BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 77 



sacrificial food and drink to a high altar-shelf; to chant antiphonal 

 recitations called gindaya; to sing other songs; to carry the burden 

 of the agong playing; to perform certain dances; to help the girls 

 in preparing and in serving the general feast, and in passing 

 around sugar cane liquor. 



To the younger women and girls fall such duties as assisting the 

 old women at the out-of-door shrines and at the harvest altar by 

 handing them areca-nuts and leaf-dishes as needed, and in other 

 offices of a like nature; of singing many songs other than gindaya; 

 of giving some assistance on the drums and agongs; of performing 

 a great number of dances; of cooking, dishing and serving the 

 banquet ; finally, of stuffing rice by the handful into the mouths 

 of the guests, with special attention to youths of the other sex. 



Young people of both sexes go out together on the first day to 

 gather leaves for the ceremonial leaf-dishes ; together they make 

 leaf-dishes; and they prepare jointly the torches of biaii nuts — the 

 boys splitting and sharpening long strips of rattan, on which the 

 girls string the nuts. At rice-planting, all the men and boys make 

 holes with digging-sticks, while all the women and girls drop the 

 seed-rice. 



Even small children have some parts assigned to them. During 

 the preparatory days, they learn little dance-steps to the music of 

 agongs, and one small agong is always played by a child ; they 

 have their special festival costumes of tiny trousers or skirts; on 

 the last night, a small girl is sometimes deputed to remove the 

 sprig of bulla from the waists of the women at a definite point in 

 the ceremony; after a human sacrifice, the hands and feet of the 

 victim are given to little boys, who must cut them into bits and 

 bury the pieces. 



Yet, however exact the assignment of parts, and however careful 

 the preparation for a ceremony, the continuity of the proceedings 

 is frequently interrupted by consultation among the old people 

 about the manner of performance, and by anxious questioning as to 

 whether some tabu is being inadvertently broken. They discuss; 

 they gesticulate ; they prompt the official who is reciting the prayers ; 

 one calls attention to some small blunder made in handling the 

 sacred paraphernalia; another quotes a forgotten line. By no means 

 may it be taken for granted that even to an aged and experienced 

 Bagobo every detail of a ritual is automatically familiar. The cere- 

 monial functionary is watched intently by several old people who 



