corpse, and to catch every falling drop upon a chin two spans in length. In short, it is those mental images most abhorrent to Bagobo fancy that are pressed into service for picturing the future of that spirit that throws a shadow on the left side of the path, and that looks at one strangely from the water. If this flesh- eating kamatoyan could be seen, the old people say, he would look just like a shadow.
"There is no way by which a kamatoyan can talk with us," the Bagobo assert, "because he is bad;" but he manages to make his presence felt, not only by such signs as the falling of old trees, but by other peculiar noises that are heard in darkness only. When one hears a sound of weird laughter at night, it is the kamatoyan calling for blood to drink. If the laughter sounds faint and far away, — tihi! — it is actually close at hand; but if it is loud and seems near by it is really far distant, because this evil spirit deceives us. One need not be too much alarmed, however, for, like the other buso, the kamatoyan is seeking only the dead for food, though he may hurt the living by making them sick.
General considerations
Restoration of the dead to life. A few allusions in folklore, and one or two particular episodes in myth, give us the im- pression that the conception of raising a dead body to life contains no element of impossibility, but may come to pass under certain conditions, of which the following are examples.
If anyone should die in consequence of having laughed at his image in the stream, the corpse must be buried directly under the eaves of the house. By and by, life will return to the body. No doubt some little ritual would accompany the performance, but my informant gave me only the bare fact.
A magical restoration to life, brought about by a combination of circumstances, forms one episode in a story of the S'iring, ''^ the
^» Cf. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 51—52. 1913.
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forest demon who bewilders men and carries them away. A boy is lured into the woods, and brought to his death by a fall into a ravine. A dream messenger appears to his mother and tells her what offerings to make for the life of her son. The S'iring listens to the woman's prayers, and brings the boy to life by applying chewed betel to the crushed bones of body and skull. When the devotions of the mother are satisfactorily completed, her son is restored to her. Here is involved, the cooperation of a friendly god, of a dream messenger, of the lad's mother and of the demon himself who caused the death.
A peculiar form of sickness that terminates fatally is caused by the pig-like buso called Ahuy^ but "a good medicine" is said to bring to life those struck down by this demon.
There is a hypothetical type of resurrection that involves no outside agency, but supposes a spontaneous return to the body of a soul that fails to perform the required ceremonial bathing at entrance to the lower world. The story entitled "Lumabat and Mebuyan" ^^^ says that, "This bathing {loamalugu) is for the pur- pose of making the spirits feel at home, so that they will not run away and go back to their own bodies. If the spirit could return to its body, the body would get up and be alive again."
Cult of the dead. Prayers and gifts to the dead are made at set points during the celebration of Ginum, notably at the function called awas^ '"^' when areca-nuts on betel-leaves are offered in dishes of hemp-leaf to all the spirits in Kilut, both "the old gimokud and the new gimokud," with an intention of including those who have been long dead, as well as those recently deceased. In the same devotion, the gimokud are urged not to think at all about the festival, for there is clearly a lurking fear that the dead spirits may return and draw the living after them.
Propitiatory rites at this same great festival are addressed to all the buso who were once left-hand souls, so that they may be per- suaded to do no harm to the Bagobo. As old Chief Oleng explained : "All the tigbanua of the wood, and all the dead buso • — we prepare betel for them, to keep us from being sick." '-^^
^*» Jour. Am. "Folk-lore, vol. 26, p. 21. 1913. i»i See Part II.
^ "^ » The fathers of the Recollect missions in the group of islands called Visayas recorded, in 1624, an account of the memorial rites there celebrated for the dead.
