acabrmt of scenczs] SACRIFICES AND WAR RITES 211 



Man6bo places in his deities and in his priests. The circumstances of the sacrifice are such as 

 to inspire him with confidence and, strong in his faith, he recovers his health and strength in 

 nearly every case. 



RITES PECULIAR TO THE WAR PRIESTS 



(1) The betel-nut tribute to the gods of war. 



(2) The supplication and invocation of the gods of war. 



(3) The betel-nut offering to the souls of the enemies. 



(4) The various forms of divination. 



(5) The ceremonial invocation of the omen bird. 



(6) The tagbusau'a feast. 



(7) Human sacrifice. 



The first two ceremonies differ from the corresponding functions performed by the ordinary 

 priests in only two respects, first that they are performed in honor of the war spirits, and secondly 

 that the invocation includes an interminable list of the names of those slain by the officiating 

 warrior chief and by his ancestors for a few generations back. 



The sacred dance for the entertainment of the attending divinities with which this invocation 

 and supplication is repeatedly interrupted will be described later on. 



THE BETEL-NUT OFFERING TO THE SOULS OF THE ENEMIES 



The ceremony is performed only before an expedition, with a view to securing the good 

 will of souls of the enemies who may be slain in the intended fray. As was set forth before, 

 souls, or departed spirits, seem to have a grievance against the living, and are wont to plague 

 them in diverse ways. Now, in order to avoid such ill will as might follow the separation of 

 these spirits from their corporal companions, a ceremony is performed by the warrior priest 

 in the following way : He orders an offering of rice to be set out upon the river bank, or on the 

 trail over which the spirits are expected to wing their way, and hastens to invite them to a 

 conference. Then a number of pieces of betel leaf are set out on a shield, so that each soul 

 or spirit has his portion of betel leaf, his little slice of betel nut, and his bit of lime. Then the 

 warrior chief, or some one else at his bidding, addresses the souls without making it known that 

 an attack 6 is soon to be made. It is then explained to these spirits that they are invited to 

 partake of the offering in good will and peace, that the warrior priest's party has a grievance 

 against their enemies, and that some day they may be obliged to redress the matter in a bloody 

 way. The souls next are urged to forego their displeasure, should it become necessary at any 

 time to redress the wrongs by force and possibly slay the authors of them. The invisible souls 

 are then supposed to partake of the offering and to depart in peace as if they understood the 

 whole situation. 



There if an incident, which is said to occur during the above ceremony, that deserves special 

 mention, as it illustrates very pointedly the spirit in which the ceremony is performed. All 

 arms are said to be placed upon the ground and carefully covered with the shields in such a way 

 that the spirit guests will be unable to detect their presence on their arrival. The betel-nut 

 portions are placed upon one of the upper shields. 



VARIOUS FORMS OF DIVINATION 



The betel-nut cast. 7 — This form of divination is never omitted, according to all accounts. 

 In the instance which I witnessed the procedure was as follows: The leader of the expedition 

 invoked the tagbusau, informing him that each of the quids represented one of the enemy, and 

 beseeching him (or them) to indicate by the position of these symbols after the ceremony the fate 

 of the enemy. The warrior priest or his representative, lifting up the shield with one hand 

 under it, and one hand above it, turned it upside down with a rapid movement, thus precipitating 

 the quids on the floor. Now those that fell vertically under the shield represented the number 



6 1 was informed that a sometime friend or distant relative of the enemy is generally selected for this task. 

 7 Ba-lis-kad to ma-md-on. 



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