the right
arm and above the margin of the ribs. This lance was grasped by the
widows Addy and Obby, who at a signal from Ansig forced it through the
child's body, it coming out at the other side. It was immediately
withdrawn and the body cut in two at the waist by bolos in the hands of
Moesta Barraro and Ola, after which the body was cut down and chopped
into bits by the people present, each of whom was allowed to take a
small portion as a momento[sic] of the occasion, the remainder of the
body being buried in a hole prepared for it.

"It is said the child was deaf and almost blind and that it did not
realize what was to happen to it until the moment it was tied up when it
began to cry; further, that death was almost instantaneous, the only cry
being one uttered when the spear first entered the child's body.

"Datto Ansig, a man about sixty years of age, says that in his life he
has attended or officiated at fifty human sacrifices, more or less, both
among the Bagobos and the Bilanes, and that human sacrifice is also
practiced among the Tagacolos, although he has never been present at one
held by that tribe.

"The Bagobos do not sacrifice any but old and decrepit or useless slaves
captured from other tribes, but the Bilanes sacrifice even their own
people.

"Being asked if it was customary to eat any portion of the body
sacrificed, Ansig replied that it was not customary nor did he know of
any case where such had occurred.

"The last sacrifice before this was held at Talun during the year of the
drought (about 1905) when a Bilan slave, an old man who was paralyzed in
one arm, was sacrificed by Datto Oling, his master.

"Asked if the sacrifice of an animal would not do as well as that of a
human being, they said, 'No, better to have no sacrifice at all.'

"They appeared utterly unconscious of having committed any crime, told
their story with frankness, said it was a matter not talked about among
their own people but that if we wanted to know the facts they would give
them to the authorities. They claimed the offering of human sacrifices
by their tribe to be an old custom and, as far as they knew the only way
to appease the wrath of the evil spirits, but said if they were ordered
to give the custom up they would do so even if the devil got them all."

Then follows the statement of an eye-witness to the ceremony:

"My name is Modesta Barrera; I live in the town of Santa Cruz, my father
being a Visayan, my mother