CHAPTER XXIV

PRIESTS, THEIR PREROGATIVES AND FUNCTIONS

THE BAILÁN OR ORDINARY MANÓBO PRIESTS

THEIR GENERAL CHARACTER

The _bailán_[1] is a man or woman who has become an object of special predilection to one or more of those supernatural friendly beings known among the Manóbos as _diuáta_. This will explain why the word _diuatahán_ is frequently used, especially by the mountain people, instead of _bailán_. I was frequently told by priests that this special predilection of the deities for them is due to the fact that they happened to be born at the same time as their divine protectors. This belief, however, is not general.

[1] _Bai-lán_ is probably a transformation of the Malay word _be-li-an_, a medicine man. (Mandáya, Bagóbo, and Subánun, _ba-li-án_.)

As a result of the favor in which the supernatural beings hold him, the priest becomes the favorite and familiar of spirits with whom he can commune and from whom he can ask favors and protection both for himself and for his friends. Hence he is regarded by his fellow tribesmen in the light of a mediator through whom they transact all their business with the other world. In the hour of danger the _bailán_ is consulted, and after a brief communion with his spirit Mends he explains the measures to be adopted, in accordance with the injunctions of his tutelary deities. Should a _baléte_ tree have to be removed from the newly selected forest patch, who else could coax its spirit dwellers not to molest the tiller of the soil, if not the _bailán_? Should a tribesman have a monstrous dream and no one of all the dream experts succeed in giving a satisfactory interpretation, the _bailán_ is called in to consult the powers above and ascertains that the dream forebodes, perhaps, an impending sickness and that an offering of a white fowl must be made to Manáug, the protector of the sick. And should this offering prove unavailing, he has recourse to his supernal friends again and discovers that a greater oblation must be made to save the patient. And if there is a very unfavorable conjunction to omens, who else but the _bailán_ could learn through his divine friends the significance thereof and whether the home must be abandoned or the project relinquished?

At every turn of life, whether the deities have to be invoked, conciliated, or appeased, the Manóbo calls upon the priest to intercede for himself, for his relatives, and for his friends.

The office of priest may be said to be hereditary. I found that with few exceptions it had remained within the immediate circle of the _bailán's_ relatives. Toward the evening of life the aged priest selects his successor, recommending his choice to the _diuáta_. In one instance that I know of the mother, a _bailán_, instructed her daughter in the varieties of herbs which she had found to be acceptable to her familiars, and I was told that such is the usual procedure when the priest himself has a personal concern in the succession.

But no matter how proficient the _bailán_-elect may be in the sacred rites and legendary songs of the order, he is not recognized by his fellow tribesmen until he falls into the condition of what is known as _dundan_, a state of mental and physical exaltation which is considered to be an unmistakable proof of the presence and operation of some supernal power within him. This exaltation manifests itself by a violent trembling accompanied by loud belching, copious sweating, foaming at the mouth, protruding of the eyeballs, and in some cases that I have seen, apparent temporary loss of sight and unconsciousness. These symptoms are considered to be an infallible sign of divine influence, and the novice is accordingly recognized as a full-fledged priest ready to begin his ministrations under the protection of his spiritual friends. I know of one case on the lower Lamlíñga River, a tributary of the Kasilaían, where a certain individual[2] became a _bailán_ without previous premonition and without any aspirations on his part. He was a person of little guile and one who had never had any previous training in the practices of his order.

[2] Báya (or Bório) is the young man referred to.

When he receives a familiar deity the new priest becomes endowed with five more spirits or soul companions, for his greater protection and for the prolongation of his life. It is evident that his duties as mediator create a deadly hate on the part of the evil spirits toward him; hence the need of greater protection, such as is said to be afforded by the increase in number of spirit companions. It is generally believed that, due also to this special protection, the priests are more long-lived than ordinary men. I was informed by some that with the increase of each familiar there was an addition of five more souls or spirit companions, but I did not find this to be the common belief.

THEIR PREROGATIVES

(1) The priest holds converse with his divine friends, whose form he sees and describes, whose words he hears and interprets, and whose injunctions, whether made known directly by personal revelation or through divination or through dreams, he announces. When under supernal influence he is not a voluntary agent but an inspired being, through whose mouth the deity announces his will and to whose eyes he appears in visible incarnation.

(2) By means of his friendship with these unseen beings he is enabled to discover the presence of the inveterate enemies of human kind, the _búsau_, and even to wound them. I investigated two[3] cases of the latter kind and found that not a shadow of doubt as to the truth of the killing and as to the reality of this last-mentioned power was entertained by those who had been in a position to see and hear the facts.

