his couple love blood and
for this reason cause men and women to fight or to run amuck.

6. Siring. Mischievous spirits who inhabit caves, cliffs, and dangerous
places. They have long nails and can be distinguished by that
characteristic. They sometimes impersonate members of the family and
thus succeed in stealing women and children, whom they carry to their
mountain homes. The captives are not eaten but are fed on snakes and
worms, and should they try to escape the _siring_ will scratch them with
their long nails.

Other spirits were named and described by individuals, but as they are
not generally accepted by the people of the tribe they are not mentioned
here.

The stars, thunder and lightning, and similar phenomena are generally
considered as "lights or signs" belonging to the spirits, yet one
frequently hears hazy tales such as that "the constellation Marara is a
one-legged and one-armed man who sometimes causes cloudy weather at
planting time so that people may not see his deformities," or we are
told that "the sun was placed in the sky by the creator, and on it lives
an evil spirit who sometimes kills people. The sun is moved about by the
wind;" again, "the sun and moon were once married and all the stars are
their children."

Despite repeated assertions by previous writers that the Bagobo are
fire-worshippers no evidence was obtained during our visit to support
the statement. The older people insisted that it was not a spirit and
that no offerings were ever made to it. One _mabalian_ stated that fire
was injurious to a woman in her periods and hence it was best for her
not to cook at such times; she was also of the opinion that fire was of
two kinds, good and bad, and hence might belong to both good and bad
spirits.

A common method used by the spirits to communicate with mortals is
through the call of the _limokon_[44] All the people know the meaning of
its calls and all respect its warnings. If a man is starting to buy or
trade for an article and this bird gives its warning the sale is
stopped. Should the _limokon_ call when a person is on the trail he at
ones doubles his fist and thrusts it in the direction from which the
warning comes. If it becomes necessary to point backwards, it is a
signal to return, or should the arm point directly in front it is
certain that danger is there, and it is best to turn back and avoid it.
When it is not clear from whence the note came, the traveler looks
toward the r