Part II. The Formal Ceremonial

TYPICAL CEREMONIAL BEHAVIOR
In the conduct of the more formal religious functions of the Bagobo, there appear a number of constant elements, which may be termed normal ceremonial reactions. Peculiar factors will necessarily combine to make up the ritual complex on occasions so distinct as that of a harvest festival, on the one hand, and of a human sacrifice on the other ; furthermore, a wide range of variation in the manner of performing the same identical ceremony is to be found in different Bagobo groups. Nevertheless, there are every- where to be seen certain distinct modes of response which charac- terize so regularly the more important of the rites that it is proper to group such responses under the head of typical ceremonial behavior.
General Character of Ceremonial
The orthodox time for the performance of a ceremony is deter- mined by observation of the heavenly bodies. Festivals associated wdth planting and reaping take place when certain constellations appear in the sky, and it is probable that there are other cere- monial dates which are calculated by the stars; while the time for the drinking festival, called Ginum, is regulated strictly by lunar phases. '^^
The Bagobo have no permanent temples that function as common gathering places for religious rites. In preparation for the ceremony of Ginum, a large, well-roofed house is built for the accommodation of a great number of guests or else the house of the chief is used, temporarily, as a ceremonial house. Rice culture ceremonies are
'** Among the natives of Minahassa, in former times, all undertakings, such as sowing, reaping, making clothes, procuring salt, had to be performed at definite times, and were forbidden at other times. Cf. P. and F. Sarasin: Reisen in Celebes, vol. I, p. 44. 1905.
76 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
held in the homes and in the fields of individuals; still other reli- gious rites, as, for instance, purification ceremonies and marriage, take place at the border of a river or in the bed of a shallow stream; while the rite of human sacrifice is ordinarily performed in a retired place in the forest, or on the sea-beach. But, whatever the place chosen for a ceremony, the immediate spot where the priest must stand or sit for the recitation of prayers and the offering of gifts is before an altar of recognized type — a subject which will be discussed in some detail in a later section.
The religious rites of the Bagobo are typically exoteric in char- acter, for the ceremonial and the doctrine are the common property of the people. ]S"ot only are the young and the old of both sexes present in large numbers at practically all of the ceremonies, but set parts in any performance belong regularly to different social classes as determined by sex, by age, or by position in the family of the person giving the festival.
The distribution of the leading ritual parts is briefly as follows. Old men offer the sacred food and drink to the gods at the main altar and perform accompanying rites; they cut the ceremonial bamboo poles, and afterward, while holding the poles, recount their exploits ; they make arrangements for a human sacrifice ; they perform those magical rites which are associated with the carving of wooden figures and the planting of medicinal branches for the exorcism of evil spirits; they control the entire ceremonial.
The old women perform the altar rites at harvest, and make devotional recitations at certain other times ; they make offerings of betel at wayside shrines to the buso and to spirits of the dead and repeat the accompanying prayers; they summon the anito and most frequently act as mediums; they direct many ceremonial details, and are often called into consultation with the old men; they exercise a general supervision over the religious behavior of the young people. Such priestly acts as the pouring of water over candidates at the bathing ceremony, the performing of a marriage rite, and the dedication to the gods of manufactured articles brought by the people, may be done by an old person of either sex who is a recognized official.
It is the duty of young men to cut and shape bamboo for cere- monial vessels; to mix the ingredients of the sacred food and cook it in bamboo joints; to assist the old men at the altar in such matters as handing utensils, clearing away dishes, and elevating the
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH
sacrificial food and drink to a high altar-shelf; to chant antiphonal recitations called gindaya; to sing other songs; to carry the burden of the agong playing; to perform certain dances; to help the girls in preparing and in serving the general feast, and in passing around sugar cane liquor.
To the younger women and girls fall such duties as assisting the old women at the out-of-door shrines and at the harvest altar by handing them areca-nuts and leaf-dishes as needed, and in other offices of a like nature; of singing many songs other than gindaya; of giving some assistance on the drums and agongs; of performing a great number of dances; of cooking, dishing and serving the banquet; finally, of stuffing rice by the handful into the mouths of the guests, with special attention to youths of the other sex.
Young people of both sexes go out together on the first day to gather leaves for the ceremonial leaf-dishes; together they make leaf-dishes; and they prepare jointly the torches of biaii nuts — the boys splitting and sharpening long strips of rattan, on which the girls string the nuts.. At rice-planting, all the men and boys make holes with digging-sticks, while all the women and girls drop the seed-rice.
Even small children have some parts assigned to them. During the preparatory days, they learn little dance-steps to the music of agongs, and one small agong is always played by a child; they have their special festival costumes of tiny trousers or skirts; on the last night, a small girl is sometimes deputed to remove the sprig of bulla from the waists of the women at a definite point in the ceremony; after a human sacrifice, the hands and feet of the victim are given to little boys, who must cut them into bits and bury the pieces.
Yet, however exact the assignment of parts, and however careful the preparation for a ceremony, the continuity of the proceedings is frequently interrupted by consultation among the old people about the manner of performance, and by anxious questioning as to whether some tabu is being inadvertently broken. They discuss; they gesticulate ; they prompt the official who is reciting the prayers ; one calls attention to some small blunder made in handling the sacred paraphernalia; another quotes a forgotten line. By no means may it be taken for granted that even to an aged and experienced Bagobo every detail of a ritual is automatically familiar. The cere- monial functionary is watched intently by several old people who
78 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
sit close to the right and to the left of him, each one ready to help, to advise, to correct, because it is well understood that even a minor omission, or a slight misstep, might result in weary months of illness, or tempt the attack of a mortal disease. For this reason, those responsible for the ceremony hold their attention at strain to secure a perfect ritual.
The dominant motive in all ceremonial is to drive sickness from the body and to prevent the approach of disease and death. This underlying intention is ever present, whatever the rite, and it is this which gives unity and coherence to many a series of ritual acts that, at first glance, appear to be strangely ill-assorted.
Fundamental Elements of Ceremonial
The type of behavior that characterizes Bagobo ceremonial is made up of a number of ritual elements, many of which are common to several of the ceremonies, and a few of which appear in practi- cally all of them. It is only at the ceremony of Ginum that every one of these ritual elements may be observed.
Human Sacrifice. The ceremonial putting to death of a human victim is called imghuaga^ and is demanded by Bagobo custom on specific occasions, chief among which are the following:
At the festival of Ginum, the offering of a human sacrifice was anciently an integral part of the ceremony, though at present it is possible to substitute a fowl as the victim.
After the death of a chieftain or other notable individual of the tribe, slaves are killed to provide attendants for the deceased in the country of the dead. The husband sacrifices for a dead wife, a wife for her husband. For a chief, many victims may be offered but sometimes the number is small. Two slaves were killed for Datu Ayo at his death several years ago, as related by an eye- witness of my acquaintance.
A paghuaga forms an important feature at the installation of a datu, and is occasionally an element of the marriage ceremony.
At special crises — during an epidemic, when crops fail, when drought lasts for a long period, or when other misfortune overtakes the tribe — it is thought proper to find a suitable sacrifice to appease the anger of the gods, and there is some evidence to show that petitions to the datu to arrange for paghuaga may be proffered by any individual on the plea that his life activities are being inter-
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 79
fered with by the ghosts of relatives that will not be quieted^
In any one of the above cases, the victim is regularly a slave that has been secured by purchase or by capture; preferably, a poor, wretched slave is chosen, who, on account of some physical defect, is of little use for work.
Although this sacrificial rite is often a constituent element of Ginum^ of funeral services, and so forth, yet, from another point of view, it may be regarded as a ceremonial unit by itself, and as characterized by the types of chanting, the form of altar, the ritual recitations, and several other elements that will be mentioned as common to many ceremonies. Furthermore, the special crises that may neces- sitate such a sacrifice do not necessarily coincide with the date of a festival, so that paghuaga may become an isolated ceremony.
Ceremonial Food. There is set before the gods for their enjoyment certain foods having a ceremonial value, chief among which are chicken meat and a rice ritually called omok, which looks red in the raw grain, but becomes dark-colored, almost black, after boiling. Grated cocoanut is mixed with the chicken and with the rice. The sacred food may never be cooked in clay jars, but invariably in vessels of bamboo. At a certain point in the ceremony, after a period during Avhich the unseen beings are supposed to have extracted the spiritual essence ^^^ of the food, the material part (the "acci- dents," if one may borrow a theological term) is eaten by men and adolescent boys. They told me that it made them "good in the body," so that they "could not be sick." This is one of the very few privileges not enjoyed by women, who, however, eat at harvest the sacred omok, at which festival no sacrificial meat is mixed with the rice.
