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

by John M. Garvan

PART III. GENERAL SOCIOLOGICAL CULTURE

CHAPTER XIII

DOMESTIC LIFE AND MARITAL RELATIONS

ARRANGING THE MARRIAGE

Manóbo marriages, in general, may be said to be unions of convenience sought with a view to extending the circle of relatives in such directions as may result in an increase of power, prestige, protection, and sundry other material advantages. An instance passed under my notice in 1909 in which the daughter of a Mañgguáñgan warrior chief was captured in marriage for the purpose of securing his aid against the captor's enemies. The captor was a Manóbo-Mañgguáñgan of the upper Agúsan.

SELECTION OF THE BRIDE

In the selection of his future wife, the Manóbo consults his own tastes as far as he can, but he is influenced to a great extent by the opinion of his parents and near relatives, all of whom ordinarily look to the advantages to be derived from connection with powerful members of the tribe. Hence rank and birth are nearly always a determining factor, and where the wishes of the man's elders are in opposition to his own natural choice, he yields and is contented to take the helpmate chosen for him.

COURTSHIP AND ANTENUPTIAL RELATIONS

Sometimes the young man is bidden to take up his residence in the girl's house, observe her general character and especially her diligence, find out if she has been bespoken, gain the good will of her father and relatives, and report to his people.

No communication of any kind takes place between him and his prospective wife. When the subject is broached to the girl, she simply bids him see her relatives. I have known of cases among the upper Agúsan Manóbos where improper suggestions to the girl were at once reported by her to her parents, and the author of them was at once brought to order with a fine, the equivalent of P15 or P30. One white man is reported to have met his death at the hand of a Manóbo for a mistake of this kind many years ago. In deepest Manóboland, when the offense passes, however slightly, the boundaries of suggestion, it becomes the source of many a deadly feud. Happily, however, such cases are extremely rare.

BEGGING FOR THE HAND OF THE GIRL

Three, four, or five of the nearest male relatives of the man, after procuring a little beverage, repair early some evening to the house of the nearest relative of the girl. After they have partaken of the inevitable betel-nut quid, and have offered a drink of sugarcane brew or other beverage to the household, and have discussed a few topics of daily life--it may be about the last wild boar killed, or the capture of a polecat in the snares¹--the prologue begins. This lasts from one to two days, including often the better part of the nights. Each of the visitors comes in his turn and rattles off, with many a significant haw and cough, in good Manóbo style a series of periphrastic platitudes and examples that apparently give no clue to the object of their visit. The owner of the house and father, let us say, of the girl quickly understands the situation and then assumes a most indifferent air. The visitor who has taken up the discourse continues, with never a care for the various household sounds, such as the chopping of wood, or the yelping of dogs; and not even the announcement of supper, and the partaking thereof, can stay his eloquence. The householder at times emits a sleepy grunt of approval, relapses apparently into a drowse, and after several hours, rolls into his mat and feigns sleep. At this juncture one of the visitors hastens down the notched pole and gets the silver-ferruled lance or silver-sheathed knife that has been left concealed near the house. The spokesman of the visitors then offers it to the father of the hoped-for bride on condition that he rise and listen, for they have come with an object in view--to beg for the hand of his daughter. It is then his turn to begin a painfully drawn-out discourse, to which the visitors assent periodically with many an humble and submissive "ho" and "ha," "bai da man" (yes, indeed), and so forth. He strains and racks his brains to think of every imaginable reason against the marriage, and finally, after he has exhausted every resource, he bids his visitors go home and come back on such a day, because he has to consult his relatives; but he can not get them to stir until he gives them a counterpresent, which he claims is of much more value than their present to him.

¹Lítag.

On the appointed day the young man's relatives again proceed to the same house, but in this case reinforced by all the relatives within reach, each one carrying his present.

Upon the arrival the same performance is repeated and the same tactics pursued as before, except that this time the visitors kill their fatted pig and set it out, inviting the householder and all his relatives to partake, but, lo and behold! no one will eat. No amount of persuasion will induce them--they have eaten already--they are all sick--they do not like to be invited to eat by their visitors, it being against all the rules of hospitality, etc. To all of these objections the visitors by turn answer, offsetting one reason by another and all the while trying to put the other people into good humor and soften their hearts. But no, the owner of the house and his party refuse, and all this while the fatted pig lies in big black chunks on the floor, surrounded by rice in platters, baskets, and leaves. At this point a few of the visitors again hasten down the notched pole, and gather up out of the grass or underbrush in the adjacent jungle the concealed presents. The arrival of the presents is a grand moment for the father and relatives of the young man. Even the future bride, who up to this time has coyly hidden away in a corner, can not help stealing a few peeps at the display of spears, bolos, daggers, plates, and jars.

Picking them up one by one the owner descants on their beauty, their value (naming an outrageous sum), and his relatives express their sorrow at parting with them. "But," he goes on to say, "it matters not, provided that you see our good will and will join us in this banquet." Whereupon he distributes among his guests according to the order of their standing the array of presents, after which all squat down and begin to eat, the visitors giving an extra dose of wassail to their friends in order that under its warming influence they may soften and yield.

During the course of the meal, the discussion is continued and every appeal made to motives of friendship and self-interest, but in vain--the other side shows no signs of yielding; they say that they can not yet make a fixed contract, that the girl is too young, or that she does not want the suitor; and so the hosts are bade to have patience and to go their way. But now that they have spent an amount varying from P30 to P50 they are not minded to lose it, but will persist in their suit for years. I have heard of marriage transactions that covered 10 years and have personal knowledge of numerous cases that have extended over 6.

The case of a Manóbo in Pilar, upper Agúsan, will illustrate the point. His father, during the interregnum of 1898, first made the proposal for the hand of the girl. It was refused until toward the end of 1904 the parents finally yielded, but on condition that 10 slaves be paid. A few months subsequently, after a course of hard haggling and cunning bargaining, the contract was modified to four slaves plus the equivalent of the value of six. Three slaves were delivered after a raid on a Mañgguáñgan settlement on the middle Sálug (about April, 1905). The 6 "thirties,"² or P180, were paid in lances, knives, and other things before the demise of the father toward the latter part of 1905, so that one slave still remained to be delivered. On my last visit to Pilar (February, 1910) the poor fiancé was still doing chores around his mother-in-law's house, and the slave was still unpaid. If he can not procure that slave it will probably cost him, in other effects, several times the value of the slave.

²Kat-lo-án, meaning 30, is a monetary unit, representing the value of a good slave.

Proceedings of the kind described before are repeated at frequent intervals for a number of years, but with this exception, that on the ensuing visits presents of no great value are bestowed on the father of the expected bride--a bunch of bananas, a piece of venison, or a few chickens, or some such offering are made, with a reiteration of the petition. A capacious porker with a bounteous supply of sugar-cane brew in big bamboo internodes is brought along occasionally to break down the obdurateness of the householder's heart, until one fine day, under the benign influence of "the cup that cheers," he yields, but intimating that his petitioners can never afford the marriage payments.³ He will then probably recount the purchase price of this own wife, always with exaggerations; descant on the qualities of his daughter, her strength, her beauty, her diligence, her probable fecundity; and deplore the grievous loss to be sustained by her departure from her parents' side. Whereupon the visitors respond that they are willing to substitute a number of slaves to make up for the loss of the daughter, but that in any case she will not leave the paternal home and that the bridegroom will take up his residence there and help his father-in-law in all things; and so the matter is discussed and the payment of a certain number of slaves is determined in the following manner:

DETERMINATION OF THE MARRIAGE PAYMENT

Determination of the marriage payment is the very soul of the whole marriage proceeding. Years and years of service on the part of the would-be husband, presents innumerable on the part of his relatives, and feigned indifference or opposition on the other side have led up to this moment. For the sake of clearness, let us call the father or nearest male relative of the future bride A and the father or nearest male relative of the bridegroom, B.

A, aided by all the cunning of his relatives, lays down as a condition, let us say, seven slaves and one female relative of B, who is to be a substitute for his daughter. To this B rejoins that it is a high price and impossible of fulfillment, that he is not a warrior chief, nor a datu, nor such a wealthy person as A, and that he can never satisfy such a demand, giving a thousand and one reasons, such as sickness or debt. A responds and belittles him for being so deficient in resources, asks if B wants to get a wife for his son gratuitously, and tells him to go home and buy a slave girl for him. He yells indignation at the top of his voice, probably with his hand on his bolo, in a very menacing way.

B and his party, seeing that it is unavailing, go home, consult over the matter, and during the course of a year or two take every possible means to procure the necessary slaves. They may be successful in securing one or more, let us say two, and at the same time may manage to get together, say, 5 lances, 6 bolos, 2 jars, 30 plates, and 5 pigs; and so one fine day they start off to A's for another trial.

B proceeds to make A feel merry before he reports his failure to comply with the demand. This report is usually a tissue of the most atrocious "oriental diplomacies" that the human mind can concoct. A listens to this prologue, interlarded as it always is with ejaculations of corroboration from B's party. Then A begins: It is an outrage, he will have none of the pigs; the idea of selling his daughter for a bunch of pigs! He gets up and says he will first kill the pigs and then the owner, but his relatives make a pretense at restraining him. After a few hours of this simulation, by which he has induced B to make many gifts, he softens, but as the demand was not complied with to the letter, the payment must be increased, he says, by 4 more pigs, a piece of Chinese cloth, 8 Mandáya skirts, and 2 jars. At this point his relatives interfere. His sister wants three pigs and four skirts. She was midwife at the birth of the girl in question and, due to her contact with the unclean blood, was approached by a foul spirit and fell sick. Surely she deserves a big payment--1 female slave, 2 pigs, 2 shell bracelets, and a piece of turkey red cloth. And the third cousin claims that she nursed the child, the future bride, two months during the illness of its mother, and demands two Mandáya skirts. And so the haggling is continued, A and his party doling out the marriage effects as sparingly as possible, taking care to make presents to the more vehement and unyielding parties on the other side.

³Ábat.

This operation always lasts a few days, during which B keeps his prospective relatives in high glee with pork and potations, until A consents.

THE MARRIAGE FEAST AND PAYMENT

The marriage feast almost invariably takes place during the harvest, for the simple reason that food is more abundant and also because the harvest days are the gladdest of all the year. When the time for the marriage is close at hand the father-in-law makes an announcement to friends and neighbors, sending out messengers and leaving at each house a rattan strip⁴ to indicate the number of days to elapse before the marriage. If his own house is not sufficiently large for the expected attendance, he changes to another and awaits the eventful day.

⁴Ba-lén-tus.

The whole country flocks to the house at the appointed time, the relatives of the bridegroom being loaded down with the marriage presents, which are all carefully concealed in baskets, leaf wraps, etc., and are deposited secretly in the woods adjoining the house. Of course the omen bird must be consulted. On this occasion above all others it is essential that the omens be favorable, as there are no means, so I have been informed, to counteract an inauspicious marriage omen. While preparations are being made for the banquet by the bridegroom's party, the interminable parley⁵ is continued. The bride's father and relatives make their last efforts for securing all they can in worldly effects. They almost repent of the bargain--it was too cheap--think of the price paid for the bride's mother--the expenses incurred during a long illness of the bride in her infancy--and compare the modicum demanded for her marriage; it is outrageous! no, the marriage can not go on, the girl is not in good health, and the ordeal might increase her ailment. Every sort of trick is resorted to in order that the other side may be more generous in the bestowal of gifts. The discussion is thus one big tissue of simulation, and is carried on in succession by the elders on each side. The bridegroom's father keeps offering betel nut and brew to his new "cofather-in-law"⁶ and selects a favorable moment to make him a big present, possibly of an old heirloom, a jar, or a venerable old spear, the value of which he estimates at P50, although it may be worth only P8.

⁵Bi-sä.

⁶Bá'-i.

The meal is finally spread out on the floor. The roasted part of the pig has been hacked into small chunks and is piled up on plates, leaves, bark platters, and shallow baskets. The boiled portion remains in charred bamboo internodes placed close at hand. The rice is loaded on plates, or placed in large baskets lined with leaves, and the beverage is put in the ancient family jars, or is left in long bamboos: The host, in this case the bridegroom's father or nearest male relative, assisted by a few others, distributes the meat, carefully selecting the pieces according to weight, size, and quality, so that no one can complain of not having had as good a share as his neighbor. Such toothsome parts as the brains, heart, and liver are divided among the relatives who enjoy greater prestige, the tougher and more gizzly[sic] pieces falling to the lot of the people of lesser importance. This operation takes up the better part of an hour. It is needless to say that a hubbub of voices helps to give animation to the occasion. The Manóbo speaks in no angelic whisper on ordinary occasions, but at a solemn time like this his vocal chords twang with all the intensity of which they are capable.

Finally all squat down on the floor, armed with the inseparable bolo if suspicious visitors are present. Hands are washed by pouring a little water out of a bowl, tumbler, or bamboo joint; the mouth is rinsed, and the meal is begun. With their right hands on their bolos, if they have not ungirded[sic] them, they lay their left hands over their portions of rice, knead handfuls of it into a compact mass, and raising their hands to their mouths ram it in with the palms.

The two "cofathers-in-law" pay special attention to each other, each trying to get the other intoxicated, and each feeding the other with chunks of fat and other things. This custom is called daiyápan and is universal among the non-Christian tribes of the Agúsan Valley. It is a mark of esteem and the highest token of hospitality. A few pieces of fat and bone are scooped up, dipped in a mixture of red pepper, salt, and water and thrust, nolens volens, into the mouth of the good fellow whom it is desired to honor. And it is not good etiquette to remove it. It must be gorged at once and the fortunate man must proceed to reciprocate in the same way. The brew is distributed in tumblerfuls or in bamboo joints holding about a tumblerful each. To refuse the allotted portion would degrade one in the eyes of everyone, for here it is a sin to be sober and a virtue to get drunk. Gluttony finds no place in a Manóbo dictionary--one is merely full,⁷ but always ready to go on; friend divides his rice with friend, when he sees that the latter's supply is getting low, and his own is immediately replenished by one of the womenfolk, or slaves that attend to the culinary work. Nor must one finish before anybody else. It is not polite. Nothing must be left on the plate, a fact that each one makes clear by washing the plate clean with water.

⁷Mahántoi.

The pandemonium increases in direct proportion as the brew diminishes. One's neighbor may be yelling to somebody else at the other end of the house while the latter is trying at the top of his voice to reach the fellow that sits far away from him. Goodnatured, though rather inelegant, jokes and jests are howled at the bride, who coyly conceals herself behind a neighbor, and at the bridegroom, who does not seem at all abashed. The women, who eat all together near the hearth, carry on the same operations but in their own more gentle way, never falling under the influence of the liquor. The meal is usually finished in about three hours, when the pig and rice are exhausted.

After a chew of betel nut, comes the supreme moment for payment,⁸ ushered in by many a "ho" and "ha" with another discussion. The tenor of this is that the father of the bridegroom is not as well provided with goods⁹ as he had desired to be, owing, let us say, to a failure to obtain certain effects he had ordered from so-and-so, together with numerous other pretexts and excuses that on the face of them are untrue. Pointing out his slaves, he descants on them; and goes on to explain how much trouble he had to get them; he could not value them for less than P80 apiece. Or, if they are captives, he describes the fatigues of his march and the imminent danger to which he was exposed during the attack, together with such other reasons, mostly fictitious, as would tend to enhance their value and thereby avoid subsequent haggling. He then delivers the other goods demanded.¹⁰ Where two slaves had been asked he gives two kinds of goods,¹¹ say a lance and a bolo, whereupon there is invariably a howl of dissatisfaction, according to custom. But things are settled nicely either by granting a few plates or some such thing for a solace, or by playing on the good will or simplicity of the person who objected. The distribution is not completed in one day. Usually about one-third of the entire amount of goods is held over with a view to observing if there is anyone who is not quite pleased with his portion, and also for the purpose of keeping up their hopes.

⁸Á-bat.

⁹Máng-gad.

¹⁰By his cofather-in-law and relatives.

¹¹Da-dú-a no baíyo no máng-gad.

THE RECIPROCATORY PAYMENT AND BANQUET

The following day, or whenever the payment has been completed, begins the reciprocatory payment¹² in which the bride's relatives return to those of the bridegroom a certain amount of goods varying in value, but approximately one-half of what has been paid as the marriage portion. As a soother, they also kill a pig and right earnestly set about putting their new circle of relatives in good humor. It may be noted that the duration of these feasts depends on the rapidity with which the pig is dispatched. I have known a marriage feast to cover a period of seven days, though it may be said that it is generally terminated the second day, at least in the case of less well-to-do Manóbos.

¹²Sú-bak.

The reciprocatory payment being successfully carried through, it now remains for the bridegroom's relatives to give the farewell feast and carry off the bride. But it often happens that the girl's relatives have ascertained that there are still a number of goods in the possession of their new relatives and it is considered proper to secure them.

A few hours before departure the bride is decked out with all available ornaments. Bead necklaces, with pendants of crocodile teeth and strips of mother-of-pearl; bracelets of seashell,¹³ large, white and heavy; bracelets of vegetable fiber and of sea wood; a comb inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and adorned with beads and tassels of cotton; leglets of plaited jungle fiber--all these constitute her finery. During the process of dressing, the bride's female relatives usually weep, while the more distant ones set up a howl, often, I think, of ficticious[sic] grief, in which the children, babies, and dogs may join. At this juncture the female relatives of the bridegroom intercede and endeavor to assuage their grief. It is only after numerous presents have been given them that they become resigned, but at the last moment, when the bride is about to be led away, they surround her and hold her and perhaps repeat the wail till they receive more material consolation. This necessitates another supply of presents. Then the children have to be appeased. Finally the girl is led down the pole, but as her father may have espied, let us say, a fine dagger, or a lance that struck his fancy, nothing will satisfy him except to order them all back and tell his cofather-in-law that he must needs have the lance or dagger, giving some sly reason, as, for instance, that his wife had an ominous dream last night. In one marriage feast that I witnessed, after all the bridegroom's people had left the house, the bride's father told his son to beat the dog. Whereupon he ordered the party back and told his cofather-in-law that it was passing strange that the dog should have howled just as they left the house and that he should leave his lance and bolo as an offering to one of the family deities. It was done accordingly and in all good nature. Then they started off again, but were recalled because the old fox happened to remember that his cofather-in-law had on several occasions during the early marriage proceedings displeased him, and so it became necessary to atone for the sin¹⁴ by another gift. Finally they got a start, filched of all they had. It happens frequently that the marriage suitors are deprived even of their personal weapons and of part of their clothes. It may be remarked that the bestowal of a person's upper garment is considered an act of deep friendship, and is of fairly frequent occurrence.

¹³Tak-ló-bo (Tridacna gigas).

¹⁴Húgad to saí-ya. This is another instance of that peculiar belief in an atonement rite of which I can give no details.

The above is a description of the upper class marriage feast, but that of the poorer class is carried on in much the same style, except that the proceedings are much briefer. The bride's father and people on the one hand strive by might and main to get the highest payment obtainable, while the bridegroom's folk exert themselves to hold the price down. Whatever is given in payment is overvalued--it is a keepsake, an heirloom, would never be given away under any other circumstances--in fact, may result in evil to the giver. On the other hand everything that is received is depreciated--it is old, or of no use to the receiver. An old trick is to return it, whereupon a little additional gift is made for a consolation. But even then it is never admitted that the gift is received for its intrinsic value, but rather out of good will.

MARRIAGE AND MARRIAGE CONTRACTS

THE MARRIAGE RITE

We will now follow the bride to her father-in-law's house and witness the religious ceremony by which the hymeneal tie is indissolubly knitted. It is essential that the omen bird should be favorable on the trip to the bridegroom's house, otherwise the party must return. Usually the parting injunction of the bride's father to his cofather-in-law warns him to watch for the omen bird.

A pig is killed as soon as possible and set out in the usual style at the house of the bridegroom. The bride and bridegroom sit side by side on an ordinary grass mat. No special decorations have been made; no bridal chamber has been prepared, except sometimes a rude stall of slatted bamboo or of bark.

When the meal is ready, the bridegroom takes a handful of rice from his plate and offers it to the bride while she also gives a similar portion to him. Then he passes his rice from hand to hand behind his back seven times, after which he says in a loud voice: "We are now married; let our fame ascend."¹⁵ The bride imitates him. Whereupon loud howls of assent proclaim the consummation of the marriage contract.

¹⁵Kanámi no miño nakalíbto ang bántug námi.

The meal goes on in the same riotous style as described before. I seldom witnessed a marriage during which the bridegroom did not become rather hilarious toward the end of the meal, but never displayed anything but feelings of delicacy and respect toward the bride. Instructions of a kind that would be considered highly indecent, according to our standards of morality, are howled out in the most candid way, so that this ordeal proves embarrassing for the bride. She eats hastily and retires to her female friends in the cooking portion of the house. I have seen several cases where the girl, being a mere child, continued to weep during the whole proceeding.

The feast being concluded a female priest takes the betel-nut omen. Seven quids of betel nuts are placed by one of the family priestesses upon a sacred dish.¹⁶ She then sets it upon the head of the bridegroom and falls into an ecstatic condition, steadying the plate with her hand. Should one of the betel-nut slices become separated from its betel leaf, the omen is considered unpropitious and is followed immediately by the prophylactic rite--the fowl-waving ceremony.

¹⁶A-púg'-an.

The matter of overcoming the delicacy of the newly married maiden is not infrequently attended with considerable difficulty. It is accomplished, however, by means of an elderly relative of the girl, who occupies night after night the mat between the newly married couple, until such time as she thinks that her ward has become well enough acquainted with her husband so that she will not run away. The go-between returns the following day and claims her guerdon. Several cases passed under my observation, in which the husband was unable to use his marital rights for weeks owing to the timorousness and bashfulness of his youthful spouse. In no case was anything but patience and gentleness displayed by the husband.

MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE

The custom of wife capture is fairly frequent, especially in the upper Agúsan where the Manóbo is within the Mandáya culture area. During my last visit to the upper Agúsan (September, 1909, to February, 1910) three cases occurred, and I had the pleasure of taking part in the settlement of one of them.

The capture is effected by a band of some four to eight friends of the party interested. They repair to the vicinity of the camote patch, which is almost invariably situated at some distance from the house of its owner. Here a watch is kept until the intended captive, in company probably with a few of her own tribe, appears upon the scene. Probably it has been already ascertained that the male relatives have gone on a hunting or fishing expedition, but to make assurance doubly sure one or two of the party advance toward the women unarmed and make inquiries hi an offhand way. If the absence of the male relatives is confirmed, they thereupon seize the girl, and their companions rush out in full panoply from their hiding places and carry off the fair prize. By the time the girl's relatives become aware of the occurrence, the captors have eluded all chance of discovery and the captive has probably resigned herself to her fate, if she had not already consented by connivance.

With regard to wife capture it may be remarked that it is generally resorted to under the advice and protection of some more powerful and affluent personage. If undertaken on one's own initiative it might be risky, and certainly always is a highly expensive affair. Even when carried out with the connivance of a datu or a warrior chief, it has on occasions proved fatal, so I was assured.

The case referred to was that of the son of an influential Manóbo of the Nábuk River, in the upper Agúsan Valley. His son had a few months before my arrival lost his first wife in a raid made by a neighboring settlement. He determined to avoid the prolixities and delay of the ordinary matrimonial course, and, accordingly, captured the daughter of a Mañgguáñgan warrior chief who lived near Pilar. I was in Compostela at the time and on hearing that an expedition¹⁷ to recapture the girl or to collect the marriage payment would take place, I asked that I might be allowed to accompany the party.

¹⁷Duk-i-ús. (Mandáya, dúk-lus).

We arrived at the house of the datu and found everything and everybody prepared for war. This datu informed me that he anticipated trouble, as the Mañgguáñgan was of a different breed, being at times altogether unamenable to reason. During the rest of that day nothing occurred, but no one ventured out of the clearing without a strong guard, and during the night the strictest watch was maintained. The datu said that among Manóbos and Mandáyas a wife capture was easy of arrangement and was never attended with any trouble, provided they had the wherewithal to pay the marriage price, but that the Mañgguáñgan was an unruly character and in a fit of rage or drunkenness was liable to commit acts of atrocity even against his nearest relatives. He cited the case of a Mañgguáñgan from Sálug who discovered the whereabouts of his son-in-law and of the captured bride and killed them without further ado.

About 2 a. m. we were disturbed from our slumbers by one of the watchers who had heard a distinct crackling in the adjoining forest. This report brought everybody to his feet and provoked a chorus of yells of intimidation, that never ceased till sunrise.

About 6 a. m. we espied forms in the forest, approaching from all sides. When they, some 60 altogether, had taken up their positions on the edge of the clearing wherein stood the house, they sounded their weird and wild war whoop,¹⁸ and four warriors, headed by the warrior chief referred to, and armed with all the accouterments of war, rushed forward toward the house, yelling, prancing around, defying, challenging, and cursing. The warrior chief speared one of the two large pigs under the house and proceeded, aided by his three companions to cut down the house posts, never ceasing to yell in the most stentorian voice I ever heard. At this juncture the datu let down with a long strip of rattan a silver-banded lance, a silver-sheathed war knife, and a silver-sheathed Mandáya dagger. As everybody was howling, it was difficult to follow the tenor of conversation, but I observed that the warrior chief accepted the gift though he did not apparently relax his fury. He jumped around, menacing, and animating his companions to fire the house. The datu kept letting down presents of lances, Mandáya cloth, pigs, and other things until everyone of the assailants had received a token of his good will. Their fury very visibly diminished, and the datu was finally able to hold a colloquy with his new cofather-in-law, in which he persuaded him to come up into the house and hold a conference¹⁹ over the matter. The latter, after numerous reiterations that he would never enter the house except to chop heads off, finally ascended the notched pole, followed by his braves. We of the house retired to the further half, all armed, while the newcomers squatted in that portion of the house near the ladder. Then began the conference which lasted till breakfast was ready. It resembled in all respects the usual marriage haggling, except that the warrior chief asseverated persistently that the act of the datu's son was deception and robbery, and that only blood would atone for it. His companions howled assent and clutching their bolos, half rose as if to begin a massacre. They were invited to sit down and regale themselves, but that only made them howl all the more. Finally the datu ordered out a stack of weapons and other presents, and made another allotment to the visitors, in due proportion to relationship. This had a soothing effect and induced them to drink copious draughts of sugarcane brew, which kept on soothing them more and more as the end of the meal approached. During all this time special attention was paid to the warrior chief, so that before long he was feeling so happy that he ordered his followers to remove all weapons from their persons, and began to feed huge chunks of half-raw hog meat into the mouth of the datu according to the immemorial custom.

¹⁸Pa-nad-jáu-an.

¹⁹Bisa.

After the feast I returned to the Agúsan but learned later that everything had been settled amicably, the datu having provided a superabundance of wordly[sic] effects, in payment for the captured woman. Among them were two slaves valued at P30 apiece.

PRENATAL MARRIAGE CONTRACTS AND CHILD MARRIAGE

Prenatal marriage contracts have been made in the upper Agúsan, especially when it was desired to secure the friendship of some more powerful chieftain. I was informed by a bagáni of the upper Sálug that it is not an uncommon thing for two warrior chiefs or other powerful men to make such contracts in order to cement the friendship between themselves and between their respective clans. He cited several instances, in some of which the sex of the child proved an impediment to the carrying out of the prenatal marriage contract. Child marriages, however, are not uncommon. I know of two cases in Compostela, in one of which the boy husband was minor, the girl having already attained the age of puberty at the time of the marriage. In the other case both were mere children. It is needless to say that cohabitation was not permitted in the latter case. The marriage payment had been made in the usual way and the bride delivered over to her father-in-law.

According to my observation, the young man is married somewhere between the ages of 17 and 20, and the woman from 13 to 16. The effect of these early marriages is very apparent in the physical appearance of the wife after a few years of married life. On account of the onerous duties that fall to the lot of the woman, only a staunch constitution can maintain unblemished the bloom of youthful beauty. I am of the opinion that the average woman reaches her prime at about 25 years of age.

POLYGAMY AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS

It may be said that the Manóbo is in practice a monogamist, but polygamy is permitted with the consent of the first wife and, in cases that I have known, by her direction and even according to her selection. She finds her work too burdensome and directs her husband to get another helpmate. As a rule, however, it is only a warrior chief who has more than one wife, as he is in a better position to procure the wherewithal to pay the purchase price, namely, slaves. I am acquainted with a number of warrior chiefs, both Manóbo and Mandáya, who have as many as four wives, all dwelling in the same house, each having her little stall²⁰ and living in perfect peace and happiness with her sister wives. There appear to be no jealousy and no family broils, the wish of the first wife being paramount in all things.

²⁰Sin-á-bung.

I found the abhorrence to polyandry so great and so universal that all tribes that I came in contact with throughout eastern Mindanáo branded the practice as swinish.

Concubinage is unknown. In a country where a woman is worth a small fortune to her relatives, and where she can not offer her love according to her own choice, but must follow her relatives' desires,²¹ it is not likely that she would be delivered over temporarily to even a warrior chief, nor is she likely to be repudiated except for strong reasons. Hence divorce is never allowed, as far as my observation and knowledge go, being considered an infringement of tribal customs that would provoke divine wrath and bring disaster on the settlement.

²¹I heard of a case in Guadalupe in which the girl, not being allowed to marry the man of her choice, took tuble poison and ended her life.

Among the non-Christianized Manóbos I never heard of a case of prostitution. The mere suggestion of it would probably result in a fine. Fornication, however, probably takes place, but only very rarely and under very abnormal circumstances, as when the sexual temperament of the girl and a very favorable opportunity encourage the transgression. I know of cases where Manóbo maidens actually recounted to their relatives improper suggestions on the part of Bisáyas, and in every case these relatives, with wild yells, and with menacing movements of bolo and spear, collected a sufficient compensation to atone for the imprudence. In one instance I paid the fine imposed upon a half-blind paddler of mine for a very innocent joke that was not appreciated by the relatives of a certain woman.

When, however, the Manóbo is removed from the stern influences of his pagan institutions he goes the way of all flesh, as may be observed by a study of conditions in conquista towns.

I heard of a few cases of adultery among Christianized Manóbos but, though the guilty wife was reported to have received a heavy punishment in the form of a good beating, she was not divorced.

ENDOGAMY AND CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES

I found no vestige of endogamy nor of the totem system that is such a remarkable and widespread feature of Polynesian, Melanesian, and cognate peoples in Oceania. Neither is there any theoretical endogamic institution which obliges a Manóbo to marry within his tribe, but, in practice, such is his custom.

The only impediment to marriage is consanguinity. Consanguineous marriages are everywhere regarded as baneful. It is a universal belief that unless such marriages are consummated under the special auspices of the goddesses Ináyao and Tagabáyao, they result in physical evil to both the parents and the children.

The following are the persons between whom marriage is forbidden:

(1) All carnal relatives closer than first cousin.

(2) First, second, and third cousins, unless the proper ceremonies to Tagabáyao and Ináyao have been performed, various omens very carefully taken, and, after marriage, the yearly offering of a pig or chicken made in order to avoid the ill effects that might follow the marriage.

(3) Stepmothers and stepfathers.

(4) Mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law.

(5) Daughters-in-law and sons-in-law.

(6) Captives and their captors. This marriage is believed to bar the way to warriorship and to otherwise result in evil.²² Captives may, however, be married by others than those who captured them.

²²Ma-lí-hi.

(7) Slaves; marriages among them are not tabooed absolutely, but they are regarded as something unbecoming, and the person who marries a slave girl is spoken of as áyo-áyo (no good).

Marriage with a sister-in-law is fairly common, and may take place during the wife's lifetime, usually at her instigation, but never without her consent.

INTERTRIBAL AND OTHER MARRIAGES

It may be remarked that in the case of marriages between cousins within the forbidden degrees, the actual marriage payment is much less, as the matter is considered a family affair, but on the whole such a marriage is a most expensive affair. In the first place, before the marriage, the priest instructs the prospective husband to dedicate a number of objects to Tagabáyao, the goddess of consanguineous love. This presupposes a sacrificial ceremony in which, as in one case which I witnessed, a white pig was killed, and a lance valued at P15, a bolo valued at P10, a dagger valued at P10, and sundry other objects were formally consecrated to Tagabáyao. The consecration was followed by a sacrifice to Tagabáyao, after which the marriage payment was made. Then came a similar series of offerings to Ináyao, goddess of the thunderbolt, that she might not harm the newly married. I was told that year after year the newly married cousins had to repeat this ceremony, and thereby keep in Ináyao's good graces.

Intermarriage with a member of another tribe occurs occasionally but is not looked upon with favor owing to the differences of religious belief as also to the fact that it might not be possible for the husband to take away his wife. In the cases that have come under my notice of marriages between Manóbos and Mañgguáñgans, Mañgguáñgans and Mandáyas, and Mandáyas and Manóbos, the man almost invariably married a girl belonging to what was considered a higher tribe; for instance, Manóbo man to a Mandáya girl, or a Mañgguáñgan man to a Mandáya girl. The reason assigned was in nearly every case the assurance that the girl would not be taken from the paternal roof, and that a bigger marriage price would be forthcoming.

Gratuitous marriages occur rarely. In the few cases that passed under my observation, all the expenses of the wedding feast were borne by the bride's relatives, and the bridegroom took up his residence with his father-in-law, and virtually entered a state of slavery. His children also become the property of the father-in-law.

It is not intended to give the impression that the recipient of a gratuitous wife has to perform the duties of an ordinary slave. On the contrary, he is treated as one of his wife's family and is expected, in view of the favor that he has received and the debt that he has incurred, to help his father-in-law when called upon. If he should happen on a definite occasion to prove recalcitrant, he is gently reminded of his debt and of the sacredness with which a good Manóbo pays it, and so he goes off on his errand and the matter is concluded.

