The Manóbos of Mindanáo / Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir

by John M. Garvan

PART I. DESCRIPTIVE

CHAPTER I

CLASSIFICATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MANÓBOS
AND OTHER PEOPLES IN EASTERN MINDANÁO

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

"EASTERN MINDANÁO"

Throughout this monograph I have used the term "eastern Mindanáo" to include that part of Mindanáo that is east of the central Cordillera as far south as the headwaters of the River Libagánon, east of the River Tágum and its influent the Libagánon, and east of the gulf of Davao.

THE TERM "TRIBE"

The word "tribe" is used in the sense in which Dean C. Worcester defines and uses it in his article on The non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon:¹

A division of a race composed of an aggregate of individuals of a kind and of a common origin, agreeing among themselves in, and distinguished from their congeners by physical characteristics, dress, and ornaments; the nature of the communities which they form; peculiarities of house architecture; methods of hunting, fishing, and carrying on agriculture; character and importance of manufacture; practices relative to war and the taking of heads of enemies; arms used in warfare; music and dancing, and marriage and burial customs; but not constituting a political unit subject to the control of any single individual nor necessarily speaking the same dialect.

¹Philip. Journ. Sci., 1: 803, 1906.

PRESENT USE OF THE WORD "MANÓBO"

The word "Manóbo" seems to be a generic name for people of greatly divergent culture, physical type, and language. Thus it is applied to the people that dwell in the mountains of the lower half of Point San Agustin as well as to those people whose habitat is on the southern part of the Sarangani Peninsula. Those, again, that occupy the hinterland of Tuna Bay² come under the same designation. So it might seem that the word was originally used to designate the pagan as distinguished from the Mohammedanized people of Mindanáo, much as the name Harafóras or Alfúros was applied by the early writers to the pagans to distinguish them from the Moros.

²Tuna Bay is on the southern coast of Mindanáo, about halfway between Sarangani Bay and Parang Bay.

In the Agúsan Valley the term manóbo is used very frequently by Christian and by Christianized peoples, and sometimes by pagans themselves, to denote that the individual in question is still unbaptized, whether he be tribally a Mandáya, a Mañgguáñgan, or of some other group. I have been told by Mandáyas on several occasions that they were still manóbo, that is, still unbaptized.

Then, again, the word is frequently used by those who are really Manóbos as a term of contempt for their fellow tribesmen who live in remoter regions and who are not as well off in a worldly or a culture[sic] way as they are. Thus I have heard Manóbos of the upper Agúsan refer to their fellow-tribesmen of Libagánon as Manóbos, with evident contempt in the voice. I asked them what they themselves were, and in answer was informed that they were Agusánon--that is, upper Agúsan people--not Manóbos.

THE DERIVATION AND ORIGINAL APPLICATION OF THE WORD "MANÓBO"

One of the earliest references that I find to the Manóbos of the Agúsan Valley is in the General History of the Discalced Augustinian Fathers (1661-1699) by Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis.³ The author says that "the mountains of that territory⁴ are inhabited by a nation of Indians, heathens for the greater part, called Manóbos, a word signifying in that language, as if we should say here, robust or very numerous people." I have so far found no word in the Manóbo dialect that verifies the correctness of the above statement. It may be said, however, in favor of this derivation that manúsia is the word for "man" or "mankind" in the Malay, Moro (Magindanáo), and Tirurái languages. In Bagóbo, a dialect that shows very close resemblance to Manóbo, the word Manóbo means "man," and in Magindanáo Moro it means "mountain people,"⁵ and is applied by the Moros to all the mountain people of Mindanáo. It might be maintained, therefore, with some semblance of reason that the word Manóbo means simply "people." Some of the early historians use the words Manóbo, Mansúba, Manúbo. These three forms indicate the derivation to be from a prefix man, signifying "people" or "dweller," and súba, a river. From the form Manúbo, however, we might conclude that the word is made up of man("people"), and húbo("naked"), therefore meaning the "naked people." The former derivation, however, appears to be more consonant with the principles upon which Mindanáo tribal names, both general and local, are formed. Thus Mansáka, Mandáya, Mañgguáñgan are derived, the first part of each, from man ("people" or "dwellers"), and the remainder of the words, respectively, from sáka ("interior"), dáya ("up the river"), guáñgan ("forest"). These names then mean "people of the interior," "people that dwell on the upper reaches of the river," and "people that dwell in the forest." Other tribal designations of Mindanáo races and tribes are almost without exception derived from words that denote the relative geographic position of the tribe in question. The Banuáon and Mamánua are derived from banuá, the "country," as distinguished from settlements near the main or settled part of the river. The Bukídnon are the mountain people (bukid, mountain); Súbanun, the river people (súba, river); Tirurái, the mountain people (túduk, mountain, etéu, man);⁶ Tagakaólo, the people at the very source of a river (tága, inhabitant, ólo, head or source).

³Blair and Robertson, 41: 153, 1906.

⁴The author refers to the mountains in the vicinity of Líano, a town that stood down the river from the present Veruéla and which was abandoned when the region subsided.

⁵Fr. Jacinto Juanmarti's Diccionario Moro Magindanáo-Español (Manila, 1892), 125.

⁶My authority for this derivation is a work by Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera on The Origin of Philippine Tribal Names.

The derivation of the above tribal designations leads us to the opinion that the word Manóbo means by derivation a "river-man," and not a "naked man."

A further alternative derivation has been suggested by Dr. N. M. Saleeby,⁷ from the word túbo, "to grow"; the word Manóbo, according to this derivation, would mean the people that grew up on the island, that is the original settlers or autochthons. The word túbo, "to grow," is not, however, a Manóbo word, and it is found only in a few Mindanáo dialects.

⁷Origin of Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy, Manila, Nov. 1, 1911.

Father F. Combes, S. J.,⁸ says that the owners, that is, the autochthonic natives of Mindanáo, were called Manóbos and Mananápes.⁹ In a footnote referring to Mananápes, it is stated, and appears very reasonable and probable, that the above-mentioned term is not a tribal designation but merely an appellation of contempt used on account of the low culture possessed by the autochthons at that time.

⁸Historia de Mindanáo y Jolo (Madrid, 1664). Ed. Retana (Madrid, 1897).

⁹The word mananáp is the word for animal, beast in the Cebu Bisáya, Bagóbo, Tirurái, and Magindanáo Moro languages. Among some of the tribes of eastern Mindanáo, the word is applied to a class of evil forest spirits of apparently indeterminate character. It is noteworthy that these spirits seem to correspond to the Manubu spirits of the Súbanuns as described by Mr. Emerson B. Christie in his Súbanuns of Sindangan Bay (Pub. Bur. Sci., Div. Eth., 88, 1909).

Hence there seems to be some little ground for supposing that the word Manóbo was originally applied to all the people that formerly occupied the coast and that later fled to the interior, and settled along the rivers, yielding the seashore to the more civilized invaders.

The following extract from Dr. N. M. Saleeby¹⁰ bears out the above opinion:

¹⁰The Origin of the Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy on Nov. 1, 1911.

The traditions and legends of the primitive tribes of the Philippine Archipelago show very clearly that they believe that their forefathers arose in this land and that they have been here ever since their creation. They further say that the coast tribes and foreigners came later and fought them and took possession of the land which the latter occupy at present. When Masha' ika, the earliest recorded immigrant, reached Súlu Island, the aborigines had already developed to such a stage of culture as to have large settlements and rajas or datus.

These aborigines are often referred to in Súlu and Mindanáo as Manubus, the original inhabitants of Súlu Islands, the Budanuns, were called Manubus also. So were the forefathers of the Magindanáo Moros. The most aboriginal hill tribes of Mindanáo, who number about 60,000 souls or more, are called Manubus.

[Transcriber's note: Both of the above paragraphs comprise the quotation.]

The idea that the original owners were called Manóbos is the opinion of San Antonio also, as expressed in his Cronicas.¹¹ Such a supposition might serve also to explain the wide distribution of the different Manóbo people in Mindanáo, for, besides occupying the regions above-mentioned, they are found on the main tributaries of the Rio Grande de Kotabáto--the Batañgan, the Biktósa, the Luan, the Narkanitan, etc., and especially on the River Pulañgi--on nearly all the influents of the last-named stream, and on the Hiñgoog River in the Province of Misamis. As we shall see later on, even in the Agúsan Valley, the Manóbos were gradually split on the west side of the river by the ingress, as of some huge wedge, of the Banuáons. Crossing the eastern Cordillera, a tremendous mass of towering pinnacles--the home of the Mamánuas--we find Manóbos occupying the upper reaches of the Rivers Hubo, Marihátag, Kagwáit, Tágo, Tándag, and Kantílan, on the Pacific coast. I questioned the Manóbos of the rivers Tágo and Hubo as to their genealogy and former habitat and found that their parents, and even some of themselves, had lived on the river Kasilaían, but that, owing to the hostility of the Banuáons, they had fled to the river Wá-Wa. At the time of the coming of the Catholic missionaries in 1875, these Manóbos made their way across the lofty eastern Cordillera in an attempt to escape from the missionary activities. These two migrations are a forcible example of what may have taken place in the rest of Mindanáo to bring about such a wide distribution of what was, perhaps, originally one people. Each migration led to the formation of a new group from which, as from a new nucleus, a new tribe may have developed in the course of time.

¹¹Blair and Robertson, 40: 315, 1906.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MANÓBOS IN EASTERN MINDANÁO¹²

¹²See tribal map.

IN THE AGÚSAN VALLEY

The Manóbos occupy the whole Agúsan Valley as far as the town of Buai on the upper Agúsan with the following exceptions:

1. The upper parts of the rivers Lamiñga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and Óhut, and the whole of the river Maásam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably the territory beyond in the district of Misamis, as far over as the habitat of the Bukídnon tribe.¹³

¹³The reason for the insertion of this last clause is that the people inhabiting the mountains at the headwaters of the above rivers have the same physical types, dress, and weapons as the Bukídnons, if I may judge from my slight acquaintance with the latter.

2. The towns of Butuán, Talakógon, Bunáwan, Veruéla, and Prosperidad.

3. The town of Tagusab and the headwaters of the Tutui and Binuñgñgaan Rivers.

ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE PACIFIC CORDILLERA

In this region I include the upper waters of the Liañga, Hubo, Oteiza, Marihátag, Kagwáit, Tágo, Tándag, and Kantílan Rivers.

ON THE PENINSULA OF SAN AGUSTIN

I desire to call the reader's attention to the fact that this monograph has no reference to the Manóbos of Port San Agustin nor to the Manóbos of the Libagánon River and its tributaries, nor to the Manóbos that occupy the hinterland above Nasipit as far as the Bugábus River. I had only cursory dealings with the inhabitants of the last-named region but both from my own scant observations and from the reports of others more familiar with them, I am inclined to believe that there may be differences great enough to distinguish them from the other peoples of the Agúsan Valley as a distinct tribe.

As to the Manóbos of Libagánon, it is probable that they have more or less the same cultural and linguistic characteristics as the Manóbos that form the subject matter of this paper, but, as I did not visit them nor get satisfactory information regarding them, I prefer to leave them untouched until further investigation.

Of the Manóbos of the lower half of the peninsula of San Agustin, I know absolutely nothing except that they are known as Manóbos. I noted, however, in perusing the Jesuit letters¹⁴ that there were in the year 1891 not only Manóbos but Moros, Biláns, and Tagakaólos in that region.

¹⁴Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 335, et seq., 1892.

THE MAMÁNUAS, OR NEGRITOS, AND NEGRITO-MANÓBO HALF-BREEDS

The Mamánuas, or Negritos, and Negrito-Manóbo half-breeds of Mindanáo occupy the mountains from Anao-aon near Surigao down to the break in the eastern Cordillera, northwest of Liañga. They also inhabit a small range that extends in a northeasterly direction from the Cordillera to Point Kawit on the east coast.

I heard three trustworthy reports of the existence of Negritos in eastern Mindanáo. The first report I heard on the Umaíam River (Walo, August, 1909). It was given to me by a Manóbo chief from the River Ihawán. He assured and reassured me that on the Lañgilañg River, near the Libagánon River exists a group of what he called Manóbos but who were very small, black as an earthen pot, kinky-haired, without clothes except bark-cloth, very peaceable and harmless, but very timid. I interrogated him over and over as to the bark-cloth that he said these people wore. He said in answer that it was called agahan and that it was made out of the bark of a tree whose name I can not recall. He described the process of beating the bark and promised to bring me, 60 days from the date of our conference, a loin cloth of one of these people. I inquired as to their manner of life, and was assured that they were tau-batañg; that is, people who slept under logs or up in trees. He said that he and his people had killed many of them, but that he was still on terms of friendship with some of them.

The second report as to the existence of Negritos I heard on the Baglásan River, a tributary of the Sálug River. The chiefs whom I questioned had never visited the Negritos but had purchased from the Tugawanons¹⁵ many Negrito slaves whom they had sold to the Mandáyas of the Kati'il and Karága Rivers. This statement was probably true, for I saw one slave, a full-blooded Negrito girl, on the upper Karága during my last trip and received from her my third and most convincing report of the existence of Negritos other than the Mamánuas of the eastern Cordillera. She had been captured, she said, by the Manóbos of Libagánon and sold to the Debabáons (upper Sálug people). She could not describe the place where her people live, but she gave me the following information about them. They are all like herself, and they have no houses nor crops, because they are afraid of the Manóbos that surround them. Their food is the core¹⁶ of the green rattan and of fishtail palm,¹⁷ the flesh of wild boar, deer, and python, and such fish and grubs, etc., as they find in their wanderings. They sleep anywhere; sometimes even in trees, if they have seen strange footprints.

¹⁵The Tugawanons were described by my Sálug authorities as a people that lived at the headwaters of the River Libagánon on a tributary called Tugawan. They were described as a people of medium stature, as fair as the Mansákas, very warlike, enemies of the reported Negritos, very numerous, and speaking an Atás dialect. Perhaps the term Tugawanon is only a local name for a branch of the Atás tribe.

¹⁶O-bud.

¹⁷Ba-hi (Caryota sp.).

Their weapons are bows and arrows, lances, daggers, and bolos. According to her description, the bolos are long and thin, straight on one side and curved on the other. The men purchase them from the Atás in exchange for beeswax. The people are numerous, but they live far apart, roaming through the forests and mountains, and meeting one another only occasionally.

The statements of this slave girl correspond in every particular with the report that I received on the upper Sálug, except that the Sálug people called these Negritos Tugmaya and said that they live beyond a mountain that is at the headwaters of the Libagánon River.

