BENEDICT. BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 18M 



means that the mountain will not roll down on them. After the 

 ceremony, the two spears are laid in the river and left there. 



The next rite is the gantugan, or throwing of garments into 

 the water. Up to this point in the ceremony, the young man and 

 the girl have been dressed in old shabby clothes, so far as exter- 

 nals indicate, but now the girl draws off her skirt (panapisan) and 

 reveals beneath a beautiful, newly-woven skirt. She throws her 

 old panapisan into the river. At the same time, the man takes 

 off his poor trousers (saroar), under which he wears a fine new pair, 

 and flings the old pair into the stream, where the current carries 

 it down together with the panapisan. It is said that with the old 

 garments all the sickness goes away, floating out to sea. 



The old man then ties together a lock of the man's hair and a 

 lock of the girl's hair as a mark of their union — a function 

 called pagsugpat k'olu. The tying of hair is followed by the exhor- 

 tation called patongkoy when the priest addresses the newly-married 

 pair in the following words. "You must put the altar tigyama in 

 your house, for an alat to keep away sickness. Take a white dish 

 and put into it areca-nuts and betel-leaf, and keep it in your house. 

 Whenever you get sick, put some more betel in the dish. You 

 must never take betel from the tigyama for chewing, because that 

 would make you very sick." 



During the entire ceremony at the river, which lasts for upwards 

 of an hour, all of the guests who wish to do so may bathe in the 

 river since the water acts as an alat, or charm, to make their bodies 

 strong against the attacks of sickness. Very many of the Bagobo 

 present go into the water for padigus, or bathing. 



Between nine and ten o'clock, all return to the home of the 

 bride, where beating of agongs and dancing take place, at inter- 

 vals, throughout the entire day and guests keep on coming all 

 day long. 



During the evening, there is cooking of rice, broiling of pig and 

 venison, and the accompanying preparations for a feast. At about 

 nine o'clock, the festival meal comes off and the guests, seated on 

 the floor in the customary manner, receive the food distributed by 

 some of the younger women. After the meal, there is a general 

 drinking of balabba, and afterwards beating of agongs and dancing 

 to the music of agongs and flutes. A few young men chant gin- 

 daya in the usual antiphons. At some hour during the night, there 

 takes place a set conversation, or discussion, among the old men, 