Remarriage takes place frequently, owing to the fact that a widow does not command so high a price as a maiden and that she has something to say in the selection of her new husband. She can not, however, be married if a funeral feast²³ for a near relative of the family is still unfulfilled.

²³Ka-ta-pú-san.

There is absolutely no trace of a levirate system by which the nearest male kinsman must marry his deceased brother's widow. On the contrary, a marriage with any relative's widow is absolutely tabooed, and this taboo, as far as my observations warrant the assertion, is never violated.

MARRIED LIFE AND THE POSITION OF THE WIFE

Married life appears to be one of mutual good understanding and kindliness. The husband addresses his wife as búdyag (wife) and leaves to her the management of the establishment in everything except such little business transactions as may have to be carried on. The wife gets the wood and water every day, toiling up and down the steep mountain sides. She goes off to the farm once or twice a day and returns with her basket of camotes. In the meantime the husband whittles out his bolo sheath or his lance shaft, or occasionally goes off on a fishing expedition or a hunt, if the omens are good. Every once in awhile, especially during the winter months, he sets up his wild boar traps, and they may keep him busy about two days a week. Then comes the news of a wedding feast, two days' journey hence, and off he goes for perhaps a week, or there may be a big question to settle in another part of the country and he must attend the discussion because there is a relative of his involved; anyhow, it will end up with a big pig and plenty of brew. So he goes away and has a roaring time, and comes back after a week with a nice piece of pork and some betel nuts for his wife and tells her all about the doings. She bears it all, makes her comments on it, and then goes to get the camotes for dinner, with never a complaint as to her hard work. It is the custom of the tribe, and the institution of the great men of bygone days, that the woman should toil and slave.

I have known of very few domestic broils and have never known of a case of ill treatment, except when in a drunken fit the husband wreaked his wrath on his wife.

Faithfulness to the marriage tie is a remarkable trait in Manóboland, due to the stringent code of morals upheld by the spear and the bolo. The few cases of adultery related to me among the non-Christian Manóbos were mere memories. I heard of one case of fornication just before leaving the upper Agúsan. It was narrated to me by a warrior chief of the upper Kati'il. His fourth wife, a relative of the datu who figured in the case of wife capture described in this chapter, had in the days of her maidenhood secretly fallen from grace, which fact she revealed to her warrior husband, together with the name of the offender. The warrior chief thereupon made a two-day march to Compostela and located the house of his enemy, publicly vowing speedy vengeance. I visited the latter's house a few days after and found it in a state of defense, a large clearing having been made, with a mass of felled trees, underbrush, and bamboo pegs all around. This man was a Manóbo of the Debabáon group who had spent many years under the tuition of the older Christians of the Agúsan Valley.

Rape, incest, and other such abominations are practically unheard of.

From what has been stated frequently throughout this monograph, it may be seen that the position of the woman is merely that of a chattel. In moments of anger, which are not frequent, the husband or the father-in-law addresses the object of his wrath as binótuñg, that is, purchased one, chattel. A woman, the Manóbo will tell you, has no tribunal, or tilibuná;²⁴ she was born to be the bearer of children and the planter of camotes. She can not carry a shield nor thrust a spear.

²⁴The meaning is that she has not enough brains to take part in the discussions held in the town halls, called in Spanish "tribunal," and erected by the Spaniards in the various Christianized settlements for the arbitration of judicial and administrative matters pertaining to the settlement.

Following out these views to their legitimate conclusions, and both experience and observation verify them, it is obvious that there is no evidence of the matriarchate system in Manóbo-land. The husband is the lord of his household, of his wife, and of his children, and I do not hesitate to say, probably would abandon or kill either, if the urgency of a definite occasion required it.²⁵

²⁵Maliñgáan of the upper Simúlau, to prevent his wife and children from falling into the hands of the Spanish forces, slew them and himself in full view of the soldiery. I found this incident related in one of the Jesuit letters, to which reference has been made already.

RESIDENCE OF THE SON-IN-LAW AND THE BROTHER-IN-LAW SYSTEM

After a few months, dependent on the term determined upon in the marriage contract, the young husband returns to his father-in-law's house, to whose family he is now considered to belong, and takes up his permanent residence there. His respect for both his father-in-law and mother-in-law is such that he will not mention them by name. He always addresses them as father-in-law and mother-in-law, respectively. He aids his father-in-law in everything as a son. Every year for 12 years during the harvest time he is expected to kill a pig for him. Of course, occasions arise on which he is called upon by his own relatives and has to leave his father-in-law. Sometimes it happens that he does not return, but in such cases he is expected to act in a diplomatic way, and leave something, say a big pig, as a substitute for his person.

Brothers-in-law, and their name is legion, for the term includes all who have married any relative however distant, are expected to aid the relatives of their wives, especially in warfare. And it is my observation that at least such of them as are married to nearer relatives of a given individual, do effectively help him when he really needs either financial or other assistance.

The brothers-in-law of a warrior chief nearly always live with him or in his immediate vicinity. This custom is maintained, no doubt, both for the protection and for the prestige thereby acquired.

CHAPTER XIV

DOMESTIC LIFE: PREGNANCY, BIRTH, AND CHILDHOOD

DESIRE FOR PROGENY

The desire to fulfill the end of marriage is so strong that it may be said that there is almost rivalry and envy between the young men. Many a time I have heard the remark made that so and so is a-yo-á-yo--a sorry specimen of humanity--because he had no children. If you ask a Manóbo how many children he has he will seldom forget to tell you not only the number that died, but also the number of times that his wife suffered miscarriage, owing to a faulty selection of food, or to the noxious influence of some evil spirits, or to the violation of certain taboos, or to some other cause.

And thus it is that when the first evidences of motherhood manifest themselves, the husband procures a white or black chicken and after inviting a few friends, holds an informal party in honor of the occasion. I know of one case in which the ritual waving ceremony¹ took place on pregnancy, but it was performed, so the husband told me, because of a conjunction of ill omens, and not because such a ceremony was customary.

¹Kú-yab to má-nuk.

BIRTH AND PREGNANCY TABOOS

The precautions taken by both husband and wife during pregnancy, as also on the approach of parturition, are evidence of the sacredness with which they guard the dearest hope of their married lives.

The following pregnancy and birth taboos, verified by the writer, hold with little variation in every part of the Agúsan Valley, and several of them are still adhered to by the Bisáyas of that region.²

²I find that some of these taboos are observed by the uneducated Tagalogs of Manila and by the peasants of Tayábas Province.

The general idea prevailing in the observation of these taboos is one of sympathy by which a certain action, productive of a certain physical effect in one subject may produce by some sympathetic correlation an analogous effect in another. An instance will make this clear. To wear a necklace is an action in itself perfectly innocuous and even beneficial, in so far as it enhances the person of the wearer, but for the Manóbo man and wife such a proceeding at this particular time would produce, by some species of mystic correlation, a binding effect on the child in the hour of parturition, and must accordingly be eschewed.

These taboos are in force from the time when the young wife announces her condition until the end of that trying period that follows conception.

TABOOS TO BE OBSERVED BY THE HUSBAND

1. He must avoid all untoward acts, such as quarreling and haggling.

2. His demeanor must be quiet; he must avoid noisy and impetuous actions, such as taking part in the capture of a domestic pig.

3. He must avoid all heavy work, such as the felling of trees, making of canoes, or erection of house posts.

4. He must not engage in any work connected with rattan, such as tying or splicing.

5. He must in no case use resin³ for the purpose of sticking handles or shafts on weapons.

³Sái-yung or saung.

TABOOS TO BE OBSERVED BY THE WIFE

1. She must not do any heavy work nor carry anything on her head.

2. She must not sit on a corner of the hearth frame.

3. While in a sitting posture she must leave one knee uncovered.

4. She must be careful in the selection of her food for a period that seems to depend, according to my observation, on individual whim.

Hence after the inception of pregnancy a woman becomes almost fastidious in the choice of her food. Her every whim must be catered to. No general rule can be given, but her general preference is for vegetable food, especially the core of the various wild palm trees,⁴ plantains, and when obtainable, young coconuts. Acid fruits, such as the various species of lemons or the fruits of rattan vines, seem to be her special predilection.

⁴Ó-bud.

TABOOS TO BE OBSERVED BY BOTH HUSBAND AND WIFE

1. They must not thrust their hands through the floor nor through an opening in the walls of the house.

2. Anything taken by them from the fire must not be returned by them, but by a third party.

3. They must not return after having once started to descend the house ladder until they have reached the ground.

4. They must not sit at the entrance to the house in such a way as to impede free en trance or exit.

5. They must be careful that the firewood is not unusually speckled or dirty, as the child that is to come might be lacking in due comeliness. I have seen many a husband assiduously peeling off the bark from the more-ugly-looking firewood.

TABOOS ENJOINED ON VISITORS

Visitors also are cautioned and expected to observe the third and fourth taboos mentioned under the last section.⁵

⁵The taboo that forbids a visitor to sit at the door of the house is observed by the lower classes of Manila. Also the taboo that forbids quarreling.

ABORTION

Infanticide is never practiced; on the contrary, every means, natural, magic, and religious, are taken to safeguard the life of the babe. Abortion, however, occurs.

ARTIFICIAL ABORTION

Artifical[sic] abortion is unknown among the pagan Manóbos, but the Christianized members of the tribe who have come under the influence of culture of a different stamp, have acquired a knowledge of its practice for the purpose of concealing their condition and of thereby avoiding subsequent shame and trouble. For this purpose various vegetable products are used, such as the sap of the red dyewood,⁶ the core of a wild palm,⁷ the sap of black dyewood,⁸ and the juice of mint.⁹ I was told that these are very effective and, as a rule, not attended with evil consequences to the health of the woman.

⁶Si-ká-lig.

⁷Called báñg-a.

⁸Tá-gum.

⁹La-bwé-na.

INVOLUNTARY ABORTION

Involuntary abortion, however, is a matter of frequent, occurrence. It would be hard to form an approximate estimate, but, from the opinions expressed by several warrior chiefs and headmen, I believe that it occurs not infrequently. No explanation as to its cause was obtained. The fetus is usually buried without any ceremony under the house. In the upper Agúsan, the Manóbo follows a Mandáya custom by erecting over the grave, which is always under the house, an inverted cone of bamboo slatwork, about 30 centimeters high and 60 centimeters in diameter. The usual feelings of fright are not displayed on these occasions as on the death of one that has died an ordinary death, for the child has not yet been consociated with its two soul companions. Neither is the house abandoned, as would ordinarily be done on the death of an older person.

THE APPROACH OF PARTURITION

THE MIDWIFE¹⁰

¹⁰Pa-na-gám-hon.

About the seventh month when the expectant mother feels the quickening impulse of life within her, she selects a midwife and undergoes almost daily at her hands a massage, without which it is thought she would be in danger of a painful delivery. As far as I could learn, the method followed is such as to keep the creature in a vertical position within the womb, with the head downward. The massage is said to take place at the beginning of a lunar month. The midwife is eminently the most important personage in all that concerns birth. She is not necessarily a priestess, but is usually a relative of the prospective mother. She is always a woman of advanced age who has had abundant experience, and "has never lost a case." She is reputed to be versed in many secret medicines and devices necessary for the cure of any ailment proceeding from natural causes and connected with childbirth. I always found the midwife very reluctant to disclose the secrets of her profession.

When the woman announces the maternal pains, the midwife goes at once to the house, taking with her various herbs and other things, all carefully concealed on her person. She is not alone on such occasions, but is usually accompanied, if not preceded, by the greater portion of the female population in the community. Few of the male portion, and none of the bachelors, attend, but they keep themselves informed of the progress of the patient by frequent yells of inquiry from the neighboring houses.

The midwife bids the patient lie upon her back and, aided by a few relatives of the parturient, proceeds to administer one of the most ferocious massages imaginable. I witnessed one case in which the mother was tightly bound with swathing clothes and the husband called upon to exert his strength in an endeavor to force delivery.

As soon as it becomes apparent that the patient is in great pain, the midwife, and perhaps others expert in such matters, resort to means which are designed to produce an easy and speedy delivery.

PRENATAL MAGIC AIDS¹¹

¹¹Ta-gi-á-mo.

During several childbirths which I attended in various parts of the valley, I observed the use of the following aids to delivery:

1. A piece of rattan¹² is taken by one of the women present and, after being slightly burnt, is extinguished by the midwife and held close to the person¹³ of the parturient. With her hands the midwife then wafts the smoke over the patient, muttering at the same time a formula.

The explanation of this procedure, as given to me in all cases, was the following: The rattan is symbolic of the various fleshy bonds with which the child is confined within the mother and as the rattan, wound round and round the various portions of the house, is an impediment to the removal of the piece which it retains, a piece of it is burnt in order that by some mystic power the puerperal bonds may be undone. During the burning the child is exhorted not to resemble the tardy rattan but to come forth free and untrammeled from its mortal tenement.

This charm, it was explained to me, counteracts the violations of the taboos whereby husband or wife, or both, are enjoined not to wear necklaces or bodily bindings, and not to work in rattan and resin, or to carry anything on the head. Should the burning of a piece of rattan be omitted, it is believed that the umbilical cord¹⁴ would be found to have actually become tangled around the neck or body of the child during the act of delivery, thereby increasing the difficulty and the danger.

2. The burning of a small piece of the house ladder¹⁵ and the subsequent fumigation of the person of the parturient are practiced in identically the same manner as the above, and are thought to neutralize the evil effects that might result from the transgressions, even involuntary, of those taboos which forbid that anyone should sit at the door of a pregnant woman's house, or return to the house after having begun his descent down the house pole or ladder.

3. A third magic means, helpful in birth, is the consuming of a portion of the hearth frame followed, as described above, by a fumigation of a part of the patient's person. The particular effect of this charm is to counteract the evil influences which might otherwise result to the child from the nonobservance of the various other taboos mentioned previously.

4. Finally, various herbs, of which I did not learn the names because of secretiveness on the part of the women, are put on a plate or on anything that is convenient, and burned. On one occasion I observed that the leaves¹⁶ used to cover sweetpotatoes and other vegetables during the process of steaming were employed, and on another I procured a piece of grass that had fallen from the plate and later on I ascertained it to be the leaf of a variety of bamboo. I was unable to learn the purpose of this charm, the replies being contradictory or variable in different localities.

The midwife applies numerous other medicinal herbs and has various other secret expedients of which I have been utterly unable to learn the nature. In one case a midwife claimed to have a bezoar stone¹⁷ found in the body of an eel. This could not be seen, for it was wrapped in cloth. When the patient gave signs of suffering, she would dip this stone in water and rub it over the woman's abdomen.

¹²Lá-gus.

¹³Vulva.

¹⁴Pó-sud.

¹⁵Pá-sung.

¹⁶Tú-yus.

¹⁷Mút-ya.

PRENATAL RELIGIOUS AIDS

It is very rarely, indeed, that any serious difficulty is encountered in childbirth, but I have been informed that difficulties are occasionally met with. In such cases, when all human resources fail, the matter is said to be left in the hands of the family priestesses and the usual religious invocation and rites are performed. In every case one or more priestesses are present, and take the usual precautions, such as the placing of lemon and sasá reed under the house, against the approach of evil spirits.

ACCOUCHEMENT AND ENSUING EVENTS

The midwife and her companions continue to assist the patient until the moment of delivery, which takes place ordinarily within from four to six hours after the first pangs of childbirth have been felt. The umbilical cord is immediately cut with a sliver¹⁸ of bamboo, and the mother is made to sit up at once in order to prevent a reflux of the afterbirth into the womb. At least such is the reason assigned for this last practice.

¹⁸Ba-lís.

The child is immediately washed with water and some medicine sprinkled over its navel.¹⁹ It is then returned to its mother. Should the birth have occurred during the period between new and full moon, it is said that the child will have good luck²⁰ during life.

¹⁹I was informed on one occasion that the medicine used was pulverized coconut shell, but this point needs further inquiry.

²⁰Paí-ad.

I desire to call special attention here to the fact that should the mother be in such a condition that she is unable to nourish her babe, it is not given to another woman for nurture, but is sustained temporarily on soup, rice water, and sugarcane juice. I have heard of several cases in which the child succumbed for want of natural nourishment. One case that occurred in San Luis on the middle Agúsan, I verified beyond a doubt. Father Pastells, S. J.,²¹ states that if the child can not be suckled, it is buried alive, its mouth being sometimes filled with ashes. I, however, have never heard of such a practice.

²¹Cartas de los PP. de la Compañia de Jesus, 8, 1879.

The reason for allowing no woman other than the mother to nourish the child is that, if the child were nourished by another woman, it would die. In this connection it may be well to state that infant mortality is high. I do not hesitate to say that it is not less than 25 per cent and may be 33.5 per cent.

The afterbirth, together with the umbilical cord, is nearly always buried under the house. I was told that it is sometimes wrapped up and hung from the beams that are just under the hearth. No reason is given for the selection of this particular place, except that "no one passes there."

POSTNATAL CUSTOMS

As a rule parturition is not attended with much weakness nor with any danger. In fact, the mother usually can move around the house on the day following the birth or even on the same day. After two or three days she purifies herself by an informal bath, which is taken more for sanitary than for ceremonial reasons, as far as I have been able to ascertain.

TABOOS

For a period of a week, more or less, the mother must refrain from the use of all food except the following: The core of the wild palm tree, native rice, fresh fish, and chicken. The chicken must be of a certain color; in the lake region of the Agúsan Valley it must be either black or white, and the leg must be dark in color.

Bathing is interdicted for two or three days according to the custom of the locality.

After bathing, the new mother and her husband leave the house in order that the little one may have good luck, and also that they themselves may be removed from the malign influence of the malevolent spirits that are inevitably present on the occasion of a birth.

The birth festivity is not a very solemn nor magnificent affair. The midwife and a few friends, perhaps a dozen in all, are invited. It is at the end of this repast that some little remuneration is made to the midwife and to the priestess for their services. Among the pagan Manóbos there seems to be no fixed rule as to the amount to be given to the midwife, but among the conquistas or Christianized tribes, there prevails the customary price of P1.50 for the first birth, P1.00 for the second, and P0.50 for the third and all successive ones.

THE BIRTH CEREMONY²²

²²Tag-un-ún to bá-ta.

When the child is born it is supposed not yet to have received the two spirit companions²³ that are to accompany it during its earthly pilgrimage. Whence proceed these spirit-companions, or what is their nature, I have not been able to learn to my satisfaction. Mandáit, the tutelary god of the little ones, after being invoked and appeased with offerings, is supposed to select two spirit companions out of the multitudinous beings that hover over human haunts. These spirits then become guardians, as it were, of the child, and do not separate themselves from him till one of them becomes the prey of some foul demon.

²³Um-a-gád, from á-gad, to accompany.

These spirit companions are said to be invisible, and in physical appearance like their corporal companion,²⁴ whose every action they are supposed to imitate. As was explained to me, when we sit down, our spirit companions also sit down, and when we dress, they also prepare themselves, and when we go forth they accompany us. When the mother leaves the house with her babe, she adjures the spirits to follow and to guard their ward. Of the effect and purpose of this consociation no very definite explanation has so far been given to me.

²⁴In stature they are described as being somewhat smaller.

The rites of the birth ceremony are observed usually within a month after the birth. There seems to be no stated time, but according to my observation and information they take place on the first symptoms of sickness, or of unusual restlessness on the part of the child. It is firmly believed and openly avowed that these symptoms are due to the machinations of Mandáit, who is desirous of being regaled with a fowl, for he, like all his fellow spirits, is an epicure and likes the good things of this world.

The ceremony begins with an invocation to Mandáit. A tiny canoe, more or less perfect in design and equipment, according to the caprice and skill of the fashioner, is made, and is hung up in the house after sunset. The nearer relatives assemble and a priest, preferably a relative, takes the chicken that has already been dedicated²⁵ to Mandáit, and waves it over the babe and around the house, in order to ward off all such bad influences and harmful spirits as might be flitting around, for in the Manóbo's mind, there are not a few of these demons waiting to devour the expected spirit companions.

²⁵Sin-ug-bá-han.

The chicken is killed and the head, legs, and wings offered to Mandáit. To these delicacies are added little leaf packages of cooked maize²⁶ or native rice.²⁷ The priest, on these occasions invariably a woman, goes through her invocations while the offerings are being placed on the ceremonial boat. She burns incense²⁸ whose fragrance is said to be especially acceptable to Mandáit. By the direction of the smoke, she ascertains the position of Mandáit and of her own guardian or familiar spirit, and turning to him, welcomes him. She falls into the usual state of tremor during which Mandáit is supposed to partake spiritually of the repast set out for him.

²⁶Búd-bud.

²⁷Ba-kí.

²⁸Pa-lí-na, the gum of the ma-gu-bái tree.

This ceremony being concluded, the fowl is partaken of, and a little sugarcane beverage²⁹ is drunk, if it can be obtained. After the meal, the priestess recounts in the old archaic language of song the chronicles of bygone days. This is taken up by such other makers of Manóbo monody as may be present. If the child proves to be restless, it is lulled to sleep with the weird staccato of the bamboo guitar.³⁰ During the course of the night the two souls are supposed to enter into mystic consociation with the babe, and thenceforth to be its companions.

²⁹Ín-tus.

³⁰Tan-kó.

The following morning the priestess removes the little leaf packages and, placing them on a rice winnow, tosses them into the air. The children present at once grab for the packages. The ceremonial canoe, however, with the offering of fowl, must be left suspended indefinitely.

In the lower half of the Agúsan Valley from San Luis to the mouth of the Agúsan, a tray of bamboo trelliswork is used for the offering to Mandáit instead of the sacrificial canoe described above. Otherwise the ritual is identical.

THE NAMING AND CARE OF THE CHILD

The child receives, without any ceremony or formality, a name that seems to depend on the caprice of the parents. It is usually that of some famed ancestor, or of some well-known Manóbo but at other times it may depend on some happening at the birth. Thus the writer knows of Manóbos who bore the names Bágio (Typhoon), Línug (earthquake), Bádau (dagger), Bíhag (captive), Áñglañg (slave), Ká-ug (maggot).

The child is treated by the parents and by the other relatives with the greatest tenderness. He is petted and pampered from his very youngest days, and punishment of any kind is seldom administered. A hammock made out of a hemp skirt or a little bamboo frame, suspended by a string from a bamboo pole in the fishing-rod style, is often provided for his resting place. He is tenderly set in one of these by day, and the usual little maternal devices are used to keep him from crying and to put him to sleep.

When the little fellow is somewhat bigger and stronger, he is carried about with his legs straddled across his mother's hip, or allowed to crawl around the floor. If the mother has to absent herself and there is no one to watch him, he is simply tied to the floor and left to his own thoughts. He is not weaned till the advent of another child, or till he of his own accord relinquishes the breast. His dress is of the simplest in most cases.

As soon as the male child reaches the age of 7 to 8 years, and is able to run around, he not infrequently accompanies his father or any other male relative on a fishing or on a hunting expedition, often carrying the betel-nut bag or some other object at times almost too heavy for his tender years. While at home he is often in an emergency sent out to do little chores. He is bidden to run out and get some betel leaf or some firewood from the surrounding forest, or again is sent for a little water. Such errands, however, are the exception. He has most of his time to himself, and passes it in merry rompings with his little brothers and cousins. If he lives near the river he spends a few hours a day in the water, bathing, splashing his playmates, and catching frogs and other edibles. A favorite pastime of his is to make a diminutive bow and ply his arrows at some old stump or some unlucky lizard or other living thing that he may have espied. If monkeys, crows, or other bold marauders are overnumerous, he probably has to sit out in the rude watch-house in the little clearing and keep the scarecrows moving, or by shouts and other means drive off the uninvited pests.

He soon learns to smoke tobacco, to chew betel nut, and even to take a drink of the brew that is being passed around, and thus he grows up to be, at the age of 14 or 15, a little full-fledged man with his teeth blackened, his lips stained, and his bolo at his side.

He enters youth without any special ceremony. It is true that as the boy grows to puberty his teeth are ground and blackened and he is tatooed[sic] and circumcised. Such operations might be considered as an initiation into manhood or at least as a survival of a custom that is so much in vogue in certain parts of Oceania. In other words, the youth begins to tattoo and to assume other ornamentation in order that he may attract the attention of the female portion of the tribe.

It is needless to say that he receives no schooling. In fact, the average Manóbo who has not come in contact with civilization would not know what to think of a pencil. On one occasion I accidentally allowed some Manóbos to see my pencil. The sight of it aroused an animated discussion as to the nature of the tree that yielded such peculiar wood. All the schooling which the Manóbo boy gets is from the forest and the streams. From them he learns to trap the timid deer and to catch the wily fish. In them he acquires a quick step, a sharp eye, and a keen ear. In the ways of nature he is a scholar, because the first moment that he can clamber down the notched pole he betakes himself to the surrounding forest and schools himself in all her ways and moods.

As soon as the boy reaches the age at which he feels that he is a man, he ceases to be under paternal restraint, which even up to that age has been more or less lax. At this period he assumes as much independence as his father, but will obey any behest without understanding the propriety or the necessity of complying. As a general rule, filial relations are most cordial, and great respect is entertained for both parents, but it may be said that male children respect and love the father, while girls love their mother.

BIRTH ANOMALIES

MONSTROSITIES

Monstrosities are extremely rare. I met only one case, that of a child with an abnormally large head.³¹ Idiocy also is very uncommon, only one case having come under my observation.

³¹Bása, Simúlao River, middle Agúsan.

ALBINISM

Albinism also is very infrequent. An albino is considered to be the child of an evil spirit in so far as one of those relentless demons is supposed to have exercised a malign influence on the mother. It is believed that an albino can pay nightly visits to the haunt of its demon sire. Among the Mandáyas on the upper Kati'il River, I saw some 12 cases of albinism in a settlement of about 500 Mandáyas. No explanation was obtained as I did not think it prudent at the time to ask for one.

HERMAPHRODITISM

Hermaphrodites,³² in a secondary sense, are found occasionally. I am personally acquainted with five. In every case they were womanly in their ways, showing a preference for sewing, and other occupations of women, and frequenting the company of women more than that of men.

³²Bán-tut (Mandáya bi-dó).

In one case at San Isidro, Simúlao River, an hermaphrodite, a fine specimen of manhood to all appearances, was dressed as a woman. In another case a Mandáya hermaphrodite of the Báklug River, a few miles south of Compostela, was married. I was informed on all hands that the marriage was for the purpose of securing the alliance of the hermaphrodite's relatives against certain hereditary enemies and that probably there would be no issue. I hope to get further information on this point at a future date.

On the Lamíñga River, a tributary of the Kasilaían River, there lived a woman who presented all the outward characteristics of a man. Her voice was deep and resonant, her countenance of a male type. She constantly carried a bolo, by day and by night, and in manual labor, such as building houses, was the equal of any man in the settlement. She had never married and had always rejected overtures toward marriage.

CHAPTER XV

DOMESTIC LIFE--MEDICINE, SICKNESS, AND DEATH

MEDICINE AND DISEASE

The subject of Manóbo medicine may be divided into three parts, according to the causes that are supposed to produce the malady or according to the means that are used to cure it. These classes will be described as natural, magic, and religious.

NATURAL MEDICINES AND DISEASES

Natural remedies in the form of roots and herbs are used for the ordinary bodily ailments that afflict the Manóbo. The following are the more common forms of sickness: Fever,¹ tuberculosis,² pain in the diaphragm,³ pains in the stomach and abdomen,⁴ pains in the chest,⁵ pain in the head,⁶ colds,⁷ chronic cough (probably bronchitis),⁸ pernicious malaria,⁹ ordinary malaria or chills and fever,¹⁰ cutaneous diseases,¹¹ intestinal worms,¹² and some few others.

¹Híñg-yau.

²Súg-pa.

³Ka-bú-hi, or gi-húb, probably a reversal of the diaphragm.

⁴Pús-on and go-túk.

⁵Da-gá-ha.

⁶Ó-yo.

⁷U-bó.

⁸Pás-mo.

⁹Pid-pid.

¹⁰Ó-yud.

¹¹Ká-do.

¹²Bí-tuk.

The natural remedies used in the cure of the above-mentioned diseases are not very numerous, but they are applied as a rule externally. In each settlement there are always a few who have gained a reputation above others for their knowledge of these medicines, but their proficiency is not high as may be judged by the degree of their success and by the opinion of many of their fellow tribesmen.

For wounds, tobacco juice and the black residue found in a tobacco pipe are considered an effective ointment. Saliva mixed with betel nut is used for the same purpose, and also for pains in the stomach. For other pains the leaves of various trees, according to the knowledge or faith of each individual, are applied. For pains in the stomach the gall of a certain snake¹³ is said to be efficacious. It is mixed with a little water and applied externally, or it may be taken internally, provided it be mixed with a little powder from a piece of pulverized plate.¹⁴

¹³Ba-ku-sán. The gall of this snake is reported as being a panacea used by the Mamánuas.

¹⁴Píñg-gan, an imported plate of very inferior make.

The perfume of certain resins and especially that of the manumbá tree are considered medicinal in some cases.

The root of a tree called lú-na when left to steep in water, is said to be a very potent remedy for pains in the stomach. The seed of the sá-i grass is also used for the same purpose, and is said to be a prophylactic against stomach troubles.

No amount of persuasion will overcome the Manóbos' suspicions of European medicine till the administrator of it follows the old saying of "Physician, heal thyself," and takes the first dose. In any case it is not prudent to offer it except after long acquaintance, for should any change for the worse occur in the patient's condition after taking the foreign medicine he might imitate people of greater intellectual caliber, and say, as he probably would, "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc," and the ensuing events might be sudden and unexpected.

On one occasion I administered a small dose of quinine to a child that was suffering from fever. It died the following day. The father, who had requested me to give the child some medicine, through the medium of a Mañgguáñgan, sent me a few days later a present of a chicken and about two glassfuls of sugarcane brew, and would not accept a reciprocatory gift of beads and jingle bells that I sent him. The chicken and the beverage were partaken of in due time, each of my servants drinking about half a glass of the liquor. The following morning at about 4 o'clock I awoke with a sense of impending death. The servants were called and they, too, complained of an uneasy feeling and one of them suggested that we might have been poisoned. A dose of ipecacuanha saved our lives, and at about 9 o'clock I proceeded to look for the bearer of the gift, but was unable to locate him, as he had gone to his forest home. A diplomatic investigation revealed the fact that he was an expert in poisons and that the poison administered to me in the liquor was probably the root of the túbli vine that is also used for poisoning fish.

Fragrant flowers and redolent seeds and herbs are thought to be very efficacious for the relief of headaches, fainting spells, and for the peculiar diaphragm trouble referred to before. The resin of the magubái tree, which also is used as incense in ceremonial rites, is considered very potent. I have frequently seen patients held over the smoke till I thought that death by suffocation would result.

In fine, it may be said that the Manóbos' knowledge of medicinal plants is very limited, and his application of them equally so, for as soon as he thinks that the condition of the patient has changed for the worse the malady is at once attributed to preternatural causes, and corresponding remedies are resorted to.

On casual observation it might appear that the sick are neglected, but this is not the case. The relatives, especially the womenfolk, display the tenderest solicitude toward them and keep them provided with an abundance of food. The lack of blankets leaves the patient exposed to the inequalities of temperature and explains, no doubt, the frequent occurrence of colds, of rheumatism, and sometimes of tuberculosis. This also may account for the high death rate among children.

MAGIC AILMENTS AND MEANS OF PRODUCING THEM

It is a common thing to hear that a kometán was the cause of a person's death. This may be defined as a secret method by which death is superinduced in a certain person by means either supposedly magic in character or so secret in administration that they may be looked upon as magic. Thus (to give an example of a purely magical sickness), it is thought that by making a wooden mannikin to represent the victim and by mistreating it the person whom it represents will immediately fall sick and die unless countervailing methods are employed to neutralize the effects of the charm. I heard of a case in the lower Agúsan near Esperanza where a wooden figure was made to represent the person of a thief. The figure was cruelly tortured by sticking a bolo into its head, and when sufficient punishment had been administered to cause its death, had it been a thing of life, it was buried amid much wailing. I was assured that the party whom it represented was taken with a lingering disease shortly afterwards and finally died.

The belief in the kometán or secret means of superinducing sickness is widespread, but it is difficult to obtain reliable data on the subject because, for obvious reasons, no one will admit that he is acquainted with the secret nor will he affirm that anyone else is unless it be a person so far away that there is no danger of future complications by reason of the imputation.

THE COMPOSITION OF A FEW "KOMETÁN"

1. The fine flossy spiculæ of a species of bamboo¹⁵ placed in the food or in the drink is supposed to cause a slow, lingering sickness that ends in death.

¹⁵Caña bojo, or bamboo of the genus Schizostachyum.

2. A piece of a dead man's bone pulverized and put into the food, even into the betel-nut quid, is said to have the same effect but in a more expeditious way, as it superinduces death within a few months.

3. Another reported kometán consists of the blood of a woman dried in the sun and exposed to the light of the moon. This is mixed with human hair cut very fine. Administered in the food, it produces a slow lingering disease that leads to the grave. It is said that after death the hair reappears resting upon the lips and nostrils.

4. Human hair mixed with bits of fingernails and powdered glass is said to be especially virulent. The secret of compounding it is known only to a few. I was informed that the knowledge of this secret composition was acquired from Bisáyas.¹⁶

¹⁶It is called pa-ágai.

It is generally believed that the war chiefs are provided with antidotes¹⁷ against the kometán. In fact, several assured me that they possessed them, but they were unwilling to enter into any details. I once saw a little bottleful of strange-looking herbs and water sold for P2.50. It was said to be an antidote against the particular species of kometán, which, on being placed in the path, would affect the one for whom it was intended when he passed the spot.