Putting together these three reports and assuming the truth of them, the habitat of these Negritos must be the slopes of Mount Panombaian, which is situated between, and is probably the source of, the Rivers Tigwa (an important tributary of the Rio Grande de Kotabáto), Sábud (the main western tributary of the Ihawán River), and Libagánon (the great western influent of the Tágum River).

Montano states that during his visit to the Philippines (1880-81) there were on the island of Samal a class of half-blood Ata' with distinctly Negroid physical characteristics. Treating of Ata' he says that it is a term applied in the south of Mindanáo by Bisáyas to Negritos "that exist (or existed not long ago) in the interior toward the northwest of the gulf of Davao."¹⁸ A careful distinction must be made between the term Atás¹⁹ and the racial designation Ata', for the former are, according to Doctor Montano, a tribe of a superior type, of advanced culture, and of great reputation as warriors. They dwell on the northwestern slope of Mount Apo, hence their name Atás, hatáas, or atáas, being a very common word in Mindanáo for "high." They are, therefore, the people that dwell on the heights. I heard of one branch of them called Tugawanons, but this is probably only a local name like Agúsanons, etc.

¹⁸Une Mission aux Philippines, 346, 1887.

¹⁹Called also Itás.

I found reports of the former existence of Negritos in the Karága River Valley at a place called Sukipin, where the river has worn its way through the Cordillera. An old man there told me that his grandfather used to hunt the Negritos. The Mandáyas both of that region and of Tagdauñg-duñg, a district situated on the Karága River, five days' march from the mouth, on the western side of the Cordillera, show here and there characteristics, physical and cultural, that they could have inherited only from Negrito ancestors. One interesting trait of this particular group is the use of blowpipes for killing small birds. In the use of the bow and arrow, too, they are quite expert. These people are called taga-butái--that is, mountain dwellers--and live in places on the slopes of high mountains difficult of access, their watering-place being frequently a little hole on the side of the mountain.

THE BANUÁONS

The Banuáons,²⁰ probably an extension of the Bukídnons of the Bukídnon subprovince. They occupy the upper parts of the Rivers Lamiñga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and Óhut, and the whole of the River Maásam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably extend over to the Bukídnons.

²⁰Also called Higaunon or Higagaun, probably "the Hadgaguanes--a people untamed and ferocious"--to whom the Jesuits preached shortly after the year 1596. (Jesuit Mission, Blair and Robertson, 44:60, 1906.) These may be the people whom Pigaffetta, in his First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522) calls Benaian (Banuáon ?) and whom he describes as "shaggy and living at a cape near a river in the islands of Butuán and Karága--great fighters and archers--eating only raw human hearts with the juice of oranges or lemons" (Blair and Robertson, 30:243, 1906).

THE MAÑGGUÁÑGANS

This tribe occupies the towns of Tagusab and Pilar on the upper Agúsan, the range between the Sálug and the Agúsan, the headwaters of the Mánat River, and the water-shed between the Mánat and the Mawab. The physical type of many of them bespeaks an admixture of Negrito blood, and their timidity and, on occasions, their utter lack of good judgment, brand them as the lowest people, after the Mamánuas, in eastern Mindanáo. One authority, a Jesuit missionary, I think, estimated their number at 30,000. An estimate, based on the reports of the people of Compostela, places their number at 10,000 just before my departure from the Agúsan Valley in 1910. The decrease, if the two estimates are correct, is probably due to intertribal and interclan wars.

THE MANSÁKAS

The Mansákas do not seem to me to be as distinct tribally as are the Manóbos and Mandáyas. It would appear from their physical appearance and other characteristics that they should be classed as Mandáyas, or as a subtribe of Mandáyas with whom they form one dialect group. I judge them to be the result of intermarriage between the Mañgguáñgans and the Mandáyas. They occupy the Mawab River Valley and the region included between the Hijo, Mawab, and Madawan Rivers. They are probably the people whom Montano called Tagabawas, but I think that this designation was perhaps a mistaken form of Tagabaas, an appellation given to Mañgguáñgans who live in the bá-as, or prickly swamp-grass, that abounds at the headwaters of the Mánat River.

THE DEBABÁONS

The Debabáons are probably a hybrid group forming a dialect group with the Manóbos of the Ihawán and Baóbo, and a culture group in dress and other features with the Mandáyas. They claim relationship with Manóbos, and follow Manóbo religious beliefs and practices to a great extent. For this reason I have retained the name that they apply to themselves, until their tribal identity can be clearly determined. They inhabit the upper half of the Sálug River Valley and the country that lies to the west of it as far as the Baóbo River.

THE MANDÁYAS

These form the greatest and best tribe in eastern Mindanáo.²¹ One who visits the Mandáyas of the middle Kati'il can not fail to be struck with the fairness of complexion, the brownness of the hair, the diminutiveness of the hands and feet, and the large eyes with long lashes that are characteristic of many of these people. Here and there, too, one finds a distinctly Caucasian type. In psychological characteristics they stand out still more sharply from any tribe or group of people that I know in eastern Mindanáo. Shrewd and diplomatic on the one hand, they are an affectionate, good-natured and straight-forward people, with little of the timidity and cautiousness of the Manóbo. Their religious instincts are so highly developed that they are inclined to be fanatical at times.

²¹It is very interesting to note that the people called Taga-baloóyes and referred to by so many of the writers on Mindanáo can be none other than the Mandáyas. Thus San Antonio (Blair and Robertson, 40: 407, 1906) states that "the Taga-baloóyes take their name from some mountains which are located in the interior of the jurisdiction of Caraga. They are not very far distant from and trade with the villages of (Karága) and some, indeed, live in them who have become Christians. * * * These people, as has been stated above, are the descendants of lately arrived Japanese. This is the opinion of all the religious who have lived there and had intercourse with them and the same is a tradition among themselves, and they desired to be so considered. And it would seem that one is convinced of it on seeing them: for they are light complexioned, well-built, lusty, very reliable in their dealings, respectful, and very valiant, but not restless. So I am informed by one who has had much to do with them: and above all these are the qualities which we find in the Japanese."

In further proof, Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis (ibid. 41: 138, et seq.) says: "The nearest nation to our village [Bislig] is that of the Taga-baloóyes who are so named from certain mountains that they call Balooy. * * * They are a corpulent race, well built, of great courage and strength, and they are at the same time of good understanding, and more than halfway industrious. Their nation is faithful in its treaties and constant in its promises, as they are descendants, so they pride themselves, of the Japanese, whom they resemble in complexion, countenance, and manners." The writer describes briefly their houses and their manner of life, and mentions in particular the device they make use of in the construction of their ladders. It is interesting to note that the same device is still made use of by the more well-to-do Mandáyas on the Karága, Manorigao, and Kati'il Rivers. In other respects their character, as described, is very similar to that of the present Mandáyas of the Kati'il River who in physical type present characteristics that mark them as being a people of a superior race.

In Medina's historia (Blair and Roberston, 24:175, 1906,) we find it related that Captain Juan Niño de Tabora mistreated the chief of the Taga-baloóyes in Karága and that as a result the captain, Father Jacinto Cor, and 12 soldiers were killed. Subsequently four more men of the religious order were killed and two others wounded and captured by the Taga-baloóyes.

Zuñiga in Estadismo (ibid. 2:71, et seq.) notes the fairness of complexion of the Taga-baloóyes, a tribe living in the mountains of Balooy in Karága.

Father Manual Buzeta in Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de las Islas Filipinas (1: 506, 1905) makes the same observation, but M. Felix Renouard de Sainte Croix in Voyage commercial et politique aux Indes Orientales (1803-1809) goes further still by drawing attention to these people as meriting distinction for superior mentality.

The Jesuit missionary Pastells in 1883 (Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 4:212, 1884) writes that the people above Manresa (southeastern Mindanáo) are perhaps of Moro origin but bettered by a strain of noble blood, which their very appearance seems to him to indicate. In support of this view he cites the authority of Santayana, who claims Japanese descent for them and repudiates the opinion of those who attribute Hollandish descent. In a footnote, the above celebrated missionary and scholar adds that the town of Kinablangan (a town on the east coast of Mindanáo) owes its origin to a party of Europeans who were shipwrecked on Point Bagoso and took up their abode in that place, intermarrying with the natives. I was informed by a Bisáya trader, the only one that ever went among the mountain Mandáyas, that he had seen a circular, clocklike article with strange letters upon it in a settlement on the middle Kati'il. The following year I made every effort to see it, but I could not prevail upon the possessors to show it to me. They asserted that they had lost it. It is probable that this object was a ship's compass.

[Transcriber's note: The preceding six paragraphs are all part of footnote 21.]

On the whole, the impression made upon me in my long and intimate dealings with the Mandáyas of the Kati'il, Manorigao, and Karága Rivers is that they are a brave, intelligent, clean, frank people that with proper handling might be brought to a high state of civilization. They are looked up to by Manóbos, Mañgguáñgans, Mansákas, and Debabáons as being a superior and more ancient race, and considered by the Bisáyas of the Agúsan Valley as a people of much more intelligence and fair-dealing than any other tribe. The Mandáyas consist of four branches:

THE TÁGUM BRANCH

These occupy the country from near the mouth of the Tágum to the confluence of the Sálug and Libagánon Rivers, or perhaps a little farther up both of the last-mentioned rivers. It is probable that the Debabáons farther up are the issue of Manóbos and Tágum Mandáyas.

THE AGÚSAN VALLEY BRANCH

It is usual for the people of the upper Agúsan from Gerona to Compostela to call themselves Mandáyas, but this appears to be due to a desire to be taken for Mandáyas. They have certainly absorbed a great deal of Mandáya culture and language, but, with the exception of Pilar and Tagusab, they are of heterogeneous descent--Mandáya, Manóbo, Mañgguáñgan, Debabáon, and Mansáka.

At the headwaters of the Agúsan and in the mountains that encircle that region live the Mandáyas that are the terror of Mandáyaland. They are called by the upper Agúsan people Kau-ó, which means the same as Tagakaólo, but are Mandáyas in every feature, physical, cultural, and linguistic.

THE PACIFIC COAST BRANCH

They occupy the following rivers with their tributaries: the Kati'il, the Baganga, the Mano-rigao, the Karága, the Manai, the Kasaúman, and the upper reaches of the Mati. There are several small rivers between the Kasaúman and the Mati, the upper parts of all which, I think, are occupied by Mandáyas.

THE GULF OF DAVAO BRANCH

These occupy the upper reaches of all the rivers on the east side of the gulf of Davao, from Sumlug to the mouth of the Hijo River whose source is near that of the Agúsan and whose Mandáyas are famous in Mandáyaland.

THE MOROS

Moros or people with a preponderance of Moro blood and culture occupy the coast towns on the eastern and northern sides of the gulf from Sumlug to the mouth of the Tágum. Of course they have other settlements on the north and west sides of the gulf.

In Mati and its vicinity, I believe there are a comparatively large number of Moros or Mohammedanized Mandáyas.

THE BILÁNS²²

²²Called also, I think, Bi-la-an.

Biláns were found according to the testimony of the Jesuit missionaries²³ in Sigaboi, Tikbakawan, and Baksal, on the peninsula of San Agustin.

²³Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 331, et seq., 1889-1891.

THE TAGAKAÓLOS

According to the authorities just cited there were Tagakaólos in Sigaboi, Uañgen, Kabuaya, and Makambal between the years 1889 and 1891. It is probable that these people are scattered throughout the whole of the hinterland to the west of Pujada Bay, and that they are only Mandáyas who, unable to withstand the stress of war, fled from the mountains at the headwaters of the Agúsan River. I base this suggestion on the fact that the Mandáyas at the headwaters of the Agúsan are known as, and call themselves, Kau-ó²⁴ and that they were, and are probably still at the date of this writing, the terror of Mandáyaland. If the Tagakaólos of Point San Agustin are fugitive Kau-ó, according to the prevailing custom they would have retained their former name; this name, if Kau-ó, would have been changed by Bisáyas and by Spanish missionaries to Tagakaólo.

²⁴Kau-ó would be Ka-ólo in Bisáya, from the prefix ka, and ólo, head or source.

THE LÓAKS OR LÓAGS

According to the authority of Father Llopart²⁵ the Lóaks dwell in the mountains southwest of Pujada Bay. He says that in customs they differ from other tribes. They dress in black and hide themselves when they see anyone dressed in a light color. No stranger is permitted to enter their dwellings. The same writer goes on to state that their food is wholly vegetable, excluding tubers, roots, and everything that grows under the ground. Their chief is called posáka,²⁶ "an elder who with his mysterious words and feigned revelations keeps his people in delusion and under subjection." It is the opinion of Father Llopart that these people are only fugitives, as he very justly concludes from the derivation of their name.²⁷

²⁵Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 337-338, 1891.

²⁶Posáka means in Malay, and in nearly all known Mindanáo dialects, an "inheritance" so that in the usage attributed to these Lóaks it would appear that there may be some idea of an hereditary chieftainship. The word in Bagóbo, however, means something beloved, etc., so that the reported Lóak posáka or chief might be so called because of his being beloved by his people.

²⁷He states that lóak is probably from lóog, "to flee," "to take to the mountains." In several dialects of eastern Mindanáo laag, lag, means, "to get lost," while lágui is a very common word for "run" or "run away."

Another writer, Father Pablo Pastells²⁸ makes mention of these Lóak as being wild Tagakaólos who are more degraded than the Mamánuas. He designates the mountains of Hagimitan on the peninsula of San Agustin as their habitat. I am inclined to think that the authority for this statement was also a Jesuit missionary.

²⁸Ibid., 8: 343, 1887.

THE CONQUISTAS OR RECENTLY CHRISTIANIZED PEOPLES

The work of Christianizing the pagans of eastern Mindanáo was taken up in earnest in 1877 by the Jesuit missionaries and carried on up to the time of the revolution in 1898. During that time some 50,000 souls were led to adopt Christianity. These included Mandáyas, Manóbos, Debabáons, Mansákas, Mañgguáñgans, and Mamánuas, and members of the other tribes that live in eastern Mindanáo. For the present, however, we will refer to the conquistas of the Manóbo, Mandáya, Mamánua, Mañgguáñgan, Mansáka, and Debabáon tribes.

THE MANÓBO CONQUISTAS

The inhabitants of all the settlements in the Agúsan Valley except Novela, Rosario, the towns south of Buai, the towns within the Banuáon habitat, and a few settlements of pagan Manóbos on the upper Umaíam, Argáwan, and Ihawán, Wá-wa and Maitum are Manobó conquistas.

