BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 235 



It must not be forgotten, however, that in many cases a medi- 

 cine is worn simply for convenience, so that it may be readily ac- 

 cessible when needed in haste for burning or for chewing, while 

 one is on a tramp, or making a visit far from home. Some of the 

 above-named remedies, while they may give relief by mere contact 

 with the person, often are taken off and used like the other classes 

 of medicine. The rattan neck-band, for instance, may be removed 

 from the neck and a small portion of it burned off, in order to 

 secure enough ashes to apply to a centipede sting. From the 

 necklace or the tassel or the nosegay, little seeds of teling and of 

 kuyo and of simarun, as well as calyxes of sale, are pulled off, 

 one by one, just as they are needed either to hold in the fire or 

 to swallow. There still remain, however, many curative objects 

 that are worn as means of prevention, or merely smelled to relieve 

 pain, like the above-mentioned fragrant bouquets. 



TABU AS A FACTOR OF TEE RELIGIOUS LIFE 



In every phase of activity, the Bagobo is bound up more or 

 less tightly by an array of inhibitions that delay or completely 

 check the prompt execution of his projects, by arousing in him 

 fears, questionings and hesitation as to whether some tradition will 

 be trampled upon, or some disease invited by this or that intended 

 move. He explains his insistence upon any given tabu by drawing 

 attention to a ceremonial restriction, or a social custom, or a known 

 experience of a hurt that followed some transgression ; but obvi- 

 ously present-day explanations give no clue to historical origin in 

 any single case. This fact becomes the more evident on observing 

 that the practice of the same tabu may be variously accounted for by 

 different Bagobo. For example, one person refuses to eat the flesh 

 of monkeys because once a monkey turned into a buso ; while an- 

 other says that to cat monkey would make him very sick because 

 long ago, according to myth, monkeys had the form of man; and 

 a third Bagobo explains his aversion by pointing out that a mon- 

 key has hands like the hands of man, and feet like the feet of man. 



In any attempt to group into classes the different forms of tabu, 

 this tendency of the natives to find more than one origin for a 

 single custom emphasizes the highly artificial element that neces- 

 sarily enters into every classification, for no item belongs in one 

 fixed place alone. Yet the natural association of the tabus suggests 



