rich clothing of the participants loses nothing of its beauty in this
dim light, while the bells and rattles with which each dancer surrounds
arms, legs and ankles, add to the din and weirdness of the occasion.
Before the dance has progressed far the musicians begin to keep time
with their feet and frequently dance away from their instruments,
circle, and then return to continue the music.

With slight variation, this is the dance used on all occasions. At
certain ceremonies small gongs, or the _bolang bolang_,[45] replace the
_agongs_, and at times also a single dancer will accompany himself on
the _kodlon_--a long wooden guitar with rattan strings (Plate XXXb).

[45] An instrument made by placing a small board on a rice mortar. This
is pounded or beaten with short sticks, or with the wooden pestles.

In this description we have named a large share of the musical
instruments used by the Bagobo. The women frequently play on a sort of
guitar made of a section of bamboo from the outside of which narrow
strings are cut. These are raised and made taut with small wooden
bridges and are then picked with a stick or the fingers (Fig. 33).
Bamboo Jew's-harps and mouth flutes are played by the men, but the nose
flute, so common in most parts of the Philippines, was not seen in use
here.

FIG. 33. TAW-GAU OR BAMBOO GUITAR.

The ceremonies and dances are so closely associated with every day
affairs that in the description of the life of the people up to this
point we have left only a few still to be discussed. These are, in the
main, very similar throughout the Bagobo belt, but to avoid confusion