On the eastern slope of the Pacific Cordillera in the vicinity of San Miguel (Tágo River), on the Marihátag and Oteiza Rivers there are several hundred Manóbo conquistas. The towns up the Hinatuán and Bislig Rivers are made up of both Manóbo and Mandáya conquistas.

THE MANDÁYA CONQUISTAS

In the Agúsan Valley the towns on the Sulibáo River and perhaps on the Adlaian River are made up of Mandáya conquistas for the most part. These Mandáyas evidently worked in from the Hinatuán River for one reason or another, perhaps to avoid missionary activity on the east coast or to escape from Moro raids.

On the Pacific coast we find Mandáya conquistas to a greater or less extent in nearly all the municipalities and barrios from Tándag to Mati, with the exception of such towns as have been formed by immigration of Bisáyas from Bohol and other places. There can be no doubt but that in former years the Mandáyas covered the whole Pacific slope from Tándag to Mati, for we still find recently Christianized Mandáyas in Kolon and Alba on the Tágo River and in Kagwáit and Bakolod on the Kagwáit River. The inhabitants of these eastern towns are not known by the designation of conquistas, but assume the name and status of Bisáyas and are not so dependent on the older Christians as are the conquistas of the Agúsan Valley who are called conquistas and treated as inferiors by the older Christians.

I think that from Liñgig to Mati all the barrios, both of the coast and in the hinterland, are made up of Mandáyas that have been Christianized since 1877.

THE MAMÁNUA CONQUISTAS

These Mamánua conquistas live in the vicinity of Anao-aon and Malimono' on the northeast coast; in San Roque and San Pablo, also on Lake Maínit; on the River Asiga, a tributary of the River Jabonga; and somewhere up the Lanusa River on the east coast.

THE MAÑGGUÁÑGAN CONQUISTAS

During my stay on the upper Agúsan, there were only two towns of Mañgguáñgan conquistas--Tagusab and Pilar--and even these were mere suggestions of towns. It may be, however, that since the appointment of a deputy governor, the great numbers of Christianized Mañgguáñgans that had fled from the wrath of their enemies into the swamp region at the headwaters of the Mánat River have returned and that Mañgguáñgan towns now exist.

THE MANSÁKA CONQUISTAS

In Compostela, Gandia, and Tagaunud are found a few Mansáka conquistas. The inhabitants of these towns, however, are of such a heterogeneous blend that it is difficult to assign any tribal place to them. It may be said, in general, that these towns are still passing through a formative period, the result of which will probably be their complete adoption of Mandáya culture and language, if they are left free to follow their own bent.

THE DEBABÁON CONQUISTAS

The Debabáon conquistas are found in the town of Moncayo and are also scattered about on the upper Sálug. The missionaries found the Debabáon people very recalcitrant; the comparatively few converts made evinced, on the one hand, all the fickleness and instability of the Manóbo and, on the other, the aggressiveness of the Mandáya.

THE BISÁYAS OR CHRISTIAN FILIPINOS

The Bisáyas or Christian Filipinos in the Agúsan Valley occupy the towns of Butuán, Talakógon, Veruéla, Bunáwan, and Prosperidad, of which latter they formed, during my last visit to the Agúsan Valley, a majority. Outside of the Agúsan Valley, they occupy all the towns on the north coast except the towns of Tortosa, Maasao, Tamolayag, and Malimono'. On, and in the vicinity of Lake Maínit, they occupy the towns of Sison, Timamana, Maínit, Jabonga, Santiago, Santa Ana and several other small ones. On the east coast they occupy all the coast towns from Surigao to Bislig. South of Bislig only the towns, of Kati'il, Baganga, Karága, Santiago, and Mati may be said to be Bisáya, although the Christianized Mandáyas of the intervening towns call themselves Bisáyas. But even the above-mentioned towns, with the exception of Santiago, have hardly any claim to be considered Bisáya in the sense in which that word is applied to the Bisáyas of the town of Surigao. The same holds true of a great portion of the inhabitants of Tándag, Tágo, La Paz, and Kagwáit, where the Mandáya element in language and in superstitious beliefs still holds sway to a considerable extent among the lower class of the inhabitants.

In the Agúsan Valley a great part of the Bisáyas of Talakógon can not be considered as Bisáyas in the full sense of the word. Many of them called Sulibáonon are of no higher culture than the conquistas of the River Sulibáo from which they come. They are distinctly Mandáya in physical type and in manner of life except that they have abandoned the ancient Mandáya religious beliefs and adopted those of Christianity. They are probably the first group of Mandáya conquistas that were induced to leave the Sulibáo and take up their abode in Talakógon.

CHAPTER II

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE MANÓBOS OF EASTERN MINDANÁO

PHYSICAL TYPE

DIVERGENCE OF TYPES

There seem to be differences in physical type between the Manóbos on the lower part of the Agúsan as far as the Bugábus River and those of the Ihawán and the upper Agúsan Rivers. On the upper Agúsan the variations become more noticeable as we approach the confines of the Mandáyas and the Debabáons, both of whom differ from the Manóbos in physical characteristics to such an extent that even an ordinary observer can not fail to notice it. Again, on the upper Agúsan, in the vicinity of Tagusab, we find types that remind us of the Mañgguáñgan with his manifestly Negroid characteristics. Over on the Tágo River, too, and on the far upper Wa-wa, there are groups of so-called Manóbos who are clearly descendants of Mamánuas. With these exceptions the following delineation holds good, I think, for the great mass of Manóbos with whom one comes in contact throughout eastern Mindanáo.

GENERAL PHYSICAL TYPE

In general, the Manóbo man is of athletic build and of strong constitution, although he is often short of stature. His muscular development denotes activity, speed, and endurance rather than great strength. Corpulency and prominence of the abdomen are never present, so far as I have observed. His skin, as a rule, is of a reddish-brown color that turns to a somewhat dark brown after long exposure to the sun, as in the case of those who engage in fishing in the lake region.

The hair is abundant, long, black, straight, and coarse. As we approach the domains of the Mañgguáñgans and of the Mamánuas, the hair is a little less abundant and shows traces of curliness. Occasional waviness may be observed also among those Manóbos who live near the territory of the Mandáyas, Debabáons, and Mansákas.

Beard and body hair are not abundant. In this respect the Manóbo differs from the Mandáya and from the Banuáon, both of whom have a more copious growth (though I can not be definite as regards the latter people), and, in some cases, beards that are abundant enough to suggest admixture with white people.

The head appears to be well developed, being rather high and arched, as compared with that of the average Bisáya.¹ There is no flattening of the occiput. This roundness of the posterior part of the cranium, due, as Montano² states, to the prominence of the parietal bumps, becomes very apparent when comparison is made with the heads of Bisáyas of other islands. The occipital arch of the latter is invariably flattened.

¹In physical comparisons between Manóbos and Bisáyas no reference is made to the Bisáyas of eastern Mindanáo, the great majority of whom are undoubtedly of Manóbo or other pagan origin.

²Une Mission aux Philippines, 349,1906.

Owing to the prominence of the jawbones and to the above-mentioned height of the cranium, the face is decidedly lozenge-shaped, a feature that distinguishes it, on the one hand, from the long face of the Mandáya and of the Banuáon and, on the other, from the short, round face of the Mamánua and of the Mañgguáñgan. Montano³ says that this peculiar shape is due to the development of the zygomatic arches or cheek bones and to the diminution of the minimum frontal line, that is, the shortest transverse measurement of the forehead.

³Loc. cit.

Prognathism is marked but variable according to the testimony of Montano, who took the anthropometrical measurements of many crania which he obtained from caves in northeastern Mindanáo.

The forehead is somewhat high and prominent, and the superciliary ridges are salient. The eyes are brown in color. The palpebral opening is elongated as compared with that of the Mandáya, whose eye is round. There is no trace of the Mongolian falciform fold, and the transverse axis is perfectly horizontal.

The nose is prominent and well-developed but short, and, as a rule, straight. Toward the confines of the Banuáons we sometimes notice a slight curve upward at the top. The nostrils are somewhat slender, but otherwise well developed. They are a little larger than those of Bisáyas. The ridge is broader than that of Bisáyas, and the root is lower down.

The lips bear resemblance to those of the Bisáyas except that the upper lip of the Manóbo is more prominent and more developed, due, it is suggested, to the universal, incessant practice of carrying a quid of tobacco partly under it and partly protruding out between it and the lower lip.

The chin is round and well developed, but is not prominent.

The above statements hold true of the women in all details except that of stature. The difference between the stature of the male and female Manóbo is much greater than that between the sexes among Bisáyas and other civilized people of the Philippines. This difference in the stature of the sexes is apparent in all the tribes of eastern Mindanáo with the exception of certain groups of Mandáyas, and may be attributed, on the one hand, to the excessive burdens carried, and the onerous labor performed by the women in the discharge of their household and other duties, and, on the other, to the unencumbered outdoor life pursued by the men in their hunting, fishing, and trading expeditions.

The other parts of the bodies of both sexes are in good proportions. The thorax is especially well developed, and the feet are, perhaps, inordinately large.

The general appearance of the men is somewhat unpleasing and, perhaps, among the Manóbos of remote regions, might be said to be coarse. This is especially noticeable among the latter, as their eyes usually bulge out and give them a somewhat wild and even vindictive air. The blackening of the teeth and lips, the quid of black tobacco between the lips, the look of alarm and suspicion, and various other characteristics all tend to heighten this expression.

The women have a more pleasing expression, but the timid furtive look, the ungainly gait, and the ungraceful contour of their abaká skirts, detract from the moderate beauty that they possess in their youth. After marriage their beauty wanes incredibly fast.

Comparing the Manóbo's physical and general appearance with that of neighboring peoples, we may say that he stands fifth, the Mandáya, Mansáka, Debabáon, and Banuáon leading, while below him stand without any question the Mañgguáñgan and the Mamánua. He has not the height, the proportions, the fairness, nor the gentility of the first three. He lacks the nobility, courage, and intelligence of the fourth,⁴ but he maintains his superiority over the Mañgguáñgan, whose repellent features, sparse hair, scanty clothing, and low intelligence put him only a little above the Mamánuas. These latter are only poor homeless forest dwellers like the Negritos of Luzon, and physically, mentally, and culturally stand lowest in the plane of civilization of all the people of the eastern Mindanáo.

⁴My acquaintance with Banuáons is so slight that I can not make any definite physical comparison.

RACIAL AND TRIBAL AFFINITIES

With our present lack of knowledge concerning the great number of tribes that inhabit not only the island of Mindanáo but Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands of the Indies, it is impossible to make any definite statement as to the racial and the tribal affinities of the Manóbo people.

MONTANO'S INDONESIAN THEORY

Montano proposed the Indonesian theory to explain the origin of the Samals, Bagóbos, Giangas, Atás, Tagakaólos, Manóbos, and Mandáyas. He asserts that these peoples are pure Indonesians whose origin can not be explained otherwise than by supposing them to be the indigenes of all the islands included under the term Indonesia. Hence he calls the above tribes Indonesians of Mindanáo.

He claims that these Indonesians are the result of a fusion of three elements: (1) the Polynesian, (2) the Malay-Bisáya, and (3) the Negrito.

The Bisáya element, he says, is considerable and becomes apparent in the increase of transverse diameter of the cranium. The Negrito element is apparent only in the waviness of the hair, the height and prominence of the forehead, and the darker color of the skin.

He further states that the anatomical characteristics of these tribes are their superior stature, their muscular development, and the prominence of the occipital region in contradistinction to the flattening noticeable in Malays in general, and especially in those of the Philippines.

KEANE'S VIEW

Keane in his Ethnology⁵ notes that--

the term "Indonesian," introduced by Logan to designate the light-colored non-Malay inhabitants of the Eastern Archipelago, is now used as a convenient collective name for all the peoples of Malaysia and Polynesia who are neither Malays nor Papuans but of Caucasic type. * * * Doctor Hamy, who first gave this extension to the term Indonesian, points out that the Battaks and other pre-Malay peoples of Malaysia so closely resemble the Eastern Polynesians, that the two groups should be regarded as two branches of an original non-Malay stock. Although all speak dialects of a common Malayo-Polynesian language, the physical type is quite distinct and rather Caucasic than Mongolic, though betraying a perceptible Papuan (or Negrito) strain especially in New Zealand and Mikronesia. The true Indonesians are of tall stature (5 feet 10 inches), muscular frame, rather oval features, high, open forehead, large straight or curved nose, large full eyes always horizontal and with no trace of the third lid, light brown complexion (cinnamon or ruddy brown), long black hair, not lank but slightly curled or wavy, skull generally brachycephalous like that of the Melanochroic European.

⁵Ethnology, 326 et seq., 1901.

Regarding the Indonesians of the Philippine Islands, he says:⁶

Apart from the true Negrito aborigines Blumentritt distinguishes two separate "Malay" invasions, both prehistoric. Montano also recognizes these two elements which, however, he more correctly calls Indonesian and Malay. The Indonesians whom he affiliates to the "Polynesian family" were the first to arrive, being followed by the Malays and then, in the sixteenth century, by the Spaniards, who were themselves followed, perhaps also preceded, by Chinese and others. Thus Blumentritt's Malays of the first invasion, whom he brings from Borneo, are Montano's Indonesians, who passed through the Philippines during their eastward migrations from Borneo and other parts of Malaysia. The result of these successive movements was that the Negritoes were first driven to the recesses of the interior by the Indonesians with whom they afterwards intermingled in various degrees. Then the Indonesians were in their turn driven by the Malays from the coast lands and open plains, which are consequently now found occupied mainly by peoples of true Malay stock. Then with peaceful times fresh blends took place and to previous crossings are now added Spaniards and Chinese with Malays, there "quadroons" and "octoroons" with Indonesians, and even here and there with Negritoes. It has thus become difficult everywhere to distinguish between the true Malays and the Indonesians, who are also less known, dwelling in the more remote upland districts, often in association with the Negritoes and not always standing at a much higher grade of culture.

⁶Op. cit., 332.

THE INDONESIAN THEORY AS APPLIED TO MANÓBOS

Comparing the physical characteristics of the Manóbos with those which are predicated of the Indonesians by these and other writers, I find that, in the case of the Manóbos of the Agúsan Valley, in stature, waviness of the hair, abundance of the beard, and lightness of the skin color there appears to be a divergence from Keane's Indonesian standard. Keane requires 1.795 meters as an average for the stature of the Indonesian, whereas the average of the Manóbo, as I found it from cursory measurements, is approximately only 1.60 meters and Doctor Montano found it to be only 1.4667 meters. As to waviness of the hair, I have observed it rarely among the Manóbos to which this paper refers. Neither is the beard abundant, and as for fairness in the color of the skin, a casual glance at the great mass of Manóbos that occupy the Agúsan and its tributaries will convince one that their color is decidedly ruddy brown and not light. It is true that in the mountains children and even young women are found with fair complexions, but this is probably due to confinement in the house or to protection from the sun while out of doors.

