academy o, sciences] MYTHOLOGICAL AND KINDRED BELIEFS 227 



Aplla is an innocuous giant whose one great pleasure is to leave his far-off forest home and, 

 crashing down the timber in his giant strides, go in quest of a wrestling bout with Mandayaft- 

 gan. The noise of their fierce engagement can be heard, it is said, for many and many a league, 

 and there are not wanting those who have witnessed their mighty struggle for supremacy. 



Besides these three greater giants, there are others, lesser but more human, the principal 

 of whom is Ddbau. Ddbau lived on a small mountain in view of the present site of Veru£la. 

 It is said that, before beginning his trip up the Agusan, he sent word to the inhabitants of the 

 Umaiam River that on a certain day he would pass through the lake region and that all rice should 

 be carefully protected against the commotion of the waters. 9 



On the appointed day he is said to have seized the trunk of a palma brava palm and, using 

 it for a pole, to have poled his bamboo raft from Butuan to the mouth of the Maasin Creek, 

 near Veruela, in one day. 10 With him lived his sister, also a person of extraordinary strength, 

 for it is on record that she would at times pluck a whole bunch of bananas and throw it to her 

 brother on a neighboring hill. 



PECULIAR ANIMAL BELIEFS 



There is, besides the various omens taken from birds, bees, dogs, and mice, a very peculiar 

 observance prevailing among the tribes of eastern Mindanao with regard to members of the 

 animal kingdom. This strange observance consists in paying them a certain deference in that 

 they must not be laughed at, imitated, nor in anywise shown disrespect. This statement 

 applies particularly to those creatures which enter a human haunt contrary to their usual custom. 

 To laugh at them, or make jeering remarks as to their appearance, etc., would provoke the 

 wrath of Anitan 11 the thunder goddess, who dwells in Inugtuhan. If they enter the house, 

 they must be driven out in a gentlemanly way and divinatory means resorted to at once, for 

 they may portend ill luck. 



I have myself at times been upbraided for my levity toward frogs and other animals. I 

 also received numerous accounts of disrespect shown to brute visitors to a house and of the ill 

 results that might have followed had not proper and timely propitiation been made to Anitan. 

 The two following incidents, of which the narrators were a part, will sufficiently illustrate the 

 point. 



Two Manobos of the Kasilaian River entered a house and, upon perceiving a chicken that 

 was afflicted with a cold, began to make unseemly remarks to it by upbraiding it for getting wet. 

 Shortly after it began to thunder and, remembering the offense that they had committed, they 

 had recourse to their aunt, a priestess, who decided that Anitan was displeased and had to be 

 propitiated. Finding no other victim than a hunting dog, for the chicken was considered by 

 her ceremonially unclean, she at once ordered the dog to be killed for Anitan. The thunder and 

 the lightning passed away promptly. It may be noted here that the dog may have had consider- 

 able value, for a really good hunting dog commands as high a value as a human life. 



In another case on the same river the narrator had captured a young monkey. When he 

 arrived at the house its uncouth appearance caused a little merriment and induced the owner to 

 place upon its head a small earthen pot in imitation of a hat. Almost immediately the first 

 mutterings of thunder were heard, and the owner, remembering his indiscretion, slew the monkey 

 and offered it in propitiation to Anitan. As he had expected he averted the danger that he 

 feared from the threating thunderbolts. 



In some cases those who are guilty of this peculiar offense become turned into stone, unless 

 they take the proper means of appeasing divine wrath, as the following legend will show. 



THE PETRIFIED CRAFT AND CREW OF KAGBUBATANG 



In the old, old days a boat was passing the rocky promontory of Kagbubatang. 12 The 

 occupants espied a monkey and a cat fighting upon the summit of the promontory. The incon- 



9 The nearest settlements to the channel through which Dabau must have passed were several kilometers distant. 



10 This trip is a row of from 8 to 12 days in a large native canoe and under normal conditions. 



11 Called also A-nit and In-a-nl-tan. 



»* Kag-bu-ba-taUg is a point within sight of the town of Placer, eastern Mindanao. 



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