Ceremonial Liquor, A sacred drink, called balabba, which is never used outside of ceremonial occasions, is offered to the super- natural beings with an appropriate ritual, and afterward passed about to be partaken of freely by everybody present at the festival. I did not have an opportunity to observe the manufacture of balabba, but the process, as briefly described to me, consists of boiling sugar cane and treating the syrup thus obtained with the bark of a tree called bog is ^ the liquor being then allowed to ferment in jars^ for a very long time before use. It is of rather thick consistency^
^"The Bagobo term for the essence of the food and drink that the gods enjoy is- taffuririnff.
80 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
brownish in color, and extremely rich and sweet, having a flavor suggestive of molasses mingled with old rum. It is a pleasant tasting and refreshing beverage, and its intoxicating properties are not excessive. At the moment of offering to the spirits this sacred drink, the priest stirs it with a spray of fragrant manangid, and with a spoon made by twisting to the proper shape a fragment of bulla leaf. A liquor very similar to balabba, if not identical with it, functioned as the ceremonial drink of the Tagal people, in their pagan days. Bishop Aduarte makes interesting references to this use. ^"^^
Betel Ritual. No ceremony is complete without an offering of betel to one, or to all, of the three classes of supernatural beings — the gods, the buso and the spirits of the dead. When the occasion is one of a high ceremony, performed before a main altar, the -areca-nuts ^^^' are sliced into lengthwise sections, just as in the oustomary manner for chewing, and each section is laid on a betel- leaf {huyo) '^^ placed in a set position. A ceremonial sifting over the nuts and leaves of lime from a bamboo tube follows, the lime having been made by the usual process of calcining certain shells to a fine powder. The areca, betel and lime are afterward chewed by old people at the altar.
Another common form of making a betel offering is that in use at a hut-shrine, when a certain number of entire (that is, unsliced) areca-nuts are placed within the shrine with an appropriate ritual, but are never afterward taken away for chewing. There are other -ceremonies when entire nuts are placed in leaf-dishes (kiniidok)
^*'* "While working in the province of Pangasinan, in west-central Luzon, he wrote, in 1640, that "there were given up an infinite number of pieces of earthenware and a great ■deal of very old wine — for this is regarded as the thing consecrated to the devil; and no one dares touch or go near it except at the time of the sacrifice, and then only the minister who performs it..." Aduarte: "Historia." Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 30, p. 186, 1905. A few pages further on, the kind of wine is specified: "These chiefs were the very first to cause to be brought the vessels of Quila (this is a wine which they make of sugar cane, and when it has aged for some years it has the color of our amber wine). This they esteem very highly and keep with great care, using it at their feasts in honor of their idols." Ibid., vol. 30, p. 243.
^^^ Areca catechu — known among foreigners as the betel-nut palm. The nuts, shaped much like olives, grow in clusters just below the leaves at the top of bare, light-colored trunks that reach a height of 40 or 50 feet. The Bagobo call the tree mdmddn and a single nut, mama.
^"" Buyo — the Visayan name for the climbing plant. Piper betel, the leaves of which are used everywhere in the Islands for chewing with areca-nuts. The Bagobo call it monika. The plant is trained on sticks and grows to a height of several feet.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 81
of hemp, since the use of hemp (abaca) leaves, rather than of banana, prevails for ceremonial dishes. The shape of this little vessel has some resemblance to the keel of a boat, yet I cannot affirm that this effect is consciously produced. Before I had seen the ceremony, the Bagobo who told me about the kiniidok remarked that they looked like boats. The word kiniidok, so far as I know, is not etymologically related to any of the terms for native craft.
Offerings of Manufactured Products. In addition to ceremonial gifts of food, drink and betel, the gods are honored by offerings of more intrinsic value: garments, weapons, ornaments, — new and beautiful, — all of which objects are brought in great quantities by the people, to be laid upon an altar or hung beside it, for a longer or a shorter period according to the type of altar, the occasion, and the nature of the gift. This subject will be discussed in connection with the remarks on altars in the following section. I will here simply call attention to the salient points of interest at this ceremony of laying manufactured objects before unseen beings. First, the spirit or essence of the articles is enjoyed by the gods, and, possibly, becomes their permanent property; second, the material part of the objects thus dedicated becomes hallowed to such an extent that they may never be sold, or even given away, but must always remain in the possession of the individual owners who placed them on the shrines, — unless, indeed, they are left as permanent offerings, — severe sickness being the penalty for transgression of this rule; third, there is an expectation of large returns from the slight sacrifice made, since the deities who enjoy the gifts are urged, at the same time, to help the worshippers to gain riches or, as they say, "to get things."
Purification. The ceremonial lavation bearing the name of pamalugu is distinguished by several elements from bathing for purposes of pleasure or for cleanliness, either one of which washings is called jmdigus. It is on fixed occasions that pamalugu is per- formed, — notably at Ginum and at marriage, — at which times men and women are effused by the priest in a prescribed manner, the water being applied by means of a bunch of green leaves and twigs having a medicinal value. Orientations according to a set form are made by the candidates upon whom the water is poured. While the dominant intention of the rite is unquestionably that of purification, in the sense of expelling disease, the Bagobo recognize other advantages to be gained from the water and the magic greens.
82 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
They say that they make use of pamalugu to keep off sickness and to cure sickness; to drive anger from the heart; to get things and to grow rich. In other words, while every single rite has its own specific motive, yet there is a feeling, not too nicely defined, that any ceremony, properly performed, promotes in several directions the general well-being of the Bagobo.
Recitation of Ritual Words, At each of the rites thus far men- tioned (that is to say, at the formal presentation before the supernatural beings of human blood, of sacred food, of ceremonial liquor, of fresh betel, of artificial products, and also during the lavations) set forms of words are uttered by the official functionary, some of which are short ritual formulae and others are prolonged liturgical recitations. The unseen personalities are apostrophised by name; the objects offered are mentioned, or even listed, class by class; and definite petitions are put up, the burden of which is that the approach of disease may be checked, that all buso may be banished from the ceremonial, and that the protecting gods may be present to help the Bagobo.
Ceremonial Chant. An impressive element of the ceremonial is a peculiar form of chant called gindaya^ which, in its manner of presentation, is distinctly marked off from other musical perform- ances. I will give, first, a definition of gindaya offered by the Bagobo themselves, and add to that such observations as I made on different occasions. The Bagobo explain that gindaya is sung in a loud voice (in contradistinction to the ogan^ a low-voiced song accompanied by the guitar) ; that an even number of voices — two or four or six or eight — sing against the same number; that gindaya is sung at Grinum, but only on those nights when balabba is drunk; that no young men can sing in the gindaya unless they take hold of the bamboo posts, or of the spears tied to the bamboo ; that they lay hold of the bamboo in order to make their voices sweet-toned.
My own records verify the above statement, except that sometimes a chant of one voice is answered back by one voice, and I have not heard more than two at a time sing against another two. Often, again, the chants are given with slight volume of sound, not always in a loud voice; yet as compared to the soft singing of an ogan, which is much like humming, gindaya may be called loud, for the tones are pure and clear. In regard to the occasion, it should be noted that whenever a Bagobo wants to say that
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 83
something is peculiar to ceremonial, he always says it is done "at Ginum," that being the most important festival. Gindaya is, however, a feature of marriage and of human sacrifice, and it may be of some other ceremonies.
On the three nights that I heard the gindaya, at two celebrations of Ginum on different mountains, it was always chanted by very young men, and preferably by the sons and by the brothers' sons of the datu giving the festival. The youths who take part in gindaya sing with an arm uplifted and hand clasping a bamboo post or one of the cross-timbers. This position is mandatory and must be held until the singer is relieved by another, however long the chant. While one hand is thus raised above the head, the other holds lightly over the lips a corner of the singer's head kerchief, or an end of one of the tankulu that hangs draped from the rafters above. The obligation to keep the lips covered, however, is some- times complied with in a somewhat perfunctory manner by merely holding the tankulu near the mouth.
The subject matter of the gindaya is *in part narrative, in part descriptive, in part devotional, with many mythical allusions throughout the song or story. Of the three or four texts that I secured, the subjects include the celebration of Ginum with special reference to the activities attending the preparation, and a dialogue between two men who have met at the feast, which possibly pre- serves some tradition of mythical ancestors. Just as is the case with other songs of the Bagobo, and with their long romances, the impression conveyed in gindaya is of a metrical form — an effect due perhaps to the quantity observed, as well as to the slight pauses made between groups of words, and to a fairly uniform accent on the penultimate syllable. There is a tendency, also, to insert extra prefixes and suffixes, and to duplicate entire words as if to fill out the measure of the lines. In the chanting of gindaya, only a very few intervals are used (the second and the fifth predomin- ating) and the notes are long sustained. One is reminded of the intoning of convent offices, or the singing of psalms in Gregorian tones. There is no instrumental accompaniment to gindaya.