PHYSICAL TYPE OF CONTIGUOUS PEOPLES

In the first part of this chapter a broad comparison was made between the Manóbos and the contiguous tribes of eastern Mindanáo, but, in order to bring out in stronger relief the physical characteristics of the Manóbo, it is considered expedient to give a brief description of the contiguous tribes.

THE MAÑGGUÁÑGANS

In stature the Mañgguáñgan is shorter than the Manóbo. His physical configuration gives one the impression that he is undersized. His cranium is elongated from the front backward along the antero-posterior curve, there being formed accordingly an enlargement on the upper part of the occiput. From this enlargement downward there is a flattening of the curve. The forehead is large, high, and very prominent, and diverges backward from the plane of the face at an observable angle. The face is narrow and flat, the narrowness being due to the prominence of the lower jaw and to a depression that is formed in the side of the face between the jaw and the cheek bone. The hair is lank, coarse, and in males, scant. The beard is very sparse except in elderly men, and even then it is far from being as abundant as that of the Manóbos and especially that of the Mandáyas. The nose is broad and conspicuously depressed, while the nasal orifices are rather large. On the whole, the prognathism is considerable but is not as variable as that of Manóbos and of Mandáyas.

There can be no doubt as to the Negritic character of the Mañgguáñgan. Owing to the peculiar circumstances that arose after my arrival on the upper Agúsan in 1909, I found it impossible to get into communication with any but the more domesticated Mañgguáñgan in the vicinity of Compostela, but my observation of their physical and mental characteristics and of their low degree of culture led me to a strong conviction of a Negrito origin not far removed.

THE MANDÁYAS

The Mandáya, on the other hand, with the exception of groups on the upper Karága and perhaps on the upper Kasaúman Rivers, is of superior stature. Montano found the stature to be only 1.578 meters, but the number of men measured by him was so small that we can not base any conclusion on his figures. I did not make any measurements of Mandáyas, but it is my impression that the male Mandáyas of the Kati'il, Karága, and Manorigao Rivers are noticeably taller than Manóbos. In fact, one meets a great number that seem to come up to the Indonesian standard of Keane.

The Mandáya's cranial conformation differs, according to Montano, from that of the Manóbo only in one particular, namely, in the straightness of the middle part of the antero-posterior curve of the cranium. In other respects his cranium is similar to that of the Manóbo. The face is oval rather than lozenge-shaped and has a pleasant, sympathetic look, due no doubt to the greater width of the palpebral opening, the largeness of the eye, and the length, darkness, and prominence of the eyelashes.

The nose is straight and prominent, occasionally quite European, and the nostrils are not depressed nor flattened. Their lower edges, instead of being horizontal, slant slightly upward from the tip. The nasal apertures are of medium size.

The superciliary ridges are prominent, but as the hair of the eyebrows is constantly kept shaved, there is not such an impression of prominence as in the Christianized Mandáyas of the southeastern seaboard of Mindanáo.

As to the abundance of beard, it is hard to form a judgment because from youth it is constantly and conscientiously eradicated. The hair of the head is long, black, and abundant, often somewhat wavy and not as coarse, I think, as that of Manóbos.

The most striking characteristic of the Mandáya is his fair color. It is not my intention to give the impression that he is one of a "lost white tribe" or that he is entitled to be called white in the sense in which we use the term when speaking of Europeans. But for a native of the Philippine Islands he certainly may be denominated white, though his skin is not tawny white like that of the Japanese or Chinese but has a peculiar ashy tint. I have seen a few individuals that were very nearly as white as the average American, but who otherwise were not of a pronounced Caucasian type.

It is very difficult to explain the prevailing fairness of this tribe except by presupposing an admixture of some other blood. The Manóbo lives in as dark forests and on as lofty mountains as those occupied by Mandáyas. His manner of life is practically the same, and yet the average tint of his skin is far darker, so much so that the Mandáya, in speaking not only of him but of Mañgguáñgan and even of Bisáya, spurns them all as being "black."

THE DEBABÁONS

As to the Debabáons, I have not come in touch with a sufficient number of them to enable me to make any general statements. The groups that I met in Moncayo, on the Sálug where the Baglásan River empties into it, and in the country extending some 10 kilometers to the west of it, closely resemble the Mandáyas in physical characters, and yet in language, general culture, and religious belief, and by genealogy, they belong to the Manóbo tribe. It is probable that they are the result of intermarriage of Manóbo men of Baóbo and Ihawán origin with Mandáya women of the lower Sálug and Tágum Rivers.

THE MAMÁNUAS

The Mamánuas need little comment. They are full-blooded Negritos in every respect, physical and cultural, like the Negritos of Mariveles, as Montano very explicitly states. The Manóbos of the upper Tágo River constantly intermarry with Mamánua women, as I had occasion to observe on several visits which I made to that region. It is probable that the same thing takes place on the Húbo, Marihátag, Lanusa, and Kantílan Rivers. In the vicinity of Lake Maínit, a great many Mamánuas are reported to be half-breeds.

THE BANUÁONS

I visited only one settlement of Banuáons, near the mouth of the Maásam River. I met members of the tribe here and there along the Agúsan between San Luis and Las Nieves, but my observations of them were casual and superficial so that I am not prepared to make any statements as to their physical characteristics. All reports, both of Manóbos and Bisáyas and the testimony of the Jesuit missionaries, state that they are a superior people. It is probable that this group of people, known as Banuáon in the Agúsan Valley, is a branch of the Bukídnons of whom the celebrated missionary Urios and others make such commendatory mention,⁷ the former in one place going so far as to make the statement that the Bukídnons are fit to be kings of the Manóbos.

⁷Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, passim.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AS MODIFIED BY DRESS AND ORNAMENTATION

The upper garment of both sexes among the Manóbos is a closed square-cut garment with sleeves and with a sufficient opening on top to admit the head. It fits the body either closely or fairly loosely. It is made of abaká fiber when imported cloth is not available. It is always adorned with embroidery of imported red, white, blue, and yellow cotton, on the cuffs, on the seams of the shoulders and the side, and on the neck and lower edges. The garment of the man differs from that of the woman in being all of one color, except that across the back, over the shoulders, and as far down as the breasts, are horizontal, parallel, equidistant lines of inwoven blue cotton yarn.

The body and sleeves of the woman's garment are of different colors. Thus, if the sleeves are black, the body is red and vice versa. Another distinguishing feature is the profuseness of cotton embroidery on the front of the garment.

The lower garment of the man is a pair of trousers, generally of native cotton and abaká fiber, reaching somewhat below the knees, with cotton embroidery in the above-mentioned colors on the sides and at the bottom. The ends of the draw string that holds the trousers in place hang down in front and are ornamented with tassels of the same colors.

The lower garment of the women is a doubled sacklike skirt of abaká fiber, almost invariably of a reddish color, with beautiful designs in horizontal panels or with a series of horizontal equidistant black stripes. A girdle of human hair or of plaited vegetable fiber, held in place with a shell button or with a plaited cord, retains this garment in place. The consequent gathering of the capacious opening of the skirt at the waist and the bulging out at the bottom (which is just a little below the knees), detracts not a little from the gracefulness of the Manóbo woman's figure. From the girdle hang, in varying number and quality, beads, hawk bells, redolent, medicinal, and magic seeds, sea shells, and fragrant herbs.

The hair is worn long by both sexes. It is dressed much like that of a Chinese woman except that it is twisted and tied up in a chignon on the crown of the head.

The man wears a long narrow bamboo hat which protects only the top of the head, and which is held on the head by two strings passing from end to end behind the ears. It usually has a plume of feathers standing up at right angles to the back part. The woman wears no hat as a general rule, but in lieu thereof adorns her head with a bamboo comb, at times inlaid with mother-of-pearl, at others covered with a lamina of beaten silver, but nearly always ornamented with decorative incisions. A pair of ear plugs with ornamental metal laminae are placed in the enlarged ear lobes.

I have seen men who had each ear lobe pierced in one or two places and small buttons fastened over the orifices, but I never saw a case of a Manóbo woman with any other perforation in the ears than the great aperture in each lobe for her ear disks.

Around the neck the woman wears in more or less profusion, according to her means and opportunities for purchase, necklets of beads, and necklaces of seeds, beads, shells, and crocodile teeth.

On her forearms she wears one or more sea-shell bracelets, circlets of black coral or of copper wire, and a close-fitting ringlet of plaited nito. This last adornment is also worn by men, who dispense with the use of other forms of bracelets, but who usually adorn the upper arm with a finely plaited ligature made of a dark fibrous vine. Both men and women frequently wear similar ligatures just below one or both knees. On solemn and festive occasions the woman decks her ankles with loose coils of heavy wire.

A square knapsack of hemp, frequently fringed with cotton yarn of many colors and suspended from the back by strings passing over the shoulders and under the arms, constitutes the man's receptacle for his chewing paraphernalia. It may be more or less elaborate in beadwork and embroidery, but as a rule there is no ornamentation of this kind.

Both sexes blacken the lips with soot black, and continually keep them more or less in that condition by the use of a large quid of tobacco, mixed with lime and máu-mau juice, the whole being carried between the lips. This mixture serves not only as an indispensable and pleasing narcotic, but also as the principal factor in bringing about the complete and permanent staining of the teeth.

In order that "they may not look like dogs," both sexes have the upper and lower incisors ground at an early age. They proceed at once to stain what is left with frequent applications of the above-mentioned masticatories.

As white and sharp teeth are doglike, so beard and body hair are suggestive of the monkey. Hence all straggling hairs are sedulously and constantly eradicated.

Tattooing by both sexes is universal. It consists of the puncturing of the skin and the rubbing in of a soot made from a very common variety of resin. The figures tattooed, often artistic, are representations of stars, leaves, crocodiles, etc.

Both sexes are tattooed on the breast, arms, and fingers, but it is customary for women to have an extra design on the calves of the legs and sometimes on the whole leg.

As to the Christianized Manóbos, it is obvious that the great majority have adopted the garb of their Bisáya brethren and abandoned the use of ornaments and mutilations characteristic of their pagan compeers. The change was enjoined by Spanish missionaries for religious reasons and, in the case of clothing, was encouraged by Bisáya traders for commercial motives, but did not benefit the new Christians, as far as my observation goes, either religiously, financially, or esthetically.

CHAPTER III

A SURVEY OF THE MATERIAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL CULTURE OF THE MANÓBOS OF EASTERN MINDANÁO

GENERAL MATERIAL CULTURE

DWELLINGS

For a home the Manóbo selects a site that is clearly approved by supernatural agencies, and that is especially suitable for agricultural purposes by reason of its fertility, and for defense, because of its strategic position. Hereon he builds an unpretentious, square, one-roomed building at a height of from 1.50 meters to 8 meters from the ground. The house measures ordinarily about 3 meters by 5 meters. Posts, usually light, and varying in number between 4 and 16, support the floor, roof, and intervening parts. The materials are all rattan lashed and seldom consist of anything but light materials taken from the immediate vicinity. The floor is made of slats of palm or bamboo, the roof is thatched with palm leaves, and the walls are light, horizontal, superimposed poles laid to about the height of the shoulders of a person sitting on the floor. The space between the top of the walls and the roof constitutes a continuous window. This open space above the low house wall permits the inmates during a fight to shoot their arrows at the enemy in any direction.

The one ceilingless room serves for kitchen, bedroom, and reception room. There is no decoration nor furniture. Scattered around or hung up, especially in the vicinity of the fireplace, are the simple household utensils, and the objects that constitute the property of the owner--weapons, baskets, and sleeping mats. On the floor farthest away from the door are the hearth frames, one or more, and the stones that serve as support for the cooking pots. A round log with more or less equidistant notches, leading from the ground up to the narrow doorway, admits the visitor into the house.

Under the house is the pigpen. Here the family pigs and the chickens make a living off such refuse or remnants as fall from above. The sanitary condition of this part of the establishment is in no wise praiseworthy. The only redeeming point is that the bad odors do not reach the house, being carried away by the current of air that is nearly always passing.

The house itself is far from being perfectly clean. The low, cockroach-infested thatch, the smoke-begrimed rafters, the unswept, dirt-bestrewn floor, the bug-infested slats, the smoke-laden atmosphere, the betel-nut-tinged walls and floor, these and other features of a small over-populated house make cleanliness almost impossible. The order and quietude of the home is no more satisfactory. The crying of the babies, the romping and shouting of the boys, the loud talking of the elders, the grunting of the pigs below, the whining and growling of the dogs above, and the noise of the various household occupations produce in an average house containing a few families a din that baffles description. But this does not disturb the serenity of the primitive inmates, who laugh, chew, talk, and work, and enjoy themselves all the more for the animation of which they form a great part.

ALIMENTATION

In the absence of such a luxury as matches, the fire-saw or friction method of producing fire is resorted to, although the old steel and flint method is sometimes employed.

The cooking outfit consists of a few homemade earthen pots, supplemented by green bamboo joints, bamboo ladles, wooden rice paddles, and nearly always a coconut shell for receiving water from the long bamboo water tube.

The various articles of food may be divided into two classes, one of which we will call the staple part of the meal and the other the concomitant. It must be remembered that for the Manóbo, as well as for so many other peoples of the Philippine Islands, rice or camotes or some other bulky food is the essential part of the meal, whereas fish, meat, and other things are merely complements to aid in the consumption of the main food. Under the heading, then, of staples we may classify in the order of their importance or abundance the following: Camotes, rice, taro, sago, cores of wild palm trees, maize, tubers and roots (frequently poisonous). Among the concomitant or supplementary foods are the following, their order being indicative of the average esteem in which they are held: Fish (especially if salted), domestic pork, wild boar meat (even though putrefied), venison, iguana, larvae from rotted palm trees, python, monkey, domestic chicken, wild chicken, birds, frogs, crocodile, edible fungi, edible fern, and bamboo shoots. As condiments, salt, if on hand, and red pepper are always used, but it is not at all exceptional that the latter alone is available.

Sweetpotatoes, taro, tubers, and rice are cooked by steaming. Maize and the cores of palm trees are roasted over the fire.

There are only two orthodox methods of cooking fish, pork, venison, iguana and chicken: (1) In water without lard; (2) by broiling. Python, monkey, crocodile, wild chicken, and birds must be prepared by the latter method.

