DIVINATION AND OMENS 217 



(7) The breaking of a plate or of a pot before an intended trip is of such evil import that the trip is postponed 

 until the following day. 



(8) The discovery of blood on an object when no satisfactory explanation of its presence can be found is an 

 omen of very evil import. 



(9) The nibbling of clothes by mice is an evil sign, and, though the clothes need not be discarded, neutra- 

 lizing means must be resorted to. 



(10) The finding of a dead animal on the farm is of highly evil import and no means should be left untried 

 toward offsetting the threatened ill. 



(11) The crying of birds at night is considered ominous; the sound is thought to be the voice of evil spirits 

 who with intent to do harm have metamorphosed themselves into the form of birds. 



DIVINATION BY DREAMS 



As already stated, dreams are believed to be pictures of the doings of the soul companions 

 of the Man6bo and in some mystic way are thought to foreshadow his own fate. Should a person 

 yell in his sleep it is a proof that his soul or spirit is in danger, and he must be instantly aroused 

 but not rudely. 2 The belief in dreams is strong and abiding and plays no small part in the 

 Manobo's religious life. 



The interpretation of them, however, is so variable and so involved in apparent contra- 

 dictions that I have obtained little definite and reliable information. In cases where Manobo 

 experts differ, and where other forms of divination have to be employed to determine whether 

 a dream is to be considered ominous or otherwise, it is not suprising that a stranger should have 

 received little enlightenment on the subject. 



Much more importance attaches to the dreams of the priest than to those of ordinary 

 individuals, for the former are thought to have a more general application and to be more definite 

 in their significance. But the difficulty of interpretation may frequently make the dream of no 

 value because it may happen that the future must be determined by recourse to other divinatory 

 methods. 



There is a general belief that both the ordinary priest and the warrior chief may receive a 

 knowlege of future events in their dreams and also may receive medicine, but I know of only one 

 case in which the latter claim was made. In that case a priest maintained that he had been 

 instructed in a dream to fish for eels the following day. He stated that he had done so and 

 that he had found a bezoar stone which he had given to a sick relative of his. 



However, when once the dream has been interpreted to the satisfaction of the dream experts 

 as ill-boding, means must be taken immediately to avert the impending evil. A common method 

 of doing this is by the fowl-waving ceremony and in serious cases by the blood-lustration rite. 



DrVTNATION BY GEOMETRICAL FIGURES 



THE VINE 3 OMEN 



I witnessed the taking of this omen both in 1905, before the war expedition referred to on 

 previous pages, and also at the time of the selection of a new town site for the town of Monacayo 

 on the upper Agiisan. As a rule the omen is taken on occasions of this kind. The procedure 

 in the rite is as follows: 



A piece of a vine one fathom long is cut up into pieces the length of the middle finger; these 

 pieces are then arranged as in the figure shown herewith as far as the number of the pieces 

 permits. The sides of the square and the pieces which radiate from the corners are first laid 

 in position. One piece is then placed in the center, and those which remain are set at right 

 angles to the rectangle. (See fig. 2c, e.) 



The six pieces of vine that are set at right angles to the rectangle, as in figure 2a, represent 

 the ladders or poles by which entrance is gained to the house, represented in this case by the 

 rectangle itself. The pieces that radiate from the four corners represent the posts that support 

 the house. Now, whenever the pieces of vine are not sufficient to form even one "ladder," 



1 If not awakened at once he may fall into a condition in which he is said to be pa-qa-tam-ii-un, a term that I have failed to learn the meaning of. 

 1 Bu-dd-kan, a species of creeper. 