Agong Music. Ceremonial music is furnished by the beating of the agong — a large percussion instrument of bronze, '^' resembling
* • ' Professor William Campbell, of the Department of Metallurgy of Columbia Univer- sity, was good enough to look at one of the little bells that are cast by the Bagobo
84 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
roughly a deep inverted pan with a bottom curving slightly to the convex and having a big knob-like protuberance at the central point. Agongs are of Chinese manufacture and are imported into the islands from Singapore in considerable numbers. The wild tribes gladly barter away their possessions for these instruments, one of which is worth, according to size, from twenty to thirty pesos. A datu or a Bagobo of wealth may own as many as twelve, twenty, or even a larger number of agongs; if he is to hold a festival, and owns only two or three instruments, he borrows as many as he needs for the occasion. The agong is the standard unit of barter in trading valuable objects, and in calculating large debts and marriage dowries.
The tool for striking is the tap-tap^ a short wooden stick, of which the head end is coated with rubber to give the proper rebound, and covered with cloth, while the handle of many a fine tap-tap is often richly carved. Unlike the Moro, who keeps his agongs in a long frame with an individual socket for each instru- ment, at which frame he sits down to play, the Bagobo hangs his agongs by loops of rattan from a rod of bamboo and stands facing the convex sides of the instruments during his performance. With left thumb and index finger, he lightly grasps the central knob of the agong, or holds with his left hand the suspending strings of rattan, while his right hand wields the tap-tap. At a ceremony, some expert musician carries the melody and handles in his per- formance all but a few of the instruments, while his assistants on the remaining agongs have but to accompany their leader by making their strokes exactly with his, at set intervals. For example, if there are eleven agongs, the head performer plays on eight of them, and perhaps three persons — a man, a woman and a child — ■ assist him. The leader must be a skilled artist whose training is begun in early boyhood, for they all say that years of practice are required to make a good agong player. But a man who has a feeling for music and has received the necessary edu-
trom metal obtained by melting down old agongs. He informed me that the alloy was of copper and tin, with a high percentage of tin, and with the addition, possibly, of a little lead.
In Pigafetta's First Voyage around the World, 1519 — 22, agongs are mentioned. "These gongs are made of metal and are manufactured in . . . China. They are used in those regions as we use bells and are called aghon."
Mr. Cole states that the agongs he saw at Sibulan were gongs of copper. Op. cii., p. 102. 1913.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 85
cation plays with wonderful ease, while at the same time he leaps from one agong to another and often executes the steps of some graceful dance in rhythm with his beat. Again, he will dance away from the agongs, tap-tap in hand, perform fancy steps, then dance back to his place and resume the strokes without the slightest break in the measure of the music, and without a check to the even swing of his dance.
When drums are present, a drum call opens each set perform- ance, and the beating of the drums continues for a short space after the agongs cease playing.
At every ceremony where there is general dancing, agongs fur- nish the music, but there are times when Vagonggo is given without dancing, unless it be the dance of the player; such occasions, to cite an instance, as the auspicious moment of bringing in the cere- monial bamboos, when the agong performance that immediately follows is manifestly a sacred rite.
Dancing and Costumes. The dances {sumayo) at ceremonies do not appear to differ from those performed on ordinary social occa- sions. In my own house, at an evening gathering, with an audience of perhaps twenty Bagobo, dances have been performed by the youth Saliman quite as elaborate and varied as any to be observed at ceremonies. Nor are the motives different, if one may draw an inference from the names of dances, and from the steps and the series of postures of the performers. Of course, at ceremonies, there is a more definite order observed in the sequence of dances, and in the appearing of individuals one by one. The girls ordi- narily take the initiative, and for some time hold the floor; again, the initial dance is given by men alone, wearing the tankulu. Soon, both women and men are dancing, each one individually, never in couples, every dancer with eyes bent downward, intent on his or her own steps and attitudes, yet a collision rarely occurring between two performers, although the space reserved is always extremely small in proportion to the number of dancers — a floor of ten by twelve feet being ample space for a score or more men and women. Many motives are drawn from nature; others from human interests, such as war and love; others have a devotional significance. Here are a few characteristic titles of dances that I have seen at different times, the explanations of which were eagerly offered, without question on my part, by Bagobo young men and girls at my side.
86 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
"Baliti," representing the quivering of the leaves of the baliti tree :
"Karamag to kawayan," the leaves of a bamboo swaying in the wind (danced by a man);
"Bukason," a snake dance;
"Tibarun," and "Manok," bird dances (performed by two women);
"Bulayan," a descriptive dance to express fear of the Atas (performed by two girls);
"Kulagsoy penek ka kayo," a squirrel running up the trunk of a tree (danced by one man);
"Ug-tube," the god-brother in the sky (a girls' dance in honor of the god-brother) ;
"Salangayd," a dance for the god of that name (performed by a man).
The dancers, both men and women, wear their usual full dress costumes made from hemp and from cotton textiles, elaborately embroidered and beaded. The "magani" wear tankulu twisted about their heads, while youths who have not yet killed anybody have cotton kerchiefs woven in bright stripes and decorated with beaded and tasseled edges. Leglets and armlets of brass and of vegetable fibre are generally worn by the men, and those of the wealthier class are gorgeous in their wide, richly-beaded belts and enormous ear-plugs made of discs of pure white ivory.
Certain hair ornaments are regularly worn by women dancers, and to appear without these ornaments would be extremely bad form. One is a wooden comb in the shape of a half-moon, deco- rated in carved designs, with beads stuck in wax, and with heavily-beaded tassels. Another is a long brass pin called loling^ that is run vertically into the back coil of hair. It is decorated with tufts of dyed goat's hair tipped with brilliant down from birds' plumage and tied to the pin with fine brass wire. The clusters of bright-colored goat's hair and feathers bob and wave in time with the steps of the dancer in a very effective manner. There is one essential accessory to the costume of a woman per- forming a ceremonial dance, and that is the wide closed scarf called scdughoy. This scarf, worn diagonally across the right shoulder and under the left arm-pit, has the daily utility function of supporting the baby or of holding needlework and parcels ; but at a festival this scarf becomes an aesthetic element that figures prom- inently in the dance. As she dances, the girl clasps the salugboy with both hands and holds it out loosely from her body, or she removes it entirely and lets it drape freely from her hands. It is a pretty sight to see her swaying her body from side to side in
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 87
rhythm with her steps, while swinging the scarf in soft waves of motion that follow the curves of her form as she turns and bends, in a series of balanced movements, to the right hand and to the left.
The Feast. Near the close of every Bagobo ceremony, or imme- diately following it, there is served a generous meal, which, in view of the abstemiousness of every-day fare, might properly be called a banquet. The regular festival foods, differing somewhat according to the ceremonial occasion, include roast venison, pig-fat, boiled fish, grated cocoanut and boiled white rice. At Ginum, the fish is slivered, mixed with grated cocoanut and pressed into moulds between leaves held in the palms of the hands ; and at this festival the dishes are made of pieces of hemp-leaf, curved at one end and fastened by a bit of pointed rattan. The guests are served seated on the floor, and a separate dish is given to each. During the preparation of the food, nobody tastes a morsel, for the fast since the preceding meal, however long, must not be broken until the moment that all the company begin simultaneously to enjoy the feast.
Mangauito* During the nights immediately preceding a great ceremony, and in some cases, as at harvest, on the night following the main ceremonial, it is customary to consult the gods through the instrumentality of a priestess, or of some other person who acts as medium. ^^^
Various Types of Altar
The Bagobo recognize several types of altar, fairly distinct in function, chief among which are the following : Tambara, Tigyama, Balekat, Sonaran, Buis, Parabunnian. Roughly grouped from the structural aspect, the above-named types include four classes of altar, which may be distinguished as: (a) Bamboo prayer-stands {tamhara)\ (b) Hanging altars {tigyama and balekat) j (c) Agong altars (sonaran) ; (d) Hut-shrines (buis and parabunnian).
Bamboo prayer-stands called tambara. This is a form of altar to be seen everywhere, since it functions as a family altar, as an out-of-door shrine, and in various associations with ceremonial wor- ship of a more formal type. The tambara consists of a small
^""See Part III. "Every-day forms of religious response.'
88 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
bowl of heavy white crockery, supported by an upright rod of light bamboo {halekayo) from three and one-half to four feet in height, the rod being split down several inches from the top into four forks which are spread out and bound with rattan at the center of parting so as to form a rest for the bowl. Tied to these branching splints of the standard, one often sees slender leaves from plants that possess a magical virtue, especially those that are fragrant, and also flowering sprays called hagehe from the areca palm. Bands of rattan fasten the upright standard to one of the timbers of the wall, in the case of the house altar, while a tambara in use out- of-doors has its bamboo rod fixed in the ground. That the bowl is the essential part of this altar, and that it is the tambara proper should be noted, the technical name for the standard being huduhi. When a tambara is set up in any home, the men cut the bamboo for the budubi and the women place the bowl. In some houses there are two bowls, each in its own standard, and occasionally there are three, side by side against the wall. To this little family shrine recourse is had in case of sickness, when areca-nuts, betel- leaf and old ornaments are placed in the bowls with a prayer to one or another of the diwata; for a bamboo prayer-stand may be dedicated to a diwata of the house, a diwata of the hearth, the personal gods of the family, or to some other protecting spirit.
