The enunciation of magical spell is always present in Manobo ritual. It constitutes a special genre of speech, which style is quite different from that of invocation (addressed to personal spirits), songtexts (which poetic attribute is called dandanen), and ritual conversation (panubad-tubad). It is not addressed to any specified personified spirit or ritual participant but is enacted to “let things be” or “become.” It is normatively spoken by the person who is perceived to have caused the transgression that had led to the illness and thus the holding of the ritual.

    Simply a statement of wish, with apparent propositionality uttered with the sheer intentionality of the speaking “I,” this type of Manobo ritual speech vaguely resembles the Trobriand magical spells (documented by Malinowski) that Tambiah re-analyzed in his celebrated 1968 essay, “The magical power of words.” I say vaguely “resembles” because Trobriand magical spell works through the transfer of desired attributes from one ritual object to another—the beneficiary of the action-- via a metaphorical or metonymic (read: a cognitive) linkage. In contrast, magic in Manobo spell primarily works at the level of substantiality of words and pragmatics.

    This aspect in the materiality of magical spell is therefore interesting to take note and investigate. By “materiality,” I refer to the Manobo spell as sounds, which create symmetrical patterns. In the Table, words in the first clause (in bold typeface in column 2) are repeated with alterations in the succeeding clause (column 3). This creates a mechanical sing-song effect. I have highlighted these words in the table to show how the sound of the action word in the first clause is physically echoed in the parallel word in the second clause.