FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>   >|  
s which enter intimately into every activity of the daily life of this people. The Bagobo believes in a mighty company of superior beings who exercise great control over the lives of men. Above all is Eugpamolak Manobo, also called Manama, who was the first cause and creator of all. Serving him is a vast number of spirits not malevolently inclined but capable of exacting punishment unless proper offerings and other tokens of respect are accorded them. Below them is a horde of low, mean spirits who delight to annoy mankind with mischievous pranks, or even to bring sickness and disaster to them. To this class generally belong the spirits who inhabit mountains, cliffs, rooks, trees, rivers, and springs. Standing between these two types are the shades of the dead who, after they have departed from this life, continue to exercise considerable influence, for good or bad, over the living. We have still to mention a powerful class of supernatural beings who, in strength and importance, are removed only a little from the Creator. These are the patron spirits. Guarding the warriors are two powerful beings, Mandarangan and his wife, Darago, who are popularly supposed to make their home in the crater of the volcano. They bring success in battle and give to the victors loot and slaves. In return for these favors they demand, at certain times, the sacrifice of a slave. Dissentions[sic], disasters, and death will be sure to visit the people should they fail to make the offering. Each year in the month of December the people are reminded of their obligation by the appearance in the sky of a constellation known as _Balatik_,[9] and soon thereafter a human sacrifice doubtless takes place in some one or more of the Bagobo settlements. [9] Orion. A man to come under the protection of these two deities must first have taken at least two human lives. He is then entitled to wear a peculiar chocolate-colored kerchief with white patterns in it. When he has killed four he may wear blood-red trousers, and when his score has reached six he may don a full blood-red suit and carry a sack of the same color. Such a man is known as _magani_ and his clothing marks him as a person of distinction and power in his village. He is one of the leaders in a war party; he is chosen by the _datu_ to inflict the death penalty when it has been decreed; and he is one of the assistants in the yearly sacrifice. It is not necessary that those he kills, in ord
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
spirits
 

beings

 

sacrifice

 

people

 

powerful

 

Bagobo

 
exercise
 

Dissentions

 

reminded

 

disasters


December

 

appearance

 

demand

 

settlements

 
Balatik
 

offering

 

doubtless

 

constellation

 

obligation

 

village


leaders
 

distinction

 

person

 
magani
 
clothing
 

chosen

 

yearly

 

penalty

 

inflict

 

decreed


assistants

 

peculiar

 

entitled

 

chocolate

 

colored

 

kerchief

 

protection

 
deities
 

favors

 

patterns


reached

 

killed

 
trousers
 
Mandarangan
 

proper

 

offerings

 
tokens
 

punishment

 
exacting
 

malevolently