This same type of altar '^^ functions at several ceremonies, notably at the feast of Ginum, on which occasion tambara are erected at the edge of the river, or in the bed of a stream^ for the devotions in connection with lustration. Other tambara are set up by the
^^*The tambara probably represents one of the most primitive altars of the Bagobo, since it functions in sucli a number of distinct ceremonies. We find this type of altar mentioned in the old mythical romance recited by mountain people, as well as in stories that may be of more modern composition. Cf. op. cit., Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, pp. 28, 52. Jan.— March, 1913.
An altar somewhat similar in form is used by Peninsular Malays, among whom Skeat found, along the wayside, shrines where incense was burned in little stands made of bamboo rods, one end of the rod being "stuck in the ground and the other split into four or five, and then opened out and plaited with basket work so as to hold a little earth." Gf. W. W. Skeat : op. cit., p. 67. In one case, I have seen the half shell of a cocoanut used in place of crockery, and this may have been the ancient receptacle. The tambara is referred to by Father Gisbert in the following words; "When they are sick, they perform the diuata in their tambaro. That consists in a dish on top of a bamboo which is fixed in the ground, on which they place buyo, bonga [areca], lime, and tobacco, while they say to their god: 'We offer thee this. Give us health.'" Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 43, p. 237. 1906.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 89
wayside; and still others in the Long House to receive offerings that have been on the agongs, and to serve as centers for ritual recitations. Tambara thus used tend to be placed singly in dif^ ferent spots, rather than in pairs. When a human victim is to be sacrificially slain, it is customary to set up near the place of sacri- fice a tambara, where betel may be offered and prayers repeated.
It is not unlikely that in former times these bamboo stands were regularly placed at centers of special industries to insure the success of the process and the protection of the spirits. I have seen in Talun two of these bowls in their rods of bamboo standing at the foot of the bellows of a blacksmith's forge, with two old and blackened brass bracelets in the bowls, while on the left-hand side of the bellows hung a small parcel of charcoal wrapped in a bit of petati which the blacksmith called medicine {hawi) for the forge.
Regarding the final disposition of objects placed on the tambara^ one hears statements that seem contradictory, for the same Bagobo will at one time tell you that gifts put in the bowls for the diwata must be left there always, while the next day he assures you that the offerings may be taken away after one night, but must never be sold. My own observations on Bagobo behavior wherever gifts to the gods are concerned, correlated with information given me by individuals, suggest the following explanation. Offerings made on these bamboo prayer-stands are of three classes.
a) Agricultural products, particularly areca-nuts, betel-leaf and tobacco which, once placed on the shrine, may never be removed^ but are left to dry up, to decay, or to be blown away.
b) Old objects believed to have become automatically sacred on account of age, and hence are called ikut^ — such as brass armlets, fibre leglets, little bells, small trinkets in general that may be laid in the bowls, and old spears and war-shields that are fastened to the wall or stood up near the shrine. Such objects, once offered on a tambara, belong permanently to the gods and must remain there. It would appear that such gifts are not frequently made, for the accumulation of them at any one tambara is small. Indeed, there are few Bagobo wealthy enough to be able to make pious disposition of manufactured articles that are still of material value. What I have been told of the essence or soul {gimokud) of manufactured objects leads me to the conclusion that when the material part has become old and useless to the owner, the spiritual part is in no whit injured, but may confidently be offered to the spirits for their enjoyment.
90 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
c) Articles of real value, which are habitually laid before the unseen beings on ceremonial occasions — newly-woven textiles, beaded garments, embroidery, fine weapons, ^'^ rich ornaments. Such offerings are hung over a tambara or beside it (the smaller orna- ments being laid in the bowls) for one night only, and on the following morning returned to their respective ow^ners. Thus hallowed, they must remain in the possession of the owner during his lifetime. '''
Hanging Altars, Tigyama. In some houses there is no tam- bara, but in place of it there is said to be a hanging structure called tigyama that functions as the family shrine. This form of shrine 1 have not seen. According to the description given me, it consists of a white plate or large saucer, called pingan^ suspended by rattan from some point just above the line where the wall meets the slope of the roof. ^'^ This altar belongs to Tigyama, the spiritual protector of the family. When any member of the household is sick, they put into the dish one areca-nut and one betel-leaf, and say: "Where are you, Tigyama? I am preparing this areca-nut for you." Offerings placed in the dish for Tigyama may never be taken away.
Balekdt, Another type of hanging altar in use in Bagobo house- holds is the halekdt. This consists of one or more piles of cups and saucers, ^^^ of uniform size, suspended from the timbers of the roof by strong bands of rattan which, meeting under the lowest dish, form a hammock-like brace for the entire set of sacred vessels. From the structural aspect, the balekat might appear like an en- larged and slightly modified tigyama, but functionally the balekat occupies a unique place in the religious life of the group, for it is not only a family shrine, but a ceremonial altar of high ritual
^"* There seems to be involved here an animistic principle exactly opposite to that held by the Toradja of central Celebes, who, according to Sarasin, offer to the spirits spear-points, smith's tools, etc., modeled from white wood, fearing that if the unseen beings should make use of the iron implements, they would take away the soul of the metal and render it weak and worthless." Cf. Reisen in Celebes, vol. 1, p. 230.
^'^ Unfortunately, I failed to ascertain what disposition was made of such articles after the death of the original owner. It would be an interesting point for investigation.
^ ' * The place for the tigyama plates is said to be "under the gaso" that is to say, below the strips of light bamboo that run crosswise of the roof and form its lighter framework,
^ ' ' It is probable that the dishes used in each of these types of altar are of Chinese importation. The Chinese have been the chief traders in the islands for a very long period, and the dishes used at shrines in the ceremonial rites of the northern islands of the archipelago, from early times, are referable to the Chinese.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 91
significance. It is put up in honor of the all-knowing god whose name is Tolus ka Balekat, and it is before this altar, not before the tambara or tigyama, that the culminating act of the Ginum is performed. At this time an accessory element is added which heightens the ceremonial value of this altar, and temporarily extends its capacity as a receptacle for offerings. On the last day of the festival, a broad shelf of wood is swung from an elevated part of the roof by rattan hangers, in a position directly in front of the balekat. This shelf bears the name of tagudn ka balekat, its function being to hold, for a short period, the sacrificial food and the sugar cane liquor that are offered to divine beings. This temporary rotable is so closely associated with the main altar that it is not unusual to hear it called simply balekat, and whatever is placed there is said to be put on the balekat itself.
In the matter of offerings, the situation is much the same as with the tambara. One class of gifts consists of very old ornaments and weapons that are rarely offered, but, once dedicated, can never be taken back; the other class includes objects of intrinsic value and newly-made articles that are hung around the balekat for one night, particularly on ceremonial occasions, and then retained always in the possession of those who offered them. It is said that if a man should sell a tankulu that has hung on the balekat, "he would be dead," and the case is the same with other such gifts. An interesting problem is suggested as to whether the balekat was the primitive shrine of the home, and was later utilized for group festivals ; or whether we should take it to be primarily a ceremonial altar and secondarily a family shrine.
Agong-altars, called Souaran. At Ginum and at the harvest festival, a temporary altar bearing the name of sonaran plays an important part. It is formed by one large agong, or by several of those instruments placed together on the floor, on which is piled the rich collection of objects that are brought at the rite of Sonar, as offerings to Mandarangan and to the anito. At this function, the sugar cane liquor is ceremonially drunk, and an interview with the gods through a priestess takes place. On one occasion, however, I have seen an agong in use as the altar for the sacrificial rites that occur on the last night of the festival. All fine textiles, swords, knives and ornaments, which are heaped in ample quantities on the agong-altar, are returned, at the conclusion of a ceremony, to the individuals who brought them, to be kept always in their
92 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
possession ; or, again, objects taken from the agongs may be hung for one night upon the tambara ^^* and then returned to the owners. '^^ They may never be sold, "because they have been on the agongs."
Hut-shrines, These include buis, ^^^ which I shall call "buso- houses;" and parabunnidn^ or "rice-altars."
Buis or BusO'houses, Little huts, three or four feet in height, of a pattern similar to Bagobo living-houses, are erected at the opening of a Ginum festival on the grounds in the immediate vicinity of the Long House. They are often placed in natural or artificial thickets, at points that command the approaches from the river and at turns of the paths leading to mountains trails — ob- viously strategic positions with reference to unseen foes. The buis has a roof, and a floor that is raised on little posts; there may be three walls, but the front is always left open. On the floor, or on the ground below, the Bagobo put areca-nuts and betel-leaf for the Tigbanua and for the rest of the buso, and, on a particular even- ing, formal rites are paid to these evil beings, with the distinct intention of preventing them from breaking into the festival house and thus vitiating the good effects of the ceremony.