¹⁷Súm-pa.

A piece of lodestone,¹⁸ or even an ordinary toy magnet, is thought, in certain localities, to act as a safeguard against divers kinds of evil charms.

¹⁸Bá-to bá-ni.

OTHER MAGIC MEANS

I found a prevalent belief in the existence of an aphrodisiac¹⁹ which is said to consist of wax made by a small insect called kí-ut, and of the ashes of various trees. The secret of compounding it is known to very few. There is a persistent rumor that this was first learned from the Mamánuas,²⁰ who are supposed to be very proficient in the making and use of it even to this day. If a little of the composition is put on the dress of a woman, or, better still, if a little packet of it is attached to her girdle charms she will become attached to the man who placed it there and will aid him, as far as it can be done, in his suit for her hand.

¹⁹Called hu-pai.

²⁰It is strange that the more advanced tribes in eastern Mindanáo attribute a knowledge of magic methods to inferior ones. I have been informed that both Mamánuas and Mañgguáñgans are more expert in the manufacture and administration of charms than other tribes.

There is also a charm which is said to produce an aversion or dislike between those who had formerly been friends.

Bezoar stones are hard substances, of a dark color, and vary in size from a pea to a chestnut. They are said to be found in various trees and plants,²¹ and animals and fishes such as the monkey and eel.

²¹Such as the a-nís-lag, the tú-ba, the túb-li.

Their properties are both medicinal and magic. Thus the bezoar stones from three different plants are supposed to be efficacious in the hour of birth, but, at the same time, in all the doings of life they give the fortunate possessor success over his rival. Hence they are called pandáug, that is, they will enable one to get ahead of or beat another. There is a bezoar stone from the banti tree that gets its owner to a place more quickly than his rival.

BODILY AILMENTS PROCEEDING FROM SUPERNATURAL CAUSES

Sickness due to capture of the soul by an inimical spirit.--When a malady is of such a nature that it can not be diagnosed, or of so serious a character that fear is entertained for the recovery of the patient, it is ascribed to the maleficence of evil spirits, and supernatural means are resorted to in order to save the captured soul from their spirit clutches. For this purpose the priest intercedes with his divine tutelars, and prevails upon them, by offerings and promises, to rescue the captive. If the ailment is attributed to the war divinities, then the warrior chief becomes the officiant and, after appeasing the angry spirit with a blood offering, secures the release of the unfortunate soul.

Epidemics attributed to the malignancy of sea demons.--Epidemics of cholera and smallpox are thought to be due directly to evil spirits who bring the diseases from their faraway sea haunts.

It is said that friendly deities and war spirits of the settlement announce from the lofty mountain heights the approach of these pestiferous demons. Thus, I was assured by many in the Kasilaían River district, that Mount Tatamba on a tributary of the Lamiñga River gave out a loud booming noise before the epidemic of 1903-4. The same is said of Mount Mag-diuáta by the Súlibao people. Be that as it may, those who live along the main rivers scurry away on the approach of contagion into the depths of the forest or upon the heights of the mountains, and do not return until they feel assured that all danger is past. I was a personal witness of this among the upper Agúsan Manóbos, where I found a settlement, more than one year after the appearance of a contagious disease, still ensconced in the heart of the forest a few miles away from all water.²²

²²The inhabitants lived on the water that exuded from a tree known as ba-sí-kung.

The reason given for avoiding the larger watercourses during epidemics is that streams are thought to be the high roads for the sea demons when they come upon their work of destruction. There were never wanting some in each settlement who had seen these demons under some monstrous form or other.

Propitiation of the demons of contagious diseases.--Besides such offerings as may be made to them during the regular ritual, there is a special method of propitiating these plague bearers and thereby of inducing them to betake themselves whither they hailed.

A raftlet²³ is made of bamboo, with a platform of the same material raised several inches above the surface of the craft. This is adorned with palm fronds arched over it. Upon it is firmly lashed a young pig or a large fowl, of a white color, and by its side are placed various other offerings of betel nut, rice, or eggs, according to the bounty and good will of the priest and of the settlement. When all is ready, it is taken to the water's edge about sunset, for that is the hour when the mightiest of the demons begin their destructive march. Here the priest makes an address to the demon of the epidemic, descanting on the value of the offerings, the scarcity of victims at that particular time, the reasons for mutual friendship between him (the demon) and the settlement. The demon is then requested to accept these tokens of good will and to go his seaward way. The disease itself, though never mentioned by name, is requested in the same manner to take passage upon the raft and to accompany its master downstream. The raft is then launched into the water and allowed to follow the will of the current. No one may even touch it or approach it on its downward course, for it has become foul by contact with its pestilential owners.²⁴

²³Gá-kit.

²⁴Bisáyas have no scruples in appropriating the fat fowls and pigs thus found floating to doom.

SICKNESS AND DEATH

THE THEORY OF DEATH

Except in the case of a warrior chief, or a priest, or one who has met his end at the hands of an enemy, death is ordinarily attributed to the maleficence of the inimical spirits. The latter are believed to be relentless, insatiable demons "seeking whom they may devour." In some mysterious manner they are said to waylay a poor defenseless soul, and ruthlessly hold it in captivity till such time as it suits their whims, when they actually devour it. Notwithstanding the numerous explanations given to me throughout the Agúsan Valley, I have never been able to satisfy myself as to the various circumstances of time, place, and manner in which the capture and consumption of the soul takes place. Suffice it to say, however, that in its essential points this is the universal belief: One of the soul companions is seized, and the owner falls sick. Every available means is tried to effect a cure. When everything fails the priest declares that the ailment is due, not to any natural infirmity, but to the capture or wounding of one of the souls of the patient by inimical spirits. Sacrifices are ordered, during which usually a large number (from four to eight) of priests of both sexes invoke their various divinities and beseech them to rescue the spirit companion of the patient. During these ceremonies the priests describe minutely how the capture was effected. In lengthy chants they set forth the efforts of their deities to find the missing soul; they describe how they travel to the ends of the sky, seeking the cruel captors and vowing vengence[sic] upon their heads. They are said to make use of an espiho²⁵ to discover the whereabouts of the enemy and of the captive. The recapture of the soul and frequently the mighty encounter between the good and bad spirits is chanted out at length by the priests. I was told that in some cases the rescued soul is taken to the home of the deities and there consoled with feast and dance and song before its return to its earthly companion.

²⁵This es-pi-ho (from Spanish espejo, a looking-glass) is some kind of a wonderful telescope by which objects can be described at the farther extremities of the firmament. No lurking place is so remote or so secret as to be hidden from its marvelous power.

FEAR OF THE DEAD AND OF THE DEATH SPIRITS

The utter fear, not only of the malignant spirits but also of the person of the dead and of his soul, is one of the most peculiar features of Manóbo culture. In the death chamber and hovering around the resting place of the dead there is a certain noxious influence²⁶ by the infection of which one is liable to become an object of attraction to the dark-visaged, hungry, soul ghouls that, lured by the odor, stalk to the death house and await an opportunity to secure a victim.

²⁶Bá-ho.

Then, again, the envious spirits of the dead are feared, for they, in their eagerness to participate in the farewell and final death feast, avail themselves of every occasion to injure the living in some mysterious but material way. Sickness, especially one in which the only symptoms are emaciation and debility, are attributed to their noxious influence. Failure of the crops, bodily accidents, want of success in important undertakings--these and a thousand and one other things--are attributed to a lack of proper attention to the envious dead. "You have been affected by an umagad,"²⁷ is a common saying to express the peculiar effect that the departed may cause on the living. To avert this unkindly feeling and thereby prevent the evil consequences of it, it is not an infrequent thing to see propitiatory offerings made to the departed in the shape of betel nut, chickens, and other things. In one instance the father of a child that had died, presumptively from eating new rice, imposed upon himself an abstinence from that article for a period of several months.

²⁷In-um-a-gád ka.

As another evidence of fear of the departed souls may be cited the unwillingness of the Manóbo to use anything that belonged to the dead, such as clothes. An exception, however, is made in the case of weapons and other heirlooms,²⁸ all of which have been consecrated and are supposed not to retain the odor or evil influence of death.

²⁸Án-ka.

Offerings made to the dead to appease their ill will are not partaken of by the living. They are supposed to produce baneful effects.²⁹ Hence they are carefully removed to the outside of the house after the departed visitor is supposed to have regaled himself. This applies to betel-nut offerings, and to such offerings as chickens and pigs that in cases of unusual pestering on the part of the dead may be set out with a view to propitiating them.

²⁹Ka-dú-ut.

One or more priests are present invariably in the death chamber. The female priests take up their position near the corpse, and by the use of lemons, pieces of the sa-sá reed, and other things, said to be feared by the demons, protect themselves and those present. Hence, during the average "wake" the womenfolk huddle around the priestesses with many a startled glance. On one occasion I saw a male priest take up his stand at the door, lance poised, ready to dispatch such spirits as might dare to intrude into the death chamber. Drums and gongs are beaten throughout the night, not merely as a distraction for their grief but as a menace to the ever-present demons.

An acquaintance of mine in San Luis, middle Agúsan, is reported to have wounded seven evil spirits in one evening on the occasion of a death. I was assured by many in the town that they had seen the gory lance after each encounter.

Several other precautions besides those mentioned above are taken to secure immunity from the stealthy attacks of the demons. A fire is kept burning under the house, and the usual magic impediments, such as sa-sá reed, lemons, and a piece of iron, are placed underneath the floor as menace to these insatiate spirits. Moreover, the food while still in the process of cooking is never left unguarded, lest some malicious spirit should slyly insert therein poison wherewith to kill his intended victim or to spirit away an unwary soul.

For several days both before and after the death, supper is almost invariably partaken of before sunset, as this is the hour when the most mighty of the demons are supposed to go forth on their career of devastation. If, however, it should be necessary to take supper after sunset, it is the invariable custom to put a mat on the floor and thereby foil the stealthy spirits in their endeavors to slip some baneful influence³⁰ into the plates from below.

³⁰This custom is prevalent among many of the Bisáyas of eastern Mindanáo and may perhaps explain the origin of the peculiar low table used by them.

After the burial it is almost an invariable rule for the inmates of a house to abandon it. This remark, however, does not hold good in the case of the decease of priests, warrior chiefs, and children, nor in the case of those who have been slain in war. Should a stranger, or one who is not a relative of the inmates, die in the house, it is an established custom to collect the value of the house from the relatives of the deceased. Father Pastells in one of the "Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús" cites an incident that happened to him in the house of Selúñgan on the upper Sálug in the year 1878. It seems that one of Pastells' followers died and that Selúñgan desired to collect the value of the house. I know of one case where the fine was actually collected. I was asked by a warrior chief on the upper Tágo, who would pay for the house in the case of my death.

INCIDENTS ACCOMPANYING DEATHS

When death ensues, the relatives burst forth into loud wails of grief. In one death scene that I witnessed the wife of the deceased fell down on the floor, and in the wildness of her grief kept striking her head against the palma brava slats until she rendered herself unconscious. Upon returning to herself, she violently embraced the corpse of her deceased husband, bidding him return. Then she broke out into loud imprecations against her tutelary deities upbraiding them for their ingratitude in not having saved her husband's soul from the clutches of its enemies. She bade them be off, would have no more to do with them, and finally ended up by bidding them go on the war trail and destroy the foul spirits that deprived her of her husband.

In nearly every death scene that I witnessed this last procedure was the ordinary one, and I may say that it is quite characteristic of the Manóbo.

On several occasions I witnessed some fierce displays of fury, to which the mourners were driven by their poignant grief for some beloved relative. In one instance the father of the deceased, drawing his bolo, started to hack down one of the house posts, and in another the son, after a frantic outburst of grief, seizing his shield and lance, declared that he would ease his sorrow in the joy of victory over his enemies and actually had to be detained by his relatives.

The grief and fury felt on these occasions will readily explain the frequency of war raids after the occurrence of a death. This was explained to me by Líno of the upper Sálug, probably the greatest warrior of eastern Mindanáo, in the following manner: "After the decease of a near relative, our enemies will rejoice and may, as is done with frequency, proclaim their joy. We do not feel in good humor anyhow, so, if it can be arranged speedily, we start off to assuage the sorrow of our friends and our relatives with the palms of triumph."

This statement of Líno may explain the origin of the taboo that is observed throughout the Agúsan Valley. The taboo referred to prohibits anyone except a near relative from visiting the house of the deceased for seven days after the death. It is suggested that this custom was instituted to prevent the enemy from learning whether an expedition was being set afoot. To enforce compliance with this custom, the trails leading to the house are closed by putting a few branches across them at a short distance from the house. It is not infrequent to find a broken jar suspended (or placed) at these points, symbolic, probably, of the cruel fate that may overtake the transgressor. Infringements of this taboo are punished with a fine that varies from P5 to P15.

PREPARATION OF THE CORPSE

After the first paroxysm of grief has subsided, the body of the deceased is washed, the greatest delicacy in exposing the person being shown, and it is then attired in the finest garments obtainable. No personal ornaments, such as necklaces and bracelets, are removed. Charms and talismans, however, are removed, being considered heirlooms. The corpse is then laid on its back, with the hands lying at the side, in the rude coffin.

There is a tradition that, in the olden days, the bolo of the deceased used to be buried with him but I never saw this done. The bolo, however, was placed by his side in a few cases that I witnessed. Among the mountain Manóbos there exists the custom of winding strands of colored cotton on the fingers and feet of young girls and maidens after death. I witnessed this in the upper Agúsan, and, in answer to my inquiry, was informed that such was the custom of the Agusánon people.

The coffin is a hexagonal receptacle hewn out of a log,³¹ and provided with a truncated prism lid of the same wood. It frequently has a few ornamental tracings of soot or other pigment, and where European cloth is procurable a few pieces may be employed as a wrapping. The corpse is wrapped in a mat and laid in the coffin, the head being placed upon a rude pillow of wood. The coffin is then firmly lashed with rattan and is not removed till the hour for interment. Frequently lemons, sá-i grass, and various other redolent herbs are placed on or near it with a view, I was told, to repressing the odor of the dead. It is probable, however, that they are thought to have magic or other virtues. They certainly are objects of fear to the death demons.

³¹A-yu-yao, said to be very durable, being found in perfect preservation after two years; kibidid or ilang-ilang are also used.

The wailing, weird and wild, of the women was violent in nearly every case I witnessed, especially when the corpse was taken out of the house on its way to the burial place. The grief displayed by the male relatives is not so intense but I noticed frequently that even they broke into tears. I may add here that I was often informed that the absence of the outward signs of grief is an infallible evidence of a speedy death, and that it is considered unlucky to allow one's tears to fall on the corpse.

Before describing the burial, I desire to mention a peculiar proceeding which I observed on one occasion.³² Before the corpse had been placed in the coffin, one of those present, seizing a dog, placed it transversely on the breast of the deceased for a few seconds. I was told that the object of the action was to remove the dog's bad luck³³ by putting him in the above-mentioned position, as he had for some time been rather unlucky in the chase. This proceeding was verified by subsequent inquiries in other settlements, and the custom and its explanation were found to be identical with the above mentioned.

³²San Luis, 1906.

³³Pá-yad.

THE FUNERAL

As a rule the burial takes place the morning after the death, unless the death occurred during the night, in which case it takes place the following afternoon. Decomposition is never allowed to set in.

When all is ready, a last tribute and farewell are paid to the deceased. The family priest sets an offering of betel nut near the coffin, beseeching the dead one to depart in peace and bear no ill will to the living. He promises at the same time that the mortuary feast³⁴ will be prepared with all possible speed. The deceased is addressed, usually by several relatives and friends who wish him well in his new home and repeat the invitation to come to the death feast and bring grandfather and grandmother and all other relatives that had preceded him to the land of Ibú.

³⁴Ka-ta-pús-an.

Then, amid great wailing, the coffin is borne away hastily. Only men assist at the burial, and as a rule a male priest, sometimes several, accompany the funeral party in order to assist them against the evil ones that throng to the grave. The priests take up their positions, as I witnessed on several occasions, at strategic points behind trees, with balanced lance and not infrequently with shield. I have seen others provided with sa-sá reed in anticipation of wounding some over-bold spirits.

I observed a very peculiar custom on several occasions. On the way to the grave the men indulged in wild shouts. No other explanation was offered except that such was the custom. It was suggested, however, that it is a means of driving off the demons who may have got the scent of death, or, again, it may be to warn travelers that there is a funeral, thus enabling them to avoid meeting it, as this is said to be most unlucky.

I have heard of the dead being buried under the house. However, the practice is infrequent and is usually followed at the request of the dying one. It is needless to add that the house and neighboring crops are abandoned. When possible a high piece of ground is selected in the very heart of the forest and a small clearing is made. The work at the grave is apportioned without much parleying, some of the men devoting themselves to making the customary roof³⁵ to be placed over the grave, while others do the excavating. Sometimes a fence is erected around the burying ground. The work always proceeds in absolute silence, and a fire is always kept burning as a menace to the evil spirits. When all is ready, the coffin is laid in its resting place and covered in all haste. Here it may be remarked with regard to the orientation of the corpse, that men are buried with their feet toward the east and women with their feet toward the west. Then the little roof is set upon four supports about 45 centimeters above the grave. One of those present, sometimes a priest, lays a plate with seven offerings of betel nut upon the grave. Then an earthen pot³⁶ with its collation of boiled rice³⁷ and with a hole broken in the bottom of it is hung up under the roof.

³⁵Bin-aí-iu.

³⁶Kó-don.

³⁷Imported rice can not be used.

As explained to me, rice is intended as a last refection for the departed one before he sets out on his journey to the land of Ibú. The hole that is invariably made in the bottom is intended, so I was told by many, to facilitate the consumption of the rice. The family heirlooms are occasionally brought to the grave but are not left there.

There is a common tradition to the effect that the ancient mode of sepulture was a more pompous and solemn affair than the present one. I was told that the deceased was buried with all his personal arms, except his lance and shield, which were laid over his grave. Sacred jars³⁸ were also left. I never have been able to get sufficient information as to the exact whereabouts of the old burial grounds. The cave of Tinágo near Taganáan, about 12 miles south of Surigáo, is easily accessible. The Bisáyas of the town state that it was a burial place for the ancient Bisáyas, but Montano, who procured some skulls from this cave, pronounced it to be a Manóbo cemetery. The fact is, however, that up to this day the townspeople repair to the cave on occasions and invoke their ancestors. I was told of one gambler who used to go there and burn a candle in order to increase his luck.

³⁸Ba-hán-di.

The mourners carefully efface the footprints that have been made by them on the loose clay around the grave and, scurrying away sadly and silently, leave the dead one in the company of the spirits of darkness. Henceforth this, the resting place of one who was beloved in life, possibly of a loving wife, or of a darling child, will be eschewed as a place of terror where stalk with silent footfall and dark-visaged face the foul and insatiate soul ghouls.

On arriving at the house whence they started, the funeral party invariably find a vessel, usually a coconut-shell cup, containing a mixture of water and herbs,³⁹ placed at the door of the house. Each one in turn wets his hands and purifies himself by rubbing the water on some portion of his body. I never saw this process omitted. The explanation afforded me was that the water had a purificatory⁴⁰ effect in removing the evil influence to which they had become susceptible by contact with the dead. After the burial, a little repast is set out by way of compensation for those who assisted at the burial, and then begins the time of mourning which ends only with the mortuary feast.

³⁹I was told that u-li-ú-li grass is always used as an ingredient.

⁴⁰Pan-dí-has.

CERTAIN MOURNING TABOOS ARE OBSERVED

(1) Black must be worn by the nearest relatives.

(2) For seven days the wife and nearest relatives must remain confined to the house.

(3) The house must be abandoned or the inmates must change their sleeping quarters to another part of the house.

(4) No marriage can be celebrated by any of the carnal relatives until the death feast has been celebrated.

(5) The deceased must not be mentioned by name, but spoken of as "my father" or "my cousin" or other relative. This taboo holds indefinitely.

(6) No work must be undertaken nor business of any importance transacted, by the nearer relatives, for seven days.

(7) No one other than a near relative may visit the house for seven days after the decease.

DEATH AND BURIAL OF ONE KILLED BY AN ENEMY, OF A WARRIOR CHIEF, AND OF A PRIEST

As one killed by an enemy is thought to have suffered no ill through the machinations of the evil ones, his death is considered a glorious one, and he is buried fearlessly. It sometimes happens that, due to the distance between the place where he was killed and his home, it is found impossible to convey his body to the settlement. He is, accordingly, buried in some convenient spot in the forest without further ceremony. No mortuary feast is held for him because he is supposed to enter the abode of his chief's war deity and there to await the coming of his chief.

I never witnessed the death of a warrior chief, but I made numerous inquiries from which I gleaned the following particulars: The death and burial of a warrior chief seems not to differ from that of an ordinary person except in the greater pomp displayed and in the absence of fear. The tutelary war deities, either one or several, of the warrior chief are present and the evil spirits are said to maintain a respectful distance. The war chief's spirit companions or souls, which it is maintained are susceptible to injury at the hands of demons, are present and accompany him to the home of his tutelar deities, as do also Mandaláñgan or Mandayáñgan, the great ancestral hero of Manóboland.

The war chief has no special burial ground, nor any special mode of sepulture, though I heard on the upper part of the Tágo River, in the eastern part on Mindanáo, that a certain Ónkui, an acquaintance of mine, had been buried in a dugout placed on the summit of a mountain. This report appears from further investigation to be true. I have heard of a similar practice at the headwaters of the Ihawán River.

There is no material difference between the mortuary customs at the death of a priest and those practiced at that of a warrior chief. The tutelar deities of the priest are all present, together with all their relatives and friends of the unseen world. His seven spirit companions or souls are also present, so that little or no fear of the uncanny demons is exhibited by the mourners.

THE AFTER WORLD

The land of Ibú is described as being somewhere down below the pillars of the earth. It is said to resemble, in all particulars, this world of ours. Lofty mountains, lakes, rivers, and plains, such as are seen in the Agúsan Valley, exist there. About halfway between this world and the big country of Ibú, mistress of the lower world, is a large river described to me as being as big as the Agúsan, but with red water. Here lives Manduyápit, the ferryman. From Manduyápit's to Ibú's is said to be a journey of seven days along a good broad trail. Americans, Spaniards, and peoples of other nations do not pass on the Manóbo's trail because each is said to have its own, and the country of Ibú is said to be divided into districts, one for each nation.

Hence, when the soul or spirit companion of the deceased finds that it is all alone, its fellow spirit having been ruthlessly seized and devoured, it begins its long journey to Ibú's. One week's travel brings it to the great red river. Here it is ferried across gratuitously by Manduyápit, and begins the second half of its journey. On arriving at Ibú's it naturally seeks the spirits of its relatives, preferably its nearest relative, and takes up its abode with them. If Manduyápit, for one reason or another, should refuse to ferry it across, it returns to its starting place and plagues its former friends for aid. The priest is made aware of this and interprets to the relatives of the returning one the reason for its failure to pass the great red river.

If the souls of the deceased should desire to pay a visit to their living relatives, they invoke the family deities and are borne back to the world on the wings of the wind, without having to undergo the fatigues of the 14 days' journey.

Ibú's great settlement is no gloomy Hades, nor, on the other hand, is it a paradise of celestial joy. It is simply a continuation of the present life, except that all care and worry and trouble are ended. The spirits of deceased earthly relatives take up their abode in one house and pass a quiet existence under the mild sway of Ibú. There they eat, work, and even marry. Occasionally, with the aid of the family deities with whom they can commune, they pay a brief visit to the home of their living relatives and then return to the tranquil realms of Ibú as fleetly as they came.

THE DEATH FEAST⁴¹

⁴¹Ka-ta-pú-san, meaning end, termination.

The death feast is the most important of all Manóbo feasts, for it marks the ending of all relations between the living and their departed relatives. Until its celebration the immediate relatives of the deceased are said to fare poorly. In some mysterious way the departed are said to harm them until they have received this final fete. Hence, the nearest relative sets himself to work with all dispatch to provide the necessary pigs, beverage, and rice for the feast. It is a common belief that unless this celebration is as sumptuous as possible, ill luck may still pursue them. This will explain the long delay so frequently observed before the celebration of this festivity. I know of several such feasts which were not held until nearly a year after the decease, the delay being due to inability to secure sufficient edibles for the death revels. The importance and magnitude of this feast will be readily understood when one bears in mind the fact that, when given by a well-to-do Manóbo, it is attended by everybody in the vicinity, and lasts frequently for a period of seven days. It happens occasionally that, in the interim between the death of one member of a family and the death feast, another member of the same family goes his mortal way. In such a case only one feast is held for the two departed ones.

The religious character of the feast deserves special mention. The dinner being prepared, an ordinary winnow is set out in the middle of the floor and on it are placed cooked rice and, when obtainable, bananas. Around the winnowing tray are set all the requisites for a plenteous meal. Then the relatives sit around on the floor in a circle and each one lays on the tray his offering of betel nut to the deceased. The family priests act as interpreters and intermediaries. The deceased are then addressed, care being taken never to mention their names. They are called, father, brother, etc., by relatives, and by those who are not relatives, father of so-and-so, or sister of so-and-so, mentioning the name of the corresponding living relative. The near relatives then give salutary advice to the dead one as to the future dealings between the latter and the living. They are begged to have a little patience, are reminded that only a few years hence all will be united in the land of Ibú, and are requested to accept this final feast as a farewell until that time. "You shall go your way and molest us not. Let this feast be a token of good will and a final farewell till we meet you in the realms of Ibú." Such, in brief, is the strain of discourse consisting of exhortations, advice, supplication, and valediction[sic], that lasts several hours.

Finally a handful of rice is formed by the oldest relative into an image suggestive of a human figure and the deceased are invited to approach and to partake of the viands. The relatives pass the rice mannikin around, each one taking a bite or two out of it. While this is being done, the dead are invited to eat heartily, the living relatives exhorting the dead ones; one urging them to take more soup, another to increase their meat, another to take more bananas, and all reminding the deceased diners of the great expense incurred in connection with this banquet. The priests describe the actions of the mystic diners and the hearty appetite with which they partake of the fragrance of the viands, after their long journey from Ibúland.

During the mystic meal no one dares to approach the rice winnow, but when the meal is finished, those who carried the deceased to his last resting place approach the winnow and, raising it up in their hands, with an upward movement conjointly toss the victuals into the air, retreating instantly to avoid the food in its fall, for should a particle of it touch their persons it is considered a prognostication of speedy death. The origin and significance of this peculiar custom, which I witnessed on many occasions, have never been explained to me. Inquiry elicited no further information than that it was the custom.

Such is the repast of the dead and the ending of all relations between them and the living. Henceforth they are not feasted, as they have no more claim on the hospitality of the living. In all the greater religious celebrations, however, they are present and receive an offering of betel nut, which is placed at the doorway for them but they are not invited to the feast.

The secular and social part of the feast in no wise differ from any other celebration, except that those who buried the deceased have marked attention paid them. There are the same motley group of primitive men and women, the same impartial distribution of the food, the same wild shouts of merriment, the same rivalry to finish each one his allotted portion, the same generous reciprocation of food and drink, and, finally, the same condition of inebriation that on many such occasions has abruptly terminated the feast by a fatal quarrel.⁴²

⁴²An instance of a killing had taken place a short time before my visit in 1909 to the Manóbos of the Binuñgñgaan River, upper Agúsan.

The rest of the day, and probably a goodly portion of the night, are spent in dancing to the tattooing of the drum and the clanging of the gong, interrupted at times by long tribal chants of the priests and others versed in chronicles of Manóboland.

If the death revels continue more than one day, the second day is a repetition of the first with the exception that only the betel-nut offering is made to the dead. As the celebration of this mortuary feast is the termination of the anxious period of mourning, and the release from the subtle secret importunateness of the dead, everybody with his wife and children flocks to the scene. No relative of the departed one may be absent for that would leave him still exposed to the strange waywardness of the envious dead.

CHAPTER XVI

SOCIAL ENJOYMENTS

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

THE DRUM

The drum is the instrument of universal use in Manóboland. Wherever one travels, by day or by night, its measured booming may be heard. It is made out of a piece of a palm tree, by removing the core and bark. It is ordinarily about 25 centimeters high by 20 centimeters in diameter. The top and bottom consist, in nearly every case, of a piece of deerskin,¹ from which the fur has been scraped, a little fringe of it, however, being left around the edges to prevent the hide from slipping when stretched. The stretching is effected by means of rattan rings or girdles, very often covered with cloth, and just large enough to fit the cylindrical body of the drum. A few blows with a piece of wood forces these girdles down the sides of the drum, thereby stretching the heads perfectly tight so as to give the drum the proper tone. After a certain amount of heating over the fire the drum is ready for use. No attempts at ornamentation are made, the heavy ends of the hide being left protruding in an ungainly way.

¹Monkey and lizard skins are made use of in rare instances, and I have heard it said that the skin of a dog makes a very fine drumhead.

The drum is played at either end, and in certain tunes at both ends. The left hand serves to bring out the notes corresponding to our bass. The drum is tapped, with more or less force and rapidity, on an upturned head with the left hand, while the right hand with a piece of wood, preferably a little slat of bamboo, raps out the after beat. Manóbo men, women, and children can play the drum and mention the names of from 20 to 50 rhythms, each one of which is to their trained ears so different that it can be recognized at once. The rhythms are varied by the number of beats of the right hand to one of the left, and by the different degrees of speed with which the tune is played. The general beat may be compared to the dactyl of ancient Greek and Roman versification. The left hand plays the long syllable, if we may so speak, while the right plays the two short ones. The combinations, however, are as intricate as the versification just referred to.

As the nomenclature² used in speaking of the tunes indicates, the various forms of drum music are based on imitations of animals and birds, or are adapted to certain occasions, such as the war roll signaling for help.

²The following are some of the names of drum-tunes: Sin-ak-aí-sá-kai (significant of the movement of a raft or canoe); kum-bá-kum-bá to u-sá (imitative of the sporting of a deer); kin-am-pi-lán (indicative of the flourishing of the Moro weapon called kampilan); Min-an-dá-ya, an adaptation from the Mandáyas; bo-túñg-bó-tuñg, ka-ta-hud-án, ya-mút-yá-mut, pa-di-dít, pin-án-dan, pa-tug-da-dúk tí-bañg, min-añg-gu-áñg-an, tin-úm-pi, ma-sañg-aú-it, to-mán-do, in-ág-kui, pa-dú-au, bin-ág-bad, pai-úm-bug, pa-dúg-kug, tum-bá-lig, mañg-úd.

To one who hears Manóbo drum music for the first time, it sounds dull and monotonous, but as the ear grows accustomed to the roll the compass can be detected and the skill of the drummer becomes apparent. Now loud and then soft, now fast and then slow, the tune is rattled off in perfect measure and with inspiring verve. As one travels through the crocodile-infested lake region in the middle Agúsan on a calm night, the Manóbo drums may be heard tattooing from distant settlements. They produce a solemn but weird impression on the listener.

THE GONG

The gong³ is of the small imported type and is purchased from Bisáya traders. As these gongs, when new, have several ornamental triangular figures on the front, the Manóbo is taught to value them at as many pesos minus one as the gong has figures. This gives a gong that cost originally about 2 pesos a value of 4 or 5 pesos.

³A-guñg.

As a musical instrument it is played in combination with the drum. Suspended from something or held up in the hand, it is beaten on the knob with a piece of wood. The general time kept is the same as that kept by the left hand of the drummer. Its constant clanging serves to heighten the animation of the dance.

Both the drum and gong have a certain religious character. They are used in all greater religious celebrations and seem to be a part of the paraphernalia of the priest, for they are nearly always kept in his house.

FLUTES

The flute, unlike the drum and gong, has no religious idea whatsoever associated with it. It is played at the caprice of the tribesman, to while away a weary hour, to amuse the baby, or to entertain a visitor.

The melody produced by it is soft and low, plaintive and melancholy, resembling in general features Chinese music, with its ever recurring and prolonged trill, its sudden rises and falls, and its abrupt endings.

Flutes are not used by women, and not all men have attained a knowledge of them. Here and there one meets a man who is an expert and who is glad to display his skill.

The tunes are said to be suggestive of birds' and animals' cries⁴ and seem to be the product of each.

⁴The more common pieces are: Sin-a-gáu to bu-á-da (the roaring of the crocodile), bu-a-bú-a to á-mo (the monkey scare), and the din-a-go-yu-án.

Flutes are made from the internodes of a variety of bamboo and are of four kinds, depending on the number and position of the fingerholes.

The paúndag flute.⁵--The paúndag is the commonest form. The joints of the bamboo are cut off and the circumference of the resulting internode is measured accurately with a piece of abaká or other fiber. With this for a measure, 16 marks or rings are cut on the segment and at each end beyond the first and last mark, a distance equal to one-half the circumference is marked off, the remainder of the segment being then cut off square at each end. At the eighth mark a hole about 8 millimeters in diameter is cut or burned in the bamboo. The same is done, but on the opposite side, at the ninth, eleventh, twelfth, and fourteenth marks, respectively. The ends are then cut in much the same shape as an ordinary whistle, and the flute, a segment of bamboo about 1 meter long, is ready for use.

⁵Called also pan-dag.

While being played, it is held in a vertical position, the side with the one fingerhole being toward the body of the player. The end with the first mark, that which is farther away from the fingerholes, is placed just under the upper lip. The thumb and middle finger of the right hand control the openings at the eighth and ninth marks, while those at the eleventh and twelfth are covered by the first and middle fingers of the left hand, respectively, the hole at the fourteenth mark being uncovered.

The blowing is performed without effort in the gentlest way possible, as a very slight increase in the force of the breath raises the tone about two octaves.

