The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao - The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition by Fay-Cooper Cole
page 105 of 211 (49%)
page 105 of 211 (49%)
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make the objects more beautiful in the eyes of the owners. In this work
there are no set patterns and each artist gives full reign to the fancy in producing these figures. Third, that the ideas for the patterns inlaid, incised, and cast in brass or copper, are furnished by the examples of this work coming from the Malays to the south, but that even in these the artist has taken great liberties in the execution of the design. Fourth, that one type of decoration, i. e., the incised figures filled with lime, suggests the possible influence of Melanesia on the artistic ideas of this people. MYTHOLOGY. During my stay with this tribe I heard parts of many folk-tales, some chanted, others told with gravity, and still others which caused the greatest levity. My limited knowledge of the dialect and pressure of other work caused me to delay the recording of these tales until I should begin a systematic study of the language. Owing to unforeseen circumstances, that time never came, and it is now possible to give only the slightest idea of a very rich body of tales.[54] [54] Since this was written MISS BENEDICT has published an excellent collection of Bagobo Myths (_Journal of American Folklore_, 1913, XXVI. pp. 13-63.) In the main these stories are an attempt to account for the present order of things. In the tale which we quoted in part, at the beginning of the paper, we are told of an all-powerful being who created the earth and all that is. Other spirits and many animals inhabited the sky and earth which the creator had made. Of the latter only one, the monkey, is named. He and his kind, we are told, once inhabited and owned all the |
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