I am told that some Bagobo families keep little houses of this type standing continually near their homes and that they call them by the same name — buis — but I have seen them only at Ginum.
Parahunnidn or Rice-sowing Altars. A hut-shrine is set up in one corner of a field on the occasion of the annual rice-sowing, for the purpose of securing a good crop through the favor of Tarabume,
^'* Possibly the intentioa is to give the spirits a more prolonged period of enjoyment of the offerings; and there may be also a feeling that the object becomes doubly hallowed by its association with the two altars. Most of the objects, however, are returned directly from the agongs to the owners.
^'* It is elsewhere noted that gifts dropped into the agong containing water are not returned, but become the property of the priestess who utters an oracle at the ceremony before an agong-altar. Cf. pp. 127 — 128.
^ ' ^ In its broadest sense, the term buis includes all these little ceremonial huts in which offerings for unseen beings are placed; the house structure of the parabunnian being sometimes called buis in distinguishing this element from the magic plants, the wickets, the bowls, etc. But it is buso-houses that are regularly designated as buis, and it is in this stricter sense that I am here employing the term. For an account of the devotional offices performed before the buis, see p. 108. Hut-shrines of a similar type seem to have been in use among the early Filipino. Chirino writes that the Visayan had, as shrines, little houses with only roof and ground floor at the entrance to their villages. Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 12, p. 268. 1904.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 93
the god of growing rice. The parabunnian ^'^ is about the size of the buis, or smaller, and often without any floor, ^'^ the offerings of betel and brass ornaments being then laid on the ground or in a little bowl. Magic plants or branches are stuck in the earth close to the house, each of which has an influence upon the growth of rice plants. Every rice-field has its own parabunnian. The areca-nuts, the betel-leaf, and the metal ornaments are left in the bowl until harvest, after which festival the bowl and metal objects are carried into the house and kept until the next rice-sowing, when the same bowl and the same ornaments are taken out to a new parabunnian. At harvest, there is put into a hut-shrine known as roro a small portion of rice representing the first fruits, together with areca-nuts and betel-leaf, as a thank-offering to the diwata and to certain clusters of stars ; but I am not able to state definitely, from observation, whether this is a shrine distinct from the parabun- nian, or whether there are two functional names for the same little house.
In addition to the devotions at the above-mentioned altars of fixed types, it is customary to make temporary shrines on the ground — close to the wayside, or under some great tree — by merely laying down areca-nuts in leaf-dishes which are arranged in a somewhat definite order. Such gifts are meant for gods, or for buso, or for the spirits of the dead, and are offered with a simple intention of preventing disease or of curing it; the unseen being for whom the gift is designed being invariably stated by the person w^ho lays down the offering.
CEREMONIES IN DETAIL
Festival of Drinking called Ginum
Introductory Remarks, The word ginum (inum) means "a drinking," but whether the primary association was with the drinking by the gods of the blood of the sacrifice, or the drinking by the people of the ceremonial sugar cane liquor, is not evident. Both elements now stand out clearly in consciousness. The sacrifice of a slave, a fact at present concealed in deference to the attitude of
' ' The root, buniti, means "to plant."
' ' Some Bagobo use the Bila-an type of rice-altar, which has a floor.
94 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
the new government, has been one of the essential rites of the fes- tival from remote times.
It is for the satisfaction of three of four deities, and not, as is commonly reported, for Mandarangan alone that a human victim is offered at Ginum. The worshipful meetings called manganito bring out the fact that the Bagobo consider both the god known as Tolus ka Balekat and the Malaki t'Olu k'Waig to be interested in the sacrifice of a man at this time. This point is mentioned in anticipation of the description of human sacrifices, because such an offering is the central act of Grinum, which gives color to the minor rites. In one sense, the ceremonies of the first three days may be regarded as leading up to the fourth day and as protective of those final ceremonies, since one of the salient objects of the preliminary rites is the warning off of demons from the Long House, lest they disturb the celebration on the last day. From another standpoint, however, it may be noted that a rite like Pamalugu (lavation) is a unit in itself, and so is the agong cere- monial. These rites are performed with motives distinct from those which permeate the peculiarly sacrificial acts of the main day. One hears the ceremonial discussed from different points of view by different Bagobo. It is stated by one that the Ginum is celebrated for the Tolus ka Balekat. This is true, particularly, of the central rites of the fourth day, where the fundamental idea is that of the bloody and the bloodless sacrifice. When Datu Oleng, however, viewed the ceremonies of the entire four days as a unit, he said : "We now have a festival because we make oflPerings (tatver) '''^ to the gods; this year we make the Ginum to be kept from sickness and from other bad things."
Definite values are associated with the religious acts of Ginum: the gods are honored; the demons are appeased; diseases are cured; threatened sickness is averted; prosperity and increase of wealth are assured to the family giving the festival, and to all participants who share in the rites and who make gifts to the gods in the pre- scribed manner. ^^^
The time for the ceremony of Ginum is variable. Datu Imbal told me that it was often given soon after the sprouting of the
^" Tawer is a Malay word signifying, "to offer the price," "to make a bargain." ^"° In Minahassa, sacrificial feasts are held to ward off sickness, and to prevent failure
of crops, as well as to secure abundant harvests, long life, courage and other good things.
Cf. P. and r. Sakasin: Reisen in Celebes, vol. 1, p. 44. 1905.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAE MAGIC AND MYTH 95
rice, though his own, in 1907, was held three days before the expected sprouting. I myself attended one Ginum in May (Imbal's Ginum), another in August, and I knew of another, at Bansalan, that was given in September. As a matter of fact, any one of the following times is permissible for the celebration: in January,'®* about the time of the clearing of the fields, or soon after ; one month after the sowing; a few days before the sprouting; soon after the sprouting, or when the rice plants have grown to some height.
The above dates indicate a range of months from January to September, inclusive, and possibly even through October, when this festival may properly be held. The rice is ordinarily sown in the months April, May and June, and harvested in November or December according to the date of planting. The Ginum must be held during the bright fortnight of the moon, preferably when she is new in the west, or full in the east, or at the close of her first quarter.
While any man of wealth who is able to give the ceremonial and to provide entertainment for the guests is at liberty to do so , yet the Ginum is most often conducted in the home village of a head datu who presides over a group of rancherias. A Ginum would not occur in the same village oftener than once a year, or biennially; but at one or another place in the Bagobo territory there is likely to be a Ginum every few months. If the chieftain has a large house, *^^ the festival would probably be given there ; but on this point I have not definite information. This was the ancient Filipino usage. The regular Bagobo custom is to build a
^®^ 1 was told that the Ginum was often held in January, and this answers, exactly, to the time mentioned by Datu Tonkaling to Mr. Cole — "when there is plenty of rice in the granaries." Op. cit., p. 111. For the ceremonial at the season of clearing the fields, see account by the same writer, pp. 85 — 86. See also Miguel de Loarca.: "Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas." Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 5, p. 165. 1903. This author so characterizes a Visayan ceremonial that it appears to correspond to that of the Bagobo at clearing time. The Visayans, he says, "set apart seven days when they begin to till their fields, at which time they neither grind any rice for their food, nor do they allow any stranger, during all that time, to enter their villages, for they say that that is the time when they pray to their gods to grant them an abundant harvest." When the Ginum is held in January, the clearing rites would apparently precede it by a brief interval.
^ ^ * For the great four days of the Tagal festival, they used the large house of their chief, dividing it into three compartments; and during those four days the house was called a simhahan (temple). Cf. Juan de Plasencia, O.H.F.: "Customs of the Tagalogs, 1589." Blaie and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 7, pp. 185—186. 1903.
^6 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
special house, called dakul bale (big house), which is long in proportion to its width. It is also called "house with a good roof," as special care is taken to make the roof tight and secure. The whole house is strongly built, having walls of balekayo firmly bound with rattan, and a double floor of split bamboo. * The roof is closely thatched with meadow-grass or with nipa. No private house is built with like care, and it would be in harmony with the character of the rites to assume that the festival house is made secure primarily to keep out those evil beings whose presence at the ceremonial is feared. The ceremonial house, which I shall call the Long House, is placed at the edge of the village, near the opening of the trail leading down the mountain. At the time of the great festival, the Long House serves also as a guest house, for the entertainment of a great number of visitors. ^^^
The Ginum here described was given by Datu Oleng, the distin- guished chief of the native district of Talun, at his home village called Mati, situated on the summit of Mount Merar. Oleng died at an advanced age, several months after this (his last) Ginum.
