240 ANXALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



he has seduced; the names of two boys who are desperately at 

 odds may be luas to each other. 



It is tabu to mention the name of the god of fire, lest such 

 mention act as a summons to Buso. 



In building a house, it is tabu to place the floor at a level be- 

 tween the waist and the head of the builder. The floor must be 

 either in the same horizontal plane with the waist of the builder, 

 or else be raised to a height above his head. If the floor should 

 be at the height, say, of the shoulder, the house would inevitably 

 fall and crush the family. 



In digging a grave, the depth must be such that the top of the 

 walls be at a point about midway between the waist and the breast 

 of the digger. It is tabu to dig a grave deeper or shallower than 

 this measure. 



Among mountain Bagobo, there is a rigid tabu against the sale 

 of unfinished textiles or other handiwork that is still in process 

 of manufacture by the women, such as carrying bags, embroidery, 

 and over-laced work. To break this tabu will make the women 

 too eager for the society of men. Of such an emotional disturb- 

 ance, the dignified and self-controlled Bagobo woman is in deadly 

 fear; and it was only after much discussion among the old people 

 in regard to possible substitutes and medicines that I could secure 

 an article in process of making. 



Class Tali i 



The class tabu defines the limits of privileges reserved for cer- 

 tain classes. This type of tabu may, perhaps, have become oblig- 

 atory as a means of social control, or under the pressure of group 

 interests. By this, I do not intend to give the impression that 

 there has been any formal reservation of valued privileges for the 

 old people, or for other classes of individuals distinguished for ex- 

 ploit or by their ancestry; but merely that in single cases, through 

 some historic accident, such a tabu might easily have originated, 

 ami Later have become fixed as a social obligation. In the nature 



of things, this class of tabus would be small, for the social system 

 of the Bagobo is frankly democratic, and most good things are 

 -hared by all: yet here and there, though rarely, a young man 

 who has performed no exploit, or a woman, mi account of her sex, 

 is at a disadvantage. 