"Each year every relative punctually celebrated the obsequies, and that was a very
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 63
Ideas of death. Young people among the Bagobo, tend to confuse mental images of the dead body that they have seen put into the grave with those of the gimokud which, they are told, "goes into the earth" in order to reach the underworld. The people in the graves are blind, the children say, but they get along because they have plenty of rice and chickens and bananas and camotes to eat. Yet an intelligent adult differentiates perfectly the tri-partite nature which tradition has assigned to man, — there is a physical body that the buso will dig up and eat after it has been put under the soil; there is a good takawanan that goes to- the One Country to continue its existence in a less substantial and more highly idealized manner than on earth, although moved by like interests and like emotions to those that motivate him here, and, finally, there is an evil tebang that turns into a horrible, man-eating burkan, perpetually roaming over the earth like a prey animal, and preserving not a single tie or a single interest to bind him to the friends and activities of his mortal life.
The point of psychological interest is, that when a Bagobo talks of his own personal future existence, either as demon or as happy spirit, his attention is wholly drawn off in the direction of the special gimokud which at the moment appeals to him, to an extent that the two conceptions may be said to be mutually exclusive. Remarks like the following illustrate the point: "I shall be a buso when I die." "Everybody turns into a buso when he dies."
festive day. They gathered a great quantity of food and beverages ; they commenced many joyful dances; they staffed themselves with what was prepared, taking some ta their houses, and reserving the greater portion to offer to the divata, and to the de- ceased, in the following manner. A small bamboo boat was prepared, with much care, and they filled it with fowls, flesh, eggs, fish, and rice, together with the necessary dishes. The banian gave a talk or a prolix prayer, and finished by saying: 'May the dead receive that obsequy, by giving good fortune to the living'. Those present answered with great shouting and happiness. Then they loosed the little boat (sacred, as they thought), which no one touched, and whose contents they did not eat, even though they were perish- ing: for that they considered a great sin." Blair and Robertson: op. cif., vol. 21, p. 209. 1905.
In another Recollect document, 1624, a custom of the Calamianes is recorded which appears to show a unique attitude toward the dead: "They believed in the humalagar soul
of an ancestor whom they summoned in their sicknesses by means of their
priestesses. The priestess placed a leaf of a certain kind of palm upon the head of the sick« man, and prayed that the soul would come to sit there, and grant him health . . . They celebrated the obsequies of the dead during the full moon." Ibid.^ vol. 21, p^ 228. 1905.
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"When I am dead I go to the Great City." "I shall go down into the earth some day." "Suppose I am dead, and the shower lasts a week; it is because I am crying." Apparently this tendency is due to an emotional reaction, stimulated by the discussion of his own fate, so that he is unable to view the subject from all sides, as he would do in a case of general application.
Souls of animals and of manufactured objects. Not only man, but all of the larger animals, ^'^^ the domestic fowls and big birds, have each two souls called, like those of people, taka- wanan and tebang. Similarly, the right-hand soul of every horse, of every carabao, of every cat and so forth, goes down at death into the earth and thence to Gimokudan; and when a cock is killed in fight at the pit, its spirit passes down to the Great Country. As for the smaller birds, and the bees, and the centipedes, and insects in general, — to each of these there is assigned with cer- tainty one gimokud, but only doubtfully, two. Manufactured ob- jects, like articles of wearing apparel and weapons and tools, as well as different kinds of food, have each but a single soul, which goes down below with its owner, or after him.
The associations formed with the left-hand shadow extend to those animals which are believed to have two souls. If a native falls from his horse toward the right side, he will not be injured, because the takawanan of the animal will not hurt him. On the contrary, if the accident occurs so that he falls from the left side of his horse, he is likely to get killed, not from the force of the fall, but through the instrumentality of the horse's tebang, which will try to kill him. ^^*
^ * ^ Modigliani says of the natives of Nias that their belief in life after death for the souls of animals causes them to feed and care for aged beasts, and to pay great respect to all animals. Among the five classes of demons recognized at Nias, the Bechu naro dano are the subterranean souls, or the souls of animals. "Presso molti popoli riscontrasi la credenza che gli aoimali abbiano un'anima che gira errante dopo la morte. Da tutti e conosciuto che i Baniani dell'India spingono il rispetto per ogni animale fino ad avere degli stabilimente ove curarli e nutrirli quando siano malati o vecchi. Nel Cambogia quando ne uccidono uno, temendo che la sua anima possa tormentarli, gli domandano perdono per il male che gli hanno fatto ed offrono sacrifizi proporzionati alia forza ed alia mole dell' animale..." Un viaggio a Nias, p. 625. 1890.
