204 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



of an all-pervasive magical power; rather the person or the thing- 

 has its own individual potency. Furthermore, there is no general 

 term, so far as I have observed, in use among the Bagobo that would 

 correspond to the kramat of the Straits Settlement, or to kamana of 

 .Madagascar, or to mana 332 of Melanesia — each of which words 

 usually has a connotation of some undefinable quality, or condition, 

 or force transfused throughout nature. 



A Bagobo calls a hero of romance who is wonder working and 

 invulnerable matoluS', a ceremony that is performed to produce 

 magical effects is alat; a single object that acts as a potent charm 

 is alang. Each of these terms is too highly particularized to be 

 held as an equivalent of the words above cited from other peoples 

 of not far-removed areas. Another term, bawi, which is in constant 

 use among the Bagobo, has a wide range, for though regularly 

 applied to a healing drug it is sometimes synonymous with alang, 

 a charm; and, again, bawi means something that is an antidote 

 for the breaking of a tabu. Invariably, however, bawi refers to a 

 certain material object, or else to a ritual act. You can never say 

 of a person, "lie has bawi," 1 as the Melanesians say, "He has mana." 

 You can say that a person "has anito;" but anito in this sense is 

 a word limited to a certain form of spiritual possession. 



As fir the words alat and along, there is not a sharp line of 

 demarcation between them, but, in general, alat is used to denote 

 a magical method or a religious rite, while a charm-object is called 

 alang. A potent medicine tied up in a rag is alang; a lighted 

 torch is alang, while the ceremony of lustration for bride and groom 

 is alat. and the rite of setting up the family shrine is also said to 

 he alat. Yet the line separating these terms is not always so 

 distinct as in the cases just quoted, for there is a special substance 

 carried to charm away snakes to which the term alat is applied. 



It is worthy of note that every sickness, every bit of ill luck, 

 and (one might almost say) practical] v every transgression, carries 

 with it a medicine that draws out the poison of the situation and 

 puts things right again. There was once an old Bpear of a partic- 



332 It is true that Codrington's exposition of mana Boggests a magic force personally 

 melded, rather than a universal force (as I have heard Dr. Qoldenweiser happily epitomize 

 the discussion); but among t he Hagobo this conception would be associated only with 

 the quality of being malolus, ami this characteristic is limited to gods and remarkable 

 men. It might In- transmitted to a hero's sword, possibly, but not to stones or to snakes, 

 like mana in Melanesia. ('/. The filelanesians, p. 191. 1891. 