The to-áli flute.--The to-áli is an abbreviated form of the flute just described and is made in a similar way, except that only 10 divisions are made, and that on one side two holes are made at the fifth and seventh marks, and on the other at the fourth and sixth openings, respectively. There is no fifth fingerhole. This form of flute is played like the paúndag flute, except that the thumb and middle fingers of the right hand cover the fifth and sixth openings, respectively, while the thumb and fourth finger of the left hand control the seventh and eighth openings.

In pitch this form of flute is considerably higher than the previous one but in other respects the music is similar.

The lántui flute,⁶--A flute known as lántui is in existence, but I am not acquainted with the details of it.

⁶Called also yántui.

The sá-bai flute.--The sá-bai flute differs from the three already mentioned in being a direct flute. The joint at one end of the bamboo is cut off. Seven circumference lengths are then marked off, beginning at the remaining joint, and holes are made at the first (that is, the point), fifth, sixth, and seventh divisions, one or more holes being added in the center between the sixth and seventh divisions. For a mouthpiece, a segment of bamboo about 2 centimeters long is placed over the jointed end of the flute at the first division but in such a way as not to cover completely the opening at that point.

The sound is produced by the breath passing through the opening last mentioned and striking the edge of the aperture that it partially covers.

When played, this form of flute is held in a horizontal position. The point is inserted into the mouth and the three consecutive holes at divisions Nos. 5, 5.5, and 6 are covered by the first, second, and third fingers, respectively, of the right hand.

In pitch this instrument is lower than the other three but in the quality of the music it in no wise differs from them.

GUITARS

The vine-string guitar.--There are two kinds of vine-string guitars, differing only in size and name, as far as I know, so that a description of the smaller one⁷ will answer for the larger.⁸

⁷Kúd-luñg.

⁸Bin-i-já-an.

It varies in length from 1.5 meters to 2 meters.⁹ The combined neck and finger board and the hollow boat-shaped sounding box are of one piece. The other part of the guitar is a thin strip of wood with a lozenge-shaped hole in the center, that fits with great accuracy on the bottom of the sounding box. The head is always a scroll, rudely carved into a remote suggestion of a rooster's head, as the name indicates,¹⁰ and two holes are pierced in it for the insertion of the tuning pegs. Along the neck are from 9 to 12 little wooden frets, fastened to the finger board with beeswax. I can give no information as to the rule by which the interfret distances are determined.

⁹Ordinarily the bán-ti or the sa-gu-bád-bad wood is used.

¹⁰Min-an-úk, from manuk, a fowl.

The strings are two in number and extend from the tuning pegs through two holes in the neck and over the finger board and the sounding box to an elevated piece left on the sounding piece. An interesting feature of these strings is that they are the central part or core of a small vine¹¹ and give out rather sweet tones, though not so loud as catgut.

¹¹Bís-lig.

Projecting from the end of the sounding box, and forming one continuous piece with it, is an ornamental piece carved into a semblance of the favorite fowl head.

The guitar is held like guitars the world over, and the playing is performed by twanging the strings with a little plectrum of bamboo or wood.¹²

¹²As to the tuning and modulating of the instrument I can give no information. The matter requires further study.

The quality of the music is soft and melancholy, wholly in minor keys and of no great range, probably not exceeding one octave. As far as I can judge it bears a resemblance to Chinese music. Various tunes are played on both forms of guitar according to the caprice and skill of the performer.¹³

¹³The following are the names of some of the melodies: Di-u-wá-ta ko (Oh, my familiar spirit), a-yáu-u-yáu-á (don't, oh, don't), to-láñg-it (the sky), i-ka-nuñg-úd, ta-ta-lí-buñg, pan-in-ó-ug, mi-a-pí tin-ig-bás-ai, du-yúg-dú-yug, ta-ga-lín-dug, tiñg-ga-sau, ma-sú-gud, pa-má-bá to ba-ku-ta, da-gí-tan.

There are no special occasions for playing this guitar. It is not played by women nor is it used as an accompaniment for singing. The performer takes up the instrument as the whim prompts him and in the semidarkness plays his rude, melancholy tune.

The bamboo string guitar.¹⁴--The bamboo guitar is made of an internode of one of the larger varieties of bamboo.¹⁵ Five small cylindrical strips are cut along the surface and small wedges of wood are inserted under them at the ends to stretch them and retain them in an elevated position. These strips extend from joint to joint. There are usually two bass strings on one side and three treble strings on the other. Between these treble bass strings is a longitudinal slit in the bamboo joint intended to increase the resonance of the instrument. The strings are at intervals of about 3 centimeters. Two holes are made in the joint walls, the purpose of which is to increase the volume of sound.

¹⁴Tan-kó.

¹⁵Pa-túñg, da-nu-án, kai-yaú-an.

The tuning is regulated by the size of the little wedges which impart greater or lesser tension as desired. I understand neither the theory nor the practice of tuning this guitar.

While being played the guitar is held in both hands. The first finger and thumb of the right hand manipulate the bass strings, while the three treble strings are controlled by the other hand.

The weird staccato music produced by this instrument is indescribable. One must hear it and hear it repeatedly in order to appreciate its fantastic melodies.

Both men and women make use of it for secular and, I am inclined to think, for religious motives. During the famous túñgud¹⁶ movement (1908-1910) it was used universally in the religious houses, but I was unable to obtain definite information as to its sacred character. In the postnatal ceremony that has been described under "Birth" I observed the use of the instrument on several occasions, but could obtain no further information except that the strains of this primitive guitar are pleasing to Mandáit, the tutelary spirit of infants. This point merits further investigation.¹⁷

¹⁶A religious movement that sprang up in 1908 and spread itself all over the southeastern quarter of Mindanáo. (See Chapter XXIX.)

¹⁷The following are the names of some of the tunes played on the above guitar: ma-sú-gud, tám-bid, gam-aú-gá-mau, pa-ma-yá-bui, tig-ba-bau.

The takúmbo.--Though classed here as guitar, the takúmbo hardly deserves the name. It is a bamboo joint which has one joint wall opened. At the other end beyond the second joint it is so cut as to resemble a miter. Two strings, uplifted from the surface about 4 centimeters apart, and held in an elevated position and at their requisite tension by little wooden wedges placed underneath, form the strings. A lozenge-shaped hole in the center between the strings increases the resonance. The instrument is played by beating the strings with little sticks preferably of bamboo. Two persons may play at one time.

The time observed is the drum rhythm. The sound produced is very faint and unimpressive, and the instrument is of very sporadic occurrence.

The fact that one end is carved in the form of a miter tends to confirm my supposition that this is a purely religious instrument. The carving is supposed to represent the mouth of a crocodile.¹⁸

¹⁸This figure is called bin-u-á-da, or bin-u-wá-ya from bu-á-ya, crocodile.

I was given to understand that this instrument is used in the immolation to the blood-deities in case of hemorrhage and such other illnesses as are accompanied by fluxes of blood. It is said that the instrument is set in a vertical position, the miterlike cutting being upward, and that a part of the victim's blood is placed upon the node as if it were a little saucer. The instrument is then played. I never witnessed the ceremony, nor heard the instrument played, and am not prepared to give credence to the above story till further investigation corroborates it.

THE VIOLIN¹⁹

¹⁹Kó-gut.

I neither saw nor heard this instrument, but my inquiries substantiate the existence of it. The body is said to be of coconut shell with the husk removed. The bow is made of bamboo bent into the form of a defensive bow, to the ends of which are attached several threads of abaká fiber that serve as the bowstring. The strings of the violin are two in number and are made of abaká fiber.

The violin is said to be played as our violins are by drawing the bow across the strings. It is not played by women, according to reports, nor are there any stated times and reasons, religious or otherwise, for its use.²⁰

²⁰The names of some of the tunes played are: Pan-un-gá-kit, lin-íg-tui ka-bú-ka, ba-yú-bas, pan-ig-á-bon to ka-bí.

THE JEW'S-HARP²¹

²¹Kubíñg.

Another instrument which is found occasionally in Manóboland, is a species of jew's-harp, made out of bamboo. It is a frail instrument made more for a toy than for its musical qualities. It is ordinarily about 26 centimeters long, and consists of a slender piece of bamboo from the central part of which a small tongue about 6 centimeters long is cut. The tongue remains attached at one end, the tip of it being toward the middle of the instrument. On the the reverse side there is a small cavity in the body of the instrument intended to allow sufficient room for the tongue of the harp to move while being played.

The instrument is played by putting the mouth to the above-mentioned cavity and by blowing as we do in an ordinary jew's-harp. The tongue is made to vibrate by tapping with the finger a needlelike spur that is left at the end of the instrument. This vibration, in conjunction with variations of the mouth cavity of the performer, produces tones which are not unlike those of an ordinary jew's-harp but which are not so loud nor so harmonious.

THE STAMPER AND THE HORN²² OF BAMBOO

²²Tam-bú-li.

On the upper Agúsan I witnessed the use of bamboo stampers. They consist of large bamboo joints with one partition wall removed. They are stamped on the floor in rhythm with the drum and gong during a dance, the open end being held up. The use of these stampers by Manóbos is rare, the custom being confined almost exclusively to Mañgguáñgans of the upper Agúsan and upper Sálug Valleys.

Another instrument, but one which can hardly be called musical, is the bamboo horn used for signaling and calling purposes. It consists of an internode of bamboo with one partition wall removed. An opening large enough for the mouth is made on the side of the bamboo near the other node. In using it the mouth is applied to this aperture and a good pair of lungs can produce a loud booming blast. After the occurrence of a death, especially if the deceased has been slain, it is customary to use this instrument as a means of announcing the death to near-by settlements, thereby putting them on their guard against any of the slain one's relatives who might be impelled to take immediate vengeance on the first human being he met.

SOUNDERS

A method of signaling, much in use among the mixed Manóbo-Mañgguáñgans of the upper Agúsan, consists in beating on the butresses[sic]²³ of trees. It is surprising how far the resultant sound travels in the silence and solitude of the forest.

²³Da-líd.

In connection with musical instruments it may not be out of place to mention the bamboo sounders²⁴ attached to looms. They are internodes of bamboo with apertures in the joint wall and a longitudinal slit extending almost from node to node. One of these always constitutes the yarn beam of the loom.

²⁴Ka-gú.

These internodes, besides serving to support the fabric during the process of weaving, denote by their resonance that the weaver is busy at work. The movement of the batten in driving home the weft produces a sound that, owing to the resonance of the bamboo yarn beam may be heard for several hundred meters.

When the Manóbo maiden is especially desirous of calling attention 'to her assiduity and perseverance, she has an extra internode placed in an upright position against the yarn beam just described. This doubles the volume of sound and serves to intimate to visiting young men that she would be an industrious wife.

VOCAL MUSIC

Singing is as common among the Manóbos as among their countrymen of the Christian tribes. The fond mother croons her babe to sleep with a lullaby. In festive hours the song is the vehicle of praise, of joke, of taunt, and of challenge, and in religious celebrations it is the medium through which the priests address their deities.

THE LANGUAGE OF SONG

The language used in singing is so different from the common vernacular that Bisáyas and Christianized Manóbos who speak and understand perfectly the ordinary dialect of conversation find the language of song unintelligible. I have had several songs dictated to me and found the song words to be plainly archaic. This observation applies also to the song-dialect of Mañgguáñgans, Debabáons and Mandáyas.

As interpreted to me on many occasions, songs are improvisations spun out with endless repetitions of the same ideas in different words. To give an instance, a mountain might be described in the song as a "beauteous hill," a "fair mount," a "lovely eminence," a "beautiful elevation," all depending on the facility with which the maker²⁵ can use the language. This feature of the song serves to explain its inordinate length, for a song may occupy the greater part of a night, apparently without tiring the audience by its verbose periphrases and its exuberant figures.

²⁵Pán-dui, a smith or maker.

THE SUBJECT MATTER OF SONGS

The subjects of songs are as varied as those of other nations, but legendary songs, in which the valiant deeds of departed warriors are recounted, seem to be the favorite. As far as I know, the songs are always extemporaneous and not composed of any set form of words and verses.

THE MUSIC AND THE METHOD OF SINGING

One must hear the song in order to get an idea of it. In general it is a declamatory solo. The staccatolike way in which the words are sung, the abrupt endings, and the long slurs covering as much as an octave remind one somewhat of Chinese singing. The singer's voice frequently ascends to its highest natural tone and, after dwelling there for from three to six seconds, suddenly slurs down an octave, where it remains playing around three or four consecutive semitones.

There is no choral singing and no accompaniment. No time is observed, the song having wholly the character of a recitation. Neither are there any attempts at rhyming nor at versification. Recurring intervals are the rule.

The music is, in general, of minor tonality and, unless the subject of the song is fighting or doing some other thing that demands loudness, rapidity, and animation, it is of a weird, melancholy character. When, however, the subject of the song requires anything of the spiritoso or veloce, the strain is sung with verve and even furore. It seems to be good etiquette to cover the mouth with the hand when the singer, desiring to add special vigor to the strain, rises to his highest natural pitch and dwells there with an almost deafening prolonged yell.

CEREMONIAL SONGS²⁶

²⁶Túd-um.

Sacred songs, as distinguished from secular songs for festive and other occasions, are sung only by the priests and by warrior chiefs. They are supposed to be taught by a special divinity.²⁷ The remarks that apply to music and singing in general apply to these religious songs. The only difference is that sacred singing is the medium by which the spirits are invoked, supplicated, and propitiated, and by which the doings of the supernatural world are communicated to Manóbodom. These ceremonial chants are performed not only during religious celebrations but more commonly at night. The greater part of the night is often worn away with a protracted diffuse narration in which is described, with grandiloquent circumlocution and copious imagery, the doings of the unseen world.

²⁷Tu-tu-dú-mon no diu-wá-ta.

DANCING

The Manóbo dance is somewhat on the style of an Irish jig or a Scotch hornpipe. It is indulged in on nearly all occasions of social and ceremonial celebrations. Though it may be performed at any time of the day if there is a call for it, yet it usually takes place in the evening or at night, and especially after a drinking bout, when the feasters are feeling extra cheerful in their cups. There are no special dance houses in Manóboland, the ordinary dwelling place of the host serving the purpose. Whenever the floor is in poor condition (and that is often the case) a mat or two may be spread upon it for the safety of the dancer. This may be done out of respect also.

Though dances are held the year round during all great rejoicings and during the greater sacrificial celebrations, it is during the harvesting season that they are given with greatest frequency.

THE ORDINARY SOCIAL DANCE

By the social dance is meant the dance which takes place on an occasion of rejoicing and which is indulged in by men, women, and children, one at a time. It is exceptional that two or more persons dance simultaneously. A striking peculiarity in dancing is the wearing of a woman's skirt by males during the dance. No reason is assigned for the practice except the force of custom. It is customary, also, to array the dancer in all the available wealth of Manóboland--waist jacket, hat, necklaces, girdle, hawk bells, and, in case of a female, with brass anklets. Two kerchiefs, held by the corner, one in each hand, complete the array. No flowers nor leaves are used in the decoration of the person during dancing.

The drum, and when it is available, the gong are the only musical accompaniments to the dancing. When these are lacking an old tin can, if such a thing by some good luck has made its way into the house, answers the purpose of a musical instrument. Even the floor is sometimes beaten to produce an accompaniment for the dance. On the upper Agúsan bamboo stampers are occasionally used, in imitation of Mañgguáñgan custom, to impart more animation to the dance.

The dance is never accompanied by vocal music unless the constant scream of approbation and encouragement from the spectators be included under that term.

The time to which the dancing is performed is the same as that described under "the drum" at the beginning of this chapter. It corresponds somewhat to that of our waltz when played presto, although the movements of the feet do not correspond to those of that dance.

The dancer names the rhythm he desires and it is the rule, rather than the exception, that several starts are made, and several drummers tried before a good dancer feels satisfied with the method of playing. This is an indication of the excellent ear which the Manóbo has developed for this apparently rude and primitive form of music.

The women in dancing are more gentle in their manner than the men; they make fewer bending motions and do not posture so much. In other respects the dancing of the men and women is identical.

The step may be called dactyllic²⁸ in that a long or accented beat is struck with one foot and, in immediate succession, two quick short steps are taken with the other. This is varied at recurring intervals by omitting the two short steps, especially in mimetic or dramatic dances when the dancer desires to return to the center or to execute some extra evolution.

²⁸A term borrowed from Latin and Greek versification.

To give a satisfactory description of the attitude and movements of the dancer is impossible, as the skill and grace of the dance consists essentially in postures and gestures, and each individual has his own variations and combination. In fact no two men dance alike, though the women are much alike in their style of dancing, due to the fact that they bend the body and gesticulate comparatively little and that they display less force and exertion. Suffice it to say that the dancer moves his feet in perfect time to the rhythm of the drum and gong, at the same time keeping the arms, hands, fingers, head, and shoulders in constant movement. Now one hand is laid upon the hip while the other is extended upward and at an oblique angle from the shoulder. Again both hands are placed upon the hips and the dancer trips around a few times when suddenly turning, he retires hastily, but in perfect time, with both arms extended upwards and at an angle from the shoulders, the two kerchiefs waving all the time to the movements of the body. During all his movements the arms, hands, and fingers are twisted and turned with graceful and varied, but measured, modulation. Now he raises one shoulder and then another. Now he gazes up with a look of defiance upon his countenance, as if at some imaginary foe, and then down, as if in quest of something. At one time he stops and gently moves his feet to the rhythm of the music for several seconds, at another he circles around with uplifted arms and flying kerchiefs, and scurries to the other end of the dancing space, as if pursued by some foeman. At this point he may circle around again and, the music of the drum and gong surging loud, stamp defiance as if at an imaginary enemy, in measured beat and with quick, wild movements of the legs and the whole body.

And thus the dance goes on, now slow, now fast, now stately, now grotesque, the feet pounding the floor in regular and exact time to the music, and every part of the body moving, according to the whim of the dancer, with graceful and expressive modulation.

The whole dance requires great exertion, as is evidenced by the perspiration that appears upon the dancer's body after a few minutes. For this reason, a dancer rarely continues for more than ten minutes. He names his successor by dancing up to him, and putting the kerchiefs on his shoulders. The appointee nearly always excuses himself on the plea that he does not know how to dance, that his foot is sore, or with some other excuse, but finally yields to the screams of request and exhortation from the encircling spectators.

One who has witnessed a Manóbo dance at night by the flare of fire and torch will not forget the scene. Squatted around in the semidarkness are the russet figures of the merry, primitive spectators, lit up by the flickering glare of the unsteady light, the children usually naked, and the men having frequently bared the upper parts of their bodies. In the center circles the dancer with his wealth of ornaments, advancing, retreating, and posturing. The drum booms, the gong clangs, and the dancer pounds the floor in rhythm. The jingle bells and the wire anklets of the dancer tinkle. The spectators scream in exultation, encouragement, and approval. The dogs add to the pandemonium by an occasional canine chorus of their own, which coupled with the crying of the babies and several other incidental sounds, serves to enhance the rejoicing and to add eclat to the celebration.

THE RELIGIOUS DANCE

Unlike the secular dance just described, the sacred dance is performed exclusively by the male and female priests and by the warrior chiefs of the tribes. It may be performed either in the house or out on the ground, according to the place selected for the sacrifice. In the case of the sacrifice of a pig, the dance and its accompanying rites are always performed out of doors near the house of one of the priests.

The dress of the priests is always as elaborate as possible, as in ordinary festive dancing. Their various portable charms and talismans are always worn around the neck and, instead of kerchiefs being held in the hands, palm fronds²⁹ are used, one in each hand.

²⁹Ma-yún-hau.

The music is similar to that described for the ordinary dance, and the step and movements are identical except that the dance is more moderate, there being no attempt at grotesque or fantastic movements. As it is usually performed before an altar, a mat is spread upon the floor, so that the dancing range is limited. In general, the sacred dance presents, in its simplicity and its lack of violent contortions, rapid motions, and gestures, an element of respect and religious quietude that is not observed in secular dancing. The encircling spectators do not indulge in such unseemly acclamations, though it may be remarked that they assume no posture indicative of religious worship, for they continue to talk among themselves and to indulge in the ordinary occupation of betel-nut chewing, leaving the performance of the dance and the attendant ceremonies to the priests, whose profession it is to attend to such matters.

The dance is performed either consecutively or simultaneously by the priests but is interrupted occasionally by other rites proper to the ceremony.³⁰

³⁰See Chapter XXVI.

MIMETIC DANCES

Mimetic dances in no wise differ from the ordinary festal dancing except that they are a pantomimic representation, by gestures, by postures, and by mimicry of some feature of Manóbo life. So far as I know these dances are never performed by women.

Mimetic dances are very popular in Manóboland, and visitors whom it is desired to honor, are often treated, without solicitation on their part, to a series of these performances. They often contain an element of what we would call lasciviousness, but to the Manóbo they merely represent ordinary natural acts. The following are some of the mimetic dances which I have witnessed.

The bathing dance.--The dancer gyrates and pirouettes in the ordinary style for several minutes when, by a bending movement, he intimates the picking up of some heavy object. He simulates placing this on his shoulder and then imitates a woman's walk, indicating thereby that he is a woman and that he is going either to get water or take a bath. All this, as well as subsequent representations, are performed in perfect time to the music. By a slow movement and with many a backward glance to see whether he is being watched, he reaches the end of the dancing place which evidently represents the stream for he goes through a pantomimic drinking. He then cautiously and after repeated backward glances, divests himself of all his clothes, and begins the bathing operations. He is frequently interrupted, and upon the supposed appearance of a person presumably a male, he indicates that he has to resume his skirt. The operation of washing the hair and other parts of the body are portrayed with appropriate gestures and movements, as are also the resuming of his dress and the return to the house with a bamboo tubeful of water.

The dagger or sword dance.--This dance is performed only by men, two of whom may take part in it at the same time. It consists in portraying a quarrel between them, the weapon used being either the Mandáya dagger, as on the upper Agúsan, or the ordinary war bolo, as in the central and lower Agúsan. Appropriate flourishes, parries, lunges, foils, advances, and retreats, all extremely graceful and skillful, are depicted just as if a real encounter were taking place.

The apian dance.--This is a dramatic representation of the robbing of a bee's nest. The gathering of the materials and the formation of them into a firebrand, the lighting of it, and the ascent of the tree, are all danced out to perfection. A striking part of the pantomine is the apparently fierce stinging the robber undergoes, especially on certain parts of his body.³¹

³¹The pubic region is referred to.

This part of the performance always draws screams of laughter from the spectators. The whole ends with a vivid but very comic representation of the avid consumption of the honey and beebread.

The depilation dance.--This is an illustration, by dancing movements, of the eradication of hair especially in the pubic region. The dancer, indicating by continual glances that he is afraid of being seen, simulates the depilation of the pubic hair. The pain thereby inflicted he manifests by the most comic contortions of his face.³²

³²Though depilation of the pubic region is represented in dancing, I do not know positively that it takes place in reality.

The sexual dance.--This is a dramatic representation of sexual intercourse on the part of one who apparently has made no overtures or any previous arrangements with the object of his desire. He is supposed to enter the house and approach the recumbent object of his love (in this case represented by a piece of wood or of bamboo) in a timorous, stealthy way. A hand to the ear intimates that he thinks he hears some one approaching. He therefore retires a little distance, and after reassuring himself that all is well, proceeds to attain his object. It is only after protracted circling, approaching, and retiring, that he simulates the attainment of his desire. No indications of bashfulness nor delicacy are exhibited, by the female spectators.³³

³³I have been informed that sexual relations between a hen and a rooster form the main feature of another mimetic dance.

The war dance.--The war dance is performed outside of the house on the ground by one man alone or by two men simultaneously. The dancer is attired in full festive array with hat and red turban, and is armed with lance, war bolo, and shield.

The accompaniment to the dance is the drum, but both the rhythm executed on it and the step performed by the dancer baffled description. Suffice it to say that the music is a continuous roll tattooed by two expert players, one at each end of the drum. The dancer keeps his feet moving with the greatest conceivable velocity in perfect unison to the rhythm which gives one the general impression of a rapid two-step. The movement of the feet reminds one of the movements made by a rooster or a turkey cock at times. The nodding of the head of the dancer is also similar to that of a game-cock before a fight.

As the dance is supposed to represent an encounter and harid-to-hand fight, all the movements of advancing and retreating, thrusting and parrying are displayed. The combatants move around in circles, now approaching, now receding, always under the protection of the shield. They gaze savagely at each other, now over the shield, now at the side, constantly sticking out their tongues at each other much as a snake does. At times they place a heel in the ground with upraised foot, and with the knee placed against the shield, and lance poised horizontally above the shoulder, make rapid darts at each other. Every once in a while they kneel down on one leg behind their shields and with rapid movements of the head and spear look defiance at each other. During all the movements of the dance the spear is held horizontally and is thrust forward rapidly. The shoulders are constantly moved up and down, and the shield follows this movement, all being in perfect time to the rapid roll of the drum.

The dance ordinarily does not last more than five minutes as the extreme exertion and rapidity of movement soon tire the dancer. It is a magnificent display of warlike skill and of physical agility and endurance.

CHAPTER XVII

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION: SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL CONTROL

CLANS

TERRITORIES OF THE CLANS AND NUMBER OF PEOPLE COMPOSING THEM

Manóboland, with the exception of such settlements as have been formed by non-Christian Manóbos in the vicinity of Christian settlements and usually situated at the head of navigation on the tributaries of the Agúsan, is divided into districts, well defined, and, in case of hostility, jealously and vigilantly guarded. These territorial divisions vary in extent from a few square miles to immense tracts of forest and are usually bounded by rivers and streams or by mountains and other natural landmarks. Each of these districts is occupied by a clan that consists of a nominal superior with his family, sons-in-law, and such other of his relatives as may have decided to live within the district. They may number only 20 souls and again they may reach a few hundred.

INTERCLAN RELATIONS

In the main it may be said that in time of peace the members of the various clans live on good terms, visiting one another and claiming relationship with one another, but peace in Manóboland was formerly very transitory. A drunken brawl might stir up bad blood and every clan and every individual would make ready for a fight.

The Agúsan Valley was styled by Montano, the French traveler, "Le pais de terreur," and from the accounts given to me it must have deserved the name. A perusal of the "Cartas de los PP. de la Compañia de Jesus," which set forth the religious conquest of the Agúsan Valley, begun about 1875, will give an idea of the continuous raids and ambuscades that interfered to no inconsiderable extent with the work of Christian conquest undertaken by the missionaries. Upon my arrival in the Agúsan in 1905 such rivers as the Ihawán, the Baóbo, the upper Umaíam, the upper Argáwan, and all tributaries of the upper Agúsan, were seldom visited by any but members of the clan to whose territorial jurisdiction these rivers and the adjoining districts belonged. The establishment of a special form of government on the lower and middle Agúsan, now known as the subprovince of Butuán, did wonders toward repressing the interclan raids, but on the upper Agúsan they continued at least until my departure in 1910, though not to such an extent as in previous years.

For example, in February, 1910, the settlements of Dugmánon and Moncáyo were in open hostility. I traveled both by land and water with members of the two unfriendly clans. In traveling by water it was necessary to proceed in midstream with shields protecting the occupants of the canoe against the arrows of their enemies. On the trail it was imperative to travel in bodies with a warrior on each side of the trail to guard against ambush.

This feud arose out of a mere bagatelle, followed by the seizure of a pig, and up to the time I left the region had given rise to four deaths. I made every effort to adjudicate the case, but as each clan seemed unwilling to yield, failed to bring the parties together.

THE CHIEF AND HIS POWER

THE SOURCE OF THE CHIEF'S AUTHORITY

It may be said in general that the chief is a man who, by his fluency of speech and by his penetration and sagacity in unraveling the intricate points of a dispute, by his personal prowess, combined with sagacity and fair dealing, has won influence. Personal prowess appeals to the Manóbo, so that in time of hostility the warrior chief is looked up to more than any man who in time of peace might have enjoyed more influence and prestige.

It must be borne in mind that the whole political organization of Manóboland, including the system of government, social control, and administration of justice, is essentially patriarchal, so that the chieftainship is really only a nominal one. The very entity of a clan springs from the kinship of its individual members, and, as in a family, the stronger or abler brother might be selected on a given occasion to represent, defend, or otherwise uphold the family, so in a Manóbo clan or sect the stronger or the wiser member is recognized as chief. However, he can not lay claim to any legal authority nor use any coercion unless it is sanctioned by the more influential members of the clan, is approved by public opinion, and is in conformity with customary law and tribal practices, for there is no people that I know of that is so tenacious and so jealous of ancient usages as the Manóbos of eastern Mindanáo.

EQUALITY AMONG THE PEOPLE

Besides the titles applied to warrior chiefs and to priests, there is no title that is in common use to express the influence and authority wielded by any individual. It is not infrequent to hear of so-and-so being spoken of as a datu by the Bisáyas of the Agúsan Valley, but the title is not used by Manóbos, but only by the Banuáon group inhabiting the northwestern part of the valley or by Bisáyas when they desire to cajole their Manóbo friends. The term kuláno is sometimes used by the Bisáyas, but as far as my knowledge goes is not used by Manóbos. It is in all probability a form of the word kuláno that is applied, I think, to Bukídnon chiefs in the subprovince of Bukídnon. The fact that no titles appear to exist for influential men except that of warrior chief and of priest is an indication of the inferiority of the Manóbo to the Mandáya in tribal organization.¹

¹In Mandáya a very influential chief is styled á-ri-á-ri, a kind of petty king, and the elder of a settlement or even of an individual house has a special name, significative of influence and of respect, to wit, ma-tá-duñg.

There is no hereditary chieftainship, though a warrior chief makes earnest endeavors to instill the spirit of valor into his first born male child from the time he attains the use of reason. No insignia are worn except by the warrior chief and the recognized warrior² to denote the influence that they exert in the tribe or in the clan. Perfect equality is conspicuous in nearly all things. The chief or the warrior chief sallies forth, often in company with his slaves, and takes part in fishing and in hunting expeditions. On the trail he may carry his own share of the burden if he has been unable to induce others to take it. I have had warrior chiefs, priests, and other influential people many a time act as my carriers, but, of course, out of courtesy and respect, had to allow them more in the way of recompense than was given to those of lesser importance. The chief has no subordinate officers, no heralds, and no assembly house. He lives in his own house and when any trouble arises he settles it, in company with other influential men, either at his own house or at any other house to which it may have been deemed expedient to repair. Hence we may say that little or no formal demonstration of respect is shown a chief. He is a Manóbo of more than usual ability, of strong character, quick to discover the intricacies of an involved question, facile of tongue, loved for his hospitality and generous nature, more frequently better provided with worldly goods than his fellow clansmen, and as a rule with a reputation for fair dealing. Such are, in general, the sources of the respect that gives him a moral weight in the arbitration of clan troubles or even of tribal concerns when no hostility reigns.

²Ma-ni-ki-ád.

I have never heard among the Manóbos of any special celebration in which a chief, other than a warrior chief, is formally recognized. He seems to grow gradually into recognition, just as one brother of a family may, after years of demonstrated ability, be looked up to by the rest of the family.

RESPECT FOR ABILITY AND OLD AGE

Although the chiefs almost invariably look upon other men of the tribe as their equals and show no affectation because of their position, yet by those who come in contact with them a certain amount of respect is shown. This is especially true in the great social and religious gatherings and on the visit of a chief to another house. Here he gets an extra supply of pork and of brew and of everything that is being distributed.

From what has been said in a previous part of this monograph it is obvious that women play no part in the control of public affairs. There are no female chiefs. Women are domestic chattels relegated to the house and to the farm. There is a common saying that women have no tribunal--that is, are not fitted to take part in public discussions--the reference being to the town hall of the Spanish regime. Yet I know of one woman, Sinápi by name, who travels around like a chief and through her influence arbitrates questions that the more influential men of the region are unable to settle. She lives on the Simúlao River, just above the settlement of San Isidro, and is without doubt the individual of most influence on the upper Simúlao and Bahaían. In the Jesuit letters mention is made of one Pínkai who had great weight among her fellow tribesmen of the Argáwan River.

Ceteris peribus, the word and authority of the old are respected more than those of others, probably because the former have more numerous relatives, including often their great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, as well as the indefinite number of relatives by marriage that have joined the family since their first sons or their first daughters married. When, however, they reach the age at which they can no longer travel around and take part in the numerous imbroglios and disputes that arise their influence is much less. This, it seems, is one of the great differences between the social system of the Mandáyas and that of the Manóbos and will explain the greater constancy and stability of the Mandáya character as compared with that of the Manóbo.

THE WARRIOR CHIEF³

³Ba-gá-ni from ba-rá-ni (Malay), valiant.

The sword in Manóboland, as in all other parts of the world, is the final arbiter when conciliation fails. Hence the prominent part played by the warrior chief in time of war and frequently in time of peace. For this reason it becomes necessary to discuss at more length the powers, prerogatives, and character of the warrior chief.

GENERAL CHARACTER

The general character of the warrior chief is, among all the tribes of the Agúsan Valley, that of a warrior who has to his credit an average of five deaths. As such deaths are attributed primarily to the special protection of divinities, called Tagbúsau, who delight in the shedding of blood, the chief is regarded in the light of a priest in all that concerns war in somewhat the same way as the bailán or ordinary priest, under the protection of his familiars of tutelary spirits, is expected to officiate in all ordinary religious matters. To the priestly office of the warrior chief is added that of magician to the extent that he can safeguard himself and his friends with magic means against the evil designs of his enemies. Finally, in a country where there is no supremely constituted authority with sufficient force to remedy grievances, but only personal valor and the lance and the bolo to appeal to, it may be expected that in the majority of cases the warrior will assume a fourth prerogative, namely, that of chief. Thus the warrior chief will be considered heir in his warlike character of warrior, in his magic character as medicine man, and finally in his political character as chief.