All through the Malay country, we find the same attitude toward animals, but vary- ing, from place to place, in its particular expression.
^*'' For a discussion of the belief in animal, vegetable, and mineral souls among penin- sular tribes, cf. W. W. Skea.T: Malay magic, pp. 52 — 53. 1900. Of the Senoi and Semang, Martin says: „Selbstverstandlich hat... jedes Tier seinen Hantu, der sich unter
BENEDICT, BAGOnO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH
65
A Bagobo always mounts at the right side of his horse, but to what extent this motor habit is associated with the above tradition concerning the double personality of the animal, cannot be definitely stated.
TRJLITIONS OF MYTHICAL ANCESTORS
Bagobo tradition records that before time began to be reckoned, before man was made, the universe was peopled by creatures that are now called monkeys ' "^^ (liitung) ; but at that primeval period monkeys had the form of man and were in all respects human. After man appeared on the earth, the apes took on their present form. Although the line of separation between monkeys and human beings was then pretty well established, there still lingered a ten- dency toward metamorphosis, by which the simian groups gained an occasional recruit from the ranks of man.
At the dawn of more authentic oral tradition, there were living in the world very aged people called mona^ ^-^ whose home, some say, was at the center of the earth, but others think that the ancestors of the Bagobo, even back to the mona, have always occupied the mountainous sites in Mindanao where their descendants live to-day. The old men were called tuglay^ and the old women, tuglihung^ names originally given to the first pair of ancestors, and afterward applied to all the mona. The god, Pamulak Manobo, who created the earth and the mona, was assisted by the first tuglibung and tuglay in making the plants and stones and other objects that appeared on the earth.
Umstanden fiir das Tier an dem Menschen riichen kann." Die Inlandstamme der malay- ischen Halbinsel, p. 946. 1905. Mental associations not very different from these are set up with the Bagobo when a person falls from the left-hand side of his horse.
' * * Everywhere in Malay folklore, there are traditions associating men with monkeys, particularly with the gibbon of Borneo, because of its erect position in walking. Tor several references to traditional accounts, see W. W. Skeat: op. cit., p. 189.
The Moro say that people who neglected the opportunity of going with Noah "into a box were overtaken by the flood and providentially changed to forms that had some chance to survive. Those who took to the hills became monkeys." C. H. Forbes-Lind- say: The Philippines under Spanish and American rules, p. 504. 1906.
The same thought is expressed in a Mantra creation myth, which derives their people from two white monkeys that descended to the plains, in company with their descendants, where they gradually took on human form. The others, who stayed behind in the mountains, remained monkeys. Cf. R. Martin : op. cit., p. 979.
**" Tales of the Mona will be found in Jour. Am. Folk-lore vol. 26, pp. 16, 21, 24-42. 1913.
5
66 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
There were no young people in those days, and no babies were- born for a very long time. All the mona were extremely poor, for this was before the days of cultural inventions. They knew not the art of weaving hemp into garments, and were accustomed to clothe themselves in bunut, the soft, dry sheath that envelops the trunks of cocoanut palms and can be torn off in pieces of consider- able size. ^^^
^^'This tradition answers, unmistakably, to actual pre-cultural conditions. Pigafetta, 1519 — 22, makes mention of bark garments among the Visayans of Cebu. "Those girls . . . were naked except for tree cloth hanging from the waist and reaching to the knees." "First voyage around the world." Blair and Robertson: op. cii., vol. 33, p. 151. 1906. The same chronicler speaks of the Cebu men as "wearing but one piece of palm tree cloth." Idid., p. 171. The dress of the Jolo men, according to Pigafetta, was the same as that in use at Cebu. Ibid., p. 109. Of the other sex, he says: "Their women are clad in tree cloth from their waist down." Idid., p. 131. Cf. Morga's mention of the use of bark cloth among the Visayans. Op. cit., vol. 16, p. 11. 1904.
