BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 253 



gathered by observers of religious rites as celebrated by pagan tribes 

 in the south, yet even in such records as we have, certain well- 

 marked characteristics in ritual appear in the same setting in several 

 different tribes. A number of the ritual elements that are found 

 to be the common property of two or three or more mountain 

 tribes of Mindanao will be mentioned briefly, not at all as a com- 

 plete list, but rather as suggesting a line along which a full 

 comparison might be extended. 



We note, first, a close similarity in the essentials of sacrificial 

 rites as practised by the Bagobo and other peoples of Mindanao. 

 The offering of human victims seems, at present, to be peculiar to 

 the Bagobo, the closely allied Guianga and the Tagakaola; but the 

 manner of sacrificing animals in other tribes is in many points 

 identical with the Bagobo paghuaga. The intention and the tech- 

 nique of the bloody sacrifice is much the same, whether the victim 

 be a man, a hog or a cock. In the brief but trenchant description 

 given by Pastells 390 of this rite among the Manclaya, we learn 

 that the sacrifice is performed at the signal of drums and agongs; 

 the official sacrificers wear claret-colored shirts and ceremonial 

 kerchiefs; the victim is tied to some structure of recognized form; 

 a peculiar dance is performed about the victim before the attack; 

 definite ritual words are repeated to Mansilatan or to Badlao — gods 

 that answer to Mandarangan; the privilege of giving the first stab 

 is awarded beforehand to a particular individual; a feast following 

 the sacrifice is shared in by great numbers of people. The Buquidnon, 

 similarly, offer sacrifices of swine and fowls, 4 "" having old men as 

 celebrants of the rites, with the accompaniment of songs, dancing 

 and prayers. Besides the bloody sacrifice, the Manclaya, the Bu- 

 quidnon and many other tribes, make agricultural offerings of areca- 

 nuts and buyo and various products of the soil. 4 " 1 Antiphonal 

 songs relating the achievements of ancestral heroes are sung on 

 festival occasions by the Buquidnon, as well as by the Bagobo. 

 The shrines of the Buquidnon answer, structurally, to the Bagobo 



399 "Carta... al 11. P. Superior de la Mision, Catel, 8 de Junio de 1878." Cartas de 

 los PP. de la Compauia de Jesus de la Mision de Pilipinas, vol. 2, pp. 138 — 139, 

 144. 1879. 



" 00 J. M. Clctet: "Letter ... Talisayan, May 11, 1889." Blair and Robertson ; op. 

 cit., vol. 43, p. 296. 1906. 



'- 01 Pablo Pastells: loc. cit. Cartas, vol. 2, pp. 139—140. 1879. See also Clotet's 

 letter (ut supra). Blair and Robertson: op. cit., vol. 43, p. 290. 



