12 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



miseries come to him through the direct manipulation of those fiends 

 called buso 1 ' who, in all events, must be propitiated by offerings, 

 tricked by subterfuges, banished by magical rites. These evil beings, 

 some anthropomorphic, some zoomorphic, dominate the Bagobo's 

 attitude toward life and toward death, and keep him constantly 

 on the watch lest he be out-manoeuvred, and thus become a prey to 

 bodily suffering. 



< )f the two souls that are recognized as inhabiting every human 

 body, the one on the left side, called gimokud t'ebang, ,8 becomes 

 a buso at death; this is the bad soul. The right-hand or good 

 soul, called gimokud ta-kawanan, 19 goes to the Great Country 

 below the earth and there lives forever, engaged in the same activ- 

 ities as those of earth and, except for the shadowy nature of all 

 phenomena, in a like environment to that of this world. 



Disease is always referred to a supernatural agent who attacks 

 the human body, either through direct possession or by means of 

 a baneful influence which, though often working at a distance, is 

 transmitted by some potent force. To forestall the chances of sick- 

 ness, the behavior of a Bagobo is checked or re-directed by rigid 

 prohibitions at many points, each of which prohibitions has come 

 to be associated with a specific penalty attached to a hypothetical 

 transgression. The central motive in a large number of the religious 

 ceremonies performed by the Bagobo is the expulsion of disease and 

 the prevention of death, such matters being subject to control 

 and to influence along definite lines. 



The character of individual existence after death, on the other 

 hand, cannot be determined or modified by ceremonial behavior, 

 however scrupulous the exactness with which the rite is performed. 

 Traditional accounts of what goes on in the country of the dead 

 form simply another chapter in the annals of mythical narrative, 

 which is accepted without question as familiar truth. 



1 ' For a discussion of the buso, see pp. 29 — 42. 



10 Gimokud, "soul;" t'ftoj, "the;" ebang, "left, left-hand." See pp. 58—61. 



1 ° Ta-(to), "the ;" Icawanan, "right, right-hand." Sec pp. 50—58. 



