BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 239 



mountain guide, Ayoba, on catching sight of a poisonous black 

 viper on the trail, uttered a startled exclamation, then cut a stick, 

 picked up the reptile carefully and tossed it into the jungle. They 

 told me at Bungoyan's home that if the snake had been put to 

 death all its relatives and its friends might have come to bite us. 



There is a tabu on eating monkeys, on the ground that once a 

 monkey turned into a buso. Another tradition quoted for the origin 

 of the inhibition is that of the primitive peopling of the earth by 

 monkeys that had the form of man. It is said, again, that after 

 the earth was occupied by human beings, a few persons were 

 metamorphosed into monkeys. 



To mention the name of a deceased ancestor comes under the 

 tabu called luas, a transgression to which severe penalties are 

 attached. One often hears from the Bagobo remarks like the 

 following: tt I must not tell his name: he was my grandfather;" 

 "I cannot speak my father's name, because he is dead." I am 

 inclined to think that some Bagobo are afraid to mention the names 

 of any dead persons, whether they are related to them or not. 

 Once or twice I have heard it said that "a Bagobo does not speak 

 the name of the dead; it is very bad to do so." It is probable 

 that the mention of the name would be held as an equivalent to a 

 summons to the ghost to appear, and the care with which cere- 

 monial is performed to prevent the spirits in Kilut from so much 

 as giving a thought to those on earth shows how great is the anxiety 

 of the Bagobo to shut off the possibility of ghostly apparitions. 300 



Among mountain Bagobo, there is a tendency to avoid mentioning 

 their own names that suggests the existence of a generally prevalent 

 tabu at an earlier period. A chieftain educated strictly under the 

 old Bagobo system, like Imbal of Tubison, if asked his name will 

 motion to a companion to answer for him. There is an evident 

 feeling that one's own name is a precious and personal thing, not 

 to be tampered with by others. 



Certain special circumstances appear to set in motion a name-tabu 

 called luas ; e. g. a man does not mention the name of a girl whom 



369 Dr. Fumess says of tabu on names in Borneo: "Among the Kayans and Kenyans, 

 as far as I know, the restriction on the utterance of names of relatives extends only to 

 the fathers-in-law of a married couple, whose names must not be mentioned by either 

 the husband or the wife. Again, it is most ill-omened for a son to mention his dead 

 father's name; and, of course, neither man nor woman dare pronounce their own name; 

 this a downright courting of all conceivable disasters and diseases." Op. cit. p. 17. 