I quote from Blair and Robertson the graphic description given by Father Navarrete,, a Dominican, of bark clothing as used in the middle of the 17th century at Kaili, in western Celebes, where he stopped on his way to Macasar. "That is the kingdom where the men and women dress only in paper; and, since it is a material which does not last long, the women are continually working at it with great industry. The material con- sists of the bark of a small tree, which we saw there. They beat it out with a stone into curious patterns, and make it as they desire, coarse, fine, and most fine-, and they dye it in all colors. Twenty paces away, these appear like fine camelets. Much of it is taken to Manila and Macao, where I saw excellent bed-curtains made of it; in cold weather they are as good as one can desire. In the rainy season, which is the great enemy of paper, the remedy applied by those people is to undress and put one's clothes- under one's arm." The Philippine Islands, vol. 38, p. 67. 1906.
The editor's footnote suggests the paper mulberry, Broueson etia paiiijrifera, as the "small tree" referred to. Both the size of the tree, and the susceptibility of the clothing to moisture would suggest that it was not the sheath of the cocoanut palm that was put to use in Kaili. Still, it is possible that after long-continued beating the cocoanut bast might easily become so thin as not to resist the force of rain. According to the Sara- sins, many different kinds of barks are used in central Celebes, according to [the texture of cloth it is desired to produce.
"Zur Herstellung dienen die Rinden einer ganzen Reihe verschiedener Baume, je nach- dem man feinere oder grobere Stoffe herzustellen wiinscht. Die grobsten und rohsten sind so dick wie die Stoffe unserer Winterkleider, die feinsten so diinn und transparent wie Schweinsblase." Reisen in Celebes, vol. 1, p. 259. 1905. In central Celebes, where, according to these distinguished writers, the art of weaving is unknown, the clothing of the native Toradja consisted entirely of bark, until within the last half century, when foreign stuffs have been brought in by trade. The bark is put through an extended process of beating and coloring, as described in detail in the above-mentioned work, vol. 1, pp. 259—261.
In the northeast, the ancient dress of the natives of Minahassa was also of the outer bark or of the inner sheath of trees (Baumbast- oder Rindenstoffen) but now, the Sara-
I
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 67
The old people had rice and fruit to eat, but they lived under miserable conditions, for the low-hanging sky brooded so near the earth that nobody was able to stand upright; all were forced to keep continually a stooping posture. Worst of all, the sun blazed in the sky, and so close to the earth that the mona had to seek refuge in a deep hole from the terrible heat. ^-^ During the hot- test part of the day, they crawled into a great pit in the ground, just as those fabulous black men^^^ that live at the door of the sun are said to do this very day. Stung to exasperation at last, an old w^oman, while stooping to pound her rice, chid the sky for impeding her work, and straightway the sky rushed up to a great height from the earth.
After the sky went up, things were better. The people could then stand upright and walk at ease. They built houses of bamboo thatched with nipa palm, or with cogon grass. The air was cooler ; plants grew in abundance, and the mountains were covered with cocoanut palms and banana plants and sugar cane. The mona had plenty to eat, except in seasons of drought, when the sun wilted the rice-plants and spoiled the bananas. Yet they were still called poor, since they had no material wealth in fine textiles, or in ornaments, and they still continued to wrap themselves in pieces of bunut as clothing.
By and by, the old people began to give birth to children. The first boy was called Malaki, and the first girl, Bia: famous names, retained in myth for brave heroes and for ladies of distinction. All the country came to be full of people, for nobody died in those days. The buso who now function as disease-bringers and death- carriers were then kindly spirits, on intimate terms with the people. It was at some later period that a quarrel is alleged to have broken out that resulted in the buso assuming a hostile attitude toward man. ^^^
One of the most renowned individuals of this early period was
sins state, this primitive material is rarely seen, except occasionally for work in field or forest. Ibid., vol. 1, p. 49.