When the meal is prepared, it is set out on plates, banana leaves, or bark platters, with the water in glasses or in the coconut-shell dipper. On ordinary occasions the husband, wife, children and female relatives of a family eat together, the unmarried men, widowers, and visitors partaking of their meals alone, but on festive occasions, all the male members, visitors included, gather in the center of the floor.

The hands and mouth are washed both before and after the meal. All begin to eat together on the floor. The men eat with their left hands and, on occasions, when the remotest suspicion of trouble exists, keep their right hand on their ever-present weapons. It is customary not to leave one's place after the meal without giving due notice.

NARCOTIC AND STIMULATING ENJOYMENTS

The most common and indispensable source of everyday enjoyment is the betel-nut quid, It would be an inexcusable breach of propriety to neglect to offer betel nut to a fellow tribesman. Not to partake of it when offered would be considered a severance of friendship. The essential ingredients of the quid are betel leaf, betel nut, and lime, but it is common to add tobacco, cinnamon, lemon rind, and several other aromatic elements. At times substitutes may be used for the betel leaf and the betel nut, if there is a lack of either.

Another important masticatory is the tobacco quid with its ingredients of lime and máu-mau juice. This is carried constantly between the lips. Occasionally, however, the men like to smoke a little mixed tobacco in small pipes or in little leaf cones.

The greatest and the most cherished enjoyment of all is drinking: Men, women, and children indulge, the last two sparingly. In Manóboland the fame of a banquet is in direct proportion to the number of those who became drunk, sobriety being considered effeminate, and a refusal to drink an affront to the host.

The main drinks are of four kinds: Cabo negro toddy, sugarcane brew, bahi toddy, and mead. The first and third are nothing but the sap of the palms that bear their respective names, the sap being gathered in the same manner as the ordinary coconut tuba. The second or sugarcane brew is a fermented drink made from the juice of the sugarcane boiled with a variety of the ginger plant. It is the choice drink of Manóbo deities. The fourth drink mentioned above is mead. It is similar to the last mentioned except that instead of sugar-cane juice, honey is used in its preparation.

One feature of the drinking is that it is seldom unaccompanied by meat or fish. Hence, on every occasion that a supply of these may be obtained, there is a drinking bout. Religious sacrifices, too, afford abundant opportunity for indulgence.

Quarrels sometimes ensue as a result of the flowing bowl, and war expeditions are proposed, but on the whole it may be said that the Manóbo is a peaceful and a merry drinker.

MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE

The Manóbo makes his living by farming, fishing, hunting, and trapping. He clears a patch of the primeval forest, and his womenfolk clean off the brush, sow broadcast a little rice, plant camotes, some taro, maize, and sugarcane. As the rice crop seldom is sufficient for the sustenance of his household, the Manóbo must rely also on the camote for his maintenance.

He obtains his supply of fish from the streams and rivers. When the water is deep and the current is not strong, he shoots the fish with a special bow and arrow. When the water is shallow and swift, he makes use of bamboo traps and at times poisons the whole stream.

To provide himself with meat, he occasionally starts off into the forest with dogs and seldom returns without a deer or a wild boar. He keeps several spring traps set somewhere in the forest but it is only during the rainy season that he may be said to be successful with these. He has a trap for monkeys, a snare for birds, a decoy for wild chickens, and uses his bow and arrow on monkeys and birds.

With the meat that he procures from the above sources, together with lizards and pythons which he sometimes catches, and fungi, larvae, and palm trees, which he finds in the forest, he manages to fill in the intervals between the ceremonial and the secular celebrations that recur so frequently during the year, and to keep himself fairly well supplied.

WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS

The bolo and, in some districts, the dagger, is the inseparable companion of the Manóbo. On the trails he always carries a lance and frequently a shield. For war he has an abaká coat of mail and a bow and arrow. In time of alarm he sets out bamboo caltrops, makes an abatis of fallen trees, and places human spring traps around his lofty house.

For work he has a bolo and a primitive adze[sic]. These, with a rice header, a small knife, a hunting spear, a special arrow for hunting, a fish spear, and perhaps a few fishhooks, serve all the purposes of his primitive life. With one or the other of these he fells the mighty trees of the primordial forest, performs all the operations of agriculture, of hunting and fishing, builds himself a house, in certain districts hews out shapely canoes, whittles out handsome bolo sheaths, and makes a variety of other necessary and often artistic articles. They are the sum total of his tools and serve him instead of all the implements of modern civilization.

INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES

The burden of toil falls on the woman. The man fells the heavy timber once a year, builds the house, hunts, fishes, traps, and fights. Practically all the rest of the daily labor is the woman's share. The man is the master, and as such he attends to all matters that may arise between his family and that of others.

Besides the occupations mentioned above, the man may engage, usually under the stress of a contract or of a debt, in canoe making, mining, and basket making.

The women weave all the clothes of the family except when imported cloth has been obtained. Most of the Manóbos' clothes, both for men and women, are made of native-woven cloth. The woman does all the sewing. A needle of brass wire in the absence of an imported needle, and a thread of abaká fiber, constitute her sewing outfit.

Almost all the material employed in weaving is abaká fiber. The dyes are vegetable, their fastness depending upon the duration of the boiling. The Manóbo woman, unlike the Mandáya women, and women of most other tribes in Mindanáo, has never developed the art of inweaving ornamental figures. The best she can do is to produce warp and weft stripes.

The making of simple earthen pots is also one of the industries of the woman. Pots are not, however, made in great quantities, the demand being, I think, a little greater than the supply.

Bed mats and rice bags are made out of various materials such as pandanus and buri in the ordinary Philippine style. The work is done principally by the woman and the supply is not equal, as a rule, to the family needs.

GENERAL SOCIOLOGICAL CULTURE

DOMESTIC LIFE

Marital relations.--In his choice of a wife the man is guided to a great extent by the wishes of his relatives, but the woman is given no option. There are no antenuptial relations between the pair, the marriage contract and all arrangements being made by their respective relatives. The transactions usually cover years. The woman's relatives demand for her an amount of worldly goods--slaves, pigs, bolos, and spears--that is almost impossible of payment. The man's relatives, on the other hand, strive to comply, but make use of every means to gain the friendship of the other side and thereby bring about a more considerate demand.

When, perhaps after years of effort, an agreement is reached, a great feast is prepared by the two parties. The final payment is made by the man's relatives, and the following day a reciprocal banquet is given by the girl's relatives, in the course of which one-half of the value of the payment made by the man's relatives is returned by the girl's relatives as an indication that "she has not been sold like a slave."

The marriage ceremony consists in the exchange of rice between the bride and the bridegroom. This is followed by a religious rite that consists mainly in determining by divination the fate of the couple.

Marriage is sometimes effected by capture, usually, I think, with the connivance of the woman. But the procedure involves a heavier payment to the throng of armed relatives that invariably set out in pursuit of the captors.

Prenatal marriage contracts are rare, but child marriage without cohabitation is practiced to a certain extent, especially among the more influential members of the tribe.

The age for marriage is about the age of puberty for the women and about the age of 18 for the men. Polygamy is a recognized institution, but is comparatively rare except among those who have the means to pay for the luxury of a second, third, or fourth wife. It presupposes the consent of the first wife, who always retains and maintains her position, there being no jealously, as far as my observation goes, and few domestic broils. Polyandry is considered swinish, and concubinage is unknown. Divorce is not in accord with tribal customs. The same holds true of prostitution.

There is no evidence of the practice of endogamy which is so widespread among the Oceanic peoples. As a rule, however, the Manóbo marries within his own tribe. This is due to his environment, to the hostile relations he ever holds with surrounding tribes, and to differences of religious beliefs. The only impediment to marriage is consanguinity, but even this impediment may be removed in the case of cousins by appropriate religious ceremonies. Consanguineous marriages are rare.

Upon the death of the husband, the wife is considered to belong to his relatives. Upon the presentation of a second suitor, she is remarried in the same manner as on her first marriage, but the payments demanded are not so high.

Marriages seem to result in reciprocal good understanding and happiness. The wife goes about her manifold duties day after day without a murmur, while her master keeps his weapons in good condition, fishes and hunts occasionally, goes on a trading trip at times, takes part in social gatherings, lends his voice in time of trouble, and goes off to fight if there should be occasion for it.

Faithfulness to the marriage tie is one of the most striking features of Manóboland. Adultery is extremely rare. The husband lives, at least during the first part of the married life, with his father-in-law, and displays toward his parents-in-law the same feelings that he entertains for his own parents. His wife is always under the eyes of her own parents, so that he is restrained from indulging in any marital bickerings.

Pregnancy, birth, and childhood.--The desire for children is strong. Hence voluntary abortion and infanticide are unknown. In case of involuntary abortion, which is comparatively frequent, the fetus is hung or buried under the house. When the child begins to quicken in the womb, the mother undergoes a process of massage at the beginning of every lunar month.

Parturition is effected almost invariably without any difficulty, the umbilical cord is cut usually with a bamboo sliver, the mother sits up to prevent a reflux of the afterbirth into the womb, the child is washed, and the operation is over. If the mother can not suckle her child it is nourished with rice water, sugar cane juice, and other light food, but is not given to another to be suckled. In a few days after her delivery the mother is up and back at her work. A little birth party takes place soon after the birth in which the midwife receives a slight guerdon for her services.

The child is named, without any ceremony, after some ancestor or famous Manóbo, or occasionally receives a name indicative of something which happened at the time of the birth. He is treated with the greatest tenderness and lack of restraint. As he grows up he learns the ways of the forest, and about the age of 14 he is a full-fledged little man. If the child is a girl, she helps her mother from the first moment that she is able to be of service.

Birth anomalies are rare. I have seen several albinos and several people who might be called in a loose sense hermaphrodites.

Medicine, sickness, and death.--The Manóbo attributes some twelve bodily ailments to natural causes, and for the cure of such he believes in the efficacy of about as many herbs and roots. For wounds, tobacco juice and the black residue of the smoking pipe are considered a good remedy. Betel nut and betel leaf are a very common cure for pains in the stomach. The gall of snakes has a potency of its own for the same trouble.

As a rule, all natural remedies are applied externally until such time as they prove unavailing, and the symptoms assume a more serious aspect.

Whenever an ailment is of a lingering character, especially if accompanied by increasing emaciation and not classifiable as one of the familiar maladies, it is attributed to magic causes. Certain individuals may have the reputation of being able to compound various noxious substances, the taking of which, it is believed, may superinduce lingering ailments. The pulverized bone from a corpse or the blood of a woman, dried in the sun and exposed to the light of the moon and then mixed with finely cut human hair, are example of such compounds. Other magic medicines exist such as aphrodisiacs, and bezoar stones. When it is decided that the ailment is due to any of these magic causes, neutralizing methods must be resorted to, the nature and application of which are very secret.

Epidemics are attributed to the malignancy of sea demons, and by way of propitiation, and inducement to these plague spirits to hurry off with their epidemic, offerings placed on raftlets are launched in the nearest rivers.

As soon as it is realized that the malady is beyond the power of natural or of magic resources, recourse is had to the deities or good spirits, as will be explained under the resume of religion. Upon the occurrence of a death, wild scenes frequently take place, the relatives being unable to restrain their grief. Signals, by bamboo horns, are often boomed out to neighboring settlements to warn them to be on their guard. War raids to settle old feuds are sometimes decided upon on these occasions, so all trails leading to the house are closed.

The corpse is washed and laid out on its back in its best apparel. The coffin is a hexagonal piece of wood made out of a log with a three-faced lid also hewn out of a log. The body is often wrapped in a grass mat before being laid in the coffin.

Before decomposition sets in, the coffin is borne away by men amidst great grief and loud shouts. A high piece of ground is selected in a remote part of the forest for the last resting place of the deceased. A shallow grave is dug, a roof of thatch is erected, a potful of boiled rice is placed over the grave as a last collation for the departed one, and the burial party hurry back in fear to the settlement. As soon as they can provide themselves with temporary huts they almost always abandon the settlement.

Social and Family enjoyments.--Music, instrumental and vocal, and dancing are the two great sources of domestic enjoyment. There are several kinds of instruments, which I will mention in the order of their importance and frequency of use. The drum, the gong, four varieties of flutes, four species of guitars, a violin, and a jew's-harp. With the exception of the first two, the instruments are made of bamboo and are, in every sense of the word, of the most primitive kind. The strings are of vine, bamboo, or abaká fiber.

The drum is the instrument of most frequent use. It is played during all dancing and at other times when a tribesman feels inclined. It is used as a signal to give alarm or to call an absent one. During the dance, religious or secular, it is nearly always accompanied by the gong. The use of the other instruments seems to depend upon the caprice of the individuals, though two of them appear to have a religious character.

With the exception of the gong and the Jew's-harp, all of these instruments can be made to produce varied and pleasing rhythms or music, according to the knowledge and skill of the performer. Each strain has its appropriate name, taken frequently from the name of the animal that it is supposed to imitate.

Instrumental music, in general, is of minor tonality, melancholy, weird, and suggestive in some ways of Chinese music.

Bamboo stampers are sometimes used to give more animation to a dancing celebration, and bamboo sounders are attached to looms to draw attention to the industry of the weaver.

Songs are always sung as solos. They are all extemporaneous and for the most part legendary. The language is archaic and difficult for an outsider to understand. The singing is a kind of declamation, with long slurs, frequent staccatos, and abrupt endings. Of course, there are war songs that demand loudness and rapidity, but on the whole the song music is as weird and melancholy as the instrumental. Ceremonial chants do not differ from secular songs, except that they treat of the doings of a supernatural world, and are the medium through which supplications are made to supernatural beings.

Perhaps the greatest of all social enjoyments, both for men and deities, is the dance. It is performed by one person at a time. Men, women and children take part. Dressed in a woman's skirt and decked out in all obtainable finery, the dancer keeps perfect time to the rhythm of the drum and the clang of the gong.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

System of government and social control.--Manóboland is divided into districts, more or less extensive, which are the property of the different clans. Each district is under the nominal leadership of the warrior chiefs and of the more influential men. In time of peace these districts are open to everybody, but in time of war--and wars were formerly very frequent--only persons of tried friendship are permitted to enter.

A clan consists of a chief whose authority is merely nominal, and of a number of his relatives varying from 20 to perhaps 200 souls. The whole system is patriarchal, no coercion being used unless it is sanctioned by the more influential members, approved by the consensus of opinion of the people, and in accord with traditional custom.

The authority of the elder people is respected as long as they are physically and mentally able to participate in public gatherings. Those who have distinguished themselves by personal prowess always command a following, but they have a greater influence in time of trouble than in time of peace.

