Part IY. Problem of Sources of Ceremonial and Myth

It is only during the last half century that the Bagobo have come to the knowledge of the western world. We do not know how early they came into contact with the Chinese, but Dr. Laufer, ®^^ who has made a careful investigation of those Chinese sources which contain accounts of the Philippines, mentions no Chinese record of the wild tribes of Mindanao.
When we turn to the Spanish writers, we find as early as 1521 descriptions of the Filipino and of the Moro peoples, ^^* and from the end of the sixteenth until the close of the nineteenth century the work of the priests progressed in Mindanao ; yet for some time there is no mention of Bila-an or of Kulaman, of Tagakaola or of Ba- gobo. Although as early as 1546 Saint Francis Xavier ^^'^ preached in Mindanao; although missions were established on this island by the Jesuits in 159.6,3^*^ and by the Recollects in 1622;^^^ although in 1655 the number of christianized natives under the care of Jes- uits and Recollects in Mindanao was reported ^^^ to have reached 70,000, the mountain tribes of the southeast were not known to the missionaries until two centuries later. It was along the coast line from the northeast to the southwest, and in the immediately adjoining territory of the interior that their numerous churches and convents were established. One may search in vain the maps of the early cartographers for any place-names along the gulf of Davao. Even fairly detailed maps such as that by Sanson d'Abbeville, ^^^
383 ^_ "The Relations of the Chinese to the Philippine Islands." Smithsonian Miscel- laneous Collections (Quarterly issue), vol. 50, p. 248—284. 1907.
'®*See Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 33 — 34; vol. 41, ef cetera.
^""^ Cf. ibid., vol. 27, pp. 300, 304. 1905.
^^^ C/. ibid., vol. 28, p. 340. 1905. See also vol. 41, p. 284. 1906.
=*«' Cf. ibid., vol. 21, pp. 214—233 et seq., 302 et seq. 1905, See also vol. 13, pp. 48, 86. 1904. See also vol. 28, pp. 340, 344. 1905. See also vol. 41, pp. 137—157.
'«« r/. ibid., vol. 36, p. 57. 1906.
^««See ibid., vol. 27, pp. 74—75. 1905.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 251
dated 1654; of Archivo general de India, ^^^ 1683; by Murillo Ve- larde, •'^9i 1749- by Nicol, =^^=^ 1757, and that from the "Complete East India pilot" ^^^ of 1794, indicate nothing in this region except the situation of Mount Apo. It was not until 1847 — 1848 that the conquest of Davao gulf was accomplished by the Spaniard Oyang- uren, who by 1849 had the Moros of the entire coast of the gulf subdued, and was turning his attention to the interior. '^^^
Our first descriptions, from Spanish sources, of the religious customs of the pagan tribes of the east and west sides of Davao gulf appear in that invaluable series of letters published under the title of "Cartas de los PP. de la Compaiiia de la Mision de Fili- pinas," in 9 volumes, Manila, 1877 — 1891. We do not know the precise date when the Jesuits began to work in the pueblos along the gulf, but it was some time during the third quarter of the last century. An undated letter from Padre Heras, Superior of the Mission, that precedes a letter of 1876 in the first volume of the Cartas, ^^^ mentions the little village of Davao as having a good church and a school, and names several of the wild tribes, including the Bagobo, which would come within the jurisdiction of the mission. In 1877, Padre More and Padre Puntas were working in Davao and were making visitations at neighboring Bagobo rancherias. ^^^ Padre Mateo Gisbert was there as early as 1880 and remained until his death in 1905, while Padre Juan Doyle came several years later than Gisbert. ^^^ It is the letters of these four last-named missionaries, therefore, that are of particular ethnological interest in relation to the Bagobo and their neighbors.
When found by the Spanish fathers, the Bagobo were practising a religion, the essential elements of which had been well-developed for a considerable period. The genealogy of one of the head datu, Manip of Sibulan, had been carefully preserved by means of oral recitation, and it ran back for eleven generations to his famous
»»«»See 3 » » See "» * See =« « ^ See ^^^ Cf. vol. 43, p. 3 95 c/.