Chronology of the Preparation, and of the Four Main Days of the FestivaL On account of ill health, and the added infirmities of old age, Datu Oleng had retired from the exercise of the ac- tive duties of chieftainship, and his eldest son, Ido, was holding the position of executive datu. Temperamentally, he was not as well fitted as his father to plan and to organize large affairs, and somehow he failed to lay in the necessary supplies in time for the festival. This was one reason for the long delays that occurred during the preparation, and even after the formal opening. Possi- bly, too, there may have been another cause. Some weeks before this Ginum, I heard that the boy had been picked out for the sacrifice. Whether or not he was offered up at that time, I do not know. My arrival might easily have upset the original plan, to the extent of requiring secrecy in making the sacrifice, with
^ ^ ' In central Celebes, the ceremonial house, called Lobo, has a variety of functions, &s enumerated by the Sarasins. "Diese Lobo's dienen verschiedenen Zwecken zugleich. Einmal sind sie der angenommene Wohnsitz der Dorfschutzgeister, Anitu, und in dieser Eigenschaft konnen sie als Tempel oder Geisterhauser bezeichnet werden; dann aber werden in ihnen alle wichtigen Beratungen, Versammlungen und Festlichkeiten der Dorf- bewohner abgehalten, sie dienen auch als Ratshauser; drittens linden darin Passanten eine Unterkunft und einen Herd zum Abkochen, und damit erfiillt der Lobo auch den Dienst ■einer Herberge." P. and F. Sarasin: op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 216 — 217. 1905.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 97
the necessary change of time, place, and so forth. Such change would have entailed the long conferences and discussions always required among Malay people when anything out of the ordinary occurs; or, if the human victim were not slain, a number of inter- views with the gods must have taken place, to persuade them to accept the substitution of a cock. The utterances of the medium at the seances that I attended showed that an undercurrent of intense anxiety was accompanying the strong efforts then being made by the Bagobo to please the new American Government, and at the same time properly to pacify the ancient gods. The entire well-being of the group hung upon the punctilious performance of every rite of the Ginum, and particularly in the matter of the sacrifice. On the other hand, there would be the utmost danger if the sacrifice were discovered by us foreigners, with our inability to realize the traditional necessity for the rite. In December of the same year, when a human sacrifice was certainly offered in Talun, at which time the event was betrayed by some native anxious to put himself in good standing with the local authorities, the excite- ment and the strict governmental investigation that followed fully justified the earlier fears apparent in the Talun group. The Bagobo were at this time meeting a severe crisis in their tribal history.
Thus Ido's failure to secure cocoanuts and fish may not have operated as the sole cause for the delays and the apparent tendency toward procrastination in getting ready for the Ginum. The last change of date for the main ceremony, that is, from the 18th to the 19th of August, was due to religious scruples attendant upon the occurrence of an earthquake shock on the third day of the rites.
So, for one and another reason, it came about that the Ginum which was formally opened on the evening of August 14th^ and normally would have closed after sunrise on the 18th^ was pro- longed until after the sunrise of the 20th. Yet the relative sequence of the rites was exactly preserved. There was simply an inter- polation of one day, and a part of another, on which there were no ceremonies — the first interpolation being that of the twenty- four hours following the evening of the 15th; the second, of a period from sunset on the 17th until the afternoon of the 18th. These remarks are made in this introductory section in order to make clear the chronology which immediately follows.
At Talun, there were four days set apart for the Ginum cere-
7
98 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
monies, and each was characterized by definite ritual performances. It may possibly be that some rites are interchangeable as to days, on different years. As to that, I heard no statement; but Oleng listed the following acts as belonging to the first three days.
On the First Day, the men and women go out for abaca leaves and for areca-nuts. The First Night, called Tig-kanayan (the be- ginning), is the regular opening of the Ginum, when a very little balabba (sugar cane wine) is drunk, when t'agong-go (beating of agongs) and sumayo (dancing) begin, and when the leaf-dishes are made.
On the Second Day, the men bring back areca-nuts, and the bamboo is cut for the sekkadu (water-flasks). The Second Night is called hi Dua Dukilum', at this time the preliminary Awas is performed, and there is t'agong-go and sumayo (agong-beating and dancing). On this night, no balabba is drunk; no gindaya is sung.
On the Third Day, no man may work. The people wash in the river at the Pamalugu rite ; the main Awas is said, and the Tanung branches are put "in the way," to keep the buso that makes men fight from coming to the Ginum.
With this preliminary explanation, I will now give the main events on the actual dates as they took place, from the day of my arrival at Talun until the close of the Ginum.
July 25. The date first set for Ginum; the moon is full, but supplies are not laid in.
July 26. Ido intends to start for the coast to get dried fish, cocoanuts and other supplies, but is detained on one and another pretext, and finally puts off the expedition until to- morrow.
July 27. Ido saddles his horse, and with several men sets off late in the forenoon, but on the way down the mountain trail an accident of unlucky portent checks advance. Abok, Ido's little son, happens to give a hard knock to a chicken belonging to a Bagobo at whose house the party are stopping for refresh- ment, and the fowl dies as a result of the blow. Following the indication furnished by this ill omen, the entire expe- dition returns home.
July 28. Ido and his men make a fresh start, with a promise that they will be back three days hence.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 99
July 29 et seq. The women are finishing the weaving of choice textiles, some of which are to be ceremonially displayed at the Ginum, and others are to be made into skirts, trousers and jackets that will be worn at the dance on the last night.
August 1. Men are completing work on the Long House; they are closing in great open spaces in the walls to the east and to the west, by binding together sections of balekayo (a light bamboo) with rattan, and tying them to the house timbers. They work always in the direction prescribed for the Bagobo, that is, from north to south, when adding section to section. Datu Oleng, anxious for Ido's return, goes down the trail, with several other men, in the hope of meeting him.
August 2. Oleng and his party return, after a futile wait at Bungoyan's house, half-way down the trail.
August 3. The moon is in her last quarter, and hence the festival must now be deferred until the new moon, or even, perhaps, until the close of the first quarter, when the moon will be "big-horned." The girls finish their textiles and remove them from the looms.
In the evening, a supply of powdered lime called ajwg, for chewing with betel, is prepared. A fire is kindled under Ido's house; certain kinds of small shells are calcined and the hot shell ashes dropped into a little water.
August 4. Ido returns with supplies; he had stayed at the coast in order to be present at the great fiesta given by the Visayan presidente, in memory of his wife, on the first anniversary of her death. Old Miyanda, Oleng's sister, is making fresh clay pots for the Ginum. The textiles are put through a process of softening and polishing. They are then laid in clay pots to remain for thirty-six hours.
August 5 — 6. The work of molding the pottery continues. Un- der the direction of Miyanda, the textiles are washed by young- girls, and hung up to dry.
August 6. At night, the God of the Bamboo (Tolus ka Kawayan) and the God of the Altar (Tolus ka Balekat) speak at an anito seance, and urge the speedy celebration of Ginum. They threaten a visitation of sickness if there be further delay. Oleng assures the gods that the Ginum shall be held when the moon is in the west. The Tolus ka Kawayan blames Oleng for not bringing a human sacrifice.
100 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
August 7. Guests are beginning to arrive for the festival in the hope that it will be held at new moon; but there is not suffi- cient dried fish, and other provisions are lacking.
August 7 et seq. Textiles are polished with a shell.
August 8. The guests from Digas go home, saying that they will return in five nights. The Ginum is put off until the moon reaches her half. At night there is an interview with anito. Embroidery of festival garments is going on, and this work continues until the very last day.
August 9. At an anito interview, the Malaki t'Olu k'Waig speaks, saying that the women are to pound rice continuously until the Ginum. Maying, Oleng's daughter, gently awakens the other women, and they pound rice all night long.
August 10. The sound of the pestle in the big mortar never ceases all day, and we hear it all through the night.
August 11. The women finish pounding the rice. In an interview with the anito, Oleng is told that he has the korokung ^^^ sickness, brought by the old woman at the mouth of the river. Oleng begs the anito to carry his sickness to the Malaki t'Olu k'Waig, who will strangle the sickness.
August 12. Biaii nuts '^^ for festival torches are strung on long sections of nap-nap (a fine rattan). A shelf, called tagudn ka sekkadii^ for the water-flasks, is put up on the porch. The roof of the Long House is being finished by the young men, who bring great bundles of meadow-grass, five or six feet in length. With much laughter and merriment, they toss the bundles to other men on the roof, who, in turn, lay them crosswise on the timbers, and make the thatch secure with long strips of laya ^^^ wood, which they place on the grass-bundles and bind down with rattan. Guests continue to arrive.
August 13. Malik, son-in-law to Oleng, makes a capacious bed of split bamboo for the use of guests. It is like a wide shelf fastened to the east wall, at a height of three and three-fourths feet from the floor.
* * * Karokung is an illness characterized by cough, chills and fever.
