a Bagobo. I cannot read or write, and I think
that I am about twenty-three years old, although I am not certain on
that point.

"On the 8th instant myself, Baon, Otoy, and Oton left Santa Cruz early
in the morning to go to Talun, a day's march from Santa Cruz, for the
purpose of trading with the natives of Talun, and also to collect some
debts which they owed Baon. We remained that night at Saculampula, near
Talun, where Ungon and Ido, two Bagobos, live with their families. There
we found two children the only persons at the house who informed us that
we should go to the house of Ambing, at Talun, where we could sell our
merchandise. On the morning of the 9th we got up about 7 or 8 o'clock
and started for Ambing's house. When within about an hour's walk of the
house, we found a great many people congregated together. We were told
that a human sacrifice had just taken place and on approaching to
discover what had happened, we saw a little boy about eight or nine
years old, the upper half of whose body was suspended by the wrists to a
tree, the lower half lying on the ground. The child had been thus tied
up while alive and had been cut into two parts at the waist; this was
about the position of the body when we saw it.

"Immediately about twenty persons began to chop the body into small
pieces; and Ansig, the datto of Talun, came over to us and gave Baon two
pieces of the victim's hair attached to the scalp, which is a sign of
the sacrifice. The victim was a slave owned and sacrificed by Datto
Ansig. The first bolo cut which severs the body at the waist and which
in this case we were told was done by Ansig is always performed by the
person making the sacrifice. The people present were guests of Ansig and
were not responsible for the killing, though it is the custom for the
more favored ones to assist in chopping the victim into small pieces
after death."

In the letters written by Father GISBERT in 1886, are many references to
the religious practices of the Bagobo, from which the following are
extracts:

"The feast which they hold before the sowing is a criminal and repugnant
trago-comedy. The tragical part is the first thing that is done. When
they have assembled in the middle of the woods * * * they tightly bind
the slave whom they are going to sacrifice. All armed with sharp knives,
leap and jump about their victim striking him, one after the other, or
several at one time, amid infernal cries and shouts, until the