Perfect equality reigns among the members of the clan, except in the one respect that the recognized warriors are entitled to the use of a red headkerchief, jacket, and pantaloons, each of these articles, beginning with the first, being added as the number of people whom the warrior has killed is increased.

The chieftainship naturally falls to one who has attained the rank of bagáni--that is, to one who has killed a certain number of persons--provided he is otherwise sufficiently influential to attract a following. His duties consist in lending his influence to settle disputes and in redressing the wrongs of those who care to appeal to him. As a priest he is thought to be under the protection of a war god whose desire for blood he must satisfy.

The bagáni also acts as a medicine man, for he is reputed to have certain magic powers both for good and for evil. The natural secretiveness of the bagáni made it difficult for me to secure much information on this point, but his power of harming at a distance and of making himself invisible are matters of general belief. In his character as a priest, he performs ceremonies for the cure of diseases in which fluxes of blood occur.

Methods of warfare.--There is no military organization in Manóboland. The greater part of those who form a war party are relatives of the aggrieved one, though it is usual to induce some others of acknowledged prowess to take part. No resentment is harbored by the opposing party toward paid warriors.

Vendettas and debts are the most usual cause of war, and not, as has been reported, glory and the capture of slaves. There is never wanting on the part of those who originate the war a reasonable motive. The vendetta system is not only recognized, but vengeance is considered incumbent on the relatives of one who has been killed, and, as a reminder, a piece of green rattan is sometimes strung up in the house. The rattan suggests that until it rots the wrong will not be forgotten. If the father is unable to avenge the wrong, he bequeathes[sic] the revenge to his son as a sacred legacy. Sometimes another person is deputed to take vengeance, in which case no blame is attached to him.

The peculiar custom prevails of killing a third party who may be neutral, or of seizing his property, but I have known such an act to be resented. As a result of this custom a war party returning from an unsuccessful raid is dangerous.

There is usually no formal declaration of war. In fact, the greatest secrecy is generally observed, and in urgent cases a body of ambushers proceed at once to kill the first one of the enemy that happens to pass their lurking place. As a rule, the enemy's house and his actions are watched for weeks, perhaps for years, until a favorable opportunity for attack presents itself.

The usual times for undertaking an expedition are during the rice harvest and after a death. The preparation consists in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the enemy's house and of its environment. Everything being ready, the warriors assemble, a sacrifice is made, omens are taken, and the band starts out at such an hour as will enable them to reach the vicinity of the enemy about nightfall. From the last stopping point a few warriors make a final reconnaissance in the gloom of the night, release the enemy's traps, and return. The whole band, numbering anywhere from 10 to 100, advance and, surrounding the house, await the dawn, for it is at the first blush of the morning that sleep is supposed to be heaviest. Moreover, there is then sufficient light to enable the party to make the attack. Hence the peep of dawn is almost always the hour of attack.

If the enemy's house is within spear reach, it is usually an easy matter to put the inmates to death, but if it is a high house, and, especially, if the inmates are well prepared, a warrior climbs up silently under the house and spears one of them. This, followed by the killing of pigs and by the battle cry, usually causes consternation. A battle of arrows then takes place; there is a bandying of fierce threats, taunts, and challenges, and the attacking party endeavors to set the roof on fire with burning arrows. If they succeed the inmates flee from the flames, but only the children, as a rule, escape the bolo and the spear.

It is seldom that the attack is prolonged more than a few hours, and it is seldom that the attack is unsuccessful, for if other means fail, hunger and thirst will drive the besieged ones to flight, in which case they become the victims of the besieging warriors. If one of the latter is wounded or killed, the attack is abandoned at once, such an occurrence being considered extremely inauspicious.

Each warrior gets credit for the number of people whom he kills, and is entitled to the slaves that he may capture. The warrior chiefs open the breasts of one or more of the headmen of the slain, insert a portion of their charm collars into the openings, and consume the heart and liver in honor of their war spirits.

During the return home the successful warriors make the forest resound with the weird ululation of the battle cry, and adorn their lances with palm fronds. Upon arrival at their settlement they are welcomed with drum and song and loud acclaim. A purificatory bath is followed by a feast in which each one recounts the minutest details of the attack. After the feast some of the captives may be given to warriors who were unlucky or who desire to satisfy their vengeance. The captives are dispatched in the near-by forest.

Ambush is also a very ordinary method of warfare. Several warriors station themselves in a selected position near the trail and await their enemy.

Whenever there is open rupture between two parties, it is customary for each of them to erect a high house in a place remote and difficult of access, and to surround it with such obstacles as will make it more dangerous. In these houses, with their immediate relatives and with such warriors as desire to take their part, they bide their time in a state of constant watch and ward.

When both parties to a feud are tired, either of fighting constantly or of taking refuge in flight, a peacemaking may be brought about through the good services of friendly and influential tribesmen. On the appointed day, the parties meet, balance up their blood debts and other obligations and decide on a term within which to pay them. As an evidence of their sincere desire to preserve peace and to make mutual restitution, a piece of green rattan is cut by the leaders, and a little beeswax is burnt, both operations being symbolic of the fate that will befall the one that breaks his plighted word.

Intertribal and analogous relations.--Intertribal relations between pagan Manóbos and Christtianized[sic] Manóbos, and between the former and Bisáyas were comparatively pacific during my residence in the Agúsan Valley. Between Manóbos and other mountain tribes, excepting Mañgguáñgans, the relations were, with casual exceptions, rather friendly, due, no doubt, to the lessons learned by the Manóbos in their long struggles with Mandáyas, Banuáons, andv Debabáons up to the advent of the missionaries about 1877. The Manóbos are inferior to the tribes mentioned in tribal cohesion and in intellect. Their dealings, however, with Mañgguáñgans, who are undoubtedly their physical and intellectual inferiors, present a different aspect. With the Mandáyas and Debabáons, they have helped to reduce the once extensive Mañgguáñgan tribe to the remnant that it is to-day.

Manóbos and other mountain tribes have little to do with each other. Only particular individuals of the various tribes, who have the happy faculty of avoiding trouble, travel among other tribes. In general, Manóbos are afraid of the aggressiveness of their neighbors (excluding the Mañgguáñgans), and their neighbors f ear Manóbo instability and hot-headedness; hence both sides pursue the prudent policy of avoidance.

Interclan relations have been comparatively peaceful since the establishment of the special government in the Agúsan Valley. Occasional killings took place formerly and probably still take place in remote regions, notably on the upper Baóbo. It is probable that since my departure from the Agúsan in 1910 these murders take place much less frequently, as the special government organized in 1907 has made great headway in getting in contact with the more warlike people of the interior.

Up to the time of my departure dealings between the various clans were purely commercial and of a sporadic nature. Old enmities were not forgotten, and it was considered more prudent to have as little as possible to do with one another.

On all occasions, when there is any apprehension of danger, arms are worn. During meals, even of festive occasions, the Manóbo eats with his left hand, holding his right in readiness for an attack. The guests at a feast are seated in such a way that an attack may be easily guarded against. Various other laws of intercourse, such as those governing the passing of one person behind another and method of unsheathing a bolo, regulate the dealings of man with man and clan with clan.

Commercial relations between Bisáyas and Manóbos, both pagan and Christianized, constitute, on the part of the first-mentioned, a system of deliberate and nefarious spoliation which has been denounced from the time of the first missionaries and which, by the establishment of trading posts by the Government, eventually will be suppressed. Absolutely inadequate values both in buying and selling commodities, use of false weights and measures, defraudation in accounts, demands of unspeakably high usury, wheedling by the puának or friendship system, advancing of merchandise at exorbitant rates, especially just before the rice harvest, and the system of commutation by which an article not contracted for was accepted in payment though at a paltry price--these were the main features of the system. It may be said that the resultant and final gain amounted to between 500 and 1,000 per cent.

The bartering was carried on in a spirit of dissimulation, the Manóbo being cozened into the idea that the sale was an act of friendship and involved a comparative loss on the part of the Bisáya. A period, more or less extended, was allowed him wherein to complete the payment, with a promise of further liberal advances.

Since the Manóbo has become aware of the stupendous gain of the Bisáya, he is not so prompt in his payments and in fact often thwarts his creditor by deliberate delays. Hence the frequent bickerings, quarrels, and ill will that are ever a result of these commercial relations.

It is needless to say that throughout the valley there was most undue fluctuation of prices. Moreover, the Manóbo sold a part of his rice in harvest time at 50 centavos a sack, and in time of scarcity repurchased it at as much as 5 pesos.

The internal commerce of the Manóbos presents, on the whole, a very different spectacle. It consists in simple exchanges. There is no circulating medium. The units of exchange are slaves (valued at from 15 to 30 pesos each), pigs, and plates, but with the exception of the first, these units are not constant in value.

The measures used are the gántang, a cylindrical wooden vessel with a capacity of from 10 to 15 liters; the kabán,¹ which contains 25 gántang; the yard, measured from the end of the thumb to the middle of the sternum; the span, the fathom, the finger, and the finger joint.

¹Called also bákid and anéga. A kabán is measured by counting out 25 gántang.

Slavery is a recognized institution, but since the diminution of intertribal and interclan wars the number of slaves has diminished. Slaves were originally obtained by capture and then passed from hand to hand in making marriage payments. It sometimes occurs, in an exigency, that a man delivers a child, even his own, into captivity.

The slave is generally not ill-treated but has to do all the work that is assigned to him. He has no rights of any kind, possesses no property except a threadbare suit, and is usually not allowed to marry. However, he receives a sufficiency of food and seems to be contented with his lot.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

General principles and various laws.--It is frequently stated by Bisáyas and others that Manóbo justice consists in the oppression of the weak by the strong, but I have not found this to be true. The Manóbo is too independent and too much a lover of revenge to brook coercion. He recognizes a set of customary rules, and any departure from them is resented by himself and by his relatives.

Nearly all violations of rights are considered as civil and not as criminal wrongs, and upon due compensation are condoned. Failure on the part of the offender to make this compensation leads the aggrieved man and his relatives to take justice into their own hands.

The guilty one in nearly every case is allowed a fair and impartial hearing in the presence of his own relatives. The matter is argued out, witnesses are called, and the offender's own relatives generally exert their influence to make him yield with good will. Hence the feast that follows nearly every case of successful arbitration.

One of the fundamental customs of the Manóbos is to regard as a duty the payment of one's debts, and this duty is performed sacredly and often at a sacrifice. Another fundamental custom is the right of revenge. Revenge is a sacred duty that is bequeathed from generation to generation, and from it result the long and terrible feuds that have devastated Manóboland.

Customary law is based on the intense conservation of the Manóbo, fostered by the priests and strengthened by a system of religious injunctions and interdictions. Anyone who violates these taboos or interdictions becomes liable for all evil consequences that may follow.

Property rights are understood and rigidly upheld, so much so that there seems to be no conception of a gift as such. Large tracts of land are considered the property of a clan, but anyone on good terms with the clan may settle on the land and may have all the rights of a clansman except those of fishing. Each individual becomes the temporary owner of the land that he selects and of the crops that he plants thereon. As soon as he abandons the land it becomes the collective property of the clan. Land disputes are unknown.

Property that is the result of one's labor or one's purchase belongs to the individual except in the case of women, children, and slaves. Loss of and damage to property belonging to another must be made good, no excuses being admitted.

The law of contracts is stringent, but a certain amount of consideration is shown in case of a failure to fulfill a contract on time, unless a definite stipulation to the contrary has been previously made. All contracts are made in the presence of witnesses, and frequently a knotted rattan slip, representing the number of items or the number of days to elapse before payment, is delivered by the one who makes the contract.

Nearly all transactions are made on a credit basis, hence frequent disputes arise out of the failure of one party or the other to fulfill the terms of the contract. The failures are sometimes due to the fact that one individual man depends on payment from another in order to satisfy his debt to a third party. Undue delay on the part of a debtor finally gives the creditor the right to seize the property of the debtor, or even the property of a third party. Such an action is not common and is always taken under the stress of exasperation after repeated efforts to collect have proved unavailing. As a rule the relatives of the debtor prefer to settle the obligation rather than to allow matters to become too serious, but it happens at times that they, too, are obstinate and allow things to take their course.

No interest is charged on loans except in the case of paddy. There are few loans made, and no leases or pledges. These last imply a distrust that is not pleasing to the Manóbo.

The law of liability is very strict. For instance, if one should ask another to accompany him on a journey and the latter should fall sick or die, the former would be liable for his death. If one should die in the house, thereby causing the abandonment of it, the relatives of the dead man would have to pay the value of the house. Similar instances are of frequent occurrence and can readily be understood. This liability law extends to evils supposed to be due to the violation of taboos and to the possession of magic powers.

There is a system of fining that serves, harsh though it may seem, to maintain proper deference to the person and the property of another. Thus, spitting on another, rudely grasping another's person, entering another's district without due permission, bathing in river without the owner's leave, are a few of the many cases that might be adduced. The fine varies according to the damage and amount of malice that may be proved in the subsequent arbitration.

Regulations governing domestic relations and property; customary procedure in settlements of disputes.--The house belongs collectively to the builders. The property in it belongs to the male inmates who have acquired it.

The elder brother takes possession of the property of his deceased brother, unless the eldest son of the deceased is of such an age as to be capable of managing the household. In case the deceased did not have a brother, a brother-in-law or a son-in-law becomes the representative of the household. The eldest son inherits his father's debts and must pay them.

There is so little property in the ordinary Manóbo home that there are no disputes as to the inheritance. After a death the house is abandoned and the grief-stricken relatives scurry off with their baskets, mats, and simple utensils to make another home in a solitary part of the forest.

The relations both prenuptial and postnuptial between the sexes are of the strictest kind. All evil conduct from adultery down to immodest gazing is punished with appropriate fines and even with death. The fines vary from the equivalent of three slaves down to the equivalent of a few pesos.

The marriage contract is very rigid. I know of few cases in which the stipulated price was not paid prior to the delivery of the fiancé. In case of the death of one of the affiancéd parties, the payments made must be refunded. In case of the refusal of the bridegroom to continue his suit even though there has been no fault on the part of the bride or of her relatives, he loses all right to recover. Should the bride's people, however, decide to discontinue the proceedings, they must return the previous payments and make, I believe, compensation for the trouble and expenses incurred during the previous transactions. No case of a discontinuance of the marriage proceedings ever passed under my observation.

The father has theoretically full power over his wife and children, but in practice his domestic jurisdiction is of the most lenient kind. Marital affection and filial devotion reign in the household.