3 96 Qjr 39 7 Q^^
ibid., vol. 54, p. 51. 1909. ibid., vol. 48, froatispiece. 1907. ibid., vol. 48, p. 281. 1907. ibid., vol. 41, frontispiece. 1907.
Quirico More': "Letter ... Jan. 20, 1885." Blaie and Robertson: op. cit., 194. 1906. Quotes Montero y Vidal: "Historiapirateria," vol. l,pp. 382 — 403. Cartas, vol. 1, pp. 18—19. 1877,
Cartas, vol. 1, pp. 65, 81. 1877. Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 47—50. 1879. ibid., vol. 3, p. 104. 1880.
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ancestor, Salingolop. ^'-^^ According to Bagobo tradition, human sacri- fices were offered to Mandarangan while Salingolop ruled, in the same manner that they are offered to-day. It will be seen, then, that no Spanish document can throw light, by contemporaneous record, on the nature or the form of the Bagobo ceremonial of two or three centuries ago; still less, on the processes by which it grew to its present condition of complexity. Any attempt, there- fore, to trace the mythology and the ritual customs to their sources must analyze them on a comparative basis. Here, too, the lack of detailed ceremonial material from a large part of the Malay area permits only rather general comparisons; still, it is possible to arrive at some sort of answer to the question: "To what extent is the religion of the Bagobo identical with that of other peoples in the Malay country, and in how far is it unique?"
In such a discussion, two or three lines of cultural development on the religious side would suggest themselves; none of which, however, should be considered as excluding the others. (1) The ceremonial of the Bagobo may represent in some of its aspects an independent local development; (2) Some elements of the cere- monial may have been brought into the Philippines by one tribe, or have taken shape in some one locality, and thence, as from a cultural center, have been superimposed on other groups; (3) The fundamental ceremonial factors may be considered as the common heritage of the wild tribes and the Filipino, and as having undergone merely such local modifications in each group as slight variations in cultural conditions would give rise to.
Scanty as is the descriptive material that has thus far been
^^^ Manip was the father of Tongkaling, who is data of Sibulan at the present time, and Salingolop appears to be the earliest ancestor known to this line. The genealogy referred to was recorded first by Father Mateo Gisbert, in a letter dated July 26, 1886; and a few years later it was given, without change, by father Juan Doyle in a letter dated May 30, 1888. See Cartas, vol. 8, p. 205. 1889. Father Gisbert's letter, as trans- lated by Blair and Robertson, runs as follows: "The Bagobos of Sibulan usually show their antiquity by the following genealogies. Manip, the present datu, had for father Panguilan ; Panguilan was the son of Taopan ; Taopan, son of MaliadI ; Maliadi, son of Banga; Banga, son of Lvimbay; Lumbay, son of Basian; Basian, son of Boas; Boas, son of Bato; Bato, son of Salingolop. They say that of all their ancestors, Salingolop was the most powerful, and his name was always preserved among all his descendants. Before him there were already Bagobos with the same customs as those of today, that is, they were heathens and slaves of the great Mandarangan or Satan, to whom it appears that they always sacrificed human victims." Op. cit., vol. 43, pp. 245 — 246. 1906.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 253
gathered by observers of religious rites as celebrated • by pagan tribes in the south, yet even in such records as we have, certain well- marked characteristics in ritual appear in the same setting in several different tribes. A number of the ritual elements that are found to be the common property of two or three or more mountain tribes of Mindanao will be mentioned briefly, not at all as a com- plete list, but rather as suggesting a line along which a full comparison might be extended.