'^ * ^ A small round nut, rich in oil. Bidu nuts are reserved for ceremonial illumination, the house on ordinary occasions being lighted by the hiiie, a torch of resin, wrapped in leaves.
^*" A variety of bamboo.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 101
The women bring in quantities of green corn, which they carry in burden baskets on their backs.
August 14. First day of the Ginum. Men and women go out with burden baskets for hemp leaves, to make leaf-dishes. Ido starts for the house of Kaba, a long distance down the trail, whither he has to go for more cocoanuts. Loda goes to the same place for areca-nuts. The girls cut one another's hair in the style called kalarnpa ; that is, a fringe of bangs cut into a number of sharp points, and stuck with vegetable glue to forehead and cheeks.
First nigJit, called Tig-kanayan (The Beginning). The Gin- daya, or ceremonial chant, is formally opened by three young men: Ayang (a nephew of Oleng's), Bagyu the leper (Ayang's brother), and Saman (a step-son of Oleng's). The beating of agongs and the dancing begin. The sugar cane liquor is brought in, but on this opening night only a small amount is served. Everybody may taste it, but we are permitted to drink only sparingly. We make leaf-dishes, called kinudok^ in large numbers , for in them the food is to be served on the last night. The young men sharpen slender sticks of nap-nap, and with these the girls pin up the dishes. They heat slightly over flame or coals each leaf-section, deftly curl the two corners of an end, one over the other, turn up the same edge, and run it through with the pointed thong of nap- nap — a process called tatvduk ka ddun (preparing the leaves). T'agong-go and dancing continue through the night, until near dawn. Datu Oleng says that there shall be no sleep for four nights.
August 15. Second day. About three hours after sunrise, nine young men go out to hew down young bamboos, and on returning they cut seventy internodal joints for the sek- kadu, or water-flasks, that are to be filled on the last great day. Clusters of areca-nuts are brought in for the ceremonial offices, and for the guests to chew. Miyanda fires the pots. A frame of laya wood is put up ; from this the agongs are to be suspended, and on it the textiles and the tankulu are to be displayed. It consists of five smooth white rods, two of which run lengthwise of the house, and three transversely ; they are tied to the large upright timbers, about six feet from the floor. Competitive racing of horses by young men takes place — possibly a mere diversion.
102 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Second nighty called Ta Dua Dukilum. The preliminary A was is performed : areca-nuts are placed by the wayside, with ritual words, the ceremony being conducted by old women, who make the leaf-dishes and repeat the religious formulge* The first Tanung is performed, a ceremony at which branches of magic virtue are planted in two places by the path, in order to frustrate the evil plans of Buso. No drinking of balabba is permitted on the second night, and hence no chant- ing of gindaya, for gindaya is chanted only on the nights when the sugar cane wine is drunk. The beating of agongs and the dancing that were scheduled for this night are omitted, for it becomes evident that Ido will not bring back the cocoa- nuts in time for the banquet that was to be on the 17th. Therefore, since the celebration of the Fourth Day cannot take place on the 17th^ the celebration of the Second Night is stopped, while the t'agong-go and sumayo that belong to this evening are put off until twenty-four hours later. Oleng says that we may sleep to-night.
August 16. The order of the celebration is now interrupted on account of the lack of cocoanuts. Many guests have left Mati, and, weary of the delay, have gone to their homes. Malik is putting up the dega-dega^ a high ceremonial seat fastened to the west wall, where Oleng is to sit while observing the cere- monies that are to take place in the Long House. The young men are cutting off brushwood and clearing a path through the jungle, so that guests may find an entrance. In the after- noon, Ido returns with the cocoanuts. The celebration is taken up at the point where it was left off last night. All the evening there is agong music and dancing. At night occurs a brief interview with the anito.
August 17. Third day. Oleng says that on this day nobody may work. The events of the morning occur in the following order : Pamalugu, or lavations in the river; Lulub, or washing the new water-flasks; Sonar, or ceremonies at an agong-altar, of which the distinctive acts are the offering of clothing, weapons and ornaments to the gods, the medicinal washing of faces, an interview with the anito, ritual recitations, the ceremonial with balabba. Two new tambara (bamboo prayer-stands) are put up in the usual manner, and many articles taken from the agongs are hung beside the tambara for one night. Masses
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 103
of fragrant green kummi are brought in by young girls; this is to be worn at the waists of the women on the fourth night. Beating of agongs and dancing take place at intervals throughout the day. Two large wooden figures of men are carved, and the magic branches called taming are cut and brought in for the evening ceremony. Little human figures (tingoto) are shaped, and leaf-dishes made, for the Awas. The ceremonies distinctive of this Third Day proceed in order until near sunset, when a halt is called because of the earthquake. The cere- monies of Awas and Tanung therefore are put off until to- morrow. At night, the anito are consulted about the earthquake.
August 18, No ceremonies may now be performed until twenty- four hours shall have elapsed after the earthquake. Young girls boil the green ktimmi, a process which draws out the sweet fragrance of the plant, and then they hang bunches of it from the rafters, and stick sprays in their girdles and in their skirts. More areca-nuts are brought in for the Awas.
Third night. The second Awas is celebrated late in the afternoon. At sunset, the main Tanung is performed, at which rite the wooden figures are stationed by the path and the magic branches are set out, to frighten off the demons who may try to bring sickness to the bodies, or anger to the hearts, of those present at the feast. The preliminary Awas is repeated, only because the areca-nuts and the betel-leaf that were placed by the wayside on the second night have withered during the delay. T'agong-go and sumayo proceed.
August 19. Fourth and main day, Agongs sound at dawn. The halanan^ or large vessels of laya bamboo in which sugar cane wine is to be poured are made. Men cut mouths in the seventy water-flasks, and women take them to the river to fill with water. The ceremonial bamboo poles (kawayan) are cut, brought into the Long House, decorated and set up. The war-cry is raised. Agongs are beaten without dancing. Spears are attached upright to the two poles of bamboo. A display of textiles on the laya and the balekayo frames is made. The sugar cane liquor is brought in. A cock is shot as a sacri- ficial victim. The shelf of the hanging altar {taguan ha halekdt) is put up. The sacred food — chicken, red rice -and cocoanut — is prepared, and cooked in bamboo vessels. Fourth and last night. Torches of biaii nuts are lighted
104 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
and the war-cry is raised. Sacrificial offices over the chickert and omok, rites over two bowls of balabba, and rites with betel are performed at the altar called halekdt. Betel is ceremo- nially chewed. The sacred food is deposited in two bamboo vessels, called garong^ and elevated to the shelf of the balekat. A supplementary Awas is performed by the old women. Chanting of Gindaya is resumed. Festival dances are performed, accom- panied by the beating of agongs. There ensues a general drink- ing of balabba by the entire company. Three successive periods of chanting gindaya, of dancing, and of gindaya proceed. The feast is served and eaten. There follows a recitation of exploits by the old men as they grasp the bamboos. Men and adoles- cent boys eat the sacred food at the altar. Drinking of sugar cane liquor and informal speeches take place. Gindaya is sung through the night and until one hour after sunrise.
Ceremony of Awas, or offerings of areca-nuts to spirits.
Among the many ritual acts which have been listed in chronological order, are several important ceremonies that have their place on the second and third nights, and on the third day of the Ginum : the Awas, the Tanung, the Pamalugu, the Sonor. A somewhat detailed account of these several functions will now be given, and this will be followed by a narrative of the events on the fourth and main day of the festival.
The word awas means, "something given to a god," "a gift to a spirit," and there are two or three ceremonies that take their name from the idea of the gift itself. The first or preliminary Awas, called Farag Mawas^ is performed on the second night, and consists in the offering of betel to certain gods, to the buso, and to dead gimokud. This ceremony seems like a private one, for few attend it besides the old women who conduct the rite, and the chief datu, who assists toward the end.
The second or main Awas occurs on the afternoon of the third day, in the Long House, in the presence of many people. This second Awas is essentially one of substitution, in which little images are laid down to receive and to hold the diseases of the Bagobo. The religious formulae are said by the datu. Both the first and the second Awas are characterized by the use of very small leaf- dishes, which have the name of kinlidok and, as aforesaid, bear some resemblance to little boats.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 105
Finally, there is a short awas performed over a great number of extremely small leaf-dishes, with an intention not materially differing from that of the two preceding Awas. This last I shall call simply a supplementary awas. It forms an element of the ritual on the last night of Ginum.
Preliminary Aivas. The preliminary Awas, though attended by few, is an extremely important ceremony, at which the offerings of areca-nuts and the accompanying devotions are directed toward the following spirits: Pamulak Manobo (creator of the world), the various buso, and the gimokud or ghosts, both those that have been long dead and those recently departed from this earth.
