Before each dance the mabalian informs a spirit that this dance is for him and it is customary to add a gift of some kind to those already on the tambara.  Sixteen spirits are thus honored.  Throughout the day there is much feasting and drinking, and at some time before sunset the women are baptized.  Having filled an old agong with water, the mabalian dips certain leaves into it and sprinkles the heads of the women present eight times, meanwhile bidding the spirits to grant to them a good mind and habit.

[2] See p. 110, note. [Transcriber’s note:  back 3 pages, the footnote beginning, “An instrument made by placing....]

Mr. Gohn, a planter of Santa Cruz who has witnessed a number of these ceremonies, says that with the Bagobo of that place it was customary for the datu to baptize the women prior to the day of GinEm.  On the second day, a mabalian provided a long palm leaf, and a number of betel nut buds which, she said, represented streams, rivers, tribes, and individuals.  Taking up a bud she swung the palm leaf above it, chanting meanwhile, and, as she finished, handed it to the datu who opened it and read the signs sent by the spirits.  At the conclusion of this act, all the women went to the river to bathe.

In the writings of the early missionary fathers stationed among the Bagobo are found many references to human sacrifices.  Since American occupation several articles have appeared describing this custom, and following the sacrifice held in Talun in 1907, this practice became the subject of official communication between the Governor of the District and his superiors.  While these descriptions agree, in the main, there are so many minor variations that it seems best to first relate the account given to the writer by Datu Tongkaling and ten of his magani, after which we shall take up some of the earlier accounts, and the official correspondence of 1907.

Datu Tongkaling is a magani.  He claims to have killed more than thirty of his enemies in fair fight and to have assisted in, or to have witnessed, an even greater number of sacrifices.  Prior to his elevation to the office of datu he had aided in several of the yearly offerings.  At the time he became datu he entertained all his people for seven days and on the morning of the last day, in the presence of his subjects, he alone sacrificed a decrepit Bila-an slave for whom he had paid three agongs.  Hence, probably, no man in the tribe is better fitted to describe this event than he.

According to him, a sacrifice should be held each year following the appearance in the sky of a constellation of seven stars known as Balatik ("pig trap").[1] The stars are placed there by the spirits for two purposes:—­first, to inform the people that it is time to prepare for the clearing of new fields; second, to remind them that they should offer a slave to Mandarangan, Darago, and Balakat as payment for