We note, first, a close similarity in the essentials of sacrificial rites as practised by the Bagobo and other peoples of Mindanao. The offering of human victims seems, at present, to be peculiar to the Bagobo, the closely allied Guianga and the Tagakaola; but the manner of sacrificing animals in other tribes is in many points identical with the Bagobo paghuaga. The intention and the tech- nique of the bloody sacrifice is much the same, whether the victim be a man, a hog or a cock. In the brief but trenchant description given by Pastells ^^^ of this rite among the Mandaya, we learn that the sacrifice is performed at the signal of drums and agongs; the official sacrificers wear claret-colored shirts and ceremonial kerchiefs; the victim is tied to some structure of recognized form; a peculiar dance is performed about the victim before the attack; definite ritual words are repeated to Mansilatan or to Badlao — gods that answer to Mandarangan; the privilege of giving the first stab is awarded beforehand to a particular individual; a feast following the sacrifice is shared in by great numbers of people. The Buquidnon, similarly, offer sacrifices of swine and fowls, '*^'^ having old men as celebrants of the rites, with the accompaniment of songs, dancing and prayers. Besides the bloody sacrifice, the Mandaya, the Bu- quidnon and many other tribes, make agricultural offerings of areca- nuts and buyo and various products of the soil. ^-^^ Antiphonal songs relating the achievements of ancestral heroes are sung on festival occasions by the Buquidnon, as well as by the Bagobo. The shrines of the Buquidnon answer, structurally, to the Bagobo
3 8« "Carta. . . al R. P. Superior de la Mision, Catel, 8 de Junio de 1878." Cartas de los PP. de la Compaflia de Jesus de la Mision de Filipiaas, vol. 2, pp. 138 — 139, 144. 1879.
"""J. M. Clctet: "Letter ... Talisayan, May 11, 18S9." Blair and Robertson; op. cit., vol. 43, p. 296. 1906.
""^ Pablo Pastells: loc. cit. Cartas, vol. 2, pp. 139—140. 1879. See also Clotet's letter {ut supra). Blaie and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 43, p. 296.
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tambara;^"^ the Bila-an have a rice-altar (parabunnian) in form of a little hut much like that of the Bagobo. ^"^^
Turning from the formal ceremonial to religious responses of a more informal nature, it appears that throughout the mountain tribes of Mindanao communication is set up with the gods through the medium of priestesses. The Mandaya meeting, in particular, as described by Pastells, corresponds in certain aspects to the manner of giving an oracle among the Bagobo — the emotional disturb- ance, the silence preceding the utterance, the behavior of the medium. *^*
Valiant men, who have slain other men and have therefore received the title of hagani (or magani)^ are everywhere entitled to the same privileges: the wearing of a closed shirt dyed in solid red, the ceremonial kerchief, and a costume graded (at least among the Bagobo, the Mandaya and the Manobo) by the number of per- sons the wearer has killed — from the kerchief to the full costume of encarnado.^^^ Among the Mandaya, the Manobo, the Bila-an, the Tagakaola and the Bagobo, and presumably in all of the neigh- boring tribes, these "brave men" hold a position of great impor- tance, both from the ceremonial and the social point of view, and they exert a profound influence in the tribe.
Many of the popular beliefs ^"^^ found among the Bagobo are cur- rently accepted throughout the entire island. The appeal to con- stellations to determine the proper time for burning over the ground and for sowing; the cause of an eclipse; the danger of continuing a journey when a slain animal is encountered on the road; the position of limokun as the omen bird and the interpretation of its cry; the sacredness of thicket growths; the haunting of the baliti and of various other trees associated with evil spirits — all these beliefs are held by many, if not all, of the tribes. Beliefs essen-
*"* J. M. Clotet: loc. cit., p. 296.
""^See p. 93, footnote.
^•"'P. Pastells: loc. cit. Cartas, vol. 2, pp. 139, 140. 1879.
"•"^ "Los baganis se distinguea en su vestido segun el niimero de sus asesinatos. De cinco a diez muertes, llevan en la cabeza pafiuelo encarnado, de diez a veinte paiiuelo y camisa colorada, de veinte en adelante pafiuelo, camisa y pantalon encarnado." P. Pas- tells; loc. cit.. Cartas vol. 2, p. 144. 1879. (7/". also, Santiago Puntas: Carta ... Butuan, 19 Diciembre, 1880. Cartas, vol. 4, p. 37. 1881. Cf. also, F. Combes: "Natives of the southern islands." Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 40, p. 159. 1906.
