The priest has no distinctive dress, but while officiating garbs himself with all the wealth of beads, bells, and baubles that he may have acquired. As a rule he has an abundance not only of these but of charms, talismans, and amulets, all of which are hung from his neck, or girded around his waist. These charms have various mystic powers for the protection of his person and some of them are said to have been revealed to him by his favorite deities. While performing the invocation and the sacred dance on the occasion of a greater sacrifice, he always carries, one in each hand, a parted palm frond with the spikes undetached.
All the rites of the Manóbo ritual consist of one or more of the following elements: Invocation, petition, consultation, propitiation, and expiation. The priest is, in fact, either alone or aided by others of his kind, the officiant in nearly every religious ceremony; laymen merely sit round and take desultory interest in the ceremonial proceedings.
These rites are the following:
(1) The betel-nut offering.6
(2) The burning of incense.7
(3) Ceremonial omen taking.8
(4) Prophylactic fowl waving.9
(5) The death feast.10
(6) The sacrifice of a fowl or of a pig11 to his own tutelaries in the event of sickness or in the hour of impending danger.
(7) The offering of a fowl or of a pig to Taphágan, the goddess of grain during the season of rice culture.
(8) The harvest ceremonies in honor of Hakiádan for the purpose of securing an abundant crop and of protecting the rice from sundry insidious enemies and dangers.
(9) The birth ceremony in honor of Mandáit for the protection of the recently born babe.
(10) Conciliatory offerings to the demons during epidemics, as also in cases where the power of the evil spirits is thought to predominate over that of the kindly deities. Madness and inordinate sexual passion, as also the continuance of an epidemic after incessant efforts have failed to secure the aid of the friendly spirits are illustrations of the power of the evil spirits.
(11) Lustration12 either by anointing with blood or by aspersion with water.
(12) The betel-nut omen.13
(13) The invocation of the diuáta with the sacred chant.14
6Pag-á-pug.
7Pag-pa-lí-na.
8Ti-maí-ya.
9Kú-yab to má-nuk.
10Ka-ta-pú-san.
11Hín-añg to ka-hi-mó-nan.