The Christian conquest of the Agúsan Valley, begun in 1877, and the establishment of a special form of government therein in 1907, have contributed in no small measure to diminish the number of feuds and bloody reprisals that had given the Agúsan Valley its reputation as "the country of terror," and as a consequence leave little opportunity for the recognition of new warriors. Thus it is that at the present day the ancient system is fast fading away, and it is only a matter of years before the warrior chief will be a thing of the past.

INSIGNIA AND PROWESS OF THE WARRIOR CHIEF

As a person of recognized prowess, the warrior chief is naturally the leader in all warlike expeditions, and in time of peace he is looked up to as the future defender of the settlement in which he resides.

Red is the distinguishing mark of the war chief's dress, which ordinarily consists of a red headkerchief with embroidery of white, blue, and yellow cotton at the corners, of a red jacket with similar embroidery on the shoulders and around the back, and of long trousers, sometimes red. His bolo is usually larger and more costly than those carried by ordinary men and is generally of Mandáya origin. His spear, too, is apt to be an expensive one, while his shield not infrequently is tufted with human hair. When leading his band of braves to the attack or during a sacrifice to his protector, the Tagbúsau, he wears his charm-collar⁴ with its magic herbs.⁵ On the warpath he binds his hair knot securely and envelops it with a rough hewn hemisphere of wood. His influence in arranging all the details of the plan of attack is strong, but during the attack itself he has little control over his followers.⁶ This might be expected from the spirit of independence which the Manóbo displays even in the ordinary affairs of life when not influenced by religious or other motives.

⁴Ta-li-hán.

⁵These collars are often as thick as a man's arm in the center, tapering down to the ends. They are about 75 centimeters long, made out of cloth, and contain in sections charms made of trees, plants, herbs, and bezoar and other magic stones, all thought to have divers mystic powers.

⁶So I have been assured by many great warriors.

In personal valor the warrior chief invariably surpasses his fellows. There are many who will fight face to face, especially in the upper Sálug, Baóbo, Ihawán, and Agúsan regions. Líno and his brother, the late Gúnlas, both of the upper Sálug, are two of the numerous examples that might be adduced. It is true that they take no inordinate risks before an attack, and especially where firearms are opposed to them, yet during an attack they become desperate and will take any risk.

The warrior has often been branded as a traitor, a coward, and butcher, but such an opinion, I unhesitatingly assert, is based on ignorance and prejudice.

THE WARRIOR'S TITLE TO RECOGNITION

When one of the braves who accompany an expedition has killed one or two men in fair fight he acquires the title of manikiád and is entitled to wear a headkerchief striped with red and yellow. His prowess is acknowledged, and he is considered to be so favored by the powers above that he is looked upon as a prospective bagáni or warrior chief. If during ensuing expeditions, or by ambushes, he increases to five⁷ the number of people whom he has killed, his position as a full-fledged warrior is recognized, but he does not become a warrior chief until such time as the spirits of the gods of war become manifested in him. He is then said to be possessed,⁸ as it were, and it requires only a banquet to the neighboring datus and warrior chiefs to confirm his title. These peculiar operations of divine influence consist of manifestations of indescribable violence during the attack, of eating the heart and liver of a slain enemy, and of various other exhibitions.

⁷The number of killings required for promotion to the rank of bagáni, or recognized warrior, varies according to the locality.

⁸Tag-bu-sau-án.

VARIOUS DEGREES OF WARRIOR CHIEFSHIP

The rank of a warrior chief depends on the number of deaths which he may have to his credit. There is apparently no fixed rule in this matter, the custom of one region demanding five deaths for a certain rank while that of another locality may require eight or only two deaths for a similar one. From all reports made to me in nearly every district in the middle and upper Agúsan it appears that the number of deaths requisite in the olden days for the various degrees of warrior chiefship was much higher than it is at present, due no doubt to the greater frequency with which people were killed in those times. For this reason the more recent warrior chiefs are spoken of by the older warriors as worthless.⁹

⁹A-yo-á-yo.

The following are the titles recognized by the Manóbos of the Agúsan valley: (1) hanágan; (2) tinabudán;¹⁰ (3) kinaboan; (4) lúto or linambúsan; (5) lunúgum; (6) lípus.

¹⁰Tinabudán, i. e., wrapped, the full expression being "tinabudán to tabañg," i. e., wrapped with a red handkerchief.

The first title, hanágan, is given to one who has killed five or more people but has not yet been admitted to the full favor of a tagbúsau or blood spirit. The second title, tinabudán, is given to a warrior who has made it evident that he has divine favor and protection, made manifest in the consumption of the heart and the liver, and who falls into a condition similar to that of the priest while in an ecstasy. The insignia of this degree consists of a red kerchief worn wrapped around the hair knot at the back of the head.

The third degree, kinaboan, as the word itself indicates,¹¹ entitles the bearer to add to his apparel a red jacket. Accounts are so various that the exact time when this title is conferred can not be definitely stated. Thus in Umaíam I was given to understand that 25 deaths were a sine qua non, whereas on the Kasilaían River 6, and on the Sálug 7 deaths were reported as sufficient.

¹¹From ká-bo, a jacket.

The fourth title, lúto, by its derivation means "cooked," "done," "finished," so that on attaining this degree a warrior is complete, at least as far as his raiment is concerned, for he adds a pair of red trousers. Though the number of deaths requisite for the attainment of this degree is variously stated as being from 50 to 100, yet I suggest 15 as being, on the average, nearer the truth. The next degree, lunúgum, as the word indicates, entitles the bearer to dress himself all in black. It is a title acquired fortuitously, being given to one who during an attack happened to lance unknowingly a dead man in the house of the enemy. I can offer no further information on the point, except that the recipient of this title must have been already a recognized warrior. It seems probable that when a man commits such an act on a dead man he is believed to be especially favored by the war gods.

The warrior chief who acquires the last title, lípus, is supposed to have innumerable deaths to his credit, but I venture to put 50 as a safe standard of eligibility to this title. Fifty deaths extending over a period of many years, and recounted with such additions as a little vanity and a wine-flushed head might suggest, might easily be converted into infinity. I know of no living warrior chief who bears the title of lípus. Twenty-five deaths is the largest number reached by any warrior with whom I am acquainted. The famous Líno of Sálug and his brother the defunct Gúnlas, reached this rank.

THE WARRIOR CHIEF IN HIS CAPACITY AS CHIEF

It may be said that in nearly every case the warrior chief is the chief of the clan or settlement. As a man of proved prowess, of sufficient age, and with a good family following he is nearly always recognized as the only one competent to deal with all cases that may come up between his retainers and those of some other chief. Thus it may be said that the Manóbo political system is a patriarchal one in which an elder member of a family, through the respect due to his personal prowess, age, and following, and not through any legal or hereditary sanction adjudges such matters of dispute as inevitably arise between his followers and those of some one else. The system is based on custom and is carried out in a spirit of great fairness and equality.

The territory over which the warrior chief extends his sway is recognized as being the collective ancestral property of the settlement. In time of war no one except a relative is permitted to enter it under the penalty of death, but in time of peace it lies open to all friendly fellow tribesmen. Such matters, however, as fish poisoning¹² and hunting by aliens are always interdicted.

¹²Pag-tu-bá-han.

Over this territory, usually occupying miles and miles of virgin forest, lofty mountain, and fair valley, are scattered the dependents and relatives of the warrior. It is only in times of trouble or of expected attack that they build high houses for purposes of defense in closer proximity to the chief. These settlements number between 20 and 200 souls, the former number being nearer the average than the latter.

The attitude of the followers toward their chief is in time of peace one of kinship feeling or one of indifference. He has practically no authority until called upon in time of trouble to lend the weight of his influence and the fame of his prowess. He collects no tribute and receives no services. In every respect he does as his lowest retainer does, hunts, fishes, etc., except that he travels more to visit friendly neighboring chiefs, who always receive him as a guest of honor and feast him when they have the wherewithal.

Various grades of chiefs are occasionally reported, such as kuyáno,¹³ masikámpo,¹⁴ and dátu but such grades do not exist. These names have probably been conferred by mercenary Bisáyas for commercial reasons and are not assumed by Manóbos even for purposes of ostentation.

¹³Kuláno, a title applied, I think, to Moros of the Rio Grande of Mindanáo, and used, I have heard, by the Banuáons.

¹⁴Maestre de Campo--i. e., field marshal--was a title given by the Spaniards to faithful Bukídnon chiefs.

The warrior chief is in almost every case the person of greatest influence and authority, both by reason of his position in the family and because of the prestige of his valor. In a country where the bolo and lance are final arbiters when all else has failed the warrior must of necessity be chief or be a person of very marked influence. If he is not recognized as such, he generally removes himself with as many as will or must follow to another locality, and there he becomes chief.

Nothing said here is intended to apply to the political organization of the Christianized Manóbos, or conquistas into settlements under the special government of the Agúsan Province. My remarks are confined exclusively to the pagan people.

THE WARRIOR CHIEF AS PRIEST AND MEDICINE MAN

The reader is referred to the second part of Chapter XXIV, Part IV, for a detailed account of the functions and prerogatives of the warrior chief in his capacity as priest. For the present we will pass on to consider him in his role of medicine man, summarizing briefly his magic methods for the cure of various ailments ascribed to supernatural agency.

As to the warrior's knowledge and powers in both capacities, I have always found the many warrior chiefs with whom I have come in contact very reticent and have accordingly been unable to secure detailed information on this subject. It is beyond a doubt, however, that great powers are attributed to them both in causing and curing certain ailments.

It may be said that any disease attributed to the displeasure of the blood spirits falls within their jurisdiction as priests and may be cured by a sacrifice or by other ceremonial methods. As a general rule they are supposed to have a knowledge of various magic and medicinal herbs. They are always the possessors of necklaces,¹⁵ to which are attributed such powers as those of imparting invisibility and invulnerability. These peculiar charms, as well as numerous herbs, roots, and other things possessing magic power for good and for evil, are often bound up in the charm collars and can not be seen. Nothing will prevail upon the owner to declare even their names. After opening the breast of the slain enemies they dip these mystic collars in the blood and thereby, through the instrumentality of their blood spirits, impart to the collars greater potency.

¹⁵Ta-li-hán.

Hemorrhages and all wounds or other troubles in which a flux of blood appears are thought to emanate from the desire of the familiars of the warrior priests for blood. Hence he is called upon to make intercession and to propitiate¹⁶ these bloodthirsty spirits with the sacrifice of a pig or fowl. After the pig has been killed, a little of the blood is caught in a split bamboo receptacle,¹⁷ which is then hung up in the house with the blood left in it for the regalement of these insatiate spirits.

¹⁶Dá-yo to tag-búsau.

¹⁷Bin-u-ká.

Besides curative means the warrior medicine man is said to have secret means of causing bodily harm to those against whom he feels a grievance. These means are called kometán and have been described in Chapter XV. It is true that others are reputed to have these secret magic means, but none except the warrior priest will make open confession of their reputed powers.

CHAPTER XVIII

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION: WAR, ITS ORIGIN, INCEPTION, COURSE, AND TERMINATION

MILITARY AFFAIRS IN GENERAL

There exists no military organization in Manóboland, no standing army, no reviews, no conscription. The whole male circle of relatives and such others as desire to take part, either for friendship's sake or for the glory and spoil, form the war party. There is no punishment for failure to join an expedition but as blood is thicker than water, the nearer male relatives always take part and there are never wanting others who either bear a grudge against the author of the grievance or go for the emolument that they may receive or even for the sport and the spoil of it. It is customary to bring along such male slaves as may be depended upon to render faithful and efficient work. It is only fear of incurring enmity that holds back the majority of those who do not take part. I here desire, to impress upon my readers one important point in the Manóbo's idea of war, and it is this: That no blame is laid upon nor resentment harbored toward anyone who joins an expedition as a paid warrior.¹ I have ascertained beyond reasonable doubt, after continual questioning on my part and open unsolicited avowals on the part of others, that warrior chiefs are frequently paid to redress a wrong in which they have no personal concern.

¹Sin-nó-ho.

In the case of ordinary tribesmen, I know that where personal feelings and the hope of material advantages are not an inducement to partake in the expedition, they are frequently tempted with an offer of some such thing as a fine bolo or a lance, to lend their services to the leader of the war party. It is needless to say that only close ties of friendship or relationship to the enemy prevent the offer from being accepted, especially as the acceptance of it relieves the Manóbo from all responsibility for such deaths as may accrue to his credit during the prospective encounter. When, however, previous feuds, or other unfriendly antecedents existed between the warrior and his opponent, the acceptance of a remuneration for his participation in the fray would not shield him from the dire vengeance that would, sooner or later, surely follow.

For a description of the weapons used and of the manner of using them, the reader is referred to Chapter XI.

In the description of the Manóbo house (Chapter V), reference was made to the high houses erected for defense when an unusual attack is expected. Tree houses, at the time I left the valley, were very few and far between, even in the eastern Cordillera and at the headwaters of the Tágo River.

Besides building high houses and resorting to devices referred to in Chapter V, the Manóbos occasionally slash down the surrounding forest in such a way as to form a veritable abatis of timber.

In one place I saw a very unique and effective form of defense. A fence surrounded the house. To gain access to the latter it was necessary to ascend a notched pole about 2 meters high and then to pass along two horizontal bamboo poles about 10 meters long. Numerous deadly bamboo caltrops bristled out of the ground underneath the precarious bamboo bridge that led to a platform whence the house could be reached only by climbing the usual notched pole. Whosoever ventured to cross this perilous bridge, would certainly meet death from one source or another, either from the hurtling shower of arrows from above or from the bristling caltrops below.

THE ORIGIN OF WAR

Fighting arises from one or more of the following causes: Vendettas, sexual infringements, debts, and sometimes from a system of private seizure, by which the property or life of an innocent third party is taken. The Manóbo expresses the same thing in a simpler way by saying that war has its origin in two things, namely "debt (blood debt included) and deceit." It has been said that glory and the capture of slaves are the springs of war in Manóboland, but this, in my opinion, is not true. Nor will I concede that war is undertaken for merely religious reasons. It is my belief, verified by numerous observations made during several years of intimate dealing with Manóbos throughout eastern Mindanáo, that fighting or killing takes place in order to redress a wrong or to collect a debt, whether it be of blood or of anything else. It is true that many who have no grievance, take part merely for the sport, the spoil, and the glory of it, but in no case that I know of was there wanting on the part of those who inaugurated the war a real and reasonable motive. I have heard of cases of unjust warfare but my informants were enemies of the parties against whom they complained and most probably were calumniating them.

VENDETTAS

Vendettas, which exist in many more enlightened countries of the world, are the most common cause of war, or it would be better to say, of the continuance of war.

There is no doubt, in my mind, but that the whole eastern quarter of Mindanáo would flame out into interclan warfare, were it not for the efficient form of government now established there. I can bear witness to this fact, as I was cognizant of various raids that took place from 1905 to 1907 and of the fact that they were much less frequent from the close of 1907 till my departure from the Agúsan Valley in 1910.

As in other countries, so in Manóboland, not only is the vendetta regarded as legitimate but it is considered the duty of every relative of the slain to seek revenge for his death. Living in a state of absolute independence from the restraints of outside government, as they had been up to the beginning of the Christian conquest in 1877, the Manóbos, according to their own accounts, passed a very unquiet existence. On account of blood feuds, most of them lived in tree houses built in lofty inaccessible places, as I have been repeatedly told by old men. I have been assured that if ever the Americans leave the valley, old blood scores will be settled, even should it be necessary "to do without salt."²

²The enjoyment of salt seems to be, in the Manóbo's estimation, one of the greatest blessings, if not the greatest, that he has derived from civilization. Yet he would be willing to forego the use of it, if it were possible for him to take revenge upon the slayers of his relatives.

The vendetta system was so prevalent during my first travels in eastern Mindanáo that on one occasion a Manóbo of the Tágo River inquired of me whether there were any living relatives of a certain Manóbo of the upper Argáwan who had killed his grandfather. Upon learning that there were, he forthwith besought me to accompany him in a raid against the relatives of his grandfather's murderers.

Another instance will show the persistency with which the idea of revenge is entertained. I noticed in a house on the Wá-wa River a strong rattan vine strung taut from a rafter to one of the floor joists. My host, the owner of the house, waxed over-merry in his cups and was descanting on his valiant feats in the pre-American days. He suddenly jumped up and twanged the rattan, intimating that he might yet be able to take revenge on a certain enemy of his but that if he were unable to do it, his son after him would strive to fulfill his teaching and that in any case vengeance would be had before the vine rotted. Anyone familiar with the rattan knows its durability, when protected from the influences of the sun and rain.

This practice of stretching a green rattan in some part of the house and of vowing vengeance "till it rot" is not uncommon, and is an indication of the deep, eternal desire for vengeance so characteristic of the Manóbos.

Another practice, also indicative of the vendetta system, is the bequeathing from father to son³ of the duty of seeking revenge. I have never been present at the ceremony but have heard over and over again that so-and-so received the inheritance and must endeavor to carry out the dying behest of his father or other relative. One man, who had received this "teaching," on being questioned as to whether he would like to make peace with his enemy, seemed shocked and vehemently protested, saying, "It can't be done, it can't be done, it is tabooed;" he then went on to upbraid me soundly for the suggestion.

³It is called ka-tud-li-án.

In some cases, the task of revenge is turned over to a third party, who has no personal interest in the feud. As explained to me, such a person is in a better position to attack the enemy than one whose duty it is. In case he succeeds in getting revenge, no blame, I was assured, is attached to him, as he is regarded in the light of a paid warrior or mercenary. Such an institution as this of the vendetta together with the system of private seizure render life in Manóboland very hazardous, and serve to explain the extreme caution and forbearance exhibited by one Manóbo toward another in the most trivial concerns of life.

PRIVATE SEIZURE⁴

⁴Tau-a-gán.

The practice of private seizure is a very peculiar one, according to our way of thinking, yet it is universal among the tribes of eastern Mindanáo. As long as it is confined to material things, it is not ordinarily a cause for war, but when practiced on a human being, it frequently results in retaliation in kind.

The practice consists in seizing the property of a third, frequently a neutral, party, as a "call" on the debtor. For example, A owes B a slave and for one reason or another has been unable or unwilling to pay his debt. B has exhibited a sufficient amount of patience, while at the same time he has used every means to bring pressure to bear upon A. Finally, despairing of collecting in an amicable way, and, most probably, suspecting that his debtor is playing with him, he seizes a relative or a slave or a pig of C as a "call" to A. C thus pays A's debt and then takes measures to collect from him, the understanding being that B is to take all responsibility for the consequences.

This system seldom gives rise to a blood feud except when blood has been shed. Thus in the above instance, had B killed C, as a summons to A, a feud would almost infallibly have followed. Yet C's relatives might have been willing to accept a money compensation from B, and might have come to an agreement whereby they would jointly operate against A in order to avenge the death of C.

I witnessed a case in which the seizure of a pig was the origin of a bloody feud that had not ended at the time of my departure from the upper Agúsan. As the individuals involved in the case are still living their names will be represented by letters.

A had been fined P15 because his wife had made the statement that B had knowledge of a secret or magic⁵ poison. C who was a relative of A and already owed B to the amount of P15, with the consent of all parties concerned, assumed the responsibility of paying A's debt, thereby putting himself in debt to B to the amount of one slave (at P30). Now some of C's relatives had certain little claims against some of B's relatives and thought it a good opportunity to collect their own dues and to diminish their kinsman's debt by presenting their claims for payment. B refused to pay on the ground that his kinsfolk and not himself were responsible for the settlement of said claims, whereupon C refused to deliver his slave till the payment to his relatives was forthcoming.

⁵Ko-me-tán.

The matter thus lingered for several months until B, who owed a slave to another party, and was pressed for payment thought it time to force matters, and, in company with three relatives, seized A's sow as a "call" on C.

The result of this was that after a few weeks B's wife and another woman were speared to death in a camote patch, and in revenge B took the lives of two of C's party. I made every possible effort to have the matter adjudicated in an informal way but neither party seemed to be anxious to come to terms.

Owing to this system of private seizure, a party of warriors returning from an unsuccessful raid are considered dangerous, and settlements on their trail put themselves in a state of watchfulness,⁶ for when returning without having secured a victim the party might be incited to make a seizure in order to avoid thereby the derision of their enemies.

⁶Lá-ma.

DEBTS AND SEXUAL INFRINGEMENTS

Long-continued failure to pay a debt is very frequently the remote cause of war. This is easy to understand if we consider the sacredness with which debts are regarded in Manóboland. An excessive delay in meeting obligations gives rise to hot and hasty words on the part of the creditor; the debtor takes umbrage and retorts, a quarrel with bolos ensues, thereby giving rise to a feud that, under favorable conditions, may continue for generations with its fierce mutual reprisals. A feature that serves to increase the number of these financial bickerings is the fact that questions of indebtedness are almost invariably discussed while drinking is going on and as a result, according to an immemorial rule the world over, the creditor frequently indulges in personalities.

Sexual infringements are a cause of war. Only one case passed under my personal notice but instances of olden days were related to me. There is no doubt in my mind as to the result of a serious sexual misdemeanor; it is death by the lance or the bolo for the offender without much parleying, if one may give credence to the universal outspoken Manóbo opinion on the subject.

INCEPTION OF WAR

DECLARATION OF WAR

No heralds go forth to announce to the enemy the coming conflict. On the contrary, the greatest secrecy is maintained. If the grievance is a sudden and serious one, such as the death of a clansman, a set of ambushers may be dispatched at the earliest moment that the omens are found favorable. Or it may be decided to attack the settlement of the enemy in full force. If the latter decision is reached, a party is sent out to reconnoiter the place of attack. All information possible is obtained from neighbors of the enemy, and, if the reconnaissance shows conditions favorable for an attack, the march is begun in due form. Should the reconnoitering party, however, report unfavorably, the attack is put off until, after weeks, months, or years of patient, but close, vigilance and inquiry, a favorable opportunity presents itself.

Sometimes a bolder warrior chief who has a personal grievance may send a war message in the shape of a fighting-bolo,⁷ or of a lance with an abusive challenge, but this is rare, as far as I have been able to ascertain. It is common, however, for the more famed war chiefs to keep their personal enemies on the qui-vive, by periodic threats. "I will begin my march 10 nights from now," "I will reap his rice," "I will eat his heart and liver," "He won't be able to sow rice for four years," "I need his wife to plant my camotes"--are samples of the messages that reach a clansman and keep him and his family on some mountain pinnacle for many a long year till such time as the threat is carried out and the posts of his house, all wreathed with secondary growth, tell the grim tale of revenge. I have seen such posts scattered over the face of eastern Mindanáo--a memory of the dead.

⁷Li-kúd-lí-kud.

TIME FOR WAR

The usual time for war is either on the occasion of death in the family or at the time of the harvest season. The former is selected both to soften, by the joy of victory, the sorrow felt for the loss of a dear relative, and to check the jubilation that the enemy would naturally feel and frequently express on such an occasion. The latter is chosen for the purpose of destroying the enemy's rice crop or at least of making it difficult for him to harvest it.

War is undertaken at other times also. Thus a sudden and grievous provocation would cause an expedition to start just as soon as the necessary number of warriors could be assembled, and a favorable combination of omens obtained.

It often happens, I have been told over and over again, that when an attack proves unsuccessful, those who repelled the attack set out at once to surprise their enemies by a shower of arrows while the latter are returning to their homes, or, if possible, reach the settlement before them and massacre the defenseless women and children.

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR

The remote preparations for war consist in locating the house of the enemy and in getting all information, even the minutest, as to the trails, position of traps and bamboo spears. All this must be done through a third party, preferably someone who has a grievance to satisfy, and may require months or even years, for the Manóbo is a cautious fighter and will take no unnecessary risks. During all this time the aggrieved party is enlisting, in a quiet, diplomatic way, the good will of as many as he can trust. If he has no recognized warrior chief on his side he must by all means secure the services of at least one, even though it should be necessary to offer him a material compensation and in divers other ways gain his good will and cooperation.

The immediate preparations consist in sending out a few of the nearest male relatives several days or even a week before the intended attack to reconnoiter the settlement of the enemy. On the return of this party word is sent to those who have agreed to join the expedition and a day and place are appointed for meeting. A pig and a supply of rice are procured and on the appointed day the relatives and friends of the leader assemble at the trysting place, which was, in nearly every instance that I witnessed or heard of, a house somewhat remote from the settlement.

With a warrior chief for officiant certain religious rites⁸ are performed. The pig is partaken of in the usual style and, if the omens are favorable, all is ready. But should the omens portend evil, the expedition is put off to a more auspicious occasion. In one instance that passed under my personal observation the departure of the warriors was postponed for several days by reason of inauspicious omens. I have heard of some cases in which the war party returned after several days' march in order to await more reassuring signs of success.

⁸See Pt. IV, Ch. XXVI.

No particular demonstrations of sorrow are manifested by the women when the war party sets out. Revenge is of more importance than love. Moreover, it is seldom that the casualties on the side of the aggressors amount to more than one, so that no fear is entertained and all are sanguine as to the outcome, for have not the omens been consulted and have they not portended so many deaths and so many captives?

The band glides off silently and stealthily into the forest. A war chief, if one has been willing to join the expedition, usually leads, accompanied, it is believed, by his invisible war deities. A little ahead, just the distance of a whisper, the Manóbos say, strides Mandayáñgan, the giant and the hero of the old, old days. All ears are alert for the turtledove's cry, and when its prophetic voice is heard, every arm is up and points with closed fist in the direction of it. But it is only its direction with regard to the leader that is considered. If this is unfavorable, the march is discontinued till the next day, but, if favorable, the party proceeds, selecting, as much as possible, tortuous and seldom trodden trails.

The following are some of the taboos that must be observed by the party while en route.

(1) They may speak to no one met on the trail.

(2) Nothing once taken in the hand may be thrown away until night or until arriving at the enemies' settlement. Thus a piece of a branch caught in the hand and broken off accidentally must be retained.

(3) They may eat nothing that is found on the trail. Thus killing game is prohibited. I heard of one man who had been wounded in an ambush arranged by the enemy on the trail. He assured me that his ill luck was due to his having taken a fish dropped by a fish eagle.⁹

⁹Man-dá-git.

(4) The food taken on the trail must be placed upon one shield, preferably that of the leader, and thence distributed to the members of the party.

(5) The wives of the warriors are forbidden to indulge in unnecessary shouting and noise, and to remain within the house as far as possible till the return of their husbands.

(6) No cooking may be done on the trail till the settlement of the enemy is reached. This does not mean that food may not be cooked in a house along the trail. On the contrary, I was assured that on a long trip it is customary to call at the house of some friendly person and to make a sacrifice, at the same time taking further observations from the intestines of the victim. I was an eyewitness of this proceeding on one occasion and did not fail to observe also with what relish the war party replenished the inner man.

Besides taboos, there are a number of evil omens that must be guarded against. Thus, if a snake were to cross the path, or any insect such as a bee or a scorpion were to bite or sting one of the party, the return of the whole number would be necessary unless they were too far advanced already. In the latter case other omens must be consulted, and, when it is felt that these new omens have neutralized the effect of the previous ones, the march may be continued. Owing to the observance and reobservance of omens it is obvious that great delays are occasioned and at times the expedition is stopped. On the one that I accompanied in 1907, the turtledove gave a cry, the direction of which was considered to portend neither good nor evil, and the leader expressed his opinion at the time that the object of the expedition would not be attained. He was overruled, however, by the consensus of opinion of his companions, and the march was resumed. Notwithstanding the fact that ensuing signs all proved favorable, yet as I observed very clearly, the first omen had depressed the spirits of the party. When my efforts to settle the dispute without a fight failed, and an open attack was decided upon, there seemed to be no morale in the party, and the attack was abandoned without any special reason. This instance will serve to show the uncompromising faith of the Manóbo in omens, especially in that of the turtledove.

There is one omen of a peculiar nature that is of singular importance while on the warpath. On such a journey red pepper and ginger are consumed in considerable quantities for the purpose, it is said, of increasing one's courage. Naturally, no matter how accustomed one may have become to these spices, he always feels their piquancy to a certain extent, so that the warrior who fails to become aware of a sharp biting taste, regards this as an ill omen and, though he accompanies his fellows to the scene of combat, takes no part in the attack.

It is usual, as was said before, to stop over at a friendly house nearest to that of the enemy and to send forward a few of the band to make another reconnaissance but, if no house is available, a stop is made anywhere. A reason for this is that they may arrive near the settlement at nightfall or during the night.

When the party arrives within a few miles of the actual ascent to the mountain where the enemy's house is situated, a halt is again made in a concealed position and a few of the more experienced warriors advance at dusk on the trail to the house. If the enemy has been in a state of constant vigilance, this undertaking is one of extreme difficulty. The house is on the top of a lofty hill and frequently access can not be had to it except by passing through a series of swamps. In addition one must climb up precipitous ascents, and break through a network of felled trees and such other obstacles as the reader can readily imagine for himself. There is, moreover, the danger from spring traps set both for man and animal, and from sharp bamboo slivers placed all around the house and on the trails. Thus a fair idea can be obtained of the difficulties that are encountered by those who, in the silence and darkness of the night, inform themselves of all that is necessary for a successful attack. After going around the house and unspringing traps and removing sufficient of the bamboo slivers to afford a safe passage, the scouts return to the camp and a whispered consultation takes place. Positions are assigned to each man and a general plan of attack is made. Then, groping along in the gloom of the night, with never a sound but that of their own stumbling steps, they put themselves in position around the settlement and await with bated[sic] breath the break of day.

THE ATTACK

TIME AND METHODS OF ATTACK

The break of day is selected as the hour for the attack because sleep is then thought to be soundest and the drowsiness and sluggishness following the awakening to be greater. Moreover, at that time there is sufficient light to enable the attacking party to see their opponents whether they fight or flee.

The number of combatants depends entirely on the strength and position of the enemy. As a rule as many as possible are enlisted for an expedition where the enemy has numerical strength and a strong position. In the expedition which I accompanied in 1907, the party numbered some 60. I have heard of war parties that numbered 150.

When the house or houses of the enemy are low, the aggressors steal up noiselessly and, breaking out into the dismal war cry,¹⁰ drive their lances through the floor or through the sides of the house, if it is low enough. They then retire and by listening and questioning ascertain whether any of the inmates still survive. If any remain alive they are to surrender.

¹⁰Pa-nad-jáu-an.

When, however, the settlement is a large one, consisting of one or more high houses, the matter is a more difficult one. The aggressors advance to the house and if the floor is out of reach of their lances one or more of the bolder ones may quietly climb up the posts and after dispatching one or more of the inmates with a few thrusts hurriedly slide down to the ground. Then the war cry is called out to increase the consternation that has begun to reign in the house. If the enemy is known to have a large stock of arrows the aggressors retire and allow them to expend part of their supply.

No unnecessary risks are taken in fighting. When the male portion of the enemy are considered capable of making a stand, the house is not approached but a battle of arrows takes place, the aggressors advancing to entice the enemy to shoot, while their bowmen, usually only a few in number, reply. During all this time there is a bandying of hot words, threats, and imprecations on both sides. "I'll have your hair," "I'll eat your liver," "I'll sacrifice your son," "Your wife will get my water," are a few of the expressions that are used. The drum and gong in the house may be beaten all this time as a signal of distress to call such relatives or friends as may live within hearing distance. The priestesses of the attacked party may go through a regular sacrifice if there is a chicken or a pig in the house, beseeching their deities to protect them in this the hour of danger.

When the arrows of the enemy are thought to be expended, the attacking party try by means of a burning arrow to fire the roof. Should this succeed, the inmates are doomed, for when they escape from the house the enemy close in upon them, and kill with lances or bolos, men and women, whether married or single. As a rule, only the children are spared.

Should the roof, however, fail to catch fire another means of attack is employed. Putting their shields upon their heads in a formation much like the old Roman testudo, they advance to the house in bodies of four or six and begin to hack down the posts. But here again they may be foiled, for it has happened that the inmates of the house were provided with a supply of big stones, or had a little boiling water on hand, and made their opponents retire out of fear of the arrows that would be sure to follow when the stones had broken the arrangement of their shields. Moreover, the ordinary Manóbo, who has lived in expectation of an attack sooner or later, has his house set on a number of posts varying from 12 to 20. No little time would be required to cut these and the aggressors would be in danger of receiving wounds and thereby bringing the attack to an end, for it is the invariable practice for the party to retire after one of its members has been wounded or slain. The reason for this custom I am unable to state. There occurred on the Argáwan in 1907 an instance which I verified, and in the various accounts of Manóbo fighting that I received all over the Agúsan Valley, there were numerous instances of the observance of this custom.

In besieging the house, which may not be captured for several days, either firewood, food, or water may give out quickly, and the besieged succumb to hunger, or to thirst. In their last extremity they make a dash for liberty, especially during the night, and, though many of them fall victims, not a few frequently save themselves.

Sometimes, I was told, the besieged rush forward and meet death fighting. Again the men are said to kill their wives and children with their own hands, and then to go forth to meet the enemy. Father Urios, S. J., makes mention of a case of this kind.

As to the number of slain, and of captives, it depends on the size of the settlement. In an instance which I verified on the Húlip River, upper Agúsan, some 190 souls perished in one attack. Though this number seems large, yet it goes to show that on occasions raids are made on a somewhat larger scale than might be expected.

As each one of the attacking party strikes down the victim that falls in his way he notifies his companions of the fact by a fierce yell, calling out at the same time the name of his victim. This is to avoid disputes later and to secure the credit for the killing. Though the killing of a woman does not entitle the warrior to any special title, yet it adds one to his glory list and is supposed to make him more apt to fall into the favor of a war deity. It is said that in the confusion of the flight many women meet their end but that a good many remain in the houses and yield themselves to the mercy of their captors. Some of these, especially the younger ones, are bound with rattan, if they offer resistance and dragged to the settlement of their captors.

