BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 271 



five or seven months old, and when it is about a year old at the 

 latest, whereas in Sumatra (according to Marsden) it is not performed 

 until the child is eight or nine." 502 The filing of teeth in Ma- 

 laysia is purely an adolescent ceremony, but the Bagobo boy under 

 ten years old may often be seen with filed teeth. The discarding 

 of ear-plugs by a girl at marriage is the custom in Malaysia, but 

 it is not so in the Bagobo country, for I knew many married, 

 women who wore their ear- plugs. 



Attention has been called, during the present discussion, to cere- 

 monial and myth and religious customs throughout the East Indies 

 in Sumatra, in Mas, in Sarawak, in East Borneo, in Minahassa 

 and elsewhere in Celebes — which correspond very closely with 

 Bagobo ceremonial and myth and religious customs, or are even 

 identical with them. 5 " 3 In particular, the pagan tribes of Sarawak 

 have a ceremonial of peculiar interest for the present question. 

 Among the Berawan, slaves are killed at the death of a chief, and 

 the sacrifice is made a group sacrifice, just as with the Bagobo, 

 everyone present being allowed to give a spear-thrust to the un- 

 fortunate victim. Certain ceremonial details that characterize the 

 Bagobo Ginum, and which are not mentioned in the accounts of 

 Filipino rites, are noted by Furness of the proceedings at the return 

 of a Kenyan and Kayan war expedition. 5 " 4 Among these ritual 

 details are the decorating of the ceremonial poles by shaving off 

 the outer sheath into curled frills that extend down the entire length 

 of the pole; the cooking of rice in bamboo joints by a steaming 

 process, and the tabu on earthen pots for this ceremonial cooking; 

 the substitution of the blood of a fowl for a newly-taken head; the 

 placing of wooden effigies by the path near the festival house ; the 

 declaration of exploits by the warriors ; the festival songs and the 

 dances and feasting. All of these elements, and others that have 

 previously been considered, give the impression of a celebration not 

 at all unlike the Bagobo Giniun. 



Were it possible to make a full comparative analysis of rites and 

 myths that would be representative of the entire Malay area, it 

 might be discovered that no single religious custom or belief is 

 peculiar to the Bagobo. At present, there are many myths and a 



i01 Cf. ibid., p. 359. 



503 See pp. 33, 37, 45, 47, 64, 75, 90, 94, 96, 107, 113—114, 160, 161 of this paper. 



■- " Cf. W. H. Furness: The Home Life of Borneo Head-hunters, pp. 90—92. 1902. 



