BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 149 



When Data Oleng made his recitation, he stated that he had 

 killed thirty men, and he then gave a charge to the bamboo and 

 to the balekayo and to the ogbns vine that they were to keep on 

 growing until the Ginum should be celebrated next year. Oleng 

 was followed by Awi , who gave a lengthy autobiographical nar- 

 rative telling how he had killed eighteen men in one locality ; and 

 the circumstances which led him to kill nine men in another 

 place ; and then, at a later period, eleven more ; and how, on a 

 certain occasion, he had killed one woman; and, at another time, 

 one man ; and , finally , how he slew three men — a total of 

 forty-three on the face of the statement. Right here, however, 

 there comes into play a remarkable tabu that changes the result of 

 the count. 



When a brave old Bagobo, Avhile holding the bamboo pole, takes 

 his oath on the number of men he has killed, he must always give 

 one half the actual number, for if he should dare to state the 

 correct figure he would be attacked by disease. Moreover, his 

 audacity would be manifest to all the people, for if, while clasping 

 the pole, he should reveal the true number of his victims, the 

 great bamboo would instantly split, from the top down through 

 the entire length of the pole, without blow from human hand. 

 The man's own Mandarangan, or personal war-god, would cause the 

 bamboo to split, because the man has spoken the truth about his 

 exploits. Applying this key, therefore, to the recitations of Oleng 

 and of Awi, we double the count of each, and discover that Oleng 

 had sent down to Gimokudan sixty individuals, and that Awi's 

 victims reached the grand total of eighty-six. This case is a fair 

 illustration of that indirectness which forms such an essential ele- 

 ment in the psychic complex of the Malay. Other instances, too, 

 of what we call dishonesty or lying, may, perhaps as easily, be 

 often traced to some religious scruple, or to some ethical restraint, 

 making it incumbent on a man to say something less, or something 

 more, than the truth. 



When the old men had finished checking up their achievements, 

 a rite of peculiar significance took place, namely, the eating of the 

 sacred food that a little while before had been offered to the god 

 of the balekat. The deity was supposed to feast on the spiritual 

 essence of the food, but the material part was partaken of by the 

 Bagobo men and adolescent boys, this being one of the very few 

 privileges tabu to women. The two garong containing the sacred 



