academy of scirncks] GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MANOBO RELIGION 189 



OTHER TENETS OF MAN6BO FAITH 



Other points of importance in the religious ideas of the Man6bos are the belief in a future 

 life and in the existence, immortality, and duality of the soul. 2 An inordinate fear of the dead 

 and of all connected with them, a host of religious and of other taboos, and a belief in the 

 efficacy of charms, talismans, and sympathetic magical means complete the summary of Man6bo 

 religion. For champions the Man6bo has the tutelary diudta; for mediators, the baildn; for 

 guides, dreams, divination, auguries, and omens; for propitiation, prayers, invocations, obla- 

 tions, and sacrifice; for proof of faith, tradition, revelation, and personal experience. 



SPIRIT COMPANIONS OF MAN 



The umdgad, 3 or spirit companions of man, as understood by the Man6bo, may be defined 

 as his material invisible counterparts without whose presence he would cease to live. He 

 attributes to these spirits or souls invisibility, power of locomotion, and to at least one of them 

 immortality. He invests not only men, but also animals and such plants as are cultivated by 

 man for his sustenance, with souls or spirits. He will tell you that the soul of rice is like rice, 

 and exists as a separate invisible form beside the visible material entity known as rice. I was 

 given to understand that trees once had souls and in proof of the assertion the narra tree was 

 cited, for even yet, it was explained, it bleeds when cut. 4 No other explanation is offered in 

 the case of animals, than that they live and die and dream, therefore they must have a spirit 

 or soul. 



Vegetable souls in such plants as are used for the nourishment of man, are explained in 

 the following way : The offerings of rice and drink which are set out for the deities, tutelary or 

 other, are partaken of and after repast of the gods the offerings become insipid, because they 

 have lost their "soul." I frequently tested the substantial remains of the spirits' feast and 

 found that they had still retained their pristine savor and strength. No argument of mine, 

 however, could convince my Man6bo friends to the contrary. The spirits had consumed the 

 soul, and there remained, according to their staunch belief, nothing but the outward form and 

 inert bulk of the former offerings. 



The Man6bo supposes himself to have been endowed by Mandait with two invisible com- 

 panions and he is convinced that without their attendance he could not exist. These souls or 

 spirits are not indwelling principles of life but are two separate indeterminate entities that 

 differ only in two respects from the person whose associates they are. The first difference 

 is that of size, for it is the general belief that they are a trifle smaller than their bodily associ- 

 ates. Besides being smaller, they are invisible. No mortal eye, it is said, except the priest's, 

 has seen a man's spirit companion, and yet it is only for brief intervals that they are absent 

 from their corporal companions. At times they crouch upon the shoulders. When the man 

 is making ready for a journey, they do likewise. When he sets out upon his travels they follow 

 him, one on each side in somewhat the same way as the "guardian angels" of other creeds accom- 

 pany their wards. I once witnessed a little incident illustrative of this belief. It was on the 

 middle Agusan, when a mother was about to leave the house of birth. At the last moment 

 she addressed the spirits of her little one, conjuring them to follow and to care for their tender 

 ward. 



Hence our souls are as our shadows, our other selves. Notwithstanding the close associ- 

 ation between them and their human companions, they are seldom invoked. They are consid- 

 ered to have little, if any, power to help. It is thought that without their presence man would 

 become mad, and in proof of this I was informed of cases where persons, on being awakened 

 rudely and hurriedly, had recourse to the bolo, in a fit of madness due as it was thought, to the 

 absence of their souls. 6 



It is said that when we sleep these spirits wander off for a brief space on their own mystic 



Not the metaphysical soul that Is maintained In biblical and theological belief, but a material counterpart of each individual. 



From d-Qad, accompany. 



The sap of the narra tree bears a very striking resemblance to blood. Narra is one of the Pterocarput species. 



This belief explains the reluctance that the Manobo, like members of other Philippine tribes, feels In arousing a person hurriedly from sleep . 