"We celebrate the Awas," old Datu Oleng said to me as we conversed about the Ginum, "because the earth and the sky could not have been made by man. Pamulak Manobo made the world, and made all the different kinds of men : Bagobo, American, Bila-an,^ Moro, Ubii (Ata), Kulaman; and he made all the trees and all things that grow on the earth ; this is why we prepare areca-nut — because we pray to Pamulak Manobo. As for all the Tigbanua Kaya and all the dead buso, we place areca-nut for them to keep us from being sick."
An element of pure worship may be recognized here, as of makings an act of thanksgiving to Pamulak Manobo for the creation of the earth and of the things that grow on it. From this aspect, the Awas stands out rather distinctly from other Malay rites, the greater number of which are permeated by suggestions of bargainings with deity.
Several of the old women had charge of the first Awas; they made the preparation and performed the ceremony, assisted at one point only by Datu Oleng. The women were Miyanda, sister ta Oleng and the leading woman of the group; Singan and Ikde, Oleng's wives, and Suge, a priest doctor. The only one of the younger women taking part in the rite was Sigo, the eldest of those of Oleng's daughters who were still virgin. This girl, during the devotions at the shrines, stood near to the old women while she held a branch full of thick-clustering areca-nuts, which,, one by one, she plucked off and handed to the old women, or laid in a little pile ready for their use.
Shortly before sunset on the second night of Ginum, the women began to place areca-nuts in a number of small dishes — twenty- three in all — which they had made from hemp leaves during^
106 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
that day. These leaf-dishes, or Idniidok., were of the same form as those which had been made for the feast, but were only about one-fourth as large as the banquet dishes, for they measured not over five by ten inches, some being only three inches in width and nine in length. Like the larger kintidok, these ceremonial dishes were made by curving a section of hemp-leaf so that the corners of one end over-lapped, and the opposite end opened out flat. The and fastened to the body of the leaf by a small stick of sharpened rattan. In these smaller vessels, the suggestion of little boats was somewhat more apparent than in the larger ones, though, as stated in a preceding paragraph, we have at present no evidence to prove that this boat-shape was produced intentionally.
In all but one or two of the leaf-dishes, the old women laid betel-leaves — one very small leaf in each dish — and upon the leaves they laid whole areca-nuts, ranging in number from one to nine. In one kintidok there was a single areca-nut; two dishes had two nuts apiece; one held three, while the remaining nineteen dishes each contained from four to nine nuts. One of the women tore into fragments some of the betel-leaves that were left over, and after wrapping these fragments in small pieces of hemp-leaf, she tied them into a few tiny packages. The remaining hemp-leaves were gathered up by Singan, tied together in a bundle and left on the wide shelf (tagudn ka sekkadu) where the seventy water-buckets stood.
"When all was ready, the women picked up ten of the leaf- dishes, leaving thirteen on the stoop just outside the door, and then our little procession started from the house, to lay the offerings at four different shrines by the wayside. There were but seven of us : the four old women, the girl Sigo, Islao and myself. We turned east from the Long House, and went a short distance down the narrow path that led southeastward to the river. At a spot where great trees overhung the path, not more than three or four minutes' walk from the door-step, the women halted and sat down on their feet in the posture common to them. Crouching there on the ground, they set down beside them their ten kintidok, and uttered low- voiced prayers. The faint sunset glow had blended with the soft light of a moon almost at half when they placed their offerings of areca-nuts and of buyo-leaf, just as their ancestors through long centuries had offered areca and buyo by moonlight on those mountain peaks.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 107
Miyanda first laid several of the leaf-dishes on the left-hand side of the path; then, facing north, she summoned the god who lives at the source of all the streams.
"Malaki t'Olu k'Waig, I call you now, and ask you to speak to the Tigbanua Balagan (Buso of the Rattan) and the Tigbanua Kayo (Buso of the Wood), so that they will not hurt us. Give them these leaf-dishes with the betel, for themselves, because we want no sickness to come to us while we make the Ginum; and that fearful sickness that is traveling round the world — do not send it here where the Ginum is. If the sickness comes here, do not let it go from this awas to where we live; but make it stay shut up in these kiniidok, until you, Malaki t'Olu k'Waig, come to kill it. When all the Diseases that go round the world and the old bad Buso want to come to our house, make them stop here in the hemp leaves. Malaki t'Olu k'Waig, you must keep us from getting sick."
Then Singan, designating certain of the leaf-dishes, said: "Here, Tigbanua Balagan, these are for you;" and Suge, pointing to other of the leaf-dishes, added : "Here, Tigbanua Kayo, these are for you ; now do not come to our Ginum." '^^
Then, turning to face the east, they placed on the ground the remaining number of the ten leaf-dishes on the right-hand side of the way, and addressed their petitions to the spirits of the dead, in order to induce them to remain in Gimokudan and not to trouble the living at the festival.
"All of you, Gimokud, we give you these areca-nuts and these betel-leaves; we ask you not to think at all about our Ginum. Old Gimokud and new Gimokud, ^^^ these nine areca-nuts are for you, one and all. We pray to you, too, all the Tagamaling and all the Tagaruso, and we offer betel to all of you while we beg you to keep away from this our Ginum."
^ * ' The same mental attitude, at the moment of laying down an offering, comes out very nicely in the following prayer of a Toradja, recorded by the missionary Kruijt, in Central Celebes:— "O Gotter, die ihr auf dem Takalekadjo wohnt, ich kenne eureAnzahl nicht, aber bier ist ein Sirihpriemchen (quid of betel) und ein Stuck Fuja, die ich euch gebe; denn ihr seid gross, und wir sind geringe Leute. Wir reisen dort driiben bin; raacht unseren Weg gerade, gebt uns Sonnenschein, denn hier ist ein Sirihpriemchen, das ich euch gebe, und meine Nachkommea werden euch das auch geben." P. and F. Sarasin op. cii., vol. 1, p. 235. 1905.
^ " " Spirits of persons that have been long dead, and spirits of those recently deceased.
i08 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The function at this first place of prayer now complete, we returned to the house ; and while Singan and Ikde waited on the little porch the rest of us walked under the house, from front to back, and on down a very narrow footpath that ran for a few feet to the southeast, ending at a little thicket. Here, almost hidden in a natural growth of luago shrubbery, stood a buso-house (buis)^ and here we halted. Miyanda had brought from the house two more of the leaf-dishes, and one of them, which contained four areca-nuts, she set on the ground under the shrine, for the Buso of the Ground, with these words: "This kinMok is for you, Tig- banua Tana." Then, placing the other leaf-vessel which held eight areca-nuts on the floor of the little house, she said: "To you, Tig- banua ka Buis, ^^^ I give these areca-nuts, and I ask you to keep us in good health all of the time."
Having returned to the porch by the same way we had followed on leaving, we stopped a moment for Miyanda to pick up two more of the leaf-dishes. Then, while the other women waited there at the house door, Miyanda, followed by myself, took her way to another buso-house that had been set up north of the Long House, at a distance from it of about twenty feet. Around the shrine had been placed thick-leaved branches of luago, kalimping and terinagum, all of which were set rather deep in the earth, so that they stood erect like a natural growth of bushes close to the little temple. On the ground below the shrine, Miyanda laid a leaf-vessel containing one areca-nut and one betel-leaf, and on the floor of the little house she put the other leaf-vessel, that had in it one betel-leaf and eight areca-nuts. At the same time, she said to the Tigbanua of this buis a few words to the same effect as those uttered at the preceding devotions.
Thereupon, the other three old women — Singan, Ikde and Suge — came down the short ladder from the stoop, and brought with them the nine leaf-dishes that remained of the original twenty-three. They followed Miyanda and myself along a path that opened north- west from the last-mentioned hut-shrine, and led toward the houses of the two datu, Oleng and Ido. When we had reached a point about 108 feet ^^^ distant from the Long House, the women squatted down as before, and placed the nine leaf-dishes in order on the
' « » Baso of the Shrine.
^ ' ° 65 paces of 20 inches each.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMOMAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 109
Fig. 1. — Leaf dishes used in the rite of preliminary Awas
Showing arrangement in order on the ground at the last station. The areca-nuts in dish
No. 6 cannot be seen, as they are hidden by the curved margins of dish No. 7 upon
which dish No. 6 lies. Drawn by Irwin Christman from a field sketch by the author.
440 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
right-hand side of the way. At that moment, Datu Oleng, who had just finished setting out the magic tanung belonging to another rite, overtook us and himself repeated the formula over the last nine kinudok, thus concluding the A was. He stood erect just back of the women and said :
"You, Tagaruso, and all you Tagamaling, and the Tagasoro that makes men dizzy, I bring this betel offering for you all; you must not keep coming to our house, because I am giving you areca-nuts to stop that. And now, Pamulak Manobo, we ask you to protect us from all the bad buso, when you see them coming to us. To you, Malaki t'Olu k'Waig, we offer prayer because you are the head of all the anito and must know all things."
The kindly spirit that these conservative old people showed in permitting a women of another race, a new acquaintance, to take