September, i 9 i 3 . Wild Tribes of Davao District — Cole. 125 



Realistic carvings were seen used in only two capacities. The first 

 in certain ceremonies, where extremely crude wooden figures were 

 offered to the spirits in exchange for the sick person (see p. 105), 

 and the second, the wooden decoys used in hunting doves (See Plate 

 XVIII). 



Summing up our present information we can say: first, that the 

 Bagobo makes use of certain realistic designs which in some cases have 

 become conventionalized but still retain their former significance; 

 second, that the greater part of decoration in beads, shell disks, em- 

 broidery or applique, as well as the incised designs in lime boxes and 

 the like, have no meaning to the people of the present day, and are 

 added only to make the objects more beautiful in the eyes of the owners. 

 In this work there are no set patterns and each artist gives full reign to 

 the fancy in producing these figures. Third, that the ideas for the pat- 

 terns inlaid, incised, and cast in brass or copper, are furnished by the 

 examples of this work coming from the Malays to the south, but that 

 even in these the artist has taken great liberties in the execution of the 

 design. Fourth, that one type of decoration, i. e., the incised figures 

 filled with lime, suggests the possible influence of Melanesia on the 

 artistic ideas of this people. 



MYTHOLOGY. 



During my stay with this tribe I heard parts of many folk-tales, some 

 chanted, others told with gravity, and still others which caused the 

 greatest levity. My limited knowledge of the dialect and pressure of 

 other work caused me to delay the recording of these tales until I should 

 begin a systematic study of the language. Owing to unforeseen cir- 

 cumstances, that time never came, and it is now possible to give only 

 the slightest idea of a very rich body of tales. 1 



In the main these stories are an attempt to account for the present 

 order of things. In the tale which we quoted in part, at the beginning 

 of the paper, we are told of an all-powerful being who created the earth 

 and all that is. Other spirits and many animals inhabited the sky 

 and earth which the creator had made. Of the latter only one, the 

 monkey, is named. He and his kind, we are told, once inhabited and 

 owned all the world, but were dispossessed by two human beings, 

 Toglai and Toglibon, from whom all the people of the world are de- 

 scended. After their death a great drought caused the people to dis- 

 perse and seek out new homes in other parts. They journeyed in 

 pairs and because of the objects which they carried with them, they 



1 Since this was written Miss Benedict has published an excellent collection 

 of Bagobo Myths (Journal of American Folklore, 1913, XXVI, pp. 13-63. 



