BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 119 



freer passage for the stream by pulling out vegetable growths and 

 scooping up handfuls of pebbles. Then followed the preliminary rites. 



Singan laid her bunch of leafy medicine upon the ground, and 

 began to place the areca-nuts and the betel-leaves, as she took 

 them from her little basket, in several spots that served as temporary 

 shrines. At the same time she uttered the appropriate prayers. 

 The placing of the betel for the gods, with ritual words, is called 

 garub-dun. 



First the priestess laid an areca-nut on its betel-leaf in the water 

 at her feet, and said : "Tigbanua of the water, this betel-nut I am 

 laying here for you, to appease you. And you, Tigyama our pro- 

 tector, I beg you to keep away from us the sickness, for you care 

 for the living." 



Singan next put one areca-nut and one betel-leaf on a large 

 stone, with these words: "You, Tigbanua of the stone, are now to 

 have this areca-nut for yourself, while we are engaged in the 

 Panialugu. From early times the Bagobo have celebrated the 

 Ginum, year by year, and we beg you not to listen if the children 

 have a good time and make a noise. See, I fix the betel for you." 



The woman then stepped from one to another of the stones in 

 the river-bed, until she found a good place on the east bank, that 

 is, on the side opposite to the slope down which we had come. 

 There, on a boulder, she laid one areca-nut with a betel-leaf and 

 addressed the Buso haunting that bank. "You, Tigbanua of the 

 other side of the river, here is an areca-nut for you; it is to keep 

 you from being angry with us that we fix the betel. And you, 

 Malaki t'Olu k'Waig, who live at the source of all the streams, 

 protect us with your tidalan (spear shaft) from the bad Disease 

 that is going round the world." 



Then Singan made her way over one and another boulder, along 

 the bed of the stream for some little distance to the north. 

 She moved cautiously, for the stepping-places were slippery and 

 she was frail and weak. On reaching a certain spot, she bent 

 down and said, as she dropped an areca-nut with its betel-leaf into the 

 stream : "Water that lies to the north, this is your betel ; and I 

 beg from you this favor while we celebrate the Ginum, that you 

 will not take any notice of the merry noise of the people." 199 



199 The idea is that the evil spirits which iahabit the water, on hearing the merriment, 

 may come to hurt the people at the feast. 



