The interior of Mindanao is occupied by some ten pagan tribes, the most important being the Manóbos, Mandayas, Atás, Bagóbos, Biláns, Tirurais, and Subánuns. These tribes are all remarkably alike in culture; much more so, in fact, than any other similar group of peoples in the Philippines; and this culture shows a close resemblance to that of the tribes in the interior of Borneo. In the development of their myths and of their religious beliefs, these peoples occupy a middle position between the more primitive and the highest developed types of the Philippines. John M. Garvan has recently completed a very extensive study of the Manóbo peoples of the Agusan Valley, in eastern Mindanao, and the following beliefs and myths are quoted from his unpublished notes. ORIGIN OF THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS The story of the creation of the world is variable throughout the whole Agúsan Valley. In the district surrounding Talakógon, the creation is attributed to Makalídung, the first great Manóbo. The details of his great work are very meager. He set it up on posts (some say iron posts) with one in the center. At the central post he has his abode, in company with a python, according to the version of some, and whenever he feels displeasure toward men, he shakes the post, thereby producing an earthquake, and at the same time intimating to man his anger. It is believed that, should the trembling continue, the world would be destroyed. In the same district it is believed that the sky is round and that its extremities are at the limits of the sea. Somewhat near these limits is an enormous hole called the navel of the sea through which the waters descend. It is said that in the early days of creation the sky was low, but that one day a woman, while pounding rice, hit it with her pestle and it ascended to its present position. Another version of the creation, prevalent among the Manóbos of the Argauan and Híbung Rivers, gives the control of the world to Dágau, who lives at the four fundamental pillars in the company of a python. Being a woman, Dágau dislikes the sight of human blood, and when it is spilled upon the face of the earth she incites the huge serpent to wreathe itself around the pillars and shake the world to its foundations. Should she become exceedingly angry, she diminishes the supply of rice either by removing it from the granary or by making the soil unproductive. Another variation of the story to be heard on the Upper Agúsan, Simulau, and Umayan Rivers, has it that the world is like a huge mushroom and that it is supported upon an iron pillar in the center. This pillar is controlled by the higher and more powerful order of diuwáta, who on becoming angered at the actions of men manifest their feelings by shaking the pillar and thereby reminding men of their duties.