*°« Cf. Cartas, vol. 2, p. 141 el seq.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 255
tially similar regarding death and burial are widely diffused through- out the northern, the eastern and the southeastern regions of Min- danao; such as the journey of the soul to another world, the impor- tance of placing food for the soul to eat on the way, *^' the burial of rich clothes ^^® and other possessions with the dead and, often, the desirability of forsaking a house in which there has been a death.
Names of demons, such as Busao, Tagamaling, Tigbanua, appear in other tribes, but sometimes with traits other than those that characterize these evil personalities among the Bagobo. The as- uang*^^ of the Mandaya is clearly borrowed from the group of Yisayan situated on the Pacific coast. The Mandayan Busao^ however, is not identical with the Bagobo Buso, for the former spirit is conceived to be a sort of intangible out-going from the good gods, Mansilatan and Badlao; it is believed that the bagani or brave men have the spirit of Busao given to them to make them strong- and valiant. ^^^ Thus the Mandayan Busao is functionally identical with the Bagobo Mandarangan, who enters into the heads of brave men and fills them with a desire to shed blood. Padre Pastells states that the Mandaya had a Tagamaling, a being of gigantic stature ^^^ (thus differing from the Tagamaling of Bagobo myth). Again, the name of Tagumbanua is mentioned as "a god of the fields" ^'' among the Bukidnon; but, here, it seems highly probable that this spirit may be found to be identical with the Bagobo demon, for the missionaries may have been misled by the composition of the word.
In general, however, I think that we ought to be very hesitant about rejecting the records of the Religious in regard to the char- acteristics of the supernatural beings. Their notes on demons have a peculiar value on account of the sympathetic attitude of the priests when the natives brought to them accounts of supernatural visita- tions. Believing, as many of their letters show, that the spirits called busao, asuang, and so forth, were actual apparitions of the real devil of theology, they listened to the weird stories of the people in a spirit that encouraged confidence. *^^
*'" Cf. P. Pastells: op. cit. Cartas, vol. 2, p. 142. 1879. *»« (y. P. Pastells: ibid. Cartas, vol. 2, p. 143. 1879. *"» C/. P. Pastells: ibid., Cartas, vol. 2, p. 138. 1879.
* ^ " Ibid., p. 143.
"^^ J. M. Clotet: loc. cit. Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 43, p. 294. "Banua'*^ means "the earth" in the sense of "the world," in Bagobo.
* ^ * As the following passage and a number of others demonstrate, the missionaries-
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Certain of the religious beliefs that have been mentioned, such as the reverence for haunted trees, are widespread throughout the world and might easily have arisen independently in different Malay groups; but we find also such forms and customs as the sacrificial dance and the dress of the baganis that have a certain amount of complexity, and since they occur in neighboring groups they point, unmistakably, to contact and diffusion, for a completely inde- pendent growth of ritual phenomena so essentially alike is highly improbable. The chances for dissemination of religious culture from island to island, and within each single island, must have been good at all times, especially where Malay people are concerned, who are both sea-farers and land-trampers.