As soon as it is ascertained that there is no one left to offer resistance the warriors adorn their lances with leaves of palma brava or such other palm fronds as may be found in the vicinity.

Many warrior chiefs, especially of the Debabáon¹¹ group, have described the fight to me and all agree that it is generally of short duration. This might be expected from the number of precautions taken to insure success. According to all reports a strongly entrenched enemy is seldom attacked, unless it is ascertained that a goodly portion of the male members are absent.

¹¹Babáo is the district between the Sálug and Libagánon Rivers.

As a resume of the method of attack, based on what I learned during my sojourn among the Manóbos, I may say that there are no general nor partial encounters. The house or the settlement is surrounded stealthily just before day, the warriors being spread out at intervals in bands of three or four around the settlement and protected if possible by trees. The leader, who is nearly always a warrior chief, takes up his position with some trusty warriors at the place of closest approach to the house, or at some other strategic point. The arrowmen, who number only a few, are stationed near him. They work at a disadvantage for they have to shoot upward while their opponents in the houses can discharge their arrows downward.

From these positions the attacking party make every effort to cause a panic among the inmates of the house either by chopping down the posts which support the house or by firing the roof. If either purpose is accomplished the besieged rush forth only to meet the point of the lance or the edge of the bolo.

There are no preconcerted movements, no combinations with centers, wings, and reserves. The chief has little or no influence with his followers during the fight, though on account of his personal prowess he is looked up to as a pillar of strength and would, no doubt, if given the opportunity, or if the abuse and banter were extreme, engage in a hand-to-hand encounter. Numerous cases of this kind are on record.

No women nor priests take part in the attack. There are no orators to inspire the warriors to deeds of valor. In lieu of oratory, the warriors on each side engage in the most ferocious abuse imaginable. Challenge after challenge is yelled out defiantly by the besiegers. In the expedition which I joined in 1907, the attacking party incessantly defied their enemies to come down, while the latter in return challenged the besiegers to approach. Neither party seemed willing to take the risk so the arrowmen plied their arrows, the priestesses in the houses continued their invocations, and everybody howled challenges and imprecations at everybody else.

EVENTS FOLLOWING THE BATTLE

CELEBRATION OF THE VICTORY

After the fight is over the warrior chiefs perform a ceremony of which I have been able to learn but few details. They are said to become possessed by their tutelary war spirits. They dance and jump around the lifeless body of their chief enemy.¹² After performing their dance they open the breast of the enemy and remove the heart and liver, and place their charm collars¹³ in the opening. When the heart and liver have been cooked, they consume them. But as several war chiefs have assured me, it is not they that partake of the flesh, but their protecting deities. Be that as it may, lemon¹⁴ whenever obtainable, is mixed with the gory viands. Some warriors informed me that their deities preferred the heart and liver raw.

¹²Their tongues are said to loll out of their mouths "one palm-length." This may seem somewhat exaggerated but I can throw no further light on the matter.

¹³Ta-li-hán.

¹⁴Sú-ái. It is interesting to note the frequency of the use of lemons or limes in religious proceedings.

It is perfectly legitimate to despoil the enemy's house and to bear away such few valuables as may be found. The house, or houses, are then burnt, and the victors, leaving the slain where they fell, hasten back with their captives to cheer the fond ones at home.¹⁵

¹⁵I have heard it said that the bodies of the slain are doubled up and put into holes in the ground in an upright position. As far as I know this is an exceptional proceeding.

It is said that, as a rule, the aggressors are victorious, for rarely do they attack an enemy that is too strongly entrenched. They prefer to wait, even for years, till an occasion favorable in time, place, and circumstances, presents itself. It is only under special provocation, such as continual attacks by their enemy, that they attack him while he is in a strong position and then more with a view to destroying his crops than with the hope of securing a victim.

THE CAPTURE OF SLAVES

The capture of slaves is one of the important features of the expedition. A slave becomes the property of the captor, although a certain number are very frequently given in payment to the warrior chief or chiefs who were engaged to help the raiding party. This number depends on a previous agreement. The age of the captive decides whether he or she will be taken into captivity or slain on the spot. As a rule, all but children under the age of puberty are despatched[sic] there and then as they are liable to escape sooner or later if taken captive. However, I was assured by several warrior chiefs that the better looking unmarried girls are not killed, but are kept to be married, or to be retailed in marriage, thereby bringing a handsome remuneration to the owner. It must not be supposed by the reader that this implies anything inconsistent with sexual morality, for these female slaves are treated with as much delicacy as if they were the captor's daughters. To the numerous inquiries that I made on this point, there was only one reply--that sexual intercourse with them was foul and would make the offender ga-bá-an.¹⁶ A warrior who would be guilty of violating this taboo would never, it is thought, attain the rank of warrior chief. Should anyone of the warriors desire to marry his captive he must go through a purificatory¹⁷ process, the details of which I am unable to furnish.

¹⁶I have never yet been able to grasp the significance of this word. It is used by Bisáyas in the form hi-ga-bá'-an, which has apparently a very similar meaning.

¹⁷Hú-gad.

The above taboo goes even further. Not only is the person of the living female captives to be respected but also that of the dead, in so far as it-is considered improper to remove from their persons any object such as bracelets or hair. Men's bodies, however, are rifled of everything, even their hair, and are then unmercifully hacked and hewn.

THE RETURN OF THE WARRIORS

If the war party is unsuccessful, they return hastily and cautiously. It frequently happens that the enemy take a short cut, being better acquainted with the geography of the region, and lay an ambush at a suitable point. For this reason a close watch is kept on the return home; a few warriors take the lead, and where a beaten trail is followed, a few keep guard on each side at a distance of several yards, to avoid falling into an ambush. When the party arrive at their settlement each repairs to his own house. A thousand and one reasons are assigned for failure, but never is it attributed to a falseness of the omens--anything but that. Should the band, however, have been victorious, or have brought about the death of the chief enemy at least, no words can describe their joy and jubilation. The woods reecho with their wild screams and the weird ululations of the battle cry. Each one provides himself with a bamboo trumpet and makes the forest resound with its deep boom. The captives that offer any resistance, are dragged along, or even killed, if they become too troublesome. Upon nearing a friendly settlement the din is redoubled and the whole settlement turns out to welcome the victors. But when their home settlement is reached the scene is indescribable. I witnessed an occasion of this kind. Before the party came into sight the bamboo trumpets could be heard, first faintly and then increasing in strength. As soon as the expectant women and the few men who had remained in the village had satisfied themselves that their relatives and friends were returning, drums and gongs were beaten in answer. The young men and boys rushed out and crossing the river on their rafts or in their boats dashed into the forest to meet the conquerors. Even the women became hilarious and gave vent to loud cries. For a few minutes before the appearance of the party the war cry could be heard and when they came into view on the other side of the river the din was indescribable. The gong and drum were brought down to the bank and the war tattoo was beaten. The clanging of the gong, the rolling of the drum, the booming of the trumpets, the ululation of the war cry, and the lusty yells and shrieks of joy, welcome, and inquiry produced a pandemonium that baffles description. Before the victors crossed the river they all took a bath,¹⁸ not for sanitary but for ceremonial reasons. The bath is thought to have a purificatory effect in that it removes the evil influence¹⁹ of death.

¹⁸This is an invariable custom, I was told.

¹⁹Bá-ho, literally foul smell.

When the victors had crossed the river they removed the palm fronds²⁰ with which they had adorned their lances and put them on the necks and heads of their wives and friends. Later on a banquet was prepared and the reader is left to conceive for himself the revels that followed. It is said that not infrequently at this time some of the captives are given to the unsuccessful warriors for immediate slaughter. That this has occurred I have absolutely no reason to doubt, and every reason to believe. I have heard many describe among themselves how it was done, and what joy it gave them to be able to take revenge upon one of their hereditary enemies.

²⁰Called Ma-yún-hau. It is said that these are frequently stained with the blood of the slain.

AMBUSHES AND OTHER METHODS OF WARFARE

Ambush²¹ is a legitimate method of warfare, according to Manóbo customs. It consists in locating one's self with one or more companions at a place which the enemy is expected to pass. A favorite place for the ambush is on the trail between the enemy's house and his rice or camote field, but a spot on a river bank or at any suitable point may be selected. Great precautions are taken by putting up screens of leaves to prevent the enemy from discovering the ambush. This is always made on the right hand²² and very frequently there is a supply of sticks and stones in readiness. The position on the right hand is chosen because it gives those in wait an opportunity to deal a blow on the weaker side of the enemy, all of whom carry the shield in the left hand.

²¹Báñg-an.

²²Right hand refers to the right hand of the party to be attacked.

It is customary to take an ear or the right forearm of one slain in ambush as a proof of his death if the conditions of the ambush require such a proof. An instance occurred during my first visit to the upper Agúsan in 1907. Three Mañgguáñgans were ambushed by a mixed group of Manóbos and Debabáons, and the above-mentioned parts of their bodies were taken by the victors to their clans as a proof of the killing.

After a rupture between two parties, one or both of them go into a state which is expressed by the word láma. This signifies that one or both of them abandons his homestead and transfers himself and the members of his household (usually a few brothers-in-law with their families) to some place difficult of access. If the house can be built on a bluff, or a hill that is approachable from only one or two sides, so much the better. On such a site a house²³ is built varying from 5 meters to 8 meters in height, sometimes, though rarely nowadays, being built upon a tree trunk. The felled timber at the edge of the forest is left unburned. Bamboo or palma brava caltrops are placed in the encircling forest. In addition to these, spring traps²⁴ for human beings may be set out if it is suspected that an attack is imminent. In certain localities I have seen a stockade²⁵ erected around the house. Sometimes a wall of old bamboo may be built from the ground up to the floor, inclined inward at the bottom at an angle of about 70° to the ground. The ladder is invariably a log with a number of notches in it. Strips of bark or even bamboo shingles may form the roof but as a rule the Manóbo takes his chances with a roof of rattan leaf.

²³I-li-hán.

²⁴Bá-tik.

²⁵In-á-gud.

On approaching the house of one who is in state of vigilance, it is not unusual to find certain signs on the trail. Thus a broken earthen pot is frequently hung up, or if the trail leads to the house of a warrior chief, there will be probably the parted bamboo called binúka, and a number of saplings slashed down at a certain point on the trail, both of which signs are symbolic of the evil fate that will befall such as dare to enter the guarded region.

No one but a near relative may live within a certain definite distance of a house which is in a state of defense, nor may anyone visit it except by special request. If the inmate has to meet anyone he appoints a trysting place at some spot in the woods and there the visitor, by beating on the butress[sic] of a tree or by any other preconcerted signal, announces his presence. The former may be suspicious and may first circle around to examine the footprints before he ventures to approach.

PEACE²⁶

²⁶Dug-kút.

When the opposing parties have evened up their blood accounts and are wearied of ambushes, surprises, loss of relatives, destruction of crops, and continual fight and flight, they agree to make peace either through a friendly chief, or by a formal peacemaking. The desire to make peace is made known by sending to the enemy a work bolo. If it is accepted, it is a sign that the desire is mutual but if it is returned, arbitration must be brought about through a third party, usually a warrior chief or a datu. For this purpose a clear open space, such as a big sandbar, is appointed and a day fixed.

On the appointed day the parties arrive in separate bands and take up their positions facing one another, a line being drawn or a long piece of rattan being placed on the ground beyond which no member of either party may pass. Matters are then discussed in the presence of such datus or persons of influence as may have been selected for that purpose and after balancing up blood and other debts, the leaders agree to make the payments at an appointed time and thereby put an end to the feud. As an evidence of their sincerity, they part between them a piece of green rattan.²⁷ Then beeswax²⁸ is burned. This is a kind of oath which serves to bind them to their contracts.²⁹

²⁷I have been informed of a very interesting custom said to be observed by the Banuáon group in settling their troubles. It was said that peace is made by hand-to-hand fights in which single pairs of opponents fight until the datus who act as umpires award the victory to one or the other. This is called din-a-tú-an.

²⁸Tó-tuñg.

²⁹I never witnessed a peacemaking and I never had a chance to assist at one of the referred combats of the Banuáon people, mentioned above.

CHAPTER XIX

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE; CUSTOMARY, PROPRIETARY, AND LIABILITY LAWS

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

Bisáyas and other people who have had more or less familiar dealings with Manóbos almost invariably make the statement that Manóbo justice is the oppression of the weak by the strong; that there is no customary law that governs in social dealings except that one which is founded on the caprice and villainy of the warrior chiefs and of those who have most influence and following. Now I utterly repudiate such statements and rumors as being due either to lack of familiarity; to a too ready tendency to believe malicious reports; or to undisguised ill will toward, and contempt of, Manóbos. I have lived on familiar terms with these primitive people for a considerable period and have found no evidence of oppression and tyranny. Disputes and misunderstandings arise at times, people sometimes fly into a rage, killings take place on occasions, but such things happen among other peoples. It is truly surprising, considering the lack of tribal and interclan cohesion in Manóboland, that such occurrences are not more frequent or even continual. The statement that the warriors and other influential men rule by caprice and oppression is unfounded. There is no coercion in Manóboland, except such as arises from the influence of relatives, and from gentle persuasion and general consent. A warrior chief, or any other man who would try to use a despotic hand or even to be insolent, exacting, or unrelenting in his manner, would not only lose his friends and his influence, but would arouse hostility and place himself and his relatives in jeopardy.

It must be understood from the outset that in Manóboland there is no constituted judicial authority nor any definite system of laws. There are no courts, and no punishments such as imprisonment, torturing, and whipping. All social dealings by which one contracts an obligation to another are regulated by the principle that one and all must act according to established custom. This principle governs the procedure even of chiefs and influential men when they endeavor to bring about a settlement through the weight of their influence.

Voluntary and involuntary departures from the beaten track cause disputes when these deviations affect another's rights. Thus to refuse one the hospitality of the house, or to overlook him intentionally in the distribution of betel nut would give rise to a dispute, because these courtesies are customary and are therefore obligatory.

Punishment for a violation of customary obligation then becomes a matter of private justice. The injured one either singly, or by means of his relatives and of such friends as he may interest in his cause, seeks reparation from the offender. If he can not secure it through an appeal to customary law supported by the consensus of opinion of the relatives on each side, he takes justice into his own hands and kills his opponent or orders him to be killed.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

THE PRINCIPLE OF MATERIAL SUBSTITUTION

The Manóbo system of law is still in its indefinite primitive stage. Its fundamental principles are involved in the retention, preservation, and devolution of property. Unlike the highly developed legal systems of the world, it tends, in general, to consider violations as civil, and not as criminal, wrongs. Hence upon due restitution, offered with good will, the great majority of transgressions upon another's rights are quickly condoned. In this it is far more humane than other systems that seek not only justice for the injured party but the corporal punishment of the wrongdoer.

RIGHT TO A FAIR HEARING

As far as my observation goes justice is administered on a patriarchal plan in a spirit of fairness and equality. Except in the case of flagrant public wrongs the transgressor is given a fair and impartial hearing, aided by the presence of his relatives and of others whom he may select or who may choose to attend the arbitration of the case. The presence of the relatives contributes in nearly every case an element of good will, and prevents the use of intimidation. It helps greatly to promote, and not to prevent, justice. It is the paramount factor in determining the defendant to yield, even when bad feeling has been aroused on each side, and when their desire for revenge and spirit of independence would naturally prompt them to have recourse to violent methods. Though the female relatives do not take formal part in the arbitration, yet in their own gentle way they exert a certain amount of influence for good.

SECURING THE DEFENDANT'S GOOD WILL

Because of the desire for revenge which the Manóbo inherits and the universal recognition of the revenge system in Manóboland, an appeal to good will in the settlement of matters is very important, and is a feature of every case of arbitration. I have attended many and many a Manóbo arbitration at which the wrongdoer, after being condemned by the consensus of opinion, was asked over and over whether he recognized his fault and whether he received the sentence with good will. In nearly every instance he replied that he did, and, as an evidence of his sincerity, procured, as soon as convenient, a pig and invited the assembly to a feast. On one occasion I acted as the judge in a case of rape committed by a Manóbo who had had frequent dealings with Christian Manóbos. At my urgent request his life was spared and a fine of 100 pesos was imposed upon him. After he had expressed his conformity with the sentence and his lack of ill feeling toward his accusers, I notified the chief of the other party of my intention to leave the settlement, whereupon he told me secretly that I had better wait as the defendant in the case would undoubtedly entertain the company with pork and potations. And so it happened, for the defendant procured a pig that must have been worth 15 pesos, and a supply of sugarcane wine that must have cost him a few more, expenditures that would not be deducted from the amount of his fine.

FOUNDATIONS OF MANÓBO LAW

Owing to the utter lack of interclan and tribal organization there is no set of statute laws in Manóboland, but, in lieu of them, there are a number of traditional laws, simple and definite, that, in conjunction with religious interdictions, serve in the main to uphold justice, the foundation of all law. There is no word for law in the whole Manóbo dialect, but the word for custom¹ is used invariably to express the regulations that govern dealings between man and man.

¹Ba-tá-san.

One fundamental law is the obligation to pay a debt, whether it be a blood debt or a material one. A very common axiom says that "there is no debt that will not be paid"--if not to-day, to-morrow; if not during one lifetime, during another--for the collection of it will be bequeathed as a sacred inheritance from father to son, and from son to grandson. Montano² notes with surprise the sacredness in which debts are held, not only by Manóbos of the Agúsan Valley but by all the numerous tribes with which he came in contact in his travels around the gulf of Davao. I noted the same throughout eastern Mindanáo. The Manóbo, when called to account, will never deny his true indebtedness, and when no further time is given him, he will satisfy his obligations, even if he has to part with his personal effects at a nominal value or put himself deeply in debt to others. He is never considered insolvent. It is true that the Christianized part of Manóboland is not so punctilious in the settlement of financial obligations to outsiders (Bisáyas), but this is explained by the bad feeling that has arisen toward the latter on account of-the wholesale, fraudulent exploitation carried on in commercial dealings between them and the Christian Manóbos.

²Une mission aux Isles Philippines.

So many references have already been made in previous chapters to the practice of revenge that it is not necessary to dilate upon it here. Suffice it to say that it is not only the right but the duty, often bequeathed by father to son, to obey this stern law. One who would allow a deliberate breach of his rights to pass without obtaining sufficient compensation would be looked down upon as a sorry specimen of manhood. The feeling is so deeply rooted in the heart that the wife may urge her husband, and the fiancé, her lover, to carry out the law, and the father may instill into the hearts of his little ones the desire to wreak vengeance upon their common enemies.

CUSTOMARY LAW

ITS NATURAL BASIS

The intense conservatism of the Manóbo, fostered by the priestly order, is the basis of the customary law that determines and regulates social and individual dealings in Manóboland. So strong is this conservatism, based on a religious principle, that it is believed that any act not consistent with established customs arouses the resentment of the spirit world. This feeling exerts so powerful an influence that in many cases a definite custom is carried out even when a departure from it would be manifestly to the material advantage of the individual. As has been set forth before in this monograph, the ridiculously low prices at which rice is sold in harvest time is a case in point.

The extreme cautiousness and suspiciousness that is such a dominant feature of Manóbo character tends also to maintain the customary law. The Manóbo prefers to jog along in the same old way rather than to do anything unusual, thereby laying himself open to the displeasure of his fellowmen and to that of the gods.

ITS RELIGIOUS BASIS

The legion of taboos, religious and magic, limits the Manóbo's actions, in no inconsiderable manner, within fixed and definite rules, the nonobservance of which would render him responsible for such evil consequences as might follow. To cite an instance: When I first went into a region near Talakógon that was considered to belong to a local deity, my guide cautioned me to avoid certain actions which, he said, were displeasing to the reigning deity. I asked him what would be the consequence if harm were to befall him as a result of my failure to comply with his instructions. He quietly informed me that I would be responsible to his relatives for any harm which might come to him.

Again if one enters a rice field during harvest time the displeasure of the goddess of grain is aroused, and the rice is likely to be diminished in quantity. The transgressor may do all in his power to appease the offended goddess, but if she refuses to be appeased and permits a decrease of the supply, not otherwise explainable, he will be held responsible, and in the due course of events will have to make good the shortage according to the tenets of customary law.

Another example will show the rigid regulations that custom imposes in the matter of omens. I started out with a Manóbo of the upper Agúsan for a point up the Nábok River. At the beginning of our trip the turtle bird's cry came from a direction directly in front of us--an indication of impending evil either during the trip or at its termination. My guide and companion begged me not to proceed, but I managed to convince him that there was nothing to be feared, so he consented to continue the trip with me. Now it happened that he had a quantity of loose beads in his betel-nut knapsack and that a hole was worn in the sack before the end of the trip, the result being that he lost his beads. He held a consultation with the chief of the settlement at which we had arrived, explaining the omen bird's evil cry and the efforts he had made to persuade me to desist from the trip. It was decided that because of my failure to follow the directions indicated by the omen bird, I was responsible for the loss of the beads. On further discussion of the point it became apparent that I would have had to answer for the life of my companion, if he had lost it on the trail, for it was intimated to me that the omen bird's voice had clearly warned us of danger and I was requested to explain my failure to heed the warning.

The observance of customs for religious reasons suggests an explanation of many acts that to an outsider seem inexplicable, not to say unreasonable. The selection of farm sites at considerable distances from the dwelling, the reluctance to leave the region of one's birth, the unwillingness to visit remote mountains and similar places, the fear of doing anything unusual in places thought to be the domain of a deity--these and numerous other ideas--are to be attributed to the observance of customary law.

In this connection it may be well to remark that a stranger visiting remote Manóbo settlements without an introduction or without previous warning should be very careful, if he desires to deal with these primitive people in a spirit of friendship, not to break openly and flagrantly any such regulations, principally religious ones, as may be pointed out to him. In fact it would be well to ascertain as soon as possible what is expected of him. I have always made it a point to announce that I would not be responsible for any evil consequences attending my violation of customs that I was ignorant of and I have requested my new friends to acquaint me with such customs and beliefs as might differ from those of other Manóbo settlements.

PROPRIETARY LAWS AND OBLIGATIONS

CONCEPTION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS

Property rights in the full sense of the word are not only very clearly understood but very sternly maintained. The Manóbo conception of them is so high that, with the exception of such things as camotes and other vegetable products, even gifts must be paid for. And even for such trifling things as camotes, an equivalent in kind is expected at the option of the donor. During my wanderings I was always in the habit of making presents as compensation for the food furnished me, and was frequently asked why I had done so, and why I did not make the recipients of these presents pay me. No explanation could change the strong belief that all property of any value, whether given under contract or not, should be paid for. This principle is further evidenced by the fact that there is no word in the Manóbo dialect for gift nor is there any word for thanks. In some places, however, they have a conception of "alms."³ On many occasions one of the first requests made to me by a new acquaintance of some standing was a request for alms. I am of opinion that this idea was acquired by them from the universal reports concerning the liberality of the missionaries who from the middle of the seventeenth century labored in the Agúsan Valley. A request for alms or for a present of any value is seldom made by one Manóbo of another, but when it is made it is met by a simple answer, "I do not owe you anything." That settles the question at once.

³Lí-mos, probably from the Spanish limosna, alms.

My practice of distributing gifts frequently aroused some ill feeling. For example, on many occasions I was asked by individuals why I had made presents to so-and-so and not to them. It was necessary in these cases to explain that I owed a debt of good will to the individuals referred to and that I would most assuredly give like gifts to others whenever I should become indebted to them in a similar manner.

LAND AND OTHER PROPERTY

Customary law regarding public land is very simple. Each clan and, in some cases, one or more individual family chiefs, have districts which are the collective property of the clan or family. Theoretically this ownership gives hunting, fishing, agricultural, and other rights to that clan or family, to the exclusion of others. In practice, however, anyone who is on good terms with the chief who represents the family or the clan in question, may occupy a portion of the land without any other formality than that of mentioning the matter to the proper chief. The occupation presumes that the occupant is on terms of good will with the chief, and it never implies that the new occupant is required to pay anything for the use of the land. With regard to fishing rights, especially when the fish-poisoning method is employed, it is very often stipulated that a share of the catch shall be given to the owner. When the two parties concerned are on good terms, the territory of one may be used by the other for hunting, apparently without any question.

When the rice-sowing season is at hand, the Manóbo goes over the clan district and selects any piece of vacant land that, because of its fertility and closeness to water, may have recommended itself to him after a due consultation of the omens. Having made the selection, he formally takes possession of the land by slashing down a few small trees in a conspicuous place and by parting the top of a small tree stem and inserting into it at right angles a piece of wood. He then returns to his settlement and announces his selection. He has become now the owner of the land. Anyone who might attempt to claim the land would become cleft, so it is believed, like the parted stem that was left as a proof of the occupation of the land. In a few cases I saw a broken earthen pot left on an upright stick. It was explained to me that this, too, was a symbol of what would befall the one who would dare to dispute the right to the property. This is another evidence of the widespread belief in sympathetic magic.

In my travels throughout eastern Mindanáo I never heard of a single instance of a land dispute among the non-Christian peoples. There is no reason for dispute because the whole of the interior is an immense and very sparsely populated forest that could support millions instead of the scant population which is now scattered through it. Moreover, the religious element in the selection, the consultation of omens, and the approval by the unseen world seem to prevent disputes.

From the moment of occupation, then, till the abandonment of the site the occupant is the sole lawful owner of the land and has full rights to proprietorship of all that it produces. When he abandons the land he still retains the ownership of such crops or plants as may be growing on it. Hence betel-nut palms, betel plants, bananas, and other plants, belong, to him and to his descendants after him. Even such fugitive crops as camotes are his until they die off or are destroyed by wild boars.

Fruit trees, such as durian, jack-fruit, and others growing in the forest, are, in theory, the collective property of a clan or of a family, but in practice anyone may help himself. However, the finder becomes sole and exclusive owner of a bee's nest as soon as he sets up an indication of his ownership in the form of a split stick with a small crosspiece, and announces his possessive rights on his return to the settlement. The parted trunk has a form and significance similar to that which it has in connection with the selection of a new site. As far as I know a bee's nest once located by one individual is seldom appropriated by another, but the theft of palm wine is common enough, especially if the palm tree be at a considerable distance from the owner's settlement.

All other property that is the result of one's own labor, or that has been acquired by purchase or in any other customary way, belongs to the individual, unless he is a slave. Even slaves, captured during war raids, become the property of their captors, unless stipulation to the contrary has been made before the raid. In one expedition that took place in 1907 a certain warrior chief was delegated to punish a Mañgguáñgan. As an advance payment he received a few bolos and lances, but it was expressly agreed that after the attack he and his party were to receive all the slaves captured.

With regard to the loss of, or damage to, property belonging to another, the customary law is rigid; the damage or the loss must be made good, no matter how unfortunate may have been the circumstances of the loss. This will explain the great care that carriers exercise in transporting the property of others through the mountains, for if by any mischance the things were to get lost or wet or broken, or damaged in any other way, they would be required to make good the loss. This custom, as applied in some cases, may seem somewhat harsh, but it must be remembered that Manóboland is a land where the law of vengeance prevails, and that no opportunity to wreak vengeance must be given. Such opportunities would occur if anyone were permitted to attribute a loss or other accident to involuntary causes.

This rigid law will explain also the peculiar liability under which one is sometimes placed for an absolutely unintentional and unforeseen act. Thus, on a certain occasion, one of my carriers died a few days after my arrival in a settlement. Shortly after the occurrence of the death I was confronted by a band of the relatives of the deceased in full panoply and requested to pay the commercial equivalent of a slave.

On another occasion I ran after a child in play. The child out of fright rushed into the forest and hid. The same afternoon it was taken with a violent fever to which it succumbed a few days later. I was not in the settlement at the time of the death, and was not sorry, for it was reported to me that the father of the deceased child had said that he would have killed me. On my return to his settlement a few days later I visited the father for the purpose of having the case arbitrated. He broached the subject and demanded three slaves, or their equivalent, in payment for the death of his child, which was due, he firmly believed and asseverated, to the scare that I had given it.

Many instances might be adduced to illustrate the peculiar liability which one undergoes in dealing with these primitive men who follow out in practice the old fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc.

LAWS OF CONTRACT

The conception of contract is as universal as the conception of property rights, but a certain amount of leniency seems to be expected in such details as fulfilling the terms of the contract on the specified date, unless it has been expressly and formally agreed that no leniency is to be looked for. In case of a failure to fulfill the contract at the stated time it is customary to offer either what is called an "excuse,"⁴ in the form of extra hospitality or a free gift of some article, not so valuable as to constitute a debt, or to make many explanations, very frequently fictitious. These remarks apply only to cases in which the creditor has undergone the hardship of a reasonably long trip or of other necessary expenditures. Thus, to illustrate the point, A owes B a pig deliverable, according to agreement, after the lapse of so many days, there being no express provisions for any penalty in case of nonfulfillment of the agreement. B goes to A's house and is treated to a special meal with an accompaniment of drink when obtainable. Toward the termination of the meal, he is informed by A of the latter's inability to pay, for numerous real, or more numerous fictitious, reasons. B accepts this excuse but before leaving asks for some little thing that he may take a fancy to. It is always given as an "excuse." Another day for the payment is agreed upon. This leniency may be displayed on one or more occasions till the delay in paying exasperates B or renders him liable to loss. Ill feeling arises all the more readily if B feels that A has not been as assiduous as he should have been. Then a stringent contract is entered upon, the nonperformance of which will render A liable to interest or to a fine, as may be stipulated.

⁴Ba-lí-bad.

In cases where serious consequences might result from a failure to fulfill a contract, it is customary for the contractor and often for the other party to make a number of knots on a strip of rattan, each knot signifying a day of the time to elapse before payment, or representing one article of the goods to be paid for, or one item of the goods to be delivered.

All more important contracts are made in the presence of witnesses, and the time and the number of articles to be delivered are counted out on the floor with grains of corn or with little pieces of wood, or are indicated by counting a corresponding number of the slats of the floor.

THE LAW OF DEBT

The law of debt in Manóboland is so rigid that failure to comply with it has given rise to many a bloody feud. All commercial transactions are conducted on a credit basis. An individual whom we will call A needs a pig, for instance, and starts out on a quest to secure one. He visits one of his acquaintances and informally brings up the subject, remarking, for example, that he would like to buy a certain pig that is in the settlement. He may not be able to make the purchase until he has tried several settlements, for it may happen that the owner of each pig may want in exchange objects that A does not have and is unable to get. Thus B, the owner of a pig in the first settlement, wants in payment a Mandáya lance of a certain length, breadth, and make. Now A knows of no one from whom he can procure such a lance, so he has to go on to the settlement of C who in exchange for his pig wants five pieces of Mandáya cloth. A is afraid to take the pig on such terms because the Ihawán Manóbos are in arms on account of a recent killing, and as the trade route for Mandáya cloth passes through the territory of the Ihawán Manóbos he sees no possibility of fulfilling a contract to deliver the cloth. So off he goes to the settlement of D where he finds a pig for which the owner demands four yards of blue cloth, two of red, and two of black, together with a specified quantity of salt. A thinks that it will be easy for him to run over to some Christian settlement and get those articles in time to pay D, so he clinches the bargain by putting a series of knots in a strip of rattan to represent the number of days to expire before the date of payment. This he delivers to D and the contract is sealed. He then returns to his settlement with his pig, and turns it over to some one else perhaps, to whom he owes a pig, or, if it was intended for a sacrifice, to the family priest or priestess. In due time it is disposed of with much satisfaction to the gods and to the inner man. As the day for payment approaches, A must take measures to get the salt and the cloth for D, so he hastens to the settlement of E, if sickness in the family, or heavy rains, or some other obstacle does not prevent him, but finds that E requires a Mandáya bolo for the articles needed and as A has no such object and sees no immediate prospect of obtaining it, he goes on to F's. F demands a certain amount of beeswax and a Mandáya dagger in exchange for the cloth and the salt and as A feels that he can procure these articles, he closes the bargain, promising to deliver the goods within so many days or weeks.

A now owes D cloth and salt, payable within 14 days, let us suppose. He is also under contract to F to furnish him a dagger and a specified amount of beeswax, also on a specified date. Upon the approach of the time agreed upon A runs over to F's only to find that F had been unable to get the cloth and the salt, either because no Bisáya trader has been up to the Christianized settlement on the river; or because of heavy rains or for some other reason. The result is that A returns to his settlement without the cloth and the salt. Upon his arrival at D's or upon D's arrival at his settlement, as the case may be, he excuses himself to D, setting forth in detail the reason for his failure. He treats D as best he can, and fixes another date for the delivery of the salt and the cloth, the same to be delivered at D's settlement. D returns to his home without the salt and the cloth and awaits the delivery.

Now it may happen that, through the fault of A or through the fault of F or through unforeseen circumstances, A is unable to keep his agreement. D has made many useless trips to collect from A. It is true that D has been feasted by A upon every visit but the long delay, and possibly his debt of salt to someone else, is gradually provoking him. So one day he speaks somewhat strongly to A, setting a definite term for the payment. If A is unable to meet his obligations after this ultimatum, or if D suspects or has proof that A is playing a game, matters become strained and D has recourse to one of three methods: (1) Collection by armed intimidation; (2) the tawágan or seizure; (3) war raid.

The last two methods have been sufficiently explained in Chapter XVIII but the first needs a little explanation.

After all attempts to collect by peaceable means have failed, the creditor assembles his male relatives and friends and proceeds to the house of the debtor with all the accoutrements of war. It is customary to bring along a neutral chief or two from other clans. Upon arriving at the debtor's house no hostile demonstrations are made. The creditor and his party enter as if their object were an ordinary visit. Should, however, the debtor have abandoned his house, this part of the affair would be at an end, for the creditor would be justified in adopting the second method (i. e., the seizing of any object, human of other that he might see), or the third method.

