22 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Yalatandin (var. Yanatandin) is a diwata whose office it is to 

 protect solitary women in the meadows, and to permit no man to 

 molest them. In one Bagobo song, there is a reference, in highly 

 allegorical language, to a maiden alone in a field where the blades 

 of rank cogon grass 43 are sharp like needles ; but from whose sting 

 she is saved when Yalatandin spreads over the ground a richly- 

 embroidered textile, the tambaymu), for her to lie down upon. 



One other mythical person associated with the meadow grass is 

 called Malaki Lisu Karan, 44 who, from his name, would be con- 

 ceived to live in the very densest part of the tall, waving, cogon 

 growth. He is mentioned in the songs together with malaki who 

 live in various species of bamboo. 



Of high importance in relation to daily life, is Tarabume, 45 

 who cares for the growing rice and for the hemp plants, and who, 

 if the ritual at planting is properly performed, gives an abundant 

 rice crop. 4C The beautiful ceremonial called martimmas, with its 

 waving of plumes and its striking of clappers is carried on for the 

 pleasure of Tarabume. "We make the digging-stick pretty to please 

 Tarabume; when the clapper goes, he can hear the pretty sound." 

 "Diwata makes the rice and the hemp grow; he lives in the sky;" 

 and again, in this connection the Bagobo say that they mean 

 Tarabume. 



In close association with the industry of casting brass, stands the 

 god Paneyangen, another so-called good manobo, of huge size, who 

 dwells far up on the mountains where he protects the swarms of 

 wild bees that hive in the flowering trees. That the comb-building 

 and the honey-making of the bees should go on unmolested and 

 under divine care, is of vital interest to the Bagobo, for the young 

 men must secure wax for the moulds used in the process of casting 

 bells, betel-boxes, armlets and leglets. The honey gathered with 

 the wax is a favorite article of diet, and the young bees are 

 relished too, the tablet-shaped comb containing the newly hatched 



* 3 Cogon saccharum Icocnigii a meadow grass that grows rankly iu the mountains of 

 Mindanao, large areas of it alternating with dense forests. 



** Lisu, "pit, kernel, center;" karan, "meadow grass." 



* 6 Thc same name is recorded by Mr. Cole as Taragomi. Op. cit , p. 85. 



"•The Recollect fathers wrote of the Calamianes, iu 1G24, that "they adored a deity 

 who resembled Ceres, to whom they commended their fields and offered their fruits." 

 Br.AiR and Uohertson": op. cit., vol. 21, p. 228. 1905. The ceremonial at ice sowing is 

 described in Part II. 



