52 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



burial it is still possible for the right-hand soul to communicate 

 with the living, and this it does on a vast scale. Immediately 

 after leaving the body, it is customary for the spirit to give notice 

 of its last journey, and at the same time try to secure a com- 

 panion, by visiting in the form of an insect every house in the 

 world. The entire series of visits is supposed to be made during 

 the short period — say, from twenty-four to thirty-six hours — 

 that elapses between death and burial. l0C Tin* insect enters a house 

 and sings in a small voice that is like the chirp of a cricket, or 

 the soft tinkling of a little bell called horung-horung. Nobody can 

 see the gimokud, but at night when "the bug with the sweet 

 voice chirps on the wall" one knows that somebody is dead. 

 Then the person listening must say: "Who are you? my brother? 

 my sister?" If the singing stops immediately, it is a sign that a 

 near relative is dead, but if the sound keeps on it indicates that 

 some other family has been bereaved. 



Sometimes the chirping is interpreted as a summons to some 

 friend or relative to follow the dead one, who asks for a fellow 

 traveler to the lower world. Fearful of sickness and death coming 

 upon him, the listener quickly replies: "You can come here no 

 more because you are now T going to the Great City. You have 

 still a little love {diluh ginawa) for me; do not bring me sick- 

 ness." This formula is usually potent to banish the importunate 

 spirit. It is said that when a gimokud is very insistent for a 

 companion, a friend may die within a day or two, an example 

 quoted being that of Adela, the Bagobo wife of a Visayan. Of 

 her, they narrate that she caused a woman friend to die one or 

 two days after herself, because she feared to journey alone to the 

 lower world. 



This form of spiritual manipulation is considered quite proper for 

 a timid person or for a youth, but there is a feeling among the 

 Bagobo (hat a gimokud who is strong and brave will no! wait 

 around for a, friend to die, but will start alone lor the ({reat City. 

 A hoy of fourteen, nephew of Adela, contided tit me his fears of 

 the gruesome journey. 



••If a gimokud is not lirave, he waits for a companion to die. I am afraid 

 to go alone to the Great City. When I am dead, my spirit will wait near 



1 u, Thr body of ;i data may be kept much longer, but I failed to ascertain the process 

 of embalming that would be used. 



