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Updated: June 26, 2025
This completed the duties of the mabalian who returned home carrying an agong, the payment for her services. Large copper gong. Much more is often given. One girl in Cibolan brought six horses, five agongs, and several spears and knives.
These are known as buis and are erected for the buso, in order to avert their displeasure and to keep them at a distance from the dwellings. When the family has been subjected to petty annoyances, or when for any other reason, the mabalian thinks an offering should be made, she orders the family to provide her with betel nut, a piece of iron, and bits of broken dishes, or castoff clothing.
A class known as almo-os is composed mostly of middle-aged women who are in close communication with the spirits and who, like the mabalian of the Bagobo, conduct ceremonies to aid in the cure of the sick, to secure good crops, or to thank the higher beings for their help and watchfulness. Unlike the mabalian, these women are seldom midwives, such duties being performed by a group called fandita.
When the workers go to the field on the day set for the planting they enter at one corner and proceed directly across it to the far left hand corner where they erect a small house or place a tambara which is known as pEmEg'ge. As soon as it is complete, the mabalian begin to call on the spirits. Manama is called first and after him other spirits, according to their rank and power.
I. Eugpamolak Manobo, also called Manama and Kalayagan. The first and greatest of the spirits, and the creator of all that is. His home is in the sky from whence he can observe the doings of men. Gifts for him should be white, and should be placed above and in the center of offerings intended for other spirits. He may be addressed by the mabalian, the datu, and wise old men.
This offering is passed over the body of the patient while the mabalian addresses the spirits as follows. "Now, you can have the man on this dish, for we have changed him for the sick man. Pardon anything this man may have done, and let him be well again."
Other action on his part would be considered by the spirits as an admission that he does not care for the child, and they would cause the umbilical cord to decay so that the child would die. The mother is delivered in the regular dwelling, where she is attended by two or more midwives or mabalian.
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. Mr.
No New England Thanksgiving dinner is prepared with greater thought, or less regard for expense, than that which is made ready at this time. These plates are arranged in a row in the center of the room and the mabalian gather around them. Taking a wand of sandal wood in her hand one of the number waves it over the offerings, while she chants long prayers.
The mabalian cooks a little of the new rice in the house and places a part of it in the various tambara and shrines; then, having placed a number of rice stalks on the floor, she offers them one by one to the spirits. Not until she has finished can any of the prepared food be eaten. The balance of the crop lies in the sun until dry, when it is tied in bundles and placed in the granary.
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