Beyond a few letters written by the missionaries[1] we find scant reference to this tribe in history, but their own traditions and genealogies are well known even by the younger generation.

[1] BLAIR and ROBERTSON.  The Philippine Islands.

According to the tribal historians the human race sprang from a man, Toglai, and his wife, Toglibon, who lived on Mt.  Apo.[2] “They were there from the beginning, at a point near to the present settlement of Cibolan.  Many fruits grew on the mountains and the forests abounded in game so that it was easy for them to secure food.  There were born to them children, who, when they grew up, married.  One day Toglai and Toglibon told their oldest boy and girl that they should go far away across the ocean, for there was a good place for them.  So the two departed and were seen no more until their descendants, the white people, came back to Davao.  The other children remained with their parents and were happy and prosperous until Toglai and Toglibon died and went to the sky, where they became spirits.  Soon after their death the country suffered a great drought.  This finally became so severe that the water in the rivers dried up and there was no more food in the land.  At last the children were forced to leave their home and seek out new habitations in other parts.  They traveled in pairs, in different directions, until they came to favorable locations where they settled down.  From them have sprung all the tribes known to the Bagobo.  One pair was too weak to make the journey from the drought-cursed land, and staid at Cibolan.  One day the man crawled out into the ruined fields to see if he could not find some one thing alive, and when he arrived there he saw, to his amazement, a single stalk of sugar cane growing lustily.  He cut it with his knife, and water began to come out until there was enough for the couple to drink.  The flow did not cease until the rains came again to refresh the land.  From these two the tribe has again grown until it numbers its members in the thousands.  The people have remained true to their belief in the spirits, and each year has found them stronger in numbers, and richer in houses, land, and slaves.”

[2] See fuller account by author, in Philippine Journal of Science.  June 1911, Vol.  VI, No. 3, pp. 128-9.

The genealogy of the Bagobo rulers is traced back through ten generations.  The first ruler of whom there is record was Salingolop, during whose reign, it seems, the Spaniards first came to the Philippines.  According to the tale[1] “Salingolop was a man of great and prodigious force, and as tall as the Lauan, which is the tallest tree in these forests.  He had three sons called Bato, Sipongos, and Calisquisan, and a daughter named Panugutan.  When the Spaniards arrived at Manila, and found that there existed a man so tall and powerful, they sent a battalion of soldiers.  They disembarked on the shore of Bimigao near Daron, and ascended the mountain where Salingolop