6 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



factors tending, unquestionably, to bring about marked modifications 

 in Bagobo culture, such as to affect the mountain area almost equally 

 with the coast. Tin' disintegration of the whole body of Bagobo 

 custom and Bagobo tradition cannot long be held off. 



The material culture of the Bagobo is of a primitive agricultural 

 type. The food staples are rice, corn and sweet potatoes; fields are 

 cultivated without the aid of animals or of hand plough, for the 

 mere burning over of the land gives a soft soil in which holes 

 may be made with a digging-stick. In addition to garden products, 

 some wild food is secured by hunting and by gleaning. 



The horse and the dog are their domestic animals, while the 

 coast Bagobo make use of carabao, or water buffalo, for dragging 

 loads and, to some extent, for riding bareback; they snare and 

 tame jungle fowl. They make a rough pottery and fire it without 

 the use of an oven; they weave baskets and traps and scabbards; 

 they do highly specialized forms of overlacing and coloring of 

 hemp, a plant that has been cultivated by the wild tribes since 

 prehistoric times, and almost as far back as Bagobo tradition goes. 

 At the coast, the women have learned, in addition, to weave im- 

 ported cotton in the Yisayan manner. 



One would say that the material culture, as a whole, suggested 

 that of the pile-dwellings of the Neolithic age, were it not that the 

 use of iron (of how recent introduction we do not know) has com- 

 pletely supplanted stone implements, and that the industry of casting 

 various bronze and brass objects from a wax mould has reached a 

 high degree of artistic skill. 



With this brief introduction, we may pass on to our discussion 

 of the Bagobo religion. The ceremonial is closely associated with 

 the everyday interests of the people — interests which find expres- 

 sion in the ceremonial use of bamboo ami of betel, of the fruits of 

 the field, of products from loom and from forge. 



The religious material here presented was gathered in 190G — 7. 

 during a personal expedition undertaken for the purpose of investi- 

 gating the culture of this tribe. The bulk of the description of 

 ceremonial, contained in Part II of this paper, was recorded in the 

 native district of Tallin, at the village of Mati, 4 which was situated 

 on the summit of Mount Merar, and which could lie reached by a 

 steady fide of about fourteen hours from the coast, or on foot in 



• Not to be it'used with the town of Mati on the Pacific coast. 



