BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 181 



father, uecessariry implies the bondage of the woman, or even ;i 

 minimizing of the respect in which she is held by the man, is 

 effectually disproved in Bagobo family life, just as if is disproved 

 in many another primitive group. 



Trial Marriage. 28 ' A wide Latitude prevails in regard to ;i sei 

 rime for the formal marriage ceremony. In general, the wedding 

 takes place while the boy and tin- girl are still respectively malaki 

 and daraga, or virgins, They marry first, it is said, and try each 

 Other afterward-. Another Bagobo custom, which seems to lie an 

 ancient one. is to permit the couple to meet without restriction, 

 hut to defer the Bagobo ceremonial until after tin- birth of the 

 first child, or even later. During the period of reciprocal test, if 

 no child is born either one of the lovers may change face, reject 

 the other, and choose another partner. The marriage of Oun and 

 I'ne was not solemnized with Bagobo rites until three children had 

 been horn, the eldest being then six years of age, and the youngest, 

 eighteen months old. But Oyog married Dalian immediately after 

 the birth of their first child. 



Formal Ceremony 280 called Taliduma. 297 A formal marriage 

 is an act of high ceremonial significance, at which event such im- 

 portant ritual acts appear as the application of medicine with water 

 (pamalugu), the drinking of sugar cane liquor (balabba), the chanting 

 of gindaya, and even, occasionally, a human sacrifice. 



Kites peculiar to marriage include the discarding of old garments 

 and throwing them into the river, an act typical of the casting out 

 of disease; the pointing of a spear toward tin; mountain, emblemat- 

 ical of the warding off' of misfortune;; the plaiting together of 

 hnks of hair, symbolizing, possibly, the permanence of the union; 

 the exchange of gifts; the setting up of a house-altar when the 

 new family is formed. The entire ritual of marriage, which is 

 peiformed by a priest or priestess, covers more; than twenty-four 

 hours, and informal drinking and feasting often begin a day or 

 two before the formal ceremony. 



The first event of the main day is the bringing of the agongs 



230 Cf. the mythical romance, "The Malaki's sister and the Basolo," Jour. Am. 

 Folk-Lore, vol. 20, pp. 39, 40. 1913. 



288 I did not have the good luck to see a marriage ceremony. The account here 

 recorded was given me by Islao, and I have checked it up by one or two other accounts 

 that came to rne. 



287 Ta/t'-means "to tie," and duma, "the other," "the wife," or "the husband." 



