MAGIC AILMENTS AND MEANS OF PRODUCING THEM
It is a common thing to hear that a kometán was the cause of a person's death. This may be defined as a secret method by which death is superinduced in a certain person by means either supposedly magic in character or so secret in administration that they may be looked upon as magic. Thus (to give an example of a purely magical sickness), it is thought that by making a wooden mannikin to represent the victim and by mistreating it the person whom it represents will immediately fall sick and die unless countervailing methods are employed to neutralize the effects of the charm. I heard of a case in the lower Agúsan near Esperanza where a wooden figure was made to represent the person of a thief. The figure was cruelly tortured by sticking a bolo into its head, and when sufficient punishment had been administered to cause its death, had it been a thing of life, it was buried amid much wailing. I was assured that the party whom it represented was taken with a lingering disease shortly afterwards and finally died.
The belief in the kometán or secret means of superinducing sickness is widespread, but it is difficult to obtain reliable data on the subject because, for obvious reasons, no one will admit that he is acquainted with the secret nor will he affirm that anyone else is unless it be a person so far away that there is no danger of future complications by reason of the imputation.
THE COMPOSITION OF A FEW "KOMETÁN"
1. The fine flossy spiculæ of a species of bamboo15 placed in the food or in the drink is supposed to cause a slow, lingering sickness that ends in death.
15Caña bojo, or bamboo of the genus Schizostachyum.
2. A piece of a dead man's bone pulverized and put into the food, even into the betel-nut quid, is said to have the same effect but in a more expeditious way, as it superinduces death within a few months.
3. Another reported kometán consists of the blood of a woman dried in the sun and exposed to the light of the moon. This is mixed with human hair cut very fine. Administered in the food, it produces a slow lingering disease that leads to the grave. It is said that after death the hair reappears resting upon the lips and nostrils.
4. Human hair mixed with bits of fingernails and powdered glass is said to be especially virulent. The secret of compounding it is known only to a few. I was informed that the knowledge of this secret composition was acquired from Bisáyas.16