The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao: The R. F. Cummings Philippine ExpeditionCole, Fay-Cooper
History
The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao: The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition
Cole, Fay-Cooper
Ethnology -- Philippines -- Mindanao Island
"Immediately about twenty persons began to chop the body into small
pieces; and Ansig, the datto of Talun, came over to us and gave Baon two
pieces of the victim's hair attached to the scalp, which is a sign of
the sacrifice. The victim was a slave owned and sacrificed by Datto
Ansig. The first bolo cut which severs the body at the waist and which
in this case we were told was done by Ansig is always performed by the
person making the sacrifice. The people present were guests of Ansig and
were not responsible for the killing, though it is the custom for the
more favored ones to assist in chopping the victim into small pieces
after death."
In the letters written by Father GISBERT in 1886, are many references to
the religious practices of the Bagobo, from which the following are
extracts:
"The feast which they hold before the sowing is a criminal and repugnant
trago-comedy. The tragical part is the first thing that is done. When
they have assembled in the middle of the woods * * * they tightly bind
the slave whom they are going to sacrifice. All armed with sharp knives,
leap and jump about their victim striking him, one after the other, or
several at one time, amid infernal cries and shouts, until the body of
the victim sacrificed has been cut to bits. From the place of the
sacrifice they then go to the house of their chief or the master of the
feast, holding branches in their hands which they place in a large
bamboo, which is not only the chief adornment but the altar of the house
in which they meet * * * The principal part is reserved for the old man
or master of the feast, he standing near the bamboo which I have
mentioned above, holding the vessel of wine in his hand, and, talking
with his comrades, addresses the great demon called _Darago_, whose
feast they are celebrating, in the following words: 'Darago, we are
making you this feast, with great good will and gladness, offering you
the blood of the sacrifice which we have made and this wine which we
drink so that you may be our friend, accompany us, and be propitious in
our wars.' * * * * * * * * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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