BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 267 



the Tagal and Visayan were possessed of an alphabet, and were 

 accustomed to writing with a point of metal on palm-leaves and 

 on the inner sheath of bamboo, they had preserved few, if any, 

 written records of their mythology and ceremonial practices. 4 ' It 

 was largely by oral tradition that each generation became acquainted 

 with ancestral myths, and under the tremendous pressure of the 

 new religion let down on them by Spain these oral traditions were 

 slowly smothered. Origin myths disappeared ; folk-stories vanished, 

 and tribal narratives that might have thrown light on the historical 

 development of the ceremonial passed out of existence. 4 ' 7 In ref- 

 erence to this unfortunate situation, Rizal says: "The ancient 

 traditions made Sumatra the original home of the Filipino Indians. 

 These traditions, as well as the mythology and genealogies men- 

 tioned by the ancient historians, were entirely lost, thanks to the 

 zeal of the Religious in rooting out every national pagan or idol- 

 atrous record. 4TS 



The material before us indicates that the religion of the pre- 

 Spanish Filipino and that of the present day Bagobo have more 

 points of essential agreement than of difference, and may point to 

 a common origin. From the Bagobo, we get no help in seeking 

 for the source of the ceremonial, for according to Bagobo tradition 

 both their own tribe and the neighboring tribes were aboriginal to 

 Mindanao. Here, again, a comparative study alone may throw 

 light upon the problem. Throughout the present discussion, various 

 types of religious behavior among the Bagobo have found their 

 analogies in the peoples of the mainland on the other side of the 

 south China sea, as shown by the accounts of Martin, Skeat and 

 others. The geographical position of the Philippine Islands, as well 

 as manifest resemblances in material culture between the Islands 



476 Cf. E. G. Bourne: Historical introduction to Blair and Robertson: The Philippine 

 Islands, vol. 1, p. 44, and footnotes from Spanish and French documents. 1903. 



1,1 'Since writing this paragraph, there has come to hand Beyer's "Origin Myths 

 among the Mountain People of the Philippines," in which be calls attention to the dis- 

 covery of ancient Filipino manuscripts in a cave in Negros. He says: "Until recent 

 years, it has been believed that all ancient records written in the syllabic alphabets 

 which the Filipinos possessed at the time of the Spanish conquest had been lost. It is 

 now known, however, that two of these alphabets are still in use, to a limited extent, 

 by the wild peoples of Palawan and Mindoro; and ancient manuscripts written in the 

 old Bisaya alphabet have lately been discovered in a cave in the island of Negros. 

 Many of these Negros manuscripts are written myths, and translations of them are 

 shortly to be published." Philippine Jour. Sci., vol. 8, p. 35. April, 1913. 



* 78 An annotation by Rizal to A. Morga's "Sucesos." Op. ciL. vol. 1C, p. 74. 1904. 



