September, 19 13. Wild Tribes of Davao District — Cole. 119 



Saculampula, near Talun, where Ungon and Ido, two Bagobos, live with 

 their families. There we found two children the only persons at the 

 house who informed us that we should go to the house of Ambing, at 

 Talun, where we could sell our merchandise. On the morning of the 

 9th we got up about 7 or 8 o'clock and started for Ambing's house. 

 When within about an hour's walk of the house, we found a great many 

 people congregated together. We were told that a human sacrifice 

 had just taken place and on approaching to discover what had happened, 

 we saw a little boy about eight or nine years old, the upper half of 

 whose body was suspended by the wrists to a tree, the lower half lying on 

 the ground. The child had been thus tied up while alive and had been 

 cut into two parts at the waist; this was about the position of the 

 body when we saw it. 



"Immediately about twenty persons began to chop the body into 

 small pieces; and Ansig, the datto of Talun, came over to us and gave 

 Eaon two pieces of the victim's hair attached to the scalp, which is a 

 sign of the sacrifice. The victim was a slave owned and sacrificed by 

 Datto Ansig. The first bolo cut which severs the body at the waist 

 and which in this case we were told was done by Ansig is always per- 

 formed by the person making the sacrifice. The people present were 

 guests of Ansig and were not responsible for the killing, though it is the 

 custom for the more favored ones to assist in chopping the victim into 

 small pieces after death." 



In the letters written by Father Gisbert in 1886, are many references 

 to the religious practices of the Bagobo, from which the following are 

 extracts : 



"The feast which they hold before the sowing is a criminal and 

 repugnant trago-comedy. The tragical part is the first thing that is 

 done. When they have assembled in the middle of the woods * * 

 they tightly bind the slave whom they are going to sacrifice. All 

 armed with sharp knives, leap and jump about their victim striking 

 him, one after the other, or several at one time, amid infernal cries 

 and shouts, until the body of the victim sacrificed has been cut to bits. 

 From the place of the sacrifice they then go to the house of their chief 

 or the master of the feast, holding branches in their hands which they 

 place in a large bamboo, which is not only the chief adornment but the 

 altar of the house in which they meet * * * The principal part 

 is reserved for the old man or master of the feast, he standing near the 

 bamboo which I have mentioned above, holding the vessel of wine in 

 his hand, and, talking with his comrades, addresses the great demon 