[3] San Luis and San Miguel.

(3) As a result of the favor with which he is looked upon by the beneficent deities, he is enabled to discover the presence of various spirits in certain localities, and he knows the proper means of dealing with them. This statement applies to the spirits of "souls"[4] of the departed whose wishes and wants he interprets; to the spirits of the hills and the valleys, the _tagbánua_, whose favor must be courted and whose displeasure must not be provoked, and to the whole order of supernatural beings that people the Manóbo world, with the exception of the blood spirits, the worship of whom falls to the war priests.

[4] _Um-a-gád_.

SINCERITY OF THE PRIESTS

On first becoming acquainted with the _bailán_ system, I was very dubious, to say the least, of the sincerity and disinterestedness of these favorites of the gods. But long and careful observation and frequent dealings with them have thoroughly convinced me of their sincerity. They affect no austere practices, no chastity, nor any other observance peculiar to the order of priesthood in other parts of the world. They claim no high prerogatives of their own; they can not slay at a distance nor metamorphose themselves into animals of fierce aspect. They have no cabalistic rites nor magic formulas nor miraculous methods for producing wondrous effects. In a word, as far as my personal observation goes, they are not impostors nor conjurers, plying thrifty trade with their fellow tribesmen, but merely intermediaries, who avail themselves of their intimacy with powers unseen to solicit aid for themselves and for their fellows in the hour of trial or tribulation. "I will call on _Si Inimigus_" (her _diuáta's_ pet name, his real name being Si Inámpo), said a priestess of the Kasilaían River to me once when I consulted her as to the sickness of a child, "and I will let you know his answer." On her return she informed me that the child had fallen under the influence of an evil spirit and that Si Inimigus required the sacrifice of a pig as a token of my good will towards him and also as a gratification of a desire that he felt for such nourishment. She departed as she came, never asking any compensation for her advice.

I might cite many cases of a similar nature that passed under my personal observation and in which I made every endeavor to discover mercenary motives. I frequently interrogated men of political and social standing as to the possibility of hypocrisy and deceit on the part of the priests. The invariable answer was that such could not be the case, as the deities themselves would be the first to resent and punish such deception. One shrewd Manóbo of the upper Agúsan assured me that the Manóbos themselves were wise enough to detect attempts at fraud in such matters.

Moreover, the fact that the priest incurs comparatively heavy expenses is another evidence of his sincerity, for, in order to keep his tutelary spirits supplied with the delicacies they desire, he must offer constant oblations of pig and fowl, since he believes that when these spirits are hungry they lose their good humor and are liable to permit some evil spirit to work malice on him or on some of his relatives. Of course his relatives and friends help to keep them supplied, but at the same time he probably undergoes more expense himself than any other individual.

Finally, as further proof of the absence of mercenary motives, it may be stated that the priest is not entitled to any share of the sacrificial victim except that which he eats in company with those who attend the sacrifice and the subsequent consumption of the victim.

THEIR INFLUENCE

The priest has no political influence as a rule. I am acquainted with none and have heard of very few priests, who have attained the chieftainship of a settlement, even among the _conquistas_, or Christianized Manóbos, who live within the pale of the established government. But in matters that pertain to the religious side of life their influence is paramount, for it is chiefly due to them that tribal customs and conditions are unflinchingly maintained. The following incident is an illustration of this influence:

During a visit which I made to the Lamiñga River, a western tributary of the Kasilaían River, I met Mandahanán, a warrior chief. Among other matters I referred to the ridiculously low price, 0.50 per sack, at which Manóbos were wont to sell rice to the Bisáya peddlers who at that time were swarming in the district. I suggested that they dispose of their rice at the current Bisáya rate of P2.50 per sack. He replied that he had been of that opinion for some time, but that the four priests of his following had decided that an increase of the customary value of rice would entail a mysterious lessening of the present crop and a partial or even total loss of that of next year, the reason assigned by them being that such an action would be displeasing to _Hakiádan_, the goddess of rice, and to _Tagamáling_, the protector of other crops. These deities, he assured me, were very capricious, and when they took umbrage at anything, they either caused the rice in the granaries to diminish mysteriously, or brought about a failure in the following year's crop.[5]

[5] The killing of Mr. Ickis, of the Bureau of Science, according to an account that I received, also demonstrates the influence exerted by the priests.

To the priests may be ascribed the rigid adherence to tribal practices and the opposition to modern innovations, even when the change confessedly would be beneficial to them.

