CHAPTER XXIV 



PRIESTS, THEIR PREROGATIVES AND FUNCTIONS 

 THE BAILAN OR ORDINARY MANOBO PRIESTS 



THEIR GENERAL CHARACTER 



The baildn 1 is a man or woman who has become an object of special predilection to one or 

 more of those supernatural friendly beings known among the Manobos as diudta. This will 

 explain why the word diuatahdn is frequently used, especially by the mountain people, instead of 

 baildn. I was frequently told by priests that this special predilection of the deities for them is 

 due to the fact that they happened to be born at the same time as their divine protectors. 

 This belief, however, is not general. 



As a result of the favor in which the supernatural beings hold him, the priest becomes the 

 favorite and familiar of spirits with whom he can commune and from whom he can ask 

 favors and protection both for himself and for his friends. Hence he is regarded by his fellow 

 tribesmen in the light of a mediator through whom they transact all their business with the other 

 world. In the hour of danger the baildn is consulted, and after a brief communion with his 

 spirit friends he explains the measures to be adopted, in accordance with the injunctions of his 

 tutelary deities. Should a balete tree have to be removed from the newly selected forest patch, 

 who else could coax its spirit dwellers not to molest the tiller of the soil, if not the baildn? Should 

 a tribesman have a monstrous dream and no one of all the dream experts succeed in giving a 

 satisfactory interpretation, the baildn is called in to consult the powers above and ascertains 

 that the dream forebodes, perhaps, an impending sickness and that an offering of a white fowl 

 must be made to Manaug, the protector of the sick. And should this offering prove unavailing, 

 he has recourse to his supernal friends again and discovers that a greater oblation must be made 

 to save the patient. And if there is a very unfavorable conjunction to omens, who else but the 

 baildn could learn through his divine friends the significance thereof and whether the home must 

 be abandoned or the pioject relinquished? 



At every turn of life, whether the deities have to be invoked, conciliated, or appeased, the 

 Manobo calls upon the priest to intercede for himself, for his relatives, and for his friends. 



The office of priest may be said to be hereditary. I found that with few exceptions it had 

 remained within the immediate circle of the baildn's relatives. Toward the evening of life the 

 aged priest selects his successor, recommending his choice to the diudta. In one instance that I 

 know of the mother, a baildn, instructed her daughter in the varieties of herbs which she had 

 found to be acceptable to her familiars, and I was told that such is the usual procedure when the 

 priest himself has a personal concern in the succession. 



But no matter how proficient the baildn-elect may be in the sacred rites and legendary songs 

 of the order, he is not recognized by his fellow tribesmen until he falls into the condition of what 

 is known as dundan, a state of mental and physical exaltation which is considered to be an unmis- 

 takable proof of the presence and operation of some supernal power within him. This exaltation 

 manifests itself by a violent trembling accompanied by loud belching, copious sweating, foaming 

 at the mouth, protruding of the eyeballs, and in some cases that I have seen, apparent temporary 

 loss of sight and unconsciousness. These symptoms are considered to be an infallible sign of 

 divine influence, and the novice is accordingly recognized as a full-fledged priest ready to begin 

 his ministrations under the protection of his spiritual friends. I know of one case on the lower 



> BaUin is probably a transformation of the Malay word be-ti-an, a medicine man. (Mandaya, Bagobo, and Subanun, ba-li an.) 

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