Should his debtor, however, be present, the creditor and his companions are regaled with betel nut and food and the meeting is perfectly goodnatured. But gradually the subject of the debt is introduced and then begins the pandemonium. If the chiefs who have accompanied the creditor's party have enough moral influence to bring about an agreement, the matter is settled, but if not, the visiting party may depart suddenly with yells of menace and defiance, and very frequently may have recourse to the seizure method, taking on their way home any object that they may encounter such as a pig, or even a human being. Hence as soon as it becomes known that no settlement has been made bamboo joints⁵ are blown--the invariable signal in Manóboland of danger--and everybody goes into armed vigilance. Children and women are not allowed to leave the house, and pigs are frequently taken from below and put up in the house until the enraged creditor and his party have gone.

⁵Tam-bú-li.

I was in one place where such a state of things existed. My merchandise was taken by my host from under the house and carefully hidden upstairs. I wished to go to meet the collecting party but no one would volunteer to accompany me.

If an agreement to pay has been brought about, the debtor has to make the settlement before the departure of his creditor, even though it may require several days to complete the payment. In this latter case the sustenance of the visiting party and all their needs fall, by custom, upon the poor debtor.

Such is the customary method of collecting debts when all peaceable efforts have been unavailing. To understand the principle involved in it, as also the circumstances that bring it about, it is necessary to bear in mind that once the creditor becomes disgusted with the delay of his debtor in settling the account, he announces his intention to add to the indebtedness a financial equivalent of all fatigues⁶ and expenses to be subsequently incurred in the collection of the debt. These fatigues not only include the actual trips made both by himself and such messengers as he may send to collect the debt, but such incidental losses, sicknesses, or accidents as may be the outcome of such trips.

⁶Ka-há-go.

Another principle recognized in this matter is the liability into which the debtor may fall for such losses as the creditor may undergo through his failure to fulfill his obligations to a third person. Thus A owes B a pig, and B owes C, who in his turn must pay a lance to D at a certain time. On account of C's failure to deliver the lance in due time to D, he is, according to a previous contract, mulcted to the equivalent of 15 pesos. Had C been able to purchase a lance with the pig that B owed him he would, by customary law, be justified in putting the fine of 15 pesos to B's account. B attributes his failure to A's delay and on the same grounds, adds 15 pesos to the latter's indebtedness.

It is clear that the principle of liability involved in this system gives rise to an infinity of disputes that may lead to bloodshed whenever the matter can not be arbitrated by the more influential men and chiefs in a public assembly. The debt after a certain time increases beyond reasonable proportions until it finally becomes so great as to be beyond the debtor's means. Notwithstanding the sacredness with which the average Manóbo regards his debts, it happens occasionally that a little bad feeling springs up which, in the course of time may lead to serious consequences. It will be readily understood how easy it is for one party to take umbrage at the words or actions of another and to become obstinate. Happily, however, this does not happen frequently, on account of the salutary fear inspired by the lance and the bolo, and the urgent endeavors of the chiefs and the more influential men to settle matters amicably. I am surprised that disputes and bloodshed arising from, the great credit system do not occur more frequently among such primitive people.

Though in practice the relatives of a debtor assist him to settle his obligations, especially when he is hard pressed by his creditor, yet in theory there is no joint obligation to pay the debt. Neither do they, as a rule, assume a collective responsibility for it.

Between relatives, as between others, the law regarding the payment of a debt is strenuously maintained, though I know of no case between near relatives in which it led to more than family bickerings. A very careful account of the indebtedness of one relative to another is sedulously kept.

INTEREST, LOANS, AND PLEDGES

INTEREST

No interest is charged unless an express contract is made to that effect. In the case of a loan of paddy, however, even if no formal contract has been made, twice as much must be returned as was borrowed. Express contracts that call for interest are rather rare, as far as my observation goes, and when such contracts are made they are usually of a usurious nature, due, as I have noticed on several occasions, not so much to the desire for material gain, as to that of satisfying an old grudge against the borrower. In settlements that have had experience with the usurious methods of Christian natives, one finds here and there an individual who tries to follow the example set him by people that he looks up to. This practice is universally discountenanced, and, though it is submitted to under necessity in commercial dealings with Bisáyas, it gives rise to no inconsiderable ill feeling, a fact that explains, to my mind, the difficulties that Bisáyas experience in collecting from Christianized Manóbos, as also the killing of many a Bisáya in pre-American days. During my trading tour of 1908 there was universal complaint made to me by Manóbos of the upper Agúsan, upper Umaíam, and upper Argáwan Rivers against the system of usury employed by Bisáya traders, and many a time I heard this remark made concerning certain individuals: "We would kill him if we were not afraid of the Americans."

LOANS AND PLEDGES

With the exception of articles borrowed on condition that they are to be returned, loans are very rare in Manóboland. The most usual loan is that of paddy. Articles borrowed must be returned in as good a condition as that in which they were received.

I know of no leases among non-Christian Manóbos. Land is too plentiful to lease; other property is either sold or borrowed.

I have never known a material pledge to be given, but the custom of going bond seems to be very generally understood though not much practiced, as such a custom insinuates a distrust that does not seem to be pleasing to the Manóbo. A notable feature of the practice is the principle that the bondsman becomes the payer. I am inclined to think that this principle was taught to their mountain compeers by Bisáya and Christianized Manóbos who found in it a convenient expedient whereby to make the collection of debts easier and sure. On the strength of it, a chief or a more well-to-do member of the tribe becomes responsible for the debt of one whose surety he became.

LAWS OF LIABILITY

LIABILITY ARISING FROM NATURAL CAUSES

The liability here referred to is the general responsibility that a person acquires for consequences that are imputed to an act of his, whether voluntary or involuntary. Instances of this strange law arise on many occasions in Manóboland. The reader is referred to the case of the loss of the beads, the attempt to collect from me for the natural death of one of my carriers, for the death of a child that I had frightened, and other instances mentioned previously, all of which show the idea of responsibility for consequences following an act. A few more instances will make the principle involved clearer. On the upper Agúsan, a Manóbo of Nábuk River went over to Moncáyo to collect a debt. According to custom he carried his shield and spear. Now it happened that there were two women walking along the river bank, one of whom was the wife of an enemy of this Nábuk warrior. Upon seeing him she became frightened, fell into the river, and was drowned. The result of this was that the Nábuk man was condemned to pay a slave or its equivalent. As a near relative of his enemy owed him "thirty" (P30) he transferred the fine to him but the transference was not accepted on the ground that the Nábuk man ought to pay his fine first. A few days' discussion of the matter resulted in the departure of the Nábuk man, who upon his arrival in a near settlement killed, in his rage, one of his slaves. The outcome of the whole affair was a feud between Moncáyo and Nábuk.

LIABILITY ARISING FROM RELIGIOUS CAUSES

The violation of the numerous taboos is believed to bring about evil consequences that are chargeable to the account of the infringer. For example, a man in Búai was charged 30 pesos for the breaking of a certain birth taboo, a violation which was supposed to have been responsible for the stillbirth of a child. I was warned on many occasions to desist from making disrespectful remarks about animals, such as monkeys or frogs, because, if Anítan were to hurl her thunderbolts at one of my companions and harm were to befall him I would be fined or killed. I would undergo a similar punishment, I was told on other occasions, for using such tabooed words as crocodile and salt; it was believed that a storm would be the result of the use of these words. On one occasion I thought it prudent to give a carrier of mine a piece of rubber cloth wherewith to cover his salt, for he had threatened to collect from me if it became wet from the storm that was impending, and which all my companions imputed to my deliberate use of the names of certain fish not native to their mountain water.

LIABILITY ARISING FROM MAGIC CAUSES

Another pregnant source of fines and of sanguinary feuds is the belief in the possession, by certain individuals, of magic power to do harm. No one that I know of or have heard of, except a few fearless warrior chiefs, has made open avowal of the possession of such power and yet on many occasions I have heard of the supposed possession of it by various individuals. To give an instance, a Manóbo on the upper Agúsan had the reputation of having secret poisons. One day another Manóbo and his wife visited him. With the exception of a trifling altercation about a debt, everything went well. On her return home the woman was suddenly taken sick and died. Her death was ascribed to the magic power of the person recently visited and the outcome was that the party with the bad reputation had to build a tree house, one of the few that I have seen, and surround his settlement with an abatis of brush and of sharp spikes, all in anticipation of an attack by the deceased woman's husband.

It was the rule rather than the exception that I, myself, had the same reputation applied to me. Upon arrival in heretofore unvisited regions I was fequently[sic] informed that they had heard of my wonderful power of killing. On many occasions it was only by assuming a bold front and by vowing vengeance on my traducers that I freed myself from the imputation. In such cases I always asked for the name of the slanderer, and, upon learning it, announced my intention of seeking him without delay, for the purpose of clearing myself from the imputation and of demanding satisfaction from him.

THE SYSTEM OF FINES

It is not intended here to consider the system of fines as penalties for voluntary wrongdoings but only as punishments for certain little acts of forgetfulness or of omission that might be construed as conscious acts of disrespect. The system is a very strange one and, to our way of thinking, very harsh, productive sometimes of bad feeling and even of more serious results.

Instances that have passed under my personal observation will illustrate the system. Thus, on one occasion an acquaintance of mine left the house without making his intention known to those present. While he was under the house, one of the guests happened to spit through the floor upon the clothes of the man underneath. Upon his return he identified the guilty one both by his position in the house, and by the quality of the chewing material he was using. The case was discussed at length and it was decided that for carelessness the guilty one should make material reparation in the form of a chicken and some drink.

Again, the dog of a certain individual on the upper Agúsan was guilty of soiling the clothes of a person that happened to be working under the house. As the owner of the sick dog (it had been mangled by a wild boar) had been previously warned of the possibility of something untoward happening, he was fined and was condemned to make further reparation in the form of a convivial meeting in order to remove the ill feeling.

Instances of fines that were imposed on me will illustrate the principle involved. Upon my arrival in new regions I was almost invariably called upon to pay a certain amount, on the ground that I had had no permission to enter the settlement, or that the local deities had been displeased at my visit, or that I was a spy, or for some other reason. The refusal to pay was always accepted after lengthy explanations and after the distribution of a few trifling gifts to the more vehement members of the settlement, but in one case arms were drawn and I had to take my stand with, back to the wall and await developments.

Other instances in which unintentional disrespect toward the person or property of anyone was displayed might be adduced to profusion. It will suffice to say, however, that such acts as the following, even when unintentional, lay the agent under a liability, the commercial value of which must be determined by the circumstances and very frequently by formal arbitration: Spitting upon, or otherwise soiling another; rudely seizing the person of another; unbecoming treatment of another's property, especially of his clothes, as when, for instance, one steps upon another's shirt; opening another's betel-nut knapsack or other concealed property; borrowing things without formal announcement and due permission; going into certain places interdicted by the owner, as bathing, for instance, in that part of a river which the owner has forbidden the use of,⁷ or visiting his rice granary; and using disrespectful language, even in joke, about another, as, for instance, speaking of one as an insect, a Mañgguáñgan.⁸

⁷Due, presumably, to the fact that the place, usually a deep pool, is the abode of a water wraith.

⁸This is a term of reproach when applied to a Manóbo.

These interdictions are necessary among the Manóbos in order that in their social dealings with one another proper deference may be shown toward their person and property. For were a mere "pardon me" a sufficient reparation for an act, however unintentional, advantage might be taken of it to inflict a thousand and one little incivilities that would serve to arouse the relentless spirit of revenge that centuries of feuds have instilled into the Manóbo character.

CHAPTER XX

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION: CUSTOMS REGULATING DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND FAMILY PROPERTY; PROCEDURE FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF JUSTICE

FAMILY PROPERTY

The property of a Manóbo family is so scanty that the rules governing it have never developed beyond a primitive stage. The house belongs collectively to the father and to such of his sons-in-law and brothers-in-law as may have constructed it. The structure represents little value to the owner except that of the rough-hewn boards which may be transported to another place. The reason that such cheap houses are built is that they may be abandoned without much loss at any moment that a death, or even a suspicion of danger, arising from religious or from natural reasons, may dictate.

The movable property in the house belongs to the individuals who have made, purchased, or in any other lawful way acquired it. In this respect it is to be noted that each married couple provides itself with household utensils and such other things as may be necessary. These things do not become the property of the head of the family, but remain the individual property of the person who brings them.

It must be noted, too, that women, children, and slaves have theoretically no right to ownership. It is true that women are allowed to dispose of the products of their labor like rice and cloth, but usually, if not always, the consent of their husbands or of their husbands' nearest male relatives is first secured if the article is of much value. Frequently a consultation is held with the head of the whole household.

RULES OF INHERITANCE

When a man dies and leaves no near relatives that are of sufficient age to manage the inheritance, the elder brother-in-law inherits the property. The deceased brother's wife is a part of this property. When the father dies, the son is the heir, and, if of sufficient age and capabilities, takes the place of his father. But should he be deemed incompetent by his near male relatives, his paternal uncle, or, if he has none, a brother-in-law, becomes the manager of the household. Any property which may be of value is thus retained within the line of male descent. This is in accordance with the principles of the patriarchate system which prevails in Manóboland.

The eldest son inherits his father's debts, but the administrator (if in such unpretentious matters we may use so pretentious a word) pays the debts collecting in turn from the son unless he be a near kinsman of the deceased father. About matters of inheritance I have never even heard of a dispute. The valuable property may consist of only a lance and a bolo, or a dagger, and a few jars. The best suit of clothes together with personal adornments, such as necklaces, are carried with the deceased to his last resting place so that there is little left to quarrel over. With the exception of the few heirlooms, if there be any, consisting of a jar and some few other things, the greatest fear is entertained of articles that belonged to the departed one. This fear is due to the peculiar belief in the subtle, wayward feeling of the departed toward the living.

RULES GOVERNING THE RELATIONS OF THE SEXES

MORAL OFFENSES

In the chapter on marriage the general principles governing the relations of the sexes is set forth. The relations both antenuptial and postnuptial are of the most stringent character.

As a Manóbo once told me, sexual morality is bound up with religion and the greater violations of it are sometimes punished by the divinities.

Such lighter offenses, as gazing at the person of a woman while she is bathing, or on any other occasion when her person is exposed, are punished with appropriate fines. Improper suggestions and unseemly jokes undergo the same fate. It is a very common report among Bisáyas that to touch a Manóbo woman's heel is an exceptionally serious offense against Manóbo law. I never heard of any such regulation among Manóbos, although it may exist. To touch any other part of her person, however, is an offense punishable by a good-sized fine.

Death is the consequence of adultery, fornication, and seduction, except in very exceptional cases where the influence of the guilty one's relatives may save him. But it is certain that in these cases the fine is very heavy. I believe that it is never less than the equivalent of three slaves.

All reports, both Bisáya and Manóbo, state that when fornication has been attempted or accomplished the woman herself may make known the offense to her parents and relatives.

The law is even more rigid in the matter of adultery. While I was on the upper Agúsan River a case of adultery committed by a Christianized man and woman was discovered. The death of the man had been decided upon, and that of the woman was being mooted. I succeeded in having the death sentence commuted to a heavy fine of three slaves.

It is the common report in Manóboland that, when a woman makes known the act of her lover, the latter does not deny it. Not only under such circumstances, but in nearly all other instances when brought face to face with the truth a Manóbo will confess, sometimes even though there be no witness against him. Such is my observation of dealings between Manóbo and Manóbo. In his relations with outsiders, however, the Manóbo is not so veracious; on the contrary, he displays no little art in suppressing or in twisting the truth.

MARRIAGE CONTRACTS AND PAYMENTS

In the chapter on marital relations it was made manifest that marriage is practically a sale in which a certain amount of the marriage price is returned to the bridegroom. This rule is very stringent. Should the marriage negotiations discontinue without any fault of the man or of his relatives all payments previously made have to be returned, item for item. In this respect it is to be noted that marriage contracts are almost relentlessly rigid, a fact that suggests an explanation of the length of the period that is usually required to terminate the negotiations. For it is only by many acts of attention and even of subservience that the suitor's relatives break down the obdurateness of the fiancé's relatives and make them relax the severity of their original demands. Very minute and strict accounts of the various payments, including such small donations as a few liters of rice, are recorded on a knotted rattan strip in anticipation of a final disagreement.

When it is decided that the marriage is not to take place by reason of the death of one of the affianced parties, the father and relatives of the fiancé must return all the purchase payments which may have been made. Custom provides that these payments shall be returned gradually, the idea being, presumably, to allow the fiancé's relatives an opportunity to profit by the donations of a new suitor, if one should present himself within a stipulated period. It will be readily understood that the nature of the debts incurred by an obligation to return marriage payments determines the character of the payments that will be exacted from a new suitor. Thus, if A's relatives, for good reasons, decide not to continue their suit for the hand of B's daughter, B would be granted a specified time in which to await the presentation of a new suitor for his daughter's hand. This new suitor would be required to bring a lance, for example, and other objects that would serve as first and more urgent payments to A.

In the case of fornication committed by a man with his fiancé, death may be the penalty if the girl's father desires to have the marriage broken off, but I was given to understand that such a heavy penalty is rarely inflicted, the girl's father contenting himself with imposing a heavy fine.

ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN

In all my wandering among the Manóbos, I never knew nor heard of an illegitimate child, so can not say what regulations govern, if such births occur. In Mandáyaland the father of an illegitimate child is obliged to marry the girl and to enter his father-in-law's family in a state of semiservitude. The marriage takes place before the birth of the child.

I was told by Mandáyas that illegitimate children belong to the nearest male relative of the mother, that in case of her marriage they still belong to her relative, and that they are treated in all other respects as legitimate children.

EXTENT OF AUTHORITY OF FATHER AND HUSBAND

The laws governing family relations are very simple. The father has theoretically absolute power of life and death over his wife, children, and slaves. In practice, however, this power is seldom used to its full extent. An arbitrary exercise of domestic authority over his wife and children would arouse the antagonism of her relatives and lead to a rupture of friendly relations. Hence, in family dealings there are displayed on one side paternal affection and leniency and on the other filial devotion and a sense of duty, so much so that the members of the family live in peace and happiness with seldom a domestic grievance.

The wife, of course, is the absolute property of her husband, but is rarely, if ever, sold. I know of only one wife who was sold and she was a Bisáya woman married to a recently Christianized Manóbo.

It is not in accord with Manóbo custom for a man to have two or more wives unless the first wife consents to the later marriages, and, if she does consent, she must always be considered the man's favorite and must be allowed to have a kind of motherly jurisdiction over the other wives. In all cases that have come under my observation, this rule was followed among Manóbos but not among Mandáyas. The latter frequently seem more attached to their second, third, or fourth wives, but do not separate the first wife either from bed or board. As a result of the necessity of the first wife's consent to a second marriage, bigamy is comparatively rare.

RESIDENCE OF THE HUSBAND

The man is always expected to take up his residence in his wife's family and he nearly always does so. In fact, such is the implied and frequently the explicit contract made between his relatives and those of the girl. But after a few years, if not sooner, he usually takes his wife back to his own clan, leaving his father-in-law or other male relative of his wife some gift in the shape of a pig or other payment. In such a case it seems to be the custom for the father-in-law to acquiesce.

CRIMES AND THEIR PENALTIES

CRIMES

It must be laid down as a general principle that in Manóboland it is considered proper and obligatory to seek redress for all wrongs (except a few serious ones) by an appeal to the relatives of the wrongdoer, either directly by a formal meeting or indirectly through the mediation of a third party. The first exceptions to this rule are cases of adultery, fornication, rape, and homicide when the murderer, wantonly, and without an attempt to arbitrate, kills a fellow man. The great law of vengeance presupposes in nearly every case a recourse to arbitration, and not a hasty, unannounced, deliberate killing.

The one who orders the death of another or in any other way deliberately causes it is the one on whom vengeance must be taken. Thus, if A pays a neutral warrior chief to kill his opponent, the responsibility for the death will be laid, not on the warrior who did the killing (unless he had personal motives for committing the murder) but on the one who ordered the death. The warrior was paid and accordingly bears no responsibility. He may be paid again by the relatives of the slain to do a similar act to their enemies. Thus it is, that in Manóboland, it is very necessary to be on such terms of friendship with the members of the warrior class that they will not be inclined to undertake for payment the task of taking vengeance for another.

Killing for public policy is a recognized institution, but such executions very seldom take place. On the upper Tágo River word was sent to me that my guide would be killed if he led me into a certain remote region at the headwaters of that river. It was reported on all sides that the principal chiefs of the region had assembled before my departure and had decided upon his death. For some reason, probably fear, the sentence was not carried into effect.

It was reported to me that in time of an epidemic it is permitted to kill anyone who dares to break the quarantine.

Involuntary killing when it is manifest that it was a pure accident can be compounded.

THE PRIVATE SEIZURE

By the tawágan system a Manóbo is permitted to kill or seize anything or anybody that he may decide upon, provided that he has made every endeavor to settle the dispute by amicable means. Having failed to adjust the matter without bloodshed, he may avenge himself, first and above all, on the guilty party. I will not make a positive statement to the effect that he must announce his intention to make use of the right accorded him by the tawágan custom, but I am of opinion that this must be done, for in every instance that came under my observation it had been generally known beforehand that the aggrieved party would make a seizure within a specified time. I know that on one occasion I had to exact a promise from a man that he would not lay hands on merchandise of mine that was deposited under a house in the vicinity of his settlement. He had made public announcement that he would make a seizure, even though it should be that of my merchandise.

The aggrieved party in making use of his right must, if possible, inflict damage, even death, upon the debtor or other wrongdoer or on some of his relatives, but should this prove impracticable he is at liberty to select anyone. If he kills a neutral party, he must compound with the relatives of the slain one for the death inflicted and enter with them into a solemn promise to act jointly against the offending party. In the case of seizure, he can not dispose of the object seized until the owner be consulted. It is customary for the two to enter a compact by which they bind themselves to take joint action against the offender, advantageous terms being guaranteed to the new colleague. The man whose property is thus seized is very often one who has had an old-time grudge against the original offender or debtor.

PENALTIES FOR MINOR OFFENSES

Minor offenses such as stealing, slandering, failure to pay debts, deception that causes material damage to another, loss or damage to another's property, the lesser violations of sexual propriety, disrespect to another's property, etc., are punishable by fines that must be determined by the assembled relatives of the two parties. I have never been able to find the least trace of any definite system of fines. In the determination of them for the more serious of offenses (adultery, wanton killing, etc.), the equivalent of a human life, 15 or 30 pesos, is the basis of the calculation. In the case of minor offenses, however, lesser quantities are determined upon after a lengthy discussion of the subject by the respective relatives of the parties involved.

CUSTOMARY PROCEDURE

PRELIMINARIES TO ARBITRATION

The aggrieved party, upon hearing of the offense and after making many futile efforts to come to an agreement, consults with his relatives, when, after being assured of their cooperation he begins to issue threats, all of which reach the ear of his opponent. At first the latter probably is not disturbed by these, but, as they begin to pour in from all sources, he makes up his mind either to face his opponent in person, if the affair has not gone too far, or to look around for a friendly chief or other person of influence and sagacity to mediate. All this time new rumors of his enemy's anger and determination to appeal to arms reach him, but he must not display cowardice, neither must his opponent openly seek arbitration, for such an action would bespeak fear on both sides. So, on the part of the aggrieved one, there is menace, revenge, and a pretense at least not to be amenable to peaceable measures. On the part of the other, there must be no display of fear, no hurry to arbitrate, and a general indifference, at least simulated, as to the outcome. If the offending party answers threat by threat, his opponent may become incensed and hostilities may break out, as happens in other parts of the world.

In the meantime neighboring chiefs and influential people are throwing the weight of their opinions in favor of peace and if they prevail one or more of them are requested to assist in the final settlement, definite emolument sometimes being promised, especially when either of the contending parties is very anxious to have the matter settled.

It is the duty now of the mediating chiefs or other persons to bring the parties together. This they do either by inviting the contestants to a neutral house or by persuading one of them to invite the other to his house.

It may happen that the aggrieved party, instead of following this procedure, precipitates a settlement by sending a fighting bolo or a dagger or a lance to his opponent. This is an ultimatum. If the weapon is retained it means hostilities. If it is returned, it denotes a willingness to submit the matter to arbitration. But the one who receives the weapon probably will not return it at once as he desires to disguise, in the presence of his opponent's emissary, the bearer of the ultimatum, any eagerness he may feel for arbitration. Once having decided that he will submit the matter to arbitration or that he will yield, he announces to the messenger that he will visit his opponent within a specified period and talk matters over and that he is willing to have the affair settled but that his relatives are unwilling. If a bolo or other such object has been sent to him he returns it, for to retain it would signify his unwillingness to submit and his readiness to take the consequences.

A few days before the appointed time he orders drink to be made and he may go out on a big fishing expedition. He procures also a pig or two. With these, and accompanied by a host of male relatives, he sets out for the house that has been agreed upon. The pigs and drink and other things are deposited in a convenient place near the house, for it would be impolitic to display such proofs of his willingness to yield.

This is the procedure followed in more serious cases. Cases of lesser importance, which occur with great frequency, are settled almost informally in the following manner:

When the subject under dispute is not of such a serious nature, either in itself or by reason of aggravating circumstances, like quarrels or violent language that may have preceded it, the ordinary method of settling the trouble consists in a good meal given by one party to the other. Toward the end of the repast, when all present are feeling convivial from the effects of the drink, the question at issue, usually a debt, is taken up and discussed by the parties concerned and their respective relatives. It happens often that the matter is put off to another time, and thus it may require several semifriendly meetings to settle it. On the whole, however, the proceedings are terminated amicably, although I have seen a few very animated scenes at such times. On one occasion a member of the party, accompanied by his relatives, rushed down the pole and seizing his lance and shield challenged his adversary to single combat. The challenge was not accepted, so he and his party marched away vowing vengeance. I have seen bolos or daggers drawn on many occasions but the relatives and others always intervened to prevent bloodshed. It is to be noted that such violent actions are due often to the influence of drink but do not take place more frequently than drunken brawls do in other parts of the world.

When the case in question is of such an involved and serious character as to make it dangerous for the accused one to enter the house, he remains hidden till he ascertains how his relatives and friends are progressing. In other cases he personally attends and may argue in his own defense.¹

¹There is a very formal peace-making procedure followed by the Manóbos who have been in contact with the Banuáons of Maásam River, but I never witnessed it, so I can not give any first-hand information as to the details. In the chapter on war will be found such details as have been given to me by trustworthy Bisáyas of Talakógon.

GENERAL FEATURES OF A GREATER ARBITRATION

The general features of the procedure are the following: The policy of the aggrieved one and of his party is to maintain a loud, menacing attitude, and to insist on a fine three or four hundred times larger than they expect to be paid. The accused and his relatives keep up a firm attitude, not so firm, however, as to incense unduly their opponents, and from the beginning make an offer of a paltry sum in payment.

Although everybody at times may break into the discussion, or all may yell at the same time, the ordinary procedure is to allow each one to speak singly and to finish what he has to say. The others listen and assent by such expressions as correspond to our "yes indeed," "true," etc., whether they are in accord with the speaker's opinions or not. These lengthy talks are, at least to an outsider, most wearisome, given, as they are, in a dreary monotone, but they explain the inordinate length of arbitrations that may last for several days.

The whole party is squatted on the floor and makes use of grains of corn, of pieces of wood or leaf, of the bamboo slats of the floor, of their fingers and toes or of anything convenient, to aid them in the enumeration of the objects of which they treat. Everybody is armed, probably with his hand on his weapon, and his eyes alert. In very serious cases women and children may not be present. This, of course, is an indication of possible bloodshed and is a very rare occurrence.

The chiefs or other influential men who have been selected to aid each side in the settlement take a conspicuous part in the proceedings and help to influence the parties concerned to come to an understanding, but it can not be said that their word is paramount. The contestants' own relatives have more weight than anyone else. The procedure at a Manóbo arbitration may be likened to that of a jury when in retirement. Point after point is discussed, similitudes and allegories are brought up by each speaker until, after wearisome hours or days, the opinion of each side has been molded sufficiently to bring them into agreement. In one respect it differs from the jury method in that loud shouts and threats are made use of occasionally, proceeding either from natural vehemence or from a deliberate intention on one side to intimidate the other.

It is not good form for the defendant to yield readily. On the contrary, it is in accordance with Manóbo custom and character to yield with reluctance, feigned if not real. When a small pig is really considered a sufficient payment, a large one is demanded. When the pig is received and is really in conformity with the contract, defects are found in it--it is lean or sick or short or light in weight--in a word, it is depreciated in one way or another. The giver, on the contrary, exaggerates its value, descants on its size, length, form, and weight, tells of the exorbitant price he paid for it, reminds the receiver of the difficulty of procuring pigs at this season, and in general manifests his reluctance to part with it.

It must not be supposed that such actions and statements are believed at once. On the contrary, it is only after lengthy talks on each side that opinions are formed, an agreement entered into, a contract is drawn up, or reparation made. It is the identical case of stubborn jurymen.

In the settlement of these disputes much depends upon the glibness of tongue and on the sagacity of one or more of the principal men. For were it not for their skill in understanding the intricacies of the subject and in sidetracking irrelevant claims the disputes would be impossible of satisfactory arrangement. This will be understood more readily if it is borne in mind that outside of the reasonable facts of the case, counterclaims are made by the debtor or the accused party. These claims are sometimes of an extraordinary nature and date back to the time of his grandfather or other distant relative. Thus he may say that his opponent's great uncle owed his grandfather a human life and that this blood debt has never been paid nor revenge obtained. Such an affirmation as this will be corroborated by his relatives and they may immediately break out into menaces of vengeance. Again, he may aver that his opponent was reputed to have had a charm by which death might be caused, and that his son had died as a result of this use of evil magic powers. Whereupon the other vigorously repudiates the imputation and demands a slave in payment of the slander. It is only the popularity of the chief men, their reputation for fair dealing, their sagacity, and perhaps their relationship with the respective contestants that dispose of such side issues and bring about an amicable and satisfactory settlement.

It is customary for the one who loses to regale the assembly with a good meal. In Manóbo-land this latter is the great solace for all ills and the source of all friendship. So, when the question under dispute has been settled, the one who lost sends out and gets the pig and drink that have been brought for that purpose. When prepared, the food is set out on the floor, the guests are distributed in due order, and then begins one of those meals that must be witnessed in order to be understood. One feature of this feast is that the two former adversaries are seated together and vie with each other in reciprocating food and drink. As they warm up under the influence of the liquor they load large masses of food into each other's mouths, each with an arm around the other's neck.

Upon the following day, or perhaps that same day, the winner of the case reciprocates with another banquet. When that is finished, the other party may give another banquet and so they may continue, if their means permit, for many days. I assisted at one peacemaking in which the banqueting lasted for 10 successive days.

DETERMINATION OF GUILT

BY WITNESSES

The usual and natural method of determining the guilt of the accused is through the instrumentality of witnesses. They are questioned and requestioned at great length even if the defendant be not present. There seems to be no necessity for this procedure, for the defendant admits his guilt when brought face to face with the plaintiff or with the witnesses. The testimony of children is not only admissible but is considered conclusive. That of a woman testifying against a man for improper suggestions and acts is considered sufficient to convict him.

False testimony in the presence of witnesses and relatives is almost unheard of. I suppose that this marvel is to be attributed to the fear of the dire retribution that would infallibly overtake the false witness.

BY OATHS

Ordinarily no oath is administered nor any other formal means adopted to make certain that the accused or the witnesses will tell the truth, but there is a practice which is sometimes followed whenever the veracity of anyone is doubted. This is called tó-tung or burning of the wax, a ceremony that may be used not only with witnesses but with anyone from whom it is desired to force the truth. I have used it very successfully on numerous occasions in getting information about trails. The ceremony consists in burning a piece of beeswax in the presence of the party to be questioned. This signifies that if he does not answer truthfully his body by some process of sympathetic magic, will be burned in a similar manner. After making his statement and while the wax is being burned, he expresses the desire that his body may burn and be melted like the wax if his statement is untrue. This is another example of the pervading belief in sympathetic magic.

BY THE TESTIMONY OF THE ACCUSED

In the various instances that have come under my observation, the guilty one, as a rule, vigorously denied his guilt until confronted in public assembly by his accusers, so that I judge that custom does not require him to make a self-accusation until that time. But when duly confronted with witnesses, he nearly always admits his guilt.

For if the defendant should deny his guilt and if there were no evidence against him other than suspicion, the injured party would be justified in inflicting injury on anyone else, according to the principles of the private-seizure system. If it should later be discovered that the defendant was the original offender, the innocent parties who were the victims of this seizure would ultimately take terrible vengeance on him. I was informed by the Debabáons that a false denial of one's guilt before the assembled arbiters and relatives is especially displeasing to the deities. I failed to get information on this point from Manóbos, but it would be fairly reasonable to conclude that their belief in the matter is identical with that of the Debabáons.

Should the accused one deny his guilt and should circumstantial evidence point to him as the guilty one, the wax-burning ceremony above described would be performed. If he should still maintain that he was innocent, various methods for the determination of his guilt would be resorted to.

BY ORDEALS

The tests made to determine the innocence or guilt of a person are threefold: (1) the hot-water ordeal, (2) the diving ordeal, and (3) the candle ordeal.

The hot-water ordeal.²--A brass anklet, armlet, or similar metal object is put into boiling water in one of the iron pans so common throughout the Agúsan Valley. The suspected party, or parties, is then called upon to insert a hand into the water and to remove the object that has been placed at the bottom of the shallow pan. Although I have heard many threats of an appeal to this test, I never saw the actual operation of it, but I have been assured repeatedly by those who claimed to have seen the performance that the hand of the guilty one gets badly scalded, while that of an innocent one remains uninjured. The belief in the truth of this test is so strong, that, at times when the ordeal was threatened, I have heard many express not only their willingness but their eagerness to undergo it.

