The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

RELIGION BEFORE 1000 A. D.

29

MYTHS AND DEITIES
Bagobos believe that the human race sprang from a pair
who lived on Mount Apo. One day these two ancestors of
the Bagobos told their children that they were going on a long
journey across the water. They were never seen again until
their descendants, the white race, came back to Davao. Later
a drought drove nearly all the Bagobos to migrate in search
of food, and from these sprang all the known races of man.
(How typical this ego-centric tendency is of all peoples of
all lands!)
The creator of this first pair of human beings had previously
created the world, and is the head of all superior beings. His
name is Eugpamolak Manobo, or Nanama for short. He is
served by a tremendous number of well-meaning but easily
offended spirits who must be propitiated by numerous offerings. Another lower group of mean spirits dwells in trees,
cliffs, rocks, rivers and springs, from which they often emerge
to torment people with their mischievous pranks; and it is these
spirits that cause sickness among the people. Still a third
group consists of the spirits of the deceased Bagobos, some
of whom are good and others bad in their influence over the
living.
There is a fourth group, the patron spirits, which are almost
as powerful as the creator himself. Two of these deserve
special mention. They are the god Mandarangan and his
wife Darago, who live in the crater of Mount Apo, and from
there watch over the Bagobo warriors. In return for their
aid in winning battles they were formerly supposed to demand, at certain seasons, a human sacrifice.
To be favored by the protection of the two spirits in Mount
Apo, the warrior must first have killed at least two human
beings. He may then wear a chocolate-colored handkerchief
with white patterns on it. When he has killed four he may
wear blood-red trousers, and when he has killed six he may
wear a full red suit and carry a red sack over his shoulder.
Henceforth he is a person of distinction and power-and