A map showing the distribution of the bark girdle in Melanesia will be found in F. Graebner: "Kulturkreise in Ozeania." Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, vol. 37, p. 30. 1903. A map of the distribution of bark clothing in Africa is given by B. Ankermann, in the same volume, 1, p. 62.
^»« C/. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 16—17. 1913.
^*"» 6/. ibid., pp. 18—19.
^^
68 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Lumabat, and several important episodes turn upon the achieve- ments of himself, and of his brothers and sisters. It was at this time that several people, following the lead of a brother of Luma- bat's, turned into monkeys, ^^' just as their mythical predecessors had done. A quarrel between Lumabat and a famous sister of his fixed the destiny of man, consigning him at death, not to heaven, but to the country below the earth.- It appears that Lumabat in- sisted upon his sister's accompanying him in an attempt that he was about to make to reach heaven; but the girl refused to go, and, after a fight with Lumabat, she sat down on the rice mor- tar ^^- and caused it to sink into the earth. As she disappeared, while sitting on the mortar, she dropped handfuls of rice upon the ground, for a sign that many should go down below the earth, but that none should go up into heaven. This woman came to be known as Mebuyan, a notable character in myth, for it is she who guards the entrance to the One Country of the dead, and it is she who determines the age at which each individual shall die. Down there in Grimokudon, she shakes a lemon-tree, and the random fall of green or ripe fruit, like the blind-snipping shears of the Greek fate, Atropos, calls youth or age to the lower world. This element seems very suggestive of Aryan influence, since the tendency of pure Malay myth is to make demons and ghosts responsible for all sickness and death. Shortly after the disappearance of Mebuyan, Lumabat conducted an expedition ^^^ having for its object the gaining of an entrance to the country above the sky. A great number of his relatives went with him^ but all save Lumabat himself perished in one way or another on the road. He alone succeeded in jumping between the sharp edges of the horizon, as they flew apart and locked together in rapid succession, and he alone reached heaven and became a great diwata.
The exact arrangement of the mythical chronology is somewhat hazy, and it is not clear whether it was before or after Lumabat's apotheosis that the Bagobo began to become acquainted with the cultural arts. The Tuglibung learned to weave hemp into textiles, after she had laced the warp into patterns and colored it with dyes obtained from the root of the sikarig tree, and from the leaves
Cf. ibid., p. 24. Cf. ibid., p. 20. Cf. ibid., pp. 21—22.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 69
and buds of the kinarum. She dyed thread in many colors and stitched rich embroideries, piercing the holes with a point of brass wire. The Tuglay began to cast small bells from moulds of bees- wax and to stamp fine patterns in brass and to make kamagi neck-bands from the most delicate of gold scales. The knowledge of these arts seems to have spread slowly, for Bagobo romances indicate that, while on one mountain-top the tuglay wore bark gar- ments and knew nothing of hemp-culture, on another neighboring mountain there were mona who had the finest of textiles and the richest of ornaments. ^^*
Be that as it may, a golden age was dawning for those pre- historic Bagobo. The tuglay and the tuglibung, the malaki and the bia, lived in houses of gold with pillars of ivory and doors of mirrored glass. On the eaves hung linked brass chains; ^^^ the rattan bindings of the floor sent out flashes of forked lightning that played perpetually throughout the house. Beside their homes, were mountain lakes whose waves were pure white. All around, grew fragrant plants with flowers of gold, and the leaves on the trees were hung with little bells. Textiles of gold covered the meadows like layers of dry leaves, and the blades of grass were points of rare embroidery {tamhayang). '^^ Cocoanuts and areca- nuts grew in clusters at the height of a man's waist, so that one had not the labor of climbing for them. In those days, many individuals had magic power, and of many a malaki it is sung that he was matolus, '^^ When the tuglay lacked anything, he had only to wish for it, and at once the wish was accomplished. ' ^^ If he wanted a tall behuka ^^^ to grow in a certain place, it was there. At the summons of the bia, there came, on the instant, a wealth of ivory and gold and fine garments. '^^ The invincible
»"•(?/. i&id., pp. 35—36.