The hypothesis of one cultural center in Mindanao from which ritual practices have radiated is not an impossible one, although at present there is not sufficient evidence to determine which of the tribes has ever been in a position to impose its myth- ical prepossessions on the rest. To determine such a center of radiation, it would be necessary to have access to records of the full ceremonial and the stories of each tribe — records which are not available. What we do know is that there must have been a general interaction among all of the ceremonial groups, and that borrowing of myths and of ceremonial details has undoubtedly been going on for a very long time, especially among groups that inter- marry and that hold toward one another relations that are fairly friendly — such groups as the Bila-an, the Tagakaola, the Guianga and the Bagobo — though we do not know just how recently such friendly intercourse has come about. We have, indeed, de- finite evidence from Spanish writers, as well as from the accounts
did not regard the stories of demons as mere fictions of the imagination. la the writings of Fray Casimiro Diaz, 1638 — 1640, we find an account of spiritual apparitions among the natives of Panay. "During the time when this apostolic minister Mentrida was preaching in the mountains of Ogton, there were visible apparitions of the devil, standing upon a rock aud teaching superstitions and giving laws to a great number of Indians, who, deceived by him, followed him. Even at this day these hideous monsters are wont to appear to the Indians, some of whom remain in a demented condition for months from the mere sight of them; others go away with the demons, and are lost for a long time, and thea will return in a terrified and fainting condition, few of them failing to die sooa afterward. I would have much to tell and relate if I should stop to mention what has occurred with such monsters, who have been seen not only in the mountains of Ogton and Panay, but very frequently in the province of Taal." Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 29, pp. 269—270. 1905. See also, Aduabte: Historia. Op. cit., vol. 30, pp. 178—180. 1905.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 257
of the natives themselves, that an attitude of hostility between many of the pagan peoples has been very common, and that along with this hostility has flourished the practice of slave-taking and the other accompaniments of intertribal warfare. Nevertheless, there is always much communication even between hostile tribes, with innumerable opportunities for the transmission of folklore and myth, particularly through the wide distribution of slaves. Hostile or friendly, these mountain tribes of Mindanao must have borrowed much from one another. Yet, while the opportunities for the spreading of myth, either by direct grafting or through gradual dissemination, cannot be emphasized too strongly, there need not be excluded the hypothesis of a premigration development of the basal structure of that ceremonial which prevails throughout the mountains of Mindanao to-day ; and the probability for such a common basis is the stronger in view of the similarity we find in groups separated by natural barriers difficult to cross. The question can be consid- ered only in the light of ceremonial material from the other is- lands of the Philippines.
Turning from the wild tribes of the south to the now Christian races of the Yisayas and of Luzon, we are at once confronted by the problem as to whether the pagan peoples of Mindanao form, in any sense, a cultural unit composed of similar ceremonial groups that show essential differences to the Filipino of three centuries ago. What material do we find among Tagal and Yisayan tribes to favor a hypothesis for such a religious isolation? So far from discovering ceremonial evidence that would corroborate this view, a comparison of the rites and beliefs of the Bagobo, say, as typical pagans of the south, with the rites and beliefs of the early Filipino shows a close parallel at almost every point.
Here in the north and in the west there is much more available material than in the south, for the Spaniard came into immediate contact with the Tagal, the Pintados, the Bikol, the Ilokano and the other peoples that now compose the Christian population of the Islands ; and, from the Relation of Pigafetta, *^^ who was the chron- icler of the Magellan voyage, in 1519—1522, down to the sketch by Jose Nunez*'* of vestigial superstitions among the Filipino in 1905,
■•^^ "First voyage round the world ... 1519 — 1522. ms. ca. 1525. Blair and Robert- son: oj>. cit., vol. 33; vol. 34, pp. 1—180. 1906. '•^'' Op. cit., vol. 43, pp. 310—319. 1906.
17
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records of great value on the religious customs of the natives have been made by missionaries, by explorers and by Spanish officials. Many of these observations, especially on ceremonial rites, are fragmentary; many, isolated as single sentences in the midst of an ecclesiastical document, or in a discursive narrative of a voyage; many are tainted by religious bias; the majority are impressionistic and non-critical, yet they are priceless records, as being contem- poraneous accounts of religious practices now almost completely vanished, simply and truthfully taken down without any attempt to present evidence for a pre-conceived ethnological theory, and a& having been secured before the Filipino had been contaminated by intercourse with higher cultures. In some cases, we are able to check the observations of one writer by frequently repeated state- ments of other writers in not distant localities — all of w^hich records leave us with the distinct impression that the Tagal and the Yisayan of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries worshiped and worked magic and sacrificed slaves in pretty much the same manner as the Bagobo do to-day.
