44 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



intelligent personalities back of as many physical phases; so far 

 from fusing gods and the visible world into one substance, his 

 nature-spirits are persons who can leave at will the natural objects 

 with which they are identified. 



Nor does the Bagobo, from the polytheistic standpoint, regard 

 every single object in nature as controlled immediately by an in- 

 dwelling spirit. One highly-honored god, Pamulak Manobo, made 

 the world and the things in it ; certain minor deities assist him in 

 regulating set departments, as Tarabume, who has charge of the 

 growing rice ; while a throng of spiritual beings of which some 

 few hold a friendly attitude toward man, but many more a hostile 

 attitude, are associated with large classes of natural objects. There 

 is, as we have said, a tigbanua of the woods, a tigbanua of the 

 water, a tigbanua of the rattan. In regard to individual objects, 

 it cannot be assumed that spirits inhabit every tree, every rock, 

 every stream ; yet any particular rock or stream or tree may happen 

 to be the home of some supernatural being. Rarely, again, the 

 natural object itself which is supposed to have peculiar functions 

 attracts devotions at fixed seasons, solely in connection with that 

 functioning, and, perhaps, at no other time. The stars are not 

 worshiped in mass, as stars, yet to certain constellations that tra- 

 dition makes responsible for the success of crops, offerings are made 

 at seed-time and at harvest, but on no other occasion. Further- 

 more, any special manifestation of natural processes, like a trem- 

 bling of the earth or a violent thunder-clap, that occurs at irregular 

 intervals and that stimulates a sudden emotional discharge, is in- 

 stantly referred to a supernatural agency either working within 

 the phenomenon or operating from a distance. 



Thus the Bagobo tends to hold a receptive attitude toward nature, 

 for in the background of his consciousness lies a mass of fragments 

 of nature; myths, nature songs, customary interpretations, any one 

 of which may, at any moment, become embodied in his own expe- 

 rience. To the play of natural phenomena, he reacts with emotions 

 of wonder, awe, fear, pleasure. Any shift out of the ordinary, 

 any unusual sound or shape, impresses itself insistently upon his 

 consciousness, until it comes to be associated witli other and more 

 familiar mental images; and, finally, the entire complex takes shape 

 as some new episode in romance, or as some fresh exploit of god 

 or of demon. Of course, the range of fanciful associations that he 

 can make is strictly limited by a traditional myth-pattern, to which 