>'* Cf. ibid., p. 27.
^ * • See p. 74.
^ " See p. 26, footnote.
^ ' ^ In the sagas of India, there are countless episodes where individuals or things appear magically, as soou as wished for. "He when thought of readily came to the minister." Somadeva: Katha Sarit Sagara; tr. by C. H. Tawney, vol. 1, p 282. 1880. "And when called to mind they came." Idid., vol. 1, p. 421. "The hermit came when thought of." Ibid., vol. 1, p. 436. For similar Bagobo episodes, see Jour. Am. Folk- lore, vol. 26, pp. 32—33, 35, 36. 1913.
^ ' * The Visayan word for several species of rattan.
^*» C/. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, p. 36. 1913.
70 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
malaki could slay buso in countless numbers, simply by holding the sword first in his right hand, then in his left; '*^ he was invulnerable to attack, since all the weapons of his foes dissolved at the first thrust; **^ he held up his spear and caused daylight to turn to darkness. ^*^ He flew through the air, riding on his shield or on the swift wind. ^** There were malaki and there were bia from whose bodies beamed rays of light so brilliant that the houses w^hich they entered needed no torch on the dark nights. '*"'
In song and in romantic tale, even in the current talk of to-day, there is assumed to be a vital relation between beauty in personal adornment and a virtuous character. There is an ideal Bagobo, a true malaki, who is young and perfectly chaste, and who is clad in the finest of garments. In one literary passage, the high vir- tues of a malaki are stressed; in another, his lustrous clothing, but, throughout, there is ever a return to the one idea: that the typical malaki is pure of heart and brave of spirit, and that he is radiantly beautiful to look upon. One young Bagobo girl defined a malaki thus: "Very good man who wears very good clothes, — kerchief, jacket, trousers, all very good, — young man who has no wife." There is a word, kataluan, which is explained as mean- ing, "to do something bad and to cease to be malaki." While the characters in romantic tales (uUt) do not always live up to the ideal meaning of their name, malaki, yet the primary content of the word is everywhere recognized.
Corresponding to the malaki, there is an ideal woman, some- times called bia, and sometimes daraga^ ^^^ the latter word being
1*^6/. ibid., p. 28.
1** cy. ibid., p. 34.
1 " =» C/-. ibid., p. 36.
^•^•^ Cf. ibid., pp. 29, 32, 33.
1 «. 5 >pj^g association of radiant light with the bodies of distinguished individuals is very common in ancient Indian tales. Cf. the following passages, from Katha Sarit Sagara, ed. cit. 1880 — 1884. "The hermit Narada is said to diffuse a halo with the radiance of his body." Cf. vol. 1, p. 162. Again, "he illuminates the whole horizon with brightness." vol. 1, p. 415. "There appeared a light inseparable from his head." Vol. 1, p. 418. "There, on a altar-platform illuminated by the great hermit Vijitasu . . . as by a second fire in human form." Vol. 2, p. 146. "And he saw that maiden near him, illuminating the wood, though it was night." Vol. 2, p. 133. "Her beauty illuminated the lower world which has not the light of the sun or of the stars." Vol. 2, p. 199.
^ * * Lara is a Sanscrit word, meaning "a girl." The peninsular Malay for "virgin" is dnak ddra, "child girl." See F. A. Swkttenham: Vocabulary of the English and 3Ialay languages, vol. 2, p. 27. 1896.