The Tagal people used to set apart three days or four days annually, before the sowing, ^'^ for a solemn feast which, in cere- monial details as well as in fundamental character, closely re- sembled the Bagobo festival of Ginum. The large house of the chief was divided into definite compartments for the occasion, ''^^ and during the four days of the feast it became the temple or ceremonial house, whither the entire baranguy, or group of rela- tives and dependants of the chief, came together for worship and for feasting; percussion instruments of various sizes were brought in and played on at intervals throughout the four festival days; torches of special types were put at set places in various parts of the ceremonial house ;^^^ a sacrifice of a hog or of a cock was made^ the animal being put to death after a peculiar dance had been executed around it, *'^ and its flesh distributed to the people as- sembled;*^^ the music of drums and bells accompanied the sacrifice;
"^^ Of. Aduarte: "Historia, 1640." Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 30, p. 287. 1905.
'*^'^ Cf. Plasencia: "Relation of the worship of the Tagalogs, 1589." Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 7, pp. 185—186. 1903.
'*'■'' Loc. cit. pp. 185—186.
*^« Cf. Chirino: "Relacion . . . , 1601—1604." Op. cit., vol. 12, p. 270. 1904.
"^^ 6/. ZuiIiga: The people of the Philippines," 1803. Op. cit., vol. 43. p. 125. 1906.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 259
liturgical songs that had been passed down from generation to generation, and that narrated the achievements and the fabulous genealogies of tribal heroes and of divinities, were sung or chanted; ^"^^ offerings of material things^-' had to be made by everybody who hoped to obtain the benefits of the sacrifice; priestesses acting under strong emotional stress gave oracles from gods who entered their bodies, though the term manganito was not confined to this phase alone of the religious functions for the entire celebration had the equivalent name naganito ; ^'-^^ a special ceremonial liquor, *^^ fermented from sugar cane and well-aged, was reserved for the festival, and finally the religious activities were followed by a big feast and drinking that closed the celebration.
The Pintados (Yisayan) held a somewhat similar festival when they began to till their fields, *^* and on special occasions, such as in sickness, before building and before going to war. At the Yisayan festival, human victims seem to have been sacrificed *^-^ much more frequently than among the Tagal, though the killing of slaves for the service of the dead was common everywhere. The Recollect priests mention the Yisayan custom of having antiphonal chanting ^"^^ at their festivals, the alternation being between a number of men and a number of women.
Among the Filipino tribes in general, both men and women ^^^ officiated as priests, just as with the wild people now, and the altars at which the rites were performed could not have been very different from those which are found in use among the Bagobo and other pagan groups of the south. Offerings to the gods were laid in little houses, and these hut-shrines *^^ were placed at the entrance
**" Cf. BoBADiLLA.: Relation..." 1640. Blair and Robertson: vol. 29, pp. 282—283. 1905. See also "Early Recollect Missions." Op. cit., vol. 21, pp. 137—138. 1905.
-^^ C/. Chirino: "Relacion . . ." Op. cit., vol. 12, p. 270.
"^^ Cf. Plasencia: "Relation...," 1589. Op. cit., vol 7, p. 186.
*2' Of. Aduakte: "Historia. ..," 1640. Op. cit., vol. 30, pp. 186, 243. 1905.
*»* Cf. M. de Loakca: "Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas," 1582. Op. cit., vol. 5, p. 165. 1903. See also, "Early Recollect Missions," 1624. Op. cit., vol. 21, p. 203. 1905.
*»» Cf. A. DE Saavedba: "Voyage... 1527—1528." Op. cit., vol. 2, p. 42. 1903. See also, "Early Recollect Missions," 1624. Op. cit., vol. 21, p. 203, 1905.
**« Of. "Early Recollect Mission," 1624. Op. cit., vol. 21, p. 203. 1905.
"*' (7/^. D. Aduarte: "Historia...," 1640. Op. cit., vol. 30, p. 243.
See also, "Legazpi expedition," 1564—1568. Op. cit., vol. 2, p. 139. 1903.
See also, "Early Recollect Missions," 1624. Op. cit., vol. 21, p. 203. 1905.
