10 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



assisted by prominent old men and a few old women, 10 deliberates 

 in informal council when any problem arises with respect to religious 

 behavior or to secular activities. The data is thus preeminently 

 the official functionary of the people. (/;) The group of brave 

 men called magani, each of whom has killed one or more persons 

 on such occasions and in such manner as is regarded by the com- 

 munity as orthodox and justifiable; 1011 these men only may cut the 

 ceremonial bamboos ; they alone are permitted to lay hold of the 

 bamboo poles while they recite their exploits, and it is their prerogative 

 to wear the chocolate-colored kerchief as a mark of distinction. 

 (c) Priest-doctors, who have some knowledge of the art of healing 

 by the use of native vegetable products commingled with magic 

 spells. Many of these persons are old women, who are summoned 

 in cases of sickness, accident and childbirth ; certain women of 

 distinction officiate as chief priestesses at the harvest ceremonies ; 

 while others conduct the anito seances, at which times they both 

 reply to the questions of the spirits and draw responses from the 

 medium to the queries of the people, and afterwards prepare any 

 medicine or offering that may be divinely ordered. A few men are 

 priest-doctors, and either a man or a woman from this class may 

 be called upon to perform the marriage rite. In recognition of such 

 an office, a small gift is made to the priest, but the Bagobo are 

 in no way burdened by the imposition of heavy ceremonial fees. 

 There is to be found in their communities no sign of an autocrat ir 

 shamanistic control u on the part of a functionary belonging to any 



10 The Recollect fathers wrote of the natives of the Visayas: "The duties of priest 

 were exercised indifferently by both men and women..." Blaii: and Robertson: op. cit., 

 vol. 21, p. 203. 1905. The situation among the Bagobo is not quite parallel to this: 

 for with them the men-priests have certain functions, the women-priests have certain 

 other functions, while still other offices may be performed either by meu or by women 

 or by both sexes in cooperation. 



10,1 The following are recognized as occasious when killing is justifiable: 



a) Human sacrifice, ceremonially performed; cf. under this caption. 



b) The blood-feud. 



c) Slaying a man in a fair fight between two. 



d) The killing of foes in war. 



e) Slaughtering the women of a village when the men have all fallen in battle. 



f) A private assassination of an undesirable individual, at the hands of a deputed 

 agent acting under commands of his datu. 



11 Skcat calls attention to the fact that the shaman among peninsular Malays enjoys 

 an exalted rank and a political influence not accorded to him by the wild tribes of the 

 islands. Cf. Malay magic, p. 59. 190U. 