²Pag-ínit.

I have made numerous and very definite inquires in different localities and from members of different tribes as to the reason for the value of the ordeal as a test and as to whether or not it might be explained by the agency of supernatural beings, but in reply always received the answer that no reason could be given except that it had always been so and that religion had no connection with it.

The diving ordeal.³--I never witnessed the actual operation of this ordeal except in play, but the belief in its efficacy is strong and widespread. The operation consists in a trial between the parties under suspicion as to the length of time they can remain under water. Two at a time undergo the test. The one that retains his head under water longer is declared innocent for the time being, but has to undergo the test with each one of the suspected parties. This method seems impossible as a final proof, but such is the procedure as described to me on the upper Tágo River.

³Sún-ub.

Another and more common method is a simultaneous trial by all the accused. At a given signal they submerge their heads. The one that first raises his from the water is declared guilty. I was told by one party that the respective relatives of the accused ones stand by and hold them down by main force. This statement was corroborated by all those present at the time, but, as neither my informant nor anyone else could explain what it would be necessary to do in case of asphyxiation, I do not give credence to the story.

On numerous occasions I made diving tests in sport with Manóbos and found that I could retain my breath longer than they could. They assured me, nevertheless, that if the test were made as an ordeal and if I were the guilty party, I would infallibly lose.

The candle ordeal.--Among the Christianized Manóbos of the lake region I found the belief in the efficacy of the candle ordeal for determining the guilt of one of the suspected parties. Candles of the same size are made and are given to the suspects, one to each of them. They are then stuck to the floor and lit at the same time. The contestants have the right to keep them erect and to protect them from the wind. The one whose candle burns out first is declared guilty.

A belief in the value of ordeals is widespread, but the actual practice of them is very rare. No reason for this has been given to me, although it is stated that the refusal to submit to one would be considered evidence of guilt.

BY CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

In Manóboland circumstantial evidence, in the absence of other evidence, has sufficient weight to convict one who is under suspicion. Hence footprints and other traces of a man's presence are carefully examined. In fact, as a gatherer of testimony, even of the most insignificant kind, the Manóbo is peerless; he is patient, ceaseless, and thorough. This is due, no doubt, to his cautious, suspicious nature and to that spirit of revenge that never smolders. He may wait for years until the suspicion seems to have died out, when one fine day he hears a rumor that confirms his suspicions and the flame of contention bursts forth. One by one the successive bearers of the incriminating rumor are questioned in open meeting until the truth of it is ascertained and the guilty one brought to justice. I have known many cases, principally of slander, traced in this way from one rumor bearer to another. This illustrates the statement made before that in cases involving damage or loss to another the guilty party and the witnesses as a rule declare the truth, when they are called upon, knowing that one day or another the secret will probably be ferreted out and then the punishment will be greater.

ENFORCEMENT OF THE SENTENCE

The sentence having been agreed to by the consensus of opinion of both sides, and the defendant having manifested his concurrence therein, a time is set for the payment. When the offense is of a very serious character, partial payment is made at once, the object being to mollify the feelings of the enraged plaintiff. This payment ordinarily consists of a weapon belonging either to the defendant himself or to one of his relatives, but in urgent cases it might be a human being, as a relative for instance. I myself saw delivery of a son made after the termination of an adultery case.

The whole payment or compensation is not exacted at once but a suitable length of time for the completion of it is always agreed upon. The defendant receives a strip of rattan with a number of knots and is at times made to take the wax-burning oath.

His conduct on these occasions is apparently submissive for he does not want to run counter to tribal opinion, but it happens sometimes that upon leaving the house of adjudication he expresses his dissatisfaction with the decision or throws the blame upon somebody else. In this case there may arise another contention. On the whole, however, he abides by the decision.

In the great majority of cases the convicted man makes the stipulated payment, for a refusal to do so would lead to more serious difficulties than those already settled, and excuses for nonfulfillment are not accepted as readily as before. Moreover, a second arbitration subjects his opponent and his opponent's relatives to unnecessary trouble and long journeys. Hence, realizing that a second trial will only serve to exasperate his opponent and arm public opinion against him, he fulfills his obligations faithfully.

CHAPTER XXI

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION: INTERTRIBAL AND OTHER RELATIONS

INTERTRIBAL RELATIONS

Dealings on the part of. Manóbos with other tribes such as the Banuáon, the Debabáon, and the Mandáya are almost without exception of the most pacific kind. I made frequent inquiries, especially while on the upper Agúsan River, as to the reason for this, and was always given to understand that any trouble with another tribe was carefully avoided because it might give rise to unending complications and to interminable war. I am of the opinion that, in his avoidance of war with neighboring tribes, there is ever present in the Manóbo's mind a consciousness of his inferiority to the Mandáya, Debabáon, and Banuáon, and a realization of the consequences that would inevitably follow in case of a clash with them. Thus the Manóbos of the upper Agúsan, who had provoked the Mandáyas of the Katí'il River at the beginning of the Christian conquest, suffered a dire reprisal on the Húlip River, upper Agúsan, when some 180 of them were massacred in one night.¹

¹See Oartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 5:22, 1883.

The current accounts of Debabáon warriors, as narrated to me by many of them on the upper Sálug River, show the severe losses suffered by Manóbos of the upper Agúsan in their conflicts with Debabáons. The same holds true of the Manóbos on the lower Agúsan when they matched their strength with the Banuáons of the Maásam, Líbañg, and Óhut Rivers. A perusal of the "Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús" will give one a vivid picture of the devastation caused by not only the Banuáons but by the Mandáyas and the Debabáons in Manóboland.

The reason for these unfriendly intertribal relations and for the consequent defeats of the Manóbos in nearly every instance is not far to seek. The Manóbo lacks the organization of the Mandáya, Debabáon, and Banuáon. Like the Mañgguáñgan he is somewhat hot-headed, and upon provocation, especially while drunk, prefers to take justice into his own hands, striking down with one fell swoop his Mandáya or other adversary, without appealing to a public adjudication. The result of this imprudent proceeding is an attack in which the friends and relatives of the slain one become the aggressors, invading Manóbo territory and executing awful vengeance upon the perpetrator of the wrong. The friends and relatives of the latter, with their inferior tribal organization and their conscious feeling of inferiority in courage, together with a realization of the innumerable difficulties that beset the path of reprisals, very rarely invade the territory of the hostile tribe.

Both from the accounts given in the aforesaid Jesuit letters and from my own observations and information, I know that the same statements may be made of the intertribal relations of Mañgguáñgans and Mandáyas, Mañgguáñgans and Debabáons, and Mañgguáñgans and Manóbos. The Mañgguáñgans are much lower in the scale of culture than the Manóbos, and when they are under the influence of liquor yield to very slight provocation. As a result of a rash blow, the Mañgguáñgan's territory is invaded and his settlement is surrounded. He is an arrant coward as a rule, and, hot-headed fool as he is, jumps from his low, wall-less house only to meet the foeman's lance. Thus it happens that thousands and thousands of them have been killed. If we may believe the testimony of a certain Jesuit missionary, as stated in one of the Jesuit letters, the Mañgguáñgan tribe numbered 30,000 at one time and their habitat extended eastward from the Tágum River and from its eastern tributary, the Sálug, between the Híjo and the Tótui Rivers, to the Agúsan and thence spread still eastward over the Simúlau River. In 1886 Father Pastells estimated them to number some 14,000. In 1910, I made an estimate, based on the reports of their hereditary enemies in Compostela, Gandía, Geróna, and Moncáyo, and venture to state that in that year they did not number more than about 10,000 souls. Their territory, too, at that date, was confined to the low range of mountains that formed the Agúsan-Sálug divide and to the swamp tracts in the region of the Mánat River, with a scattered settlement here and there on the east of the Agúsan to the north of the Mánat River.

The Manóbos of the Ihawán, Baóbo, and Agúsan Rivers played a bloody part in the massacre of the Mañgguáñgans. While on my first visit to the upper Agúsan in 1907, I used to hear once or twice a week of the killing of Mañgguáñgans. Many a time my Mandáya or Manóbo or Debabáon companions would say to me, upon seeing a Mañgguáñgan: "Shoot him, grandpa, he is only a Mañgguáñgan."

I know from the personal accounts of Manóbo, Mandáya, and Debabáon warrior chiefs that in nearly every case they had acquired their title of warrior chief by bloody attacks made upon Mañgguáñgans. The warrior chiefs of the upper Agúsan, upper Karága, upper Manorígau and upper and middle Katí'il had nearly to a man earned their titles from the killing of Mañgguáñgans. This is eminently true of the Debabáon group. Moncáyo itself boasts of more warrior chiefs than any district in eastern Mindanáo, and stands like a mighty watchtower over the thousands and thousands of Mañgguáñgan and Manóbo graves that bestrew the lonely forest from Libagánon to the Agúsan.

INTERCLAN RELATIONS

It must be borne in mind that, judging from the testimony of all with whom I conversed on the subject as well as from my own personal observation, interclan feuds among Manóbos have diminished notably since the beginning of missionary activity and more especially since the establishment of the special government in the Agúsan Valley. Upon the establishment of this government in the lower half of the Agúsan Valley, there was a perceptible decrease in bloody fights due to the effective extension of supervision under able and active officials. Here and there in remote regions, such as the upper reaches of the Baóbo, Ihawán, Umaíam, Argáwan, and Kasilaían Rivers, casual killings took place. On the upper Agúsan, however, where no effective government had been established until after my departure in 1910, interclan relations were not of the most pacific nature. Thus, in 1909, the settlements of Dugmánon and Moncáyo were in open hostility, and up to the time of my departure four deaths had occurred. The Mandáyas of Katí'il and Manorígao had contemplated an extensive movement against Compostela and after my departure did bring about one death. However, the intended move was frustrated happily by the establishment of a military post in Moncáyo in 1910. Several Mañgguáñgans at the headwaters of the Mánat River met their fate in 1909. The whole Mañgguáñgan tribe went into armed vigilance that same year and rendered it impossible for me to meet any but the milder members of the tribe living in the vicinity of Compostela. On one occasion I had made arrangements to meet a Mañgguáñgan warrior chief at an appointed trysting place in the forest. Upon arriving at the spot, one of my companions beat the buttress of a tree as a signal that we had arrived, but it was more than an hour before our Mañgguáñgan friends made their appearance. Upon being questioned as to the delay, they informed us that they had circled around at a considerable distance, examining the number and shape of our footprints in order to make sure that no deception was being practiced upon them. When we approached the purpose of the interview, namely, to request permission to visit their houses, they positively refused to allow it, telling us that they were on guard against three warrior chiefs of the upper Sálug who had recently procured guns and who had threatened to attack them. Upon questioning my companions as to the likely location of the domicile of the Mañgguáñgans, I was assured that they probably lived at the head of the Mánat River in a swampy region and that access to their settlement could be had only by wading through tracts of mud and water thigh deep.

During the same year various other raids were made, notably on the watershed between the Sálug and the Ihawán Rivers. The Manóbos of the Baóbo River, which has been styled by the well-known Jesuit missionary Urios "the river of Bagáni" (warrior chiefs), were reported to be in a state of interclan war. Such a condition, however, was nothing unusual, for I never ascended the upper Agúsan without hearing reports of atrocities on Baóbo River.²

²The Baóbo River rises in a mountain that is very near the confluence of the Sálug and Libagánon Rivers, and empties into one of the myriad channels into which the Agúsan is divided just below Veruéla.

In time of peace, interclan dealings are friendly, but it may be said in general that dealings of any kind are not numerous and that their frequency is in inverse ratio to the distance between the two clans. It is seldom that a given individual has no feudal enemy in one district or another so that in his visits to other clans he usually has either to pass through the territory of an enemy or to run the risk of meeting one at his destination. This does not mean that he will be attacked then and there, for he is on his guard, but it must be remembered that he is in Manóboland and that a mere spark may start a conflagration.

Hence, visits to others than relatives and trips to distant points are not frequent. This is particularly true of the womenfolk. Here and there one finds a Manóbo man who travels fearlessly to distant settlements for the purpose of securing some object that he needs, but he never fails to carry his lance, and frequently, his shield; he is never off his guard, either on the trail or in the house he may be visiting.

During the greater social and religious gatherings the greatest vigilance is exerted by all concerned as everyone realizes beforehand the possibility of trouble. Hence bolos or daggers are worn even during meals. Enemies or others who are known to be at loggerheads are seated at a respectful distance from each other with such people around them as are considered friendly or at least neutral. This arrangement of guests is a very striking feature of a Manóbo meal and one of great importance, for it prevents many an untoward act. The host, in an informal way, sees to the distribution of the guests, and when his arrangement is not acceptable to any of the interested parties, a rearrangement is made and all seat themselves. This proceeding has nothing formal about it. The whole thing seems to be done by instinct.

EXTERNAL COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

EXPLOITATION BY CHRISTIAN NATIVES

The shameless spoliation³ practiced during my residence and travels in eastern Mindanáo (1905-1909) by Christian natives upon the Christianized and un-Christianized Manóbos is a subject that deserves special mention.

³Since the establishment in 1909 of government trading posts, this spoliation has practically ceased in the Agúsan Valley.

Exploitation by falsification.--The hill people, living in their mountain fastnesses out of communication with the more important traders, had to depend wholly for their needs on petty traders and peddlers of the Christian population. They were accordingly kept in absolute ignorance of the true value of the commodities that they required. False reports as to the value of rice, hemp, and vino were constantly spread. To-day, it would be a report of a war between China and Japan that caused a rise of several pesos in the price of a sack of rice. To-morrow, it would be an international complication between Japan and several of the great European powers which caused a paralysis in the exportation of hemp and a corresponding fall of several pesos in the value of it. These and numerous other fabrications were corroborated by letters purporting to come from Butuán, but in most cases written by one trader to another on the spot, with a view to giving plausibility to the lie. It was a common practice for the trader's friend or partner in Butuán to direct, usually by previous arrangement, two letters to him, in one of which was stated the true value of the commodity and in the other the value at which it was desired to purchase or to dispose of it. The latter letter was for public perusal and rarely failed to beguile the ignorant conquistas and Manóbos.

But it was not only in the exorbitant rates charged and in the unspeakably low prices paid for objects of merchandise that the Christian trader swindled his pagan fellow men. The use of false weights and measures was a second means. The Manóbo had little conception of a pikul⁴ or of an arroba⁵ of hemp, so that he was utterly at the mercy of the trader. The steelyards used by Christian traders from 1905 to 1908 were never less than 30 per cent out of true and frequently as much as 50 per cent. One pair of scales I found to be so heavily leaded that the hemp that weighed 25 pounds on them weighed between 38 and 39 pounds on a true English scales.

⁴A pikul is the equivalent of 137.5 Spanish pounds.

⁵An arroba is 25 Spanish pounds.

Another method of defraudation consisted in false accounts. The Manóbo had no account book to rely upon in his dealings with the trader, but trusted to his memory and to the honesty of his friend. The payment was made in occasional deliveries of hemp or other articles, such deliveries covering a period usually of many months. When the day for settling accounts came, the Manóbo was allowed to spread out his little grains of corn or little bits of wood on the floor and to perform the calculation as best he could. Any mistakes in his own favor were promptly corrected by the trader, but mistakes or omissions in favor of the trader were allowed to pass unobserved. The account would then be closed and the trader would mark with a piece of charcoal on a beam, rafter, or other convenient place, the amount of the debt still due him, for it was extremely rare that he allowed the poor tribesman to escape from his clutches.

Defraudation by usury and excessive prices.--Another method of exploitation consisted in a system of usury, practiced throughout the valley but more especially on the upper Agúsan. An example will illustrate this: A Bisáya advances 5 pesos in various commodities with the understanding that at the next harvest he is to receive 10 sacks of paddy in payment. At the next harvest the Manóbo is unable to pay more than 6 sacks. He is given to understand that he must pay the balance within two months. After that period the trader goes upstream again and proceeds to collect. The paddy is not forthcoming, so the trader informs his customer that the prevailing price of paddy in such and such a town is actually 5 pesos per sack and that he accordingly loses 20 pesos by the failure to receive the paddy stipulated for and that the debtor must answer for the amount. The poor Manóbo then turns over a war bolo or perhaps a spear at one-half their original value, for the contract called for paddy and not weapons. In that way he pays up a certain amount, let us say 10 pesos, and has still a balance of 10 pesos against him, he having no available resources wherewith to settle the account in full. He is then offered the alternative of paying 20 sacks at the next harvest or of performing some work that he is unwilling to do, so he accepts the former alternative. The bargain is then clinched with many threats on the part of the trader to the effect that the Americans will cut off his head or commit some other outrageous act should he fail to fulfill this second contract.

The worst depredation committed on the Manóbo consisted of the advancing of merchandise at exorbitant rates just before harvest time with a view to purchasing rice and tobacco. It is principally at this time that the Manóbo stands in special need of a supply of pigs and chickens for the celebrations, religious and social, that invariably take place. As he has little foresight in his nature and rarely, if ever, speculates, he was accustomed to bartering away in advance a large amount of his paddy and tobacco. The result was that after paying up as much of his paddy debts and tobacco debts as he could, he found that his stock was meager, barely sufficient for a few months. So the time came when he had to repurchase at from 3 to 10 pesos per bamboo joint that which he had sold for 25 centavos.

Exploitation by the system of commutation.--Another means of defrauding perpetrated on the Manóbo was the system of commutation by which the debt had to be paid, if the creditor so desired, in other effects than those which were stipulated in the contract. The value of the goods thus substituted was reckoned extraordinarily low. For example, in the event of a failure to pay the stipulated amount of tobacco, its value in some other part of the Agúsan, where that commodity was high, would be calculated in money, and any object would be asked for that the trader might desire. Suppose the customary value of this object, a pig for instance, to be 10 pesos, at which price it would be offered to the trader, who would reply that he had contracted for tobacco and not pigs. He would go on to show that he had no use for pigs, that he could procure a pig of the same size for 2 pesos in another town, and he would finally persuade the debtor to turn over the pig for 2 pesos.

I adjudicated unofficially, at the request of the Manóbos, several cases where the Bisáya trader tried to collect not only the value of a sow but of the number of young ones that it might have given birth to had it lived. These pigs had been left with Manóbos for safe-keeping and either had died from natural causes or had been killed. One Bisáya went so far as to demand payment for the chickens that a hen would have produced had it not been stolen from the Manóbo to whom it had been entrusted. This part of the claim I did not allow, so the claimant demanded pay for the eggs that might have been laid.

Wheedling or the puának system.--Another means of exploitation practiced on the Manóbos of the upper Agúsan was the puának system, invented by the Bisáya trader. The puának was some prosperous Manóbo who was chosen as an intimate friend and who, out of friendship, was expected to furnish his Bisáya friend anything which the latter might ask for. The Bisáya in return was expected to do the same.

The Bisáya paid his Manóbo friend a few visits every year, on which occasions he was received with all the open-hearted hospitality so characteristic of the Manóbo. Pigs and chickens, purchased frequently at high rates, were killed in his honor. The country was scoured for sugar-cane wine or other drink, and no means were left untried to make the reception royal. The Bisáya, in the meanwhile, lavished on his host soft, wheedling words, at the same time giving him sad tales of the rise in the price of merchandise, of his indebtedness to the Chinese, and before leaving gave him a little cloth or some other thing of small value. In return he received paddy, tobacco, and such other articles as he needed. The farewell was made with great demonstrations of friendship on the Bisáya's part and with an invitation to his Manóbo friend to visit him at a certain stated time.

During his friend's visit the Manóbo had gone around the country canvassing for paddy and such other articles as he had been instructed to barter for. His wife and female relatives had stamped out several sacks of paddy for their friend. His sons and other male relatives had cleaned the Bisáya's boat and supplied him with rattan. In a word, the whole family had made menials of themselves to satisfy the Bisáya's every desire.

At the stated time the Manóbo started downstream with the various commodities that had been requested of him, paddy, tobacco, and other things. At his friend's house he was received with a great exhibition of joy and welcome. During his stay he was kept happy by constant doses of vino. Besides the killing of a suckling pig and of a few chickens, a little wheedling and palavering were about the only entertainment he received. But as the grog kept him in good humor and it is supposed to cost one peso per liter, he was perfectly happy, turned over his wares to the host, had his accounts balanced for him (he was usually in a hilarious condition while this was being done), received further advances of merchandise at the usual usurious rates, and left for his upland home to tell his family and relatives of the glorious time he had at his puának's.

Bartering transactions.--The following schedule of approximate values of commodities in the Agúsan, 1905 to 1909, will serve to show the commercial depredations committed on Manóbos and conquistas by the Bisáyas who have ever looked upon them as their legitimate prey.

To this list might be appended the values of exchange in paddy, beeswax, and rattan and the corresponding gain made when these latter are bartered in their turn for hemp or disposed of to the Chinese merchants.

From the above list it is evident that a Bisáya trader could go up the river with goods valued at 26 pesos and within a few weeks return with abaká valued at 138 pesos to 175 pesos, according to the scales and other measures used. His total expenses, including his own subsistence, probably would not exceed 30 pesos.

No mention is here made of such luxuries as shoes, hats, or European clothes on which gains of from 500 to 1,000 per cent are the rule. Neither have various other usuries been included, such as high interest or payment of expenses in case of delays, all of which go to swell the gain that a Bisáya considers his right and his privilege when he has to deal with beings whom he hardly classes as men.

Among the Manóbos the credit system almost invariably prevails, based upon the sacredness with which the Manóbo pays his debts. It is true that the Christianized Manóbo occasionally is not very scrupulous in this respect, but this is because he has been fleeced so much by his Christian brethren.

Arriving in a settlement, the trader displays only a part of his wares at a time. If he has two pieces of cloth, he displays only one. Of five sacks of rice, only two are his, he claims. In answering the inquiry as to whether he has dried fish, he says that he has just a little for his personal use, for the price of it in Butuán was prohibitive. On being besought to sell a little, he secretly orders it taken out from the jar and delivered to his customer, at an outrageous price. The object of this simulation is to hasten the sales of his wares, for should he display all his stock, many of his customers might prefer to wait in hopes of a reduction in prices, a sort of a diminutive "clearance sale."

As the article for which the exchange is made is nearly always abaká fiber, it is evident that a certain period, longer or shorter according to the amount of fiber contracted for, must be allowed the customer. When this period exceeds a week, the stipulation is made that the payment shall be made in installments. A shorter period is allowed than is necessary for the stripping of the hemp, under the pretense that the trader is in a hurry to leave the settlement and catch a certain steamer with which he deals. This is a prudent precaution as the Manóbo is not very methodical in his affairs nor quick in his movements. A thousand and one things--omens, sickness, bad weather--may delay him in the fulfillment of his contract. It is this tardiness that gives rise to the ill feeling and bickering that are not infrequently the outcome of this system of trading. The Manóbo, moreover, has long since become aware of the stupendous gain made by the traders, and, when not dealt with gently, becomes exasperated and on occasions deliberately delays his creditor. Then again, some other trader may have got into the settlement in the meantime and seduced him into buying, cash down, some more enticing article, for this primitive man, like the rest of the world, often buys what he lays his eyes upon without any thought of the future. For this reason, the trader keeps close observation upon all who owe him, almost daily visiting their houses and profiting by the occasion to help himself to whatever little fish or meat or other edibles he may find therein. One who has been in debt a long time is a favorite victim, for when he is unable to pay his debt on time he is shamelessly required to offer a substantial apology⁶ in the form of a chicken or some other edible.

⁶Ba-lí-bad.

GENERAL CONDITIONS OF TRADING

In general, there was no established system in the Agúsan Valley as far as the dealings of Bisáyas went. The constant fluctuation of prices was a sufficient explanation of this. Thus, rice might be worth 13 centavos per kilogram in Butuán, while at the same time it might command a price of 43 centavos on the Híbung River or in Veruéla. Salted fish might be selling in Butuán for a trifle, whereas up the Simúlau a jar of it at retail might be worth 20 or 30 sacks of paddy. In general the increase in price of a commodity was in direct proportion to its distance from points of distribution. By points of distribution are meant the Chinese stores in Butuán and Talakógon.

Again the old-time custom of selling paddy at a fixed customary price held the Manóbo in commercial servitude to his Bisáya compeer. This was due to the intense conservatism of the Manóbo and to his peculiar religious tenets in this regard, both of which were fostered and sustained by the tribal priests and encouraged by Bisáyas. Could he have been induced to retain his paddy instead of selling it at 50 centavos per sack he would not have been obliged to repurchase at P5 per sack. The same might be said of his tobacco, which he sold wholesale by the bamboo joint at 25 centavos each, or, at most, at a peso each, and which he repurchased, paying, in times of scarcity, 20 centavos for enough to chew a few times.

The credit system, too, was an impediment to his financial advance. It seems to have been a tribal institution. During my trading tour I frequently heard my Manóbo debtors proclaim boastingly to their fellow tribesmen that I had much confidence in their integrity.

The Manóbo who could gain the confidence of the traders and accumulate his debts seemed to be an honored person, but when he was able to make sufficient payment to satisfy his creditors he was a great man. Hence, the traders played upon his vanity and advanced him such commodities as he desired, seldom obliging him to settle in full his obligations, and induced him to accept on credit a certain amount so as to retain him in bondage to them. It must not be imagined that there was anything tyrannical in the manner of collecting outstanding debts. On the contrary, it was almost always done in a gentle diplomatic way, the trader knowing full well that the Manóbo regarded a debt as sacred and that he would finally pay it. But it must not be supposed that the transactions were entirely free from disputes and quarrels. It happened occasionally that the Manóbo detected the frauds in his creditor's accounting or remembered omissions of his own in a past reckoning, and so the bickering began, the Bisáya never caring to admit his errors or frauds, while the Manóbo, who is a hard and fast bargainer, insisted on claiming what he considered his rights. As a rule, the matter was settled peaceably by the principal men of the region. Numerous instances, however, occurred wherein the Manóbo, exasperated by the numerous frauds of his creditor, awaited a favorable occasion to dispatch him. On the whole, it may be said that differences which arose between Bisáyas and their mountain compeers in eastern Mindanáo are to be attributed in no small degree to the ruinous, relentless exploitation of the unsophisticated, untutored Manóbo by the greedy Bisáya traffickers.

INTERNAL COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

By internal trading is meant those simple transactions that take place between Manóbo and Manóbo. The subject presents a striking contrast to the merciless system adopted by the Christian traders in their dealings with their pagan congeners.

The transactions are simple exchanges of the absolute necessities of life.

MONEY AND SUBSTITUTES FOR IT

There is little conception of money as such among the hillmen unless they have been in contact with Christian or Christianized traders, and even then although monetary terms are made use of, there is but a vague conception of the real value of what they represent. I asked a Manóbo of the upper Wá-wa the price of his little bamboo lime tube. The answer was 30 pesos.

Money, therefore, has no value as a circulating medium, although it may be prized as a material out of which to make rings and other ornamental objects. As substitutes, there are several units of more or less indefinite value. Thus, the value of a slave which, expressed in monetary value, varies between 15 and 30 pesos, is mentioned in connection with large fines and with marriage payments. Again, plates of the type called píñggan are referred to in small fines and in other payments, but as these are imported articles the price varies. On the whole, however, 100 píñggan are worth a good serviceable slave--that is, 30 pesos. Pigs also are mentioned as a unit of value, but here again the value is not wholly definite, as a great many of them are imported and vary with the purchasing price.

PREVAILING MANÓBO PRICES

The following list will give a fair idea of the monetary value of some of the commodities that are most frequently exchanged between Manobos.

The values above indicated are based on the monetary terms used to represent their value, and borrowed, possibly, from the terms which are still in vogue in eastern Mindanáo.⁷

⁷I-sá-ka sá-pi (Bis., ú-sa'-ka sa-lá-pi), P0.50; ka-há-ti, P0.25; Si-ká-pat, P0.125; Si-kau-au, P0.0625.

From the above scale it will be seen that a pig 1 year old could be exchanged for 2 full-grown chickens, 2 sacks of paddy, and 2 bamboo joints of tobacco. It is not customary to trade in such things as camotes, taro, and corn, the return of them being the usual stipulation, but the corresponding values have been inserted in the above list in order to give the reader an idea of the value of food commodities.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

No measure of weight is used by the hill Manóbo. The Christianized Manóbo may have obtained some old scales of the type used by Bisáyas for weighing abaká fiber. These scales are steelyards, the construction of which permitted the Bisáya trader to fleece his non-Christian customers of as much as 50 per cent of their abaká fiber. The method of falsifying the balance was by loading the counterpoising weight with lead, and by filing the crosspiece that acts as fulcrum. Another method which might be used with even true steelyards consisted in giving the counterpoise arm a downward tilt, after the abaká fiber had been loaded on the other arm. This was usually done on the pretense of picking up the counterpoising weight which had been purposely left on the ground.

In measures of volume the Manóbo is almost equally destitute for he has only the gántañg. This is a cylindrical measure made out of the trunk of a palm tree, with a bottom of some other wood. It has a capacity of from 10 to 15 liters, but I know of no rule which fixes its exact size. An interesting point with regard to the size of this measure is that it is double that of the one used by Bisáyas.⁸ It is suggested that the early Bisáya traders, on the introduction of the Spanish ganta and fanega, taught, for obvious purposes, their unsuspecting mountain friends to make a measure double the size of the legal one.

⁸The gántang measure in eastern Mindanáo is of two kinds, de almacen, "of the store," and de provincia, "of the province." The latter is twice the size of the former, and is universally used by the mountain peoples.

In the manner of measuring out paddy (for it is practically only for this purpose that the gántang serves) there is a feature that is characteristic of Manobo frugality and economy. The paddy is scooped with the hands, little by little, into the measure, which is not moved until it is full. Then with a piece of stick the surface of the paddy is leveled off and it is emptied into the larger receptacle. At the same time the number is counted out loudly. The intention in not moving or disturbing the measure is to allow the paddy to have greater bulk, for if it is disturbed the grains settle and it requires more to fill the measure.

Twenty-five of these gántang make a kabán, bákkid, or anéga, as it is variously called. This kabán, although there is no measure corresponding to it in Manóboland, would be equivalent in bulk to two sacks of rice, or about 150 liters.

The yard is the distance from the end of the thumb, when the arm is extended horizontally, to the middle of the sternum. It, of course, varies somewhat with each individual.

The Bisáya trader, in measuring cloth, considerably shortens his yard by not giving a full stretch to the arm, and by slightly turning the outstretched hand toward his body. This gain, together with another little one secured when he bites off the measured piece from the bolt, makes a total gain of 10 centimeters approximately. Remonstrances on the part of the customer are unavailing, for he is told that such is the length of the trader's yard and, if the customer is not satisfied, he is not obliged to accept the cloth. As it is a credit transaction, the poor Manóbo is obliged to yield.

The fathom⁹ is the distance between the thumb tips when the arms and hands are outstretched. The fraud practiced by the Bisáya trader in the yard measure is also employed in this.

⁹Dú-pa'.

The span ¹⁰ is the stretch between the tip of the first finger and that of the thumb as they are stretched over the object to be measured.

¹⁰Dáng-au.

The finger length¹¹ is the length of either the first or of the middle finger, according to the custom of each locality.

¹¹Túd-lo.

The joint length ¹² is the length of the middle joint of the finger. It is a measure that is very seldom used.

¹²Lúm-po.

SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVES

SLAVE TRADE

I have not visited the Agúsan Valley since 1910, so that I am unable to give any information as to the actual extent of slave trading at the present day. From 1905 to 1909 the practice was in vogue, but to no great extent. It is reported on all sides by Mañgguáñgans, Mandáyas, Manóbos, and Banuáons that since the American occupation it has diminished to a remarkable degree, due to the wonderful reputation of the Americans for having overcome the Spaniards. This diminution was a natural sequence of the decrease of war raids.

Slave trading among the Manóbos of eastern Mindanáo was practically confined to the Ihawán, Baóbo, upper Simúlau, and Agúsan Rivers. I am of the opinion that during my four years' residence in the Agúsan there were not more than 100 cases of slave trade in the regions outside of the Ihawán and Baóbo River Valleys.

The customary value of a slave has been mentioned in this chapter, but it is only proper to add that a great many considerations, such as poor health, weak constitution, and other defects which might lessen the ability of the slave to work, detract from his value. It may be said in general that the value of a slave ranges between 10 and 30 pesos, never exceeding the last figure, at which he stands on a par with an unusually good hunting dog, or with an extra large prolific sow.

Slave trading does not, in the Manóbo's mind, involve the idea of degradation which attaches to it among other nations. A slave is to the Manóbo a chattel which he can sell, kill, or dispose of in any other way that he may deem expedient.

CLASSES OF SLAVES

Captives¹³ are those who have been captured from the enemy. At first their treatment may be a little harsh, or they may, when their owners happen to be angry, be killed outright. This is due to the fact that the feelings of revenge have not cooled off. But after a few days their condition and treatment is similar to that of ordinary slaves, except that more precautions are taken to prevent their escape. If fear of their escape is entertained, it is usual to sell them as soon as possible.

¹³Bi-ha.

By ordinary slaves¹⁴ are meant those who have been purchased or who have been delivered over in payment of fines or marriages. There is no institution in Manóboland by which a freeman, not a minor, can become a slave by reason of debt. But minors, usually relatives of the debtor, sometimes in an exigency are turned over in payment of a debt. This is usually done with a view to avoiding bloodshed.

¹⁴Áñg-lañg.

DELIVERY AND TREATMENT OF SLAVES

The manner of delivering the slave to a new owner depends ordinarily upon the feelings with which he regards the change, except in the case of children, who are easily coaxed into accepting it. In the case of older persons who have been attