BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEBEMONIAL, MAGIC AXD MYTH 185 



with conversation, and having for its object a financial settlement 

 lit 'tween the two families, in regard to the marriage price. The 

 bridegroom may have been obliged to borrow the agongs, or to 

 buy on credit; the man to whom he owes the instruments may be 

 inclined to come and take them away from the bride's father; the 

 number of agongs brought in by the young man may fall short of 

 those he promised for the marriage price ; and numerous compli- 

 cations may arise among a people so ingenious in resources for 

 borrowing, as well as for pawning and promising payment in 

 articles that they hope sometime to acquire. In any case, there 

 might arise a question as to how many agongs are due of those 

 customarily given back by the father of the bride. Gokum lasts, 

 often, far into the night or until morning. 



In marriages among families of wealth and distinction, the killing 

 of a slave as a religious sacrifice (paghuaga) is regarded as an im- 

 portant factor for insuring an auspicious marriage. This is an old 

 custom among the Bagobo, and as late as 1886 Father Gisbert 

 writes: "When they [the Bagobo] marry, if the lovers think that it 

 will be of any use, they make a human sacrifice so that they may 

 have a good marriage, so that the weather may be good, so that 

 they may have no storm, sickness, etc., all things which they 

 attribute to the devil." 2SS During my own stay among the Bagobo, 

 no such instance came to my knowledge. 



According to Bagobo custom, the young man lives in the home 

 of the bride's parents for perhaps a year, more or less, or at least 

 until his own new house is built. When this is ready they set 

 up their own establishment. But if a Bagobo girl marries a Vis- 

 ayan, she will go with her husband to the house of his parents, 

 in accordance with Yisayan custom, for a longer or shorter period. 



Neither tribal exogamy nor tribal endogamy exists among the 

 Bagobo. They marry 289 freely both within their own tribe and 



288 Blair and Robertson: op. ciL, vol. 43, p. 235. 1906. 



289 The mixture of the Bagobo with other tribes, which is considerable, will lead to 

 interesting questions concerning changes in Bagobo ritual from the outside influence thus 

 brought in. In the sparsely-settled country in the near vicinity of Santa Cruz, I noted 

 seventeen families in which a Bagobo man or woman had taken a mate from some other 

 tribe. Of these, there were five matings of Bagobo with Tagakaola ; six with Visayan ; 

 two with Tagal; two with Bila-an ; one with Zamboanguinian Moro; while one Bagobo 

 man had three wives — one each, from the Tagakaola, the Bagobo and the Bila-an tribes, 

 respectively. In the mountains, intermarriage between the Bagobo and Bila-an peoples, 



