BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 45 



he cling-s with characteristic conservatism; but with an emotional 

 response to the unexpected in nature, he is always ready. When 

 a Bagobo walks out of doors, his manner tends to be more serious 

 and contemplative than indoors. Anything may happen, for nobody 

 can predict the possible freaks of spiritual beings. While, perhaps, 

 no buso may be in that particular trail; while this special clump 

 of trees may be uninhabited; while the entire journey may be free 

 from spiritual encounter, yet one must be on the alert, and it is 

 safer to behave with gravity toward nature in all of her phases. 

 This attitude of quiet seriousness finds expression in a curious 

 nature myth, which is repeated to the young people and possibly 

 tends to inhibit in them some of the propensities of youth. They 

 are taught that thev must not laugh at their reflection in the 

 water; that they must not laugh at small animals; that no monkey 

 or rat or lizard or spider or fly may be put to ridicule. oc In a 

 word, as one boy expressed the idea : "You must not laugh at 

 anything you see; for, if you do, Kilat will break your neck." 

 Whether such little creatures are under the special protection of 

 Kilat, the Thunder Spirit, is not clear, but to make fun of them is 

 regarded as a presumptuous act, to which a severe penalty is attached, 

 nothing less than having one's neck dislocated and one's head 

 twisted about. ° 7 Bagobo mothers tell their daughters that long ago, 



96 In Beyers's recent publication, it is interesting to note that among the Manobo 

 people of Mindanao there exists a tabu against ridiculing or mocking frogs, monkeys and 

 cats; and Garvan states that laughing at other animals, .too, is forbidden. With both 

 the Bagobo and the Manobo, we find that the puuishment for such levity is associated 

 with thunder; although the punishment takes different forms, for Manobo tradition says 

 that the transgressor is turned to stone. Cf. "Origin myths among the mountain peoples 

 of the Philippines." Philippine Jour. Sci., pp. 89—90. April, 1913. 



9 7 A tradition, corresponding, in every detail, to that repeated by Bagobo women, was 

 found by Dr. Nieuweuhuis, among the Bahau tribes of East Borneo. They say, there, 

 that laughing at animals is punished by the Thunder Spirits, who twist round the neck 

 of the offender, and that it is incautious to place a domestic animal even in a situation 

 that would cause laughter. 



„Diese Xaturgeister iiben auch direkten Einfluss auf das Leben der Menschen aus; so 

 werden bestimmte Vergehen durch die in beklare, Donnergeister, bestraft. Das Lachen 

 iiber Tiere z. B., das bei den Bahau als Verbrechen gilt, wird durch die in brklare sogleich 

 gestraft, indem sie dem Schuldigen den Hals umdrehen. Es ist daher sehr unvorsichtig, 

 mit einem Huhn, Hund oder Schwein etwas vorzunehmen, was die Laute zum Lachen 

 bringen konnte. Als am Mahakam plotzlich ein kleines Madchen, wahrscheinlich an Ver- 

 giftung, starb, schrieben die Dorf bewohner ihren Tod dem Umstand zu, dass sie iiber 

 irgend ein Tier gelacht haben sollte." A. W. Nieuwknhuis: Quer durch Borneo, vol. 1, 

 pp. 97-98. 1904. 