The husband may not marry a second wife during the lifetime of the first without the latter's consent. This rule, as well as the lack of sufficient worldly possessions to purchase another helpmate, makes polygamy comparatively infrequent.

The bridegroom is supposed to live with his father-in-law or with the previous owner of his wife, very often his wife's brother, but nearly always sets up his own establishment a few years after marriage.

With the exception of adultery, fornication, rape, and wanton homicide, all crimes presuppose an appeal to arbitration. The one that is the author of another's death is the one on whom vengeance must be taken, if it is possible.

When an outraged party is unable to obtain redress by arbitration or by the direct reprisal, he avenges himself on a third party, preferably a relative of his enemy, by killing him or by seizing his property. He thus brings matters to a head. It is usual to compound with the relatives of this third party, either for the death or for the seizure, on condition that they will league themselves with the one who is seeking revenge, in opposition to the original wrongdoer or that they themselves will undertake, as his paid agents, to wreak vengeance on his enemy.

Minor offenses are punished by fines that are determined by arbitration. These fines vary in amount, but nearly always include a feast, more or less elaborate, the expenses of which are borne by the party that lost the case.

The arbitration of a question may be made immediately after it has arisen or it may not be brought about for weeks or months. When the discussion has begun it is not considered politic for either side to yield at once. Threats are bandied between the principals until, through the influence of friendly chiefs, they are brought together. Then the relatives discuss the affair, each side exaggerating its own view of the question. It is only after lengthy discussions, and the use of similitudes and allegories, loud shouts, dissimulation, and through the sagacity and influence of the chief men that the opinions of the parties are so molded that an agreement is reached.

It may be necessary to determine the offense. This is done by witnesses who give, as far as I have been able to judge, truthful testimony. Whenever the veracity of a witness is doubted he may be obliged to take a kind of oath which consists in the burning of beeswax. A little beeswax is melted by holding a firebrand over it. While this is being done, the person whose veracity it is desired to test, utters a wish that in case of falsehood his body may be melted like the wax. In the case of suspects, ordeals are employed. They consist of making the parties under suspicion either plunge their hands into boiling water, or undergo the diving test, or take the candle ordeal.

Circumstantial evidence is admissible. By means of it, the authors of hidden crimes are often brought to punishment after years of patient waiting.

It is customary for the guilty one to make at least a partial payment immediately after the arbitration, and to treat the assembly to a banquet in which it is good form for the two opponents to close the breaches of friendship by generous quaffs to each other's health.

CHAPTER IV

RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS IN GENERAL

A BRIEF SURVEY OF RELIGION

A study of Manóbo religion is difficult because of the natural secretiveness and suspiciousness of this primitive man, because of his dependence for his religious ideas on his priests, because of the variations and apparent contradictions that arise at every step, and, finally, because of his inability to expound in a satisfactory manner the beliefs of his religious system.

THE BASIS, INFLUENCE, AND MACHINERY OF RELIGION

The religious belief of the Manóbo is an essential part of his life. On his person he often carries religious objects. The site for his home is not selected till omens and oracles are consulted. In his method of cooking there are religious rules. He can not procure his meat from the forest nor his fish from the streams without making an appropriate offering. He sows and harvests his rice under the auspices of certain deities. His hunting dogs are under the protection of a special divinity. His bolo and his spear must answer a special magic test. He can not go forth to fight till divination and sacrifice have assured him success. All the great events of his life--his marriage, the pregnacy[sic] and parturition of his wife, death, burial, war--all are consecrated by formal, and often public, religious rites.

As far as I have been able to judge, fear of the deities of evil spirits, of the dead--of all that is unintelligible, unusual, somber--is the mainspring of the Manóbos religious observances and beliefs.

In order to detect the evils, natural and supernatural, to which he may be exposed, he has recourse to dreams, divination, auguries, and omens, and, in more serious cases he calls upon his priests to ascertain by invocation, oblation, and sacrifice, the source of the evil that has befallen him, or of the danger that he fears.

THE HIERARCHY OF MANÓBO DIVINITIES, BENEFICENT AND MALIGNANT

There is no supreme being in the Manóbo pantheon, though there are two principal classes of beneficent divinities. Little is known of one of these classes beyond its supposed existence. The other class is made up of humanlike deities called diwáta that retain a fondness for this world and the good things thereof. They select mortals for their favorites, and through them keep themselves provided with such earthly delicacies as they may desire, even though they may have to plague their mortal votaries in order to secure them.

There is another category of spirits, of a slightly different character, whose desire is blood. These are the war divinities that select certain individuals for their champions and urge them on to deeds of valor, with the hope of procuring blood.

In contradistinction to the above divinities are others of a malignant or dangerous character. Chief among them are the búsau, black, hideous spirits that dwell in dark, desolate places, and who are for the most part implacable enemies of man. To counteract the machinations of these spirits, the beneficent dieties[sic] are called upon by Manóbo priests and feasted with song and dance and sacrifice. Pleased with these tokens of friendship, the good spirits pursue the evil ones, and even engage in battle with them.

The tagbánua are a class of local spirits that reign over the forest tracts and mountains. They are not of an unkindly nature as long as a certain amount of respect is paid them. Hence the practice of making offerings during hunting and other forest occupations.

Among the other inimical spirits are: The rice pilferer, Dágau; Anit, the thunderbolt spirit; numerous epidemic demons; the goddess of consanguineous love and marriage; the spirit of sexual excess; the wielder of the lightning and the manipulator of the winds and storms; the cloud spirit; and various others.

Agricultural and hunting operations are all performed under the auspices of gods and goddesses. Thus Hakiádan and Taphágan take care of the rice during sowing and harvest time, respectively; Tagamáling attends to other crops; Libtákan is the god of sunshine and good weather; and Sugújun is the god of the chase.

There are other gods: Mandáit, the birth deity; Ibú, the goddess of the afterworld; Makalídung, the founder of the world; Manduyápit, the ferryman; and Yúmud, the water wraith.

PRIESTS----THEIR FUNCTIONS, ATTRIBUTES, AND EQUIPMENT

The performance of nearly all the greater religious rites is left to the priests who are of two classes--bailán or ordinary priests, and bagáni or war priests. It is the prerogative of these priests to hold communication with their familiar spirits; to find out from them their desires; to learn the doings of the unfriendly spirits, and the means to be taken for a mitigation of the evil in question.

The ordinary priests are simple intermediaries, claiming no wondrous powers, making use of no deceptive nor mercenary methods, as far as my observation goes, with no particular dress and little paraphernalia, having no political influence, but possessing, in all that concerns religion, paramount authority. Their title to priesthood is derived from violent manifestations, such as trembling, perspiring, belching, semiunconsciousness, that are believed to be a result of communication with their familiars.

The war priests have blood spirits for their favorites, and accordingly perform their rites only in matters that concern war and wounds.

Ceremonial accessories consist of a few heirlooms, a small altar house, a wooden oblation tray, a one-legged stand, a sacrificial table, ceremonial decorations, sacred images, and sacrificial offerings.

The religious rites peculiar to the ordinary priests, consist of betel-nut offerings, the burning of incense, invocations, prophylactic fowl waving, omen taking, blood unction, the child ceremony, the death feast, the rice-planting ceremony, the hunting rite, and the sacrifice of pig or fowl.

The ceremonies peculiar to the warrior priests, besides the betel-nut tribute to the war spirits and invocation offered to them, are: Invocation and offerings to the spirit companions or "souls" of the living enemy, special forms of divination connected with war, a special invocation to the omen bird preparatory to the war raid, placation and propitiation of the tutelary war deities by invocation, by sacrifice, and ceremonial cannibalism; and, probably, in the remote districts, by human sacrifice.

THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF MANÓBO RELIGION

The main features, then, of the Manóbo religious system are:

(1) A firm traditional belief in the existence of anthropomorphic beneficent deities that will help the Manóbo if he supplies them with the offerings they desire, but, if not, that will allow and even cause evil to befall him.

(2) A belief in the existence of forest spirits and sky spirits, who on occasions may become hostile and must be propitiated.

(3) An absolute reliance on priests, who are the favorites of one or more of the friendly divinities, and through whose mediation he secures their good will and assistance.

(4) The fear of the dead who are thought to harbor an envious feeling toward the living.

(5) The frequent consultation or interpretation of omens, auguries, and oracles for ascertaining future events.

(6) A rigid adherence to a numerous set of taboos, some based on religious ideas, some founded on sympathetic magic.

(7) A frequent application of the principle of sympathetic magic by which one act is believed to be productive of a correlated result.

(8) A conscientious avoidance of everything disrespectful in word and act toward one of the brute creation.

(9) A belief in two spirit companions that accompany each mortal from birth till death.

(10) A belief in the possibility of capture of one of these spirit companions by malignant spirits.

(11) A universal and constant faith in the existence of an afterworld and of the eternal survival of at least one spirit companion therein.

(12) A belief in dreams as being often indicative of future evil.

(13) A belief in secret methods that may be productive of harm to others.

(14) The recourse to oaths and ordeals for the enforcement of promises and for the determination of truth.

(15) The unmistakable apotheosis of bravery as illustrated by the warlike character of one class of deities.

Such are the main characteristics of this form of primitive religion. The peculiar fear, entertained by its lowly votary, of lonely mountains, odd-shaped rocks, gloomy caves and holes, hot springs and similar formations of nature; his belief that planted things have "souls" and his peculiar respect for animals and insects--these and minor manifestations may point perhaps to a former nature and animal worship, but at present there is no indication of such. The Manóbo's conduct in the presence of such objects and phenomena is one of fear toward, and placation of, the agencies which he believes produce the phenomena or of the spirit owners of the objects that come across his path. It is to them alone that he pays his respect, and not to the material object or manifestation that has become the object of his perception.

Though one of the characteristics of Manóbo religion is the apotheosis of bravery, as is apparent from the warlike character of the divinities, and from the general desire to die the death of the slain, yet I find little trace of ancestor worship. The dead are feared, their burial place is shunned, their character is deemed perfidious, and relations with them are terminated by a farewell mortuary feast, after which it is expected that they will depart, to vex the living no more.

MENTAL AND OTHER ATTAINMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS

The Manóbo's intellectual attainments are very limited. He counts on his fingers and on his toes, or by means of material objects such as grains of maize. He has never had any system of writing and does not know how to read. His "letters" and his "contracts" are material objects in the shape of bolos and other things, sent from one person to another with a verbal message, or strips of rattan with knots. His method of counting is decimal, and comprehends all numbers up to a hundred, though I am inclined to think that this last number represents to him infinity.

The reckoning of time is equally simple. The day is divided into day and night, the hour being indicated by stretching out the arm and open hand in the direction of that part of the sky where the sun or the moon would be at the time it is desired to indicate.

The month is not divided into weeks but the lunar month itself is carefully followed, each phase of the moon having its distinct name, though it is only in the case of the extreme of each phase that they agree on its name.

Years are reckoned by the recurrence of the rice-harvesting season, which varies according to the climate and geographical position of different regions. It is seldom that one can count backwards more than four or five years unless he can help his memory by some event such as an earthquake, and extra heavy flood, the arrival of the Spanish missionaries, the Philippine insurrection, or the growth of trees, but as a rule no attempt is made to determine the number of years that have elapsed since any event. I have seldom met a Manóbo who had any idea as to his age, or any ability to judge approximately of the age of another.

Historical knowledge is confined almost entirely to events that have occured[sic] within one's lifetime. There are few traditions that have any historical value, and even in these there is an element of the wonderful that makes them unreliable as guides.

It is obvious that the pagan Manóbo has made no advance along academic lines, clue to the fact that he never has had an opportunity afforded him, but judging of his intellectual ability by that of the Christianized Manóbos, it is not inferior to that of the Bisáya. I had experience in organizing and conducting schools among the conquistas, and it has been my experience that ceteris paribus, they advance as rapidly as Bisáyas. If the conquistas have not progressed as far intellectually, it is due to lack of facilities and not to any inherent inability to learn.

Knowledge of astronomy is limited among the Manóbos to the names of a few of the principal stars and constellations. The nature of the stars, moon, sun, eclipses, and kindred phenomena are all explained in mythological tales, from a belief in which no amount of reasoning can move them. The old story that the comet is the harbinger or bearer of disease is in vogue.

Esthetic arts, such as painting and architecture, are unknown, though Manóbos can carve rude and often fantastic wooden images, and can make crude tracings and incisions on lime tubes and baskets.

Notwithstanding their lack of scientific and esthetic knowledge, their observation of nature is marvelous. This is obviously due to long familiarity with the forest, the stream, and the mountains. From his boyhood years the Manóbo has lived the life of the forest. He has scanned the trees for birds and monkeys, the streams for fish. Living, as he generally has, within a definite district, and roaming over it in search of game and other things to eat, at the same time keeping a close watch for any variation that might indicate the presence of an outsider, he has come to possess those marvelous powers of sight and of observation that would astonish the average white man. Within his own district the position of every tree is known. Every stream and every part of it, every mountain, every part of the forest is known and has its appropriate name. The position of a place is explained in a few words to a fellow tribesman, and is understood by the latter.

Trees and plants are recognized, and their adaptation in a great many cases for certain economic uses is known, though I think that, in his knowledge of the latter, the Manóbo is inferior to both the Bisáya and the Mandáya, as he is undoubtedly of a more conservative and less enterprising disposition.

The Manóbo character has been so maligned by missionaries, and by all the Bisáyas who have dealings with them, that it deserves a clearance from the aspersions that have been cast upon it. In dealing with the Manóbo, as with all primitive peoples, the personal equation brings out more than anything else the good qualities that underlie his character. Several of the missionaries seem not to have distinguished between the pagan and the man. To them the pagan was the incarnation of all that is vile, a creature whose every act was dictated by the devil. The Bisáya regarded him somewhat in the same light, but went further. He looked upon him as his enemy because of the many acts of retribution, even though retribution was merited, that had been committed by the Manóbo or by his ancestors. He entertained a feeling of chagrin and disappointment that this primitive man was unwilling to become an absolute tool in his hands for thorough exploitation. Hence no name, however vile, was too bad for the poor forest dweller who refused to settle near his plantation and toil--man, woman, and child--for an utterly inadequate wage. His feeling toward the conquistas is little, if at all, better.