The Tagal word for girls of marriageable age, Morga wrote in 1609, was dalaga. It
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 71
'employed when it is desired to emphasize the youth and the chastity of a girl. It is true that, in a broad sense, any unmarried woman is daraga, but in poetical use daraga has the connotation of a pure maid, a virgin. In the text of the songs, she is almost invariably referred to by some metaphorical word or phrase suggested by natural phenomena. She is called a point of very high land that the birds cannot fly up to, that even the winds may not reach, though they are crying for her ; again, she is figured as the trunk of a sturdy tree that the north wind is not able to break; or she is a waterfall, dropping over steep terraces, around which the snakes make futile attempts to curl themselves. The bird, the wind, the snake — each of these represents the lover, foiled in every attempt at approach to the girl. Here is a part of the Ogan Daraga, or "Song of a Virtuous Woman." One young girl says to another: "Friend, friend, listen to the song of the kalisawa bird as it flies over the sea and is calling fifty drops of rain. It is well, my friend ; we take shelter ; the bulla leaf spread over our heads protects us from rain from the north and rain from the south." In the same manner, practically all of the little poems that at first sight seem to be nature songs are purely allegorical in character.
In those ancient days, metamorphosis ^^^ was an ordinary event. Many persons were turned into trees and stones and rocks, some- times as a swift judgment upon them for presumptuous under- takings. Wari, a brother of Lumabat's, was transformed into a screech-owl for his disregard of the commands of a god. *^^ That the tree-hornbill used to be a man, is a well-known fact; and the proof is, that if you look at the body of a hornbill, under the feathers, at some point between the neck and the wing, you will see that its skin is like the skin of man. On the other hand, the kingfisher, ^*^ as we learn from a myth, once turned into a beau- tiful woman. Transformations of monkeys to buso, ^^^ of a squirrel
has been noted that / and r are constantly interchangeable. Cf. Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 16, p. 129. 1904.
**'ror the episodes describing these tracsformations, see Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 21, 51. 1913. Cf. H. 0. Beyer: op. cit. The Philippine Jour. Sci., vol. 8, pp. S9— 90. 1913.
^"8 C/. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, p. 23. 1913.
''^ Of. ibid., p. 54.
''"> Cf. ibid., p. 47.
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to a malaki, '^' even the metamorphosis of a cat's head into a cocoanut '^^ — all these changes are recorded by oral tradition* Over and over again, does the poor tuglay of the ulit become a great malaki; while the ill-dressed man called hasolo turns into a splendidly-dressed malaki, and again returns to the state of a basolo, and passes through his final metamorphosis into a malaki: a series of transformations that is achieved inside of one day. '^^ In the last-named cases, it is always by a change of clothes that the meta- morphosis is effected; ^^^ while the squirrel, too, takes off his little coat, and the kingfisher, her feather dress, when the time is ripe for them each to take on human form. Finally, there are stories of babies that become tall in a few days by some magical accel- eration of growth. ^^^
In the recitation of romantic epics and legendary songs, from which the above citations are mere gleanings, the emotional life of Bagobo men and women finds glad expression. In the picturesque phraseology of their richly-endowed dialect, they elaborate these scenes of fabulous oriental splendor with a play of fancy ''^^ that is the more extraordinary in view of the conditions under which even the better class of Bagobo actually live. In mean little huts, unfurnished, except for the presence of a loom, three fire-stones on a box of earth, and perhaps a stationary bench of bamboo, they sleep on the floor and eat with their fingers, making no attempt to add decorative touches to their homes, although they amply pos-
^^^ Cf. ibid., p. 55.
^^■^ Cf. ibid., p. 56.
^^' Cf. ibid., PI). 28, 36.
^^•^ Cf. ibid., p. 40.
^^^ Cf. ibid., pp. 34, 54. There are parallel Filipino legends of miraculous growth, e.g. "The new-born child ran to the church." F. Gardner, vol. 20, p. 111. 1907.
Corresponding cases of magical development immediately after birth are recorded in Indian myth. "That girl the moment she was born . . . spoke distinctly and got up and sat down." Somadeva: op. cii., vol 1, p. 119. 1880.