"»« Cf. P. Chirino: "Relacion...," 1601—1604. Op. «7., vol. 12, p. 268. 1904. Seealso,
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to the villages, or in retired places in the forest. The essential character of another kind of shrine was the white bowl or dish*"^^ that must have been very widely used in ceremonial. Aduarte, the Bishop of Nueva Segovia, lays great stress on having destroyed a great amount of fine earthenware that had been consecrated to the uses of pagan worship, but was finally brought to the fathers by converted Tagal natives. In 1604 — 1605, Chirino speaks of the little plates that were used in making sacrifices at Tatai, near Manila. At the rites of the Yisayan, white china may have been in use at least four hundred years ago, for Pigafetta, in his account of the Magellan voyage, 1519 — 1521, describes a funeral ceremony at Cebu where fragrant gums were burned in the dishes. "There are many porcelain jars containing fire about the room, and myrrh, storax, and bezoin, which make a strong odor through the house, are put on the fire."*^o
In Mindanao, the use of good crockery for sacred purposes by mountain tribes, whose own hand-made pottery is of the roughest sort, strikes the investigator as a remarkable phenomenon, especially when one notes how old and smoke begrimed the dishes are, and how different in shape from those which are now sold to natives in foreign shops at the coast. The earthenware in use at Bagobo altars is of a heavy quality, though always white; whereas Aduarte seems to have found fine porcelain used at Tagal shrines.*^' The Filipino tribes of the north were the first, presumably, to acquire such dishes from Chinese traders, who came often with merchandise to the Islands. Later, the use of china bowls and saucers as receptacles for offerings at shrines may have been either transmitted by the Filipino to more southern tribes, or introduced directly by the Chinese at the coast of Mindanao. Such dishes would quickly have supplanted for ceremonial use the rough black ware or the cocoanut-shell bowl.
We find records that betel was offered at Filipino shrines, though it is not stated whether the areca-nuts were placed in the white bowls. Manufactured products, as has been noted, were also cere- monially presented to the gods.
ibid., vol. 13, p. 72. 1904. See also D. Aduarte : "Historia."' 1640. Op. cit., vol. 31, p. 155. 1905.
'•*" Op. cit., vol. 30, pp. 186, 243. See also, P. Chirino : loc. cit., p. 72.
*^'' Op. cit., vol. 34, pp. 173—175.
"'^ Op. cit., vol. 30, p. 243.
BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 261
As for the places at which the informal ceremonial was conducted, anything like a permanent temple seems to have been rare. Morga ^^^ and others state that every person organized his family worship in his own house. Little rooms especially dedicated to anito were found by Chirino, *^^ and records of oratories in caves were brought to light by Rizal.*3*
The term miito was in use among the Visayan as far back as the voyage of Saavedra, 1527 — 1528,*^^ and for how many cen- turies before that time, we do not know. We have already men- tioned various interpretations of the word anito, as understood by the Tagal, the Visayan and the wild tribes. One interesting point in this connection is, that the care of the Bagobo to have all torches extinguished at manganito^^^ is echoed in a note by a Recollect Father, who says that the Yisayan had a tabu against lighting fires when a priestess entered for official purposes. ^^'
Turning from the ceremonial to popular beliefs and customs, we find the names of a number of demons that are identical with those feared by the mountain tribes. The Patianak*^^ represented either the spirit of an unborn child, or of a woman who had died in childbirth, and consequently was conjured at the time of a woman's trial. Wood-demons identical with the Bagobo S'iring were be- lieved to bewilder people in the woods and to leave them half dead. *^^ The Tigbalag, or Tigabalang, **^ of the Filipino answers exactly to the Tigbanua of the Bagobo. The asuang is not found among the Tagal, but even to-day is dreaded by the Visayan, Catholic though he be, and, as has been shown, the asuang '^^^ is almost identical with the Bagobo buso. Sacred thickets **^ and single
*3* C/". "Sucesos," 1609. Blaie and RoBEaxsoN: op. nil., vol. 16, p. 132. 1904.
"^^Cf. "Relacion . . . ," 1604. Op. cit., vol. 12, p. 267. J 904.
*'* Cf. Rizal's note to Morga's "Sucesos", op. cit., vol. 16, p. 132.