THEIR DRESS AND FUNCTIONS

The priest has no distinctive dress, but while officiating garbs himself with all the wealth of beads, bells, and baubles that he may have acquired. As a rule he has an abundance not only of these but of charms, talismans, and amulets, all of which are hung from his neck, or girded around his waist. These charms have various mystic powers for the protection of his person and some of them are said to have been revealed to him by his favorite deities. While performing the invocation and the sacred dance on the occasion of a greater sacrifice, he always carries, one in each hand, a parted palm frond with the spikes undetached.

All the rites of the Manóbo ritual consist of one or more of the following elements: Invocation, petition, consultation, propitiation, and expiation. The priest is, in fact, either alone or aided by others of his kind, the officiant in nearly every religious ceremony; laymen merely sit round and take desultory interest in the ceremonial proceedings.

These rites are the following:

(1) The betel-nut offering.[6]

[6] _Pag-á-pug_.

(2) The burning of incense.[7]

[7] _Pag-pa-lí-na_.

(3) Ceremonial omen taking.[8]

[8] _Ti-maí-ya_.

(4) Prophylactic fowl waving.[9]

[9] _Kú-yab to má-nuk_.

(5) The death feast.[10]

[10] _Ka-ta-pú-san_.

(6) The sacrifice of a fowl or of a pig[11] to his own tutelaries in the event of sickness or in the hour of impending danger.

[11] _Hín-añg to ka-hi-mó-nan_.

(7) The offering of a fowl or of a pig to Taphágan, the goddess of grain during the season of rice culture.

(8) The harvest ceremonies in honor of Hakiádan for the purpose of securing an abundant crop and of protecting the rice from sundry insidious enemies and dangers.

(9) The birth ceremony in honor of Mandáit for the protection of the recently born babe.

(10) Conciliatory offerings to the demons during epidemics, as also in cases where the power of the evil spirits is thought to predominate over that of the kindly deities. Madness and inordinate sexual passion, as also the continuance of an epidemic after incessant efforts have failed to secure the aid of the friendly spirits are illustrations of the power of the evil spirits.

(11) Lustration[12] either by anointing with blood or by aspersion with water.

[12] _Paí-as_.

(12) The betel-nut omen.[13]

[13] _Ti-maí-a to man-ó-on_.

(13) The invocation of the _diuáta_ with the sacred chant.[14]

[14] _Túd-um_.

THE BAGÁNI OR PRIESTS OF WAR AND BLOOD

The _bagáni_ or warrior priests are under the protection of preternatural beings called tagbúsau, whose bloodthirsty cravings they must satisfy.

This peculiar priesthood is not hereditary, but is a pure gift from warlike spirits, who select certain mortals for favorites, constantly guard them against the attacks of their enemies, teach them the use of various secret herbs whereby to render themselves invisible and invulnerable, bestow upon them an additional number of soul companions that in some indefinable way protect them against the ire of the resentful slain, and in general afford them an immunity from all dangers, material and spiritual.

It is believed that when the warrior priest dies his soul companions return to the war spirits from whom they proceeded, and with whom they take up their eternal abode upon the far-off mountain heights. Upon their return to these heights it is said that they are pursued by a monstrous crowd of inexorable demons and vexed spirits of those that have fallen victims to their arm, but that, owing to the power and vigilance of the mighty gods of war, they reach their last home unscathed.

Like the priest, a war chief is recognized as a priest when he falls into that state of paroxysm that is considered to be of preternatural origin. This condition is usually the result of a wild fight, in which, after slashing down one or more of the enemy, he eats the heart and liver of one of the slain and dances around in ungovernable fury. I have been frequently informed that the companions of a man thus possessed cautiously withdraw while he is under this influence, as he might do something rash. I witnessed the actions of several _bagáni_ during ceremonial performances to the _tagbúsau_, and I felt no little fear as to what might be the outcome of the warrior chiefs fury.

What has been said of the sincerity of the ordinary priest and of his disinterestedness and freedom from mercenary motives applies equally to the war chief in his position as war priest.

In return for the protection accorded to his select ones the gods of war require frequent supplies of blood and other delicacies, the denial of which would render the favorite liable to constant plaguing by his protectors in their efforts to make him mindful of their needs. In another chapter we shall see the means whereby the _bagáni_ keeps himself in the good graces of his inexorable deities.[15]

[15] For a full description of the rites peculiar to the warrior chief as priest the reader is referred to Chapter XXVI.