Upon first acquaintance the Manóbo is timid and suspicious. This is due to the extreme cautiousness that teaches him to guard a life that among his own people has only a nominal value. When in the presence of strangers for the first time, he remembers that reprisals have been bandied from time immemorial between his people on the one hand, and Bisáyas, on the other, and he realizes that without proper care, reprisals might be made on him. Again, if the visitor has penetrated into his district, his suspicion may be aroused to its full force by calumnious reports or rumors that may have preceded the visitor's arrival. My own visits were frequently preceded by rumors to the effect that I had magic power to poison or to do other things equally wonderful, that I was a solider in disguise, or by other similar reports. But in these cases and in all others one may allay the timorousness and suspiciousness of these primitive people to a great extent by previous announcement of one's visit and intentions, and upon arrival in their settlement, by refraining from any act or word that might betray one's curiosity. Surprise must not be expressed at anything that takes place. The mere question as to what, for instance, is beyond such and such a mountain, or where is the headwaters of such and such a stream, may start up the full flame of suspicion. Hence prudence, a kind, quiet, but alert manner, a good reputation from the last visited locality and a distribution of trifling gifts, is always efficacious in removing that feeling of distrust that these primitive people feel toward a stranger.

Another charge is that they are revengeful. They certainly believe in "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Revenge for an unatoned wrong is a stern, fundamental, eternal law, sanctioned by Manóbo institutions, social, political, and religious; one that is consecrated by the breath of the dying, and passed on from generation to generation to be fulfilled; but it has one saving clause, arbitration. Hence a stranger must inform himself of such past happenings as might jeopardize him. The Manóbo has a very limited conception of the extent of the outside world and of the number of its inhabitants, and he is inclined to believe that one American, for instance, knows every other one and may be related by blood to any other. Hence any imprudent action on the part of one may draw down revenge on the head of another¹, relative or not, for even innocent third parties may, by Manóbo custom, be sacrificed to the unsatisfied spirit of revenge. The danger, however, in which a stranger might find himself from this cause, is easily eliminated by questioning the people as to who had wronged them on previous occasions; and should he learn that he is considered a party to the wrong through identity of blood or of race with the guilty one, he must gently suggest a plan for arbitration at some later date, and in other pacific ways avert the revenge from himself.

¹It is not improbable that the death of Mr. H. M. Ickis, geologist of the Bureau of Science, Manila, was partly due to the capture and exile of one Gubat of the upper Umaíam some 15 or 20 years ago.

It is, moreover, affirmed that Manóbos are treacherous. If by treachery is meant a violation of faith and confidence, they can not be said to be treacherous. They kill when they feel that they are wronged. I know of few cases where they did not openly avow their feelings and demand reparation. Refusal to make the reparation demanded is equivalent to a declaration of war, and in war all is fair. It is every man's duty to safeguard himself as best he can. The Manóbo, Mandáya, Mañgguáñgan, and Debabáon houses erected in strategic positions throughout the interior of eastern Mindanáo, bear witness to the fact that these people recognize the principle that all is fair in war. The fact that they frequently carry their spears and shields when on the trail, and in time of trouble accompany their womenfolk to the farms and guard them there, is sufficient evidence of the fact that every means must be taken to safeguard one's self and interests from an enemy. But let a case be once arbitrated, and beeswax burned or other solemn manifestation of agreement be made, and it is my opinion that the pledge will not, as a rule, be broken.

Cowardice is a trait attributed to Manóbos and other people of Mindanáo. It is true that they do not take inordinate risks. The favorite hour for attack on an enemy's house is dawn. They prefer to thrust a spear through the floor rather than to call the enemy out to fight a hand-to-hand battle. In other cases they prefer to ambush him on the trail, 5 or 10 men against 1. Again, it may be more convenient to pick off a lone woman in a camote patch. Such are recognized methods of warfare. Once aroused, however, the Manóbo will fight, and fight to a finish. Throughout the Jesuit letters we find mentioned various instances of really brave deeds on the part of Manóbos. In some cases the husband killed his family and then himself rather than fall into the hands of the Spanish troops. I have been informed of hundreds of instances in which the male members of the attacked party threw themselves against superior numbers in order that their wives might escape. Hand-to-hand encounters are not uncommon, if I may believe the endless stories that have been narrated to me by warriors throughout eastern Mindanáo.

Laziness and dilatoriness can certainly be predicated of Manóbo men, but such qualities are to be attributed to lack of incentive to work and to hurry. All the household duties fall, by custom, upon the shoulders of the women, so that there is little left for the man except to fish, hunt, trap, trade, and fight. When, however, the men set themselves to clearing the forest or to other manual tasks, it is surprising with what agility, skill, and perseverance they work, though such spells of labor are short lived.

No one has ever uttered or written a word against the Manóbo's sexual morality. It is true that sexual matters are discussed with the greatest freedom, but the most venial breaches of morality are punished. The greatest modesty is observed in regard to the exposure of the private parts. Gazing at an undressed woman, for instance, at the bathing place results in a fine. Unseemly insinuations to a woman are visited with a similar punishment, but should such overtures go further, even death may be the penalty.

As to temperance and sobriety, the rule is to eat and drink all one can, hence the amount of food and drink consumed depends upon the supply. Sobriety is not a virtue. To lose one's equilibrium and senses is to do honor to the host and justice to his generosity.

Honesty is certainly a trait of the Manóbo character. I do not mean to maintain that there are not occasional pilferings, especially in small things that are considered to be more or less communal in their nature, such as palm wine while still flowing from the tree, but other kinds of property are perfectly safe. The rare violations of the rule of honesty are punished more or less severely according to the amount of the property stolen and according to other considerations.

Though respect for another's property is decidedly the rule, yet it is surprising to note with what care everything is counted, tied up, or put away, and how marks of ownership are set up on all occasions. I think, however, that these precautions are due not so much to a fear of pilferers as to a feeling of the instability of conditions in a country that has always been subject to turmoil.

Honesty in the payment of debts is one of the most striking characteristics of these people. I have advanced merchandise on credit to people whom I had never met before and the whereabouts of whose houses I did not know except from their own information, and yet, six months or a year later, when I entered their region I had no difficulty in locating them nor in collecting from them. So high is their feeling of obligation to pay a debt that even children are sometimes parted with in settlement, but this occurs in extreme cases only. Though debts are satisfied conscientiously, yet a certain amount of consideration is expected as to the time and other details of payment, except in some very urgent cases.

Honesty in other matters, as in the performance of formal agreements, is equally noticeable though I must say that the performance may not be as prompt in point of time as we would expect. But it must be remembered, in connection with this last point, that in making an agreement one is presumed to make allowance for a great many impediments, such as evil omens, that do not figure in our system of contracts. Another difference, which applies also to the matter of debts, is that the man who owes a debt must be reminded of his obligation and urged in a gentle way to the performance of it. It occurs in some rare instances that a debtor is under a definite contract as to the exact time for meeting his obligation. In these cases the creditor may be more insistent upon payment. It is to the credit of the Manóbo that he never disowns a debt nor runs away to avoid the payment thereof.

It has been said that the Manóbo is ungrateful, but I do not think that his gratitude is so rare nor so transitory a virtue as is claimed by those who pretend to know him. It is true that he has no word to express thanks, but he expects the giver to make known his desires and ask for what he wants. This is the reason why he himself is such an inveterate beggar. He receives you into his house, feeds you, considers you his friend, and proceeds to make you reciprocate by asking for everything he sees. If he is under any obligation to you, he expects you to ask in a similar manner. If you do not do it, he considers you either apathetic or rich, and hence no reciprocation is forthcoming. Among Manóbos no presents are made except of such trifles as have no value.

The Manóbo feels that he is at perfect liberty to conceal his real thoughts and to give utterance to such distortions of truth as may not compromise him with others. The penalty for slander is so great that this is a fault that is seldom committed. Hence to get the truth from a Manóbo, it is useless, as a rule, to question him singly or even in the presence of his friends alone. He must be brought face to face with those who hold an adverse opinion or belong to an opposite faction. If this can be done, in a more formal way, as for example, by having a number of principal men attend, it will be so much the easier to obtain the desired information.

Queries as to trails or the dwelling places of neighboring Manóbos are hardly ever answered truthfully and do more harm than good, because they tend to arouse suspicions as to the questioner's motives. Such information is obtained more readily by cultivating the friendship of boys than by consulting the older folks. This tendency to disguise or to distort the truth, though it has its natural basis in a desire for self-protection, gives the Manóbos a reputation for lack of that straightforwardness and frankness that is so noticeable among the Mandáyas, even after very short acquaintance. This lack of frankness, coupled with a certain amount of natural shrewdness, makes the truth difficult to discover, unless the suggestion made before be carried out, or unless one is willing to wait till the truth leaks out in private conversation among the Manóbos themselves.

One trait of the Manóbo that seems hard to understand is his love for long discussions. No matter how trifling the matter may be, it always becomes the subject of an inordinately long conference even though there are no dissenting parties. Even in such trifles as getting a guide to take me, by well-known trails, to settlements of people with whom I was well acquainted, the inevitable discussion would always take place. A great number of people would assemble. The matter would be discussed at length by every one present without a single interruption, except such exclamations of assent as are continuously uttered whether the speaker's views are acceptable or not. It seems that these and more solemn discussions afford the speakers an opportunity to make themselves conspicuous or to display their judgment. I can divine no other reason for these conferences because, in many cases that I have known, the result of the discussion was a foregone conclusion from the beginning. Perhaps such discussions are for the purpose of "making no concessions" or if they must be made, of making them begrudgingly.

These conferences are as a rule rather noisy, for though one speaker at a time "has the floor," there are always a number of collateral discussions, that, joined to the invariable household sounds, produce somewhat of a din. Noise, in fact, is a general characteristic of Manóbo life, so much so that at times one is inclined to be alarmed at the loud yelling and other demonstrations of apparent excitement, even though the occasion for it all may be nothing more than the arrival in the settlement of a visitor with a dead monkey.

Harmony and domestic happiness are characteristic of the Manóbo family. The Manóbo is devoted to his wife, fond of his children, and attached to his relatives, more so than the Mañgguáñgan, but much less so than the Bisáya or the Mandáya. He is dearly fond of social gatherings for, besides the earthly comforts that he gets out of them, they afford him an opportunity to display such wealth, rank, and possessions as he may possess. His invitations to neighbors serve to keep him high in their estimation and thereby gather around him a number of friends who will be of service in the hour of trouble. Of the Manóbo, as of the other people of Mindanáo, too much can not be said of his hospitality. If he has once overcome his suspicions as to a stranger's motives, he takes him into his house and puts himself to infinite pains to feast him as best he knows how. In Manóboland one who travels carries no provisions. He drops into the first house and when the meal hour arrives he sits down upon the floor and helps himself without any invitation. It is practically his own house, because for the time being he becomes one of the family. If there happens to be a feast, he partakes without any special invitation, and when he is ready to go, he proceeds upon his journey, only to repeat the operation in the next house, for it is customary always to pay at least a short visit to every friendly house on or near the trail.

One of the mental traits that has perhaps done more than anything else to retard the Manóbo in his progress towards a higher plane of civilization is his firm adherence to traditional customs. All things must be done as his forefathers did them. Innovations of any kind may displease the deities, may disturb the present course of events, may produce future disturbances. "Let the river flow as it ever flowed--to the sea," is a refrain that I heard quoted on this subject by Manóbos. "Fish that live in the sea do not live in the mountains," is another, and there are many others, all illustrating that conservatism that tends to keep the Manóbo a Manóbo and nothing else. He is Christianized but, after going through the Christian ritual, he will probably invoke his pagan divinities. He takes on something new but does not relinquish the old. Hence the difficulty of inducing the Manóbo to leave the district of his forefathers, and take up his abode in a new place amid unfamiliar spirits.

This feature of their character explains the inconstancy and fickleness exhibited by the Christianized Manóbos at the beginning of their conversion. These were due to the call of the forest hailing them back to their old haunts. These characteristics will explain also a host of anomalies that are noticeable throughout the Manóbo's life.

The first visit of a stranger to a primitive settlement may produce upon him a very unfavorable impression. He may find that the women and children have fled, so that he finds himself surrounded by men, all armed. This should not discourage him, as it happens in many cases that the men were unable to keep the women from flight. The wearing of arms is as much a custom with Manóbos as the wearing of a watch is with us. The bolo is his life and his livelihood. Were he not to wear it he would be branded as insane, and he looks upon a defenseless person, stranger or otherwise, much in the same light, unless he attributes the absence of a weapon to the possession of secret powers of protection, in which case he is inclined to follow the example of the fugitive women and betake himself beyond the reach of harm.

Upon first acquaintance the Manóbo will ask a host of questions that will tax the patience of the visitor if he ventures to answer them personally. These questions spring from a desire to learn the motives of the visit. People from the neighboring houses drop in at intervals just as soon as word reaches them of the new arrival, and may continue to do so until the time of the visitor's departure, thereby keeping the house crowded. The assembling of these people arises from a desire to see the visitor and to find out the object of his visit. Hence the newcomers will proceed to ask him every imaginable question that may suggest itself and if any answer conveys information that has anything of the wonderful in it for them, it gives rise to a thousand and one other questions, the responses to which often tax a visitor's patience.

Another part of the visit is the frank demand on the part of the primitive people for any object of the visitor which they may take a fancy to. They always understand, however, a quiet refusal, if it is accompanied by an appropriate reason.

It happens sometimes that the chief of the settlement will claim a fee for transgression upon his territory, but he will usually accept a small present in lieu thereof, or will forego any gift, if the matter is argued, quietly and diplomatically. The Manóbo resents harsh words, especially when used toward him in the presence of those who are his nominal subjects. Personalities or threats in such a case often prove fatal.

It is not good etiquette to ask a Manóbo his name, especially if he is a chief, until one has acquired somewhat of an acquaintance with him. The information must be secured from a third party and in a quiet way. Moreover, it is customary to address chiefs and other persons of distinction by the names of their corresponding titles. Thus a warrior chief is addressed bagáni, and not by his proper name.

It is needless to say that no familiarity should be taken with the person of another until acquaintance has been cultivated far enough to permit it. Thus touching another on the arm to call his attention to something may be resented and may result in an attempt to collect a fine.

The handling of arms requires a word. The lance must be stuck in the ground, head up, at the foot of the house ladder; or, if it must be brought into the house, as at night, the owner must take care that it points at no one while being handled. If one desires to draw a bolo from its sheath, he must draw it slowly, and if it is to be presented to another, the blade must be kept facing the owner's body and the handle presented to the other man. The same rule holds for the dagger.

It will be noticed that as a general rule the men in a Manóbo settlement go armed and keep their hands on their weapons, especially during mealtime, at which time it is customary to eat with the left hand, the right hand being reserved for the use of the weapon in an emergency.

There are a number of other rules of intercourse that serve to safeguard life and to maintain proper respect on the part of each individual for the person of his neighbor. These will be found scattered throughout this paper.