BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 131 



bunches of medicine was pushed under the high bed, where it re- 

 mained until the end of the Ginum (?). 



Ceremonies on the 3Iain Day of Ginum. The fourth and main 

 day of the festival — the Ginum proper — is crowded with im- 

 portant and deeply interesting ceremonial, that begins at dawn and 

 continues until after sunrise on the following morning. Attention 

 should be drawn to the events distinctive of the day, although, as 

 has been indicated in an earlier summary, many other rites (such 

 as drinking balabba, chanting gindaya, beating agongs, dancing, 

 performing awas, and so forth) which took place on earlier days, re- 

 appear during the culminating ceremonial, but are here characterized, 

 usually, by new elements that have to do with the formality, or 

 with the extent of time, of the performance. 



On the last day occurs the sacrifice of a human or of an animal 

 victim; the cutting down of two ceremonial bamboos followed by 

 the bringing in, the shaving, the decoration, the raising, and the 

 attaching of spears to these poles ; the raising of a war-cry at fixed 

 points in the ceremonial ; an exhibition of products of the loom 

 and of the warriors' kerchiefs; the preparation and the cooking of 

 special forms of sacred food ; an illumination with ceremonial 

 torches; the altar ceremonial, when sacrificial food and holy liquor 

 and betel are first laid before the Tolus ka Balekat, and afterward 

 eaten; the rehearsing by old men, while clasping the bamboo, of 

 the number of persons they have killed ; and the serving and the 

 eating of an excellent banquet, in which everybody present has a 

 share. 



When the first trace of dawn appeared over the mountains, and 

 while the darkness in the Long House was still unbroken, the girls 

 got up and called Loda and several of the other young men, who 

 were to start the t'agong-go. They rose forthwith, and beat agongs 

 lustily for about half an hour. Thus, at daybreak, the culminating 

 period of the great festival was ushered in. 



About one hour after sunrise, eight men left the house to cut 

 the two bamboos that were to be placed in the festival house on 

 that day. The ceremony of cutting down the two bamboos, or 

 kawayan 2UG is called Dudo i:<i l,-<ur<<ij<tn. The eight men included 



406 The Bagobo distinguish nicely the many varieties of bamboo that grow in their 

 country. The larger bamboos (Bambusa arundinacea) that grow to a height of from forty 

 to sixty feet and are used for the heavier house timbers and for flooring, are called by the 

 Bagobo kawaijan. Two of these trunks are cut for the ceremonial poles at Ginum. 



