Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Sufficient food is prepared for the guests and when all is ready the mabalian takes one chicken from among those to be used for food and frees it as an offering to the gimokod. It is bidden to wander about in the forest, and no one will molest the fowl, for should he do so he is certain to become ill.
Aside from the gimokod the Bagobo believe that there exists a great company of powerful spirits who make their homes in the sky above, in the space beneath the world, or in the sea, in streams, cliffs, mountains, or trees. The following is the list related by Datu Tongkaling, a number of mabalian, and others supposed to have special knowledge concerning these superior beings.
In these places the gimokod are met by the spirits, Toglai and Tigyama, and by them are assigned to their future homes. If a man has been a datu on earth, his spirits have like rank in the other life, but go to the same place as those of common people. The gimokod of evil men are punished by being crowded into poor houses.
Rain can be stopped by placing an offering of a leg ring, or prepared betel nut beside the trail and presenting them to the Gimokod, at the same time asking them to stop the downpour. To a stranger entering a Bagobo house, in the absence of its owners, it appears that the people have little artistic development.
As already noted, the people of Malilla are inclined to identify the gimokod of the left side with this evil class. XV. Tagamaling. Evil spirits who dwell in big trees. XVI. Tigbanua. Ill disposed beings inhabiting rocks and cliffs in the mountains. These last two classes are frequently confused with the buso. In addition to these, the old men of Malilla gave the following: 1. Tagareso.
The procedure is the same for women, and for children who have survived infancy. There is some variance, in different parts of the Bagobo area, in the beliefs concerning the spirits or souls of a man. In Cibolan each man and woman is supposed to have eight spirits or gimokod, which dwell in the head, the right and left hands and feet, and other parts not specified.
These spirits may return to their old home for short periods, and talk with the gimokod of the living through dreams, but they never return to dwell again on earth. In the districts to the west of Cibolan the general belief is that there are but two gimokod, one inhabiting the right side of the body, the other the left.
At death these gimokod part, four from the right side of the body, going up to a place called palakalangit, and four descending to a region known as karonaronawan.These places differ in no respects from the present home of the Bagobo, except that in the region above it is always day, and all useful plants grow in abundance.
Word Of The Day