BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 169 



for himself if he assist at the sacrifice. In a few minutes the slave 

 is dead from a multitude of gashes. The instant he is dead, they 

 cut the body, with the exception of hands and feet, into small 

 pieces, each about two and one-half inches by four inches in size, 

 and drop them into the hole prepared to receive them. The ritual 

 name of pinopfil is given to a piece of a slave's body thus cere- 

 monially cut off. The hands, sectioned just below the wrists, and 

 the feet, just below the ankles, are left entire, these parts being 

 reserved to carry home to the little boys in the family that offers 

 the sacrifice. The lads cut these members into small pieces and 

 bury them in another hole in the ground. This performance is for 

 the purpose of making the children very brave. 



Immediately after the sectioning of the body, one of the young- 

 men opens the chant called gindaya, in which he is joined by one 

 or three others who sing antiphonally for half an hour. Thus closes 

 the tragic rite, from which the Bagobo hope to secure so large a 

 measure of health 201 and prosperity.' 202 



1 6 1 It is immediately after the conclusion of the sacrifice, or else the day after according 

 to Ciisbert, that the bamboo is filled with branches, and the accompanying rites are celebrated. 

 "From the place of sacrifice they then go to the house of their chief or the master of 

 the feast, holding branches in their hands which they place in a large bamboo, which 

 is not only the chief adornment but the altar of the house in which they meet." Blair 

 and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 43, pp. 234. 1906. Again he says: "Curious persons who 

 are present at those feasts, do not understand the language of the old men nor see 

 anything that hints of a human sacrifice, but those who are fully initiated in the Bagobo 

 customs, will note immediately the token of the human sacrifice which was made in the 

 woods on the preceding day among the branches placed in the bamboo or drum, before 

 which the old men above-mentioned make their invocation to Darago." Ibid., vol. 43, 

 pp. 249 — 250. Cole received from Datu Ansig a statement to the same effect, that the 

 sacrifice was made "at the time the decorated poles were placed in the dwelling." Op. 

 cit., p. 111. 



262 That the idea of substitution enters promineutly into the complex of associations 

 set up by the act of human sacrifice is nicely shown by Father Gisbert in the following 

 paragraph : "When any contagious disease appears, or whenever any of their relatives 

 die, the Bagobos believe that the demon is asking them for victims, and they immediately 

 hasten to offer them to him so that he may not kill them. They are accustomed generally 

 to show their good will in the act of sacrifice in the following words. . . . 'Receive the 

 blood of this slave, as if it were my blood, for I have paid for it to offer it to thee.' 

 These words which they address to Biisao, when they wound and slash the victim, show 

 clearly that they believe in and expect to have the demon as their friend by killing 

 people fur him. For they hope to assure their life in proportion to the number of their 

 neighbors they deliver to death, which they believe in always inflicted by Busao, or the 

 demon who is devoured continually by hunger for human victims." Blair and Robertson : 

 op. cit., vol. 43, p. 250. Attention has been called already to the confusion between 



