BELIEF IN AN HIERARCHY OF BENEFICENT AND MALIGNANT DEITIES
Now it happens that at times these omens can not be observed, so that it might seem that the Manóbo is left exposed to, and defenseless against, a host of spirit enemies.1 However, he knows a means of defense, for the good old people of yore have handed down the belief that there is an hierarchy of beneficent divinities called diwáta that are ever ready to be his champions against the powers of evil. The old, old, people found this faith justified and experienced the help of the beneficent gods. Why should not he?
1Búsau.
How then is he to communicate with these invisible champions? Evidently through those who have been chosen by the deities themselves for that purpose--the order of priests called Italian. And so, following out the practice of his forefathers, he has recourse to the priests in more important concerns in which he can not otherwise ascertain the schemes of malignant spirits or determine the pleasure of the gods. The priest, in answer to his call, either by means of divination, or by ecstatic communion with his tutelary deity, or by appropriate offerings, learns the means to ward off the impending or suspected evil.
Living in a "land of terror," as he had up to about 35 years ago, surrounded on all sides by mortal enemies, and in constant warfare with them, the Manóbo, like his forebears, felt the necessity of having recourse to spiritual agents for protection against his enemies and for assistance in conquering them. Herein is involved another feature of Manóbo religion--the belief in a multitude of warlike spirits called tagbúsan with whom communication is held through the mediation of warrior chiefs called bagáni.
OTHER TENETS OF MANÓBO FAITH
Other points of importance in the religious ideas of the Manóbos are the belief in a future life and in the existence, immortality, and duality of the soul.2 An inordinate fear of the dead and of all connected with them, a host of religious and of other taboos, and a belief in the efficacy of charms, talismans, and sympathetic magical means complete the summary of Manóbo religion. For champions the Manóbo has the tutelary diuáta; for mediators, the bailán; for guides, dreams, divination, auguries, and omens; for propitiation, prayers, invocations, oblations, and sacrifice; for proof of faith, tradition, revelation, and personal experience.
2Not the metaphysical soul that is maintained in biblical and theological belief, but a material counterpart of each individual.