^^*For illustrations of this point, see "Bagobo Myths," Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 24 — 40. 1913. While the descriptive terms in these stories, referring to the beautiful objects possessed in those ancient days, are exact renderings of the Bagobo words, it is hard to do justice to the charm of the original. Even when a boy tells a story in broken English, he pours out a wealth of descriptive words and phrases in the Bagobo tongue for which he, of course, knows no English equivalents. In making a large collection, however, one soon becomes very familiar with the vocabulary that represents objects of wealth, for the iiames and the explanations of hundreds of articles, that are constantly coming for purchase, are given by Bagobo who know not a word of English.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 13^
sess the artistic skill to produce such ornamentation. Only in the decoration of objects that are worn on the person — garments, ornaments, weapons — and of tools used in the industries, does^ their aesthetic taste find a channel for discharge. Yet as for such a luxurious form of living as would suggest a basis for the mythical romance, it is certain that no Bagobo, at least for many generations, has come into contact with anything of the sort. It should be observed, too, that the ulit, which embodies all of the episodes in the legendary existence of Bagobo ancestors, is essen- tially different from other stories in the range of native fiction, and it points, both in character and in literary form, to an origin other than Malay. No more interesting problem could arise in connec- tion with Bagobo culture than an attempt to trace the manner of dissemination of the peculiar elements that make up this mythical romance which has now become so intimately associated with the social life of the Bagobo, as well as with their artistic and poetic interests. In the formation of the ulit complex, it is not unlikely that, originally, Hindu sources were rather heavily drawn upon, though we do not yet know the precise manner of contact by means of which this borrowing took place. The Moorish incre- ments must form a very recent, and perhaps a negligible, contri- bution. There is little doubt but that the component parts of the stories came to the Bagobo as a literary possession a very long time [ago, and have been gradually modified by Malay tradition, and enriched by elements associated with recent tribal and with individual experiences.
An ulit '^^ told me in Bagobo, by Tungkaling, son of Kaba, pic- tures the mythical surroundings of those old mona people at the dawn of Bagobo tradition, and I will give a part of the story here in a translation as close to the original as is consistent with clearness.
Tuglay, the very wise one, lived by a white lake. He had one hnndred carabao, and horses, and seven thousand cows, and goats — all on one mountain. He made kamagi;!''^ he patterned brass by stamping; he made brass finger rings. He had kept silver hidden under the ground since long
' * ' The ulii is the Bagobo mythical romance, the scene of which is laid in prehistoric times; and the characters that figure in the action are the ancient mona, the malaki, the bia and several other well-marked personages.
^*"A type of necklace highly treasured by the Bagobo. It is a fine, flexible cord formed of small and extremely thin discs of gold that overlap slightly, after the manner of fish-scales. It is said to be of Moro make.
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ago. All gold were his plants, his flowers, his sweet-smelling weeds . . . Textiles of gold covered the sharp blades of the fresh-growing meadow-grass, like a covering of dry leaves The Tuglibung decorated rattan neck- hands with red dye, and she used black kinarum for coloring hemp. The posts of the house were all of ivory; the raised walk to the kitchen was made of eight guns;i3^ all the doors were mirrors; ^^" the wood was gold; the bm'den baskets were gold; the rattan bindings of the floor were flashes of lightning.
At the rim of the sky there is a bird ^^^ with feathers all downy, with -claws all of steel, with a beak that is a mirror, with a million scales over- lapping one another. This bird looked at the town of Tuglay, and went hack home no more [i. e. because the town was so beautiful].
When Tuglay wished textile to grow on the mountains, it was there. When he wanted rattan to grow, or when he wished to cut for boats the large kind of rattan, it was all ready ... He was very rich.
16 9^ Moro gun called sifiapanff.
^^"In another story, the walls are all mirrors. Cf. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, -p. 27. Where the Bagobo got the visual image of a "mirrored wall" is a question. To "what extent this mythical conception exists among other Malay people, I do not know, but it is to be found in Indian tales, e.g. "Its walls of precious stone were adorned «11 round with living pictures, on account of the reflections in them of the lovely w^aiting women." Somadeva : op. cit., vol. 2, p. 199. 1884.
^^^ Perhaps this is the Minokawa bird. Cf. Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, p. 19. 1913. See also p. 47 supra.
/^