•>>i Cf. "Voyage of Alvaro de Saavedra." Op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 36—43. 1903.
"'•See pp. 195, 202 of this paper.
*" C/". "Early Recollect Missions," 1624. Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 21, p. 207. 1905.
"^"^ Cf. J. M. DE ZiifliGA: "The people of the Philippines." 1803. Op. cit., vol. 43, pp. 125—126. 1906. See also T. Ortiz: "Superstitions and beliefs of the Filipinos," ca. 1731. Ibid., vol. 43, p 107. See also J. de Plasencia: "Customs of the Tagalogs," 1589. Ibid., vol. 7, p. 196. 1903.
*3» Cf. D. Aduarte: "Historia . . . ," 1640. Op. cit., vol. 30, p. 293. 1905.
**" Cf. J. M. DE ZuNiGA, loc. cit., p. 126.
* * ^ See pp. 40, 42—43 of this paper.
**» (7/: P. Chibino: "Relacion de las Islas Filipinas." 1604. Blair and Robertson:
262 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
trees were pointed out by all Filipino as objects appropriated by some divinity or by some demon, and the baliti held a unique place among other trees.
The omens regarded throughout Mindanao used to be of equal concern to the Tagal and Yisayan: such as the cry of limokun; **^ the chance meeting with a lizard or a snake;*** a sneeze at the beginning of an undertaking ; **^ the significance of an eclipse **^ of the moon, and so on through a long line of folk traditions. The crow**^ and certain other birds **^ were regarded by the Tagal as sacred. The place where lost articles were concealed**^ could be discovered by the bending of a flame in that direction. The con- stellations were referred to for setting dates. *'"^ The ordeal was resorted to for proving guilt and innocence.*-^' Vital parts of a slain man were eaten to secure qualities of strength and valor. *^^ The use of magical spells, *^^ the black art, the carrying about the person of small objects with which to harm a foe, the counteracting
op. cit.y vol. 13, p. 72. 1904. See also various references in "Early Recollect Missions," 1624. Ibid., vol. 21. 1905. See also pp. 115 — 116 of this monograph.
''** Cf. D. Aduarte: "Historia . . . ," 1640. Blair and Robertson: op. cU., vol. 80, p. 287. 1905. See also "Early Recollect Missions," 1624. Uid., vol. 21, p. 205. 1905.
'*"'' Cf. J. DE Mendoza: "History of the great Kingdom of China," 1586, Op. cit., vol. 6, p. 147. 1903. See also, P. Chirino: "Relacion . . ." 1604. Ibid., vol. 12, p. 267. 1904.
*** Cf. P. Chibi-no, loc. cit. See also M. de Loarca: "Relacion...," 1582. Op. cit., vol. 5, p. 165. See also D. Aduarte: "Historia..." 1640. Ibid., vol. 30, pp. 287—288. 1905.
**' Cf. T. Ortiz: "Superstitions and beliefs of the Filipinos." ca. 1731. Op. cit., vol. 43, p. 112. 1906.
**' Cf. P. Chirino: "Relacion " 1604. Op. cit., vol. 12, p. 265. 1904.
'*''^ Cf. P. Chirino, loc. cit. See also "Early Recollect Missions," 1624. Op. cit., vol. 21, p. 138. 1905.
**» Cf T. Ortiz: "Superstitions...," ca. 1731. Op. cit., vol. 43, p. 109. 1906.
* = » Cf M. DE LoARCA: "Relacion . . . ," 1582. Op. cit., vol. 5, p. 165.
"^^ Cf. J. RiZAL (note to Morga's "Sucesos.") Op. cit., vol. 16, p. 128. 1904.
"^^ Cf A. PiGAFETTA: "First voyage round the world, 1519 — 1522." Op. cit., vol. 33, p. 243. 1906. See also, J. de Plasencia: "Customs of the Tagalogs," 1589. Ibid., vol. 7, p. 193. 1903.
''^^ Cf. the following and many other references. M. de Loarca: "Relacion . . . ," 1589. Op. cit., vol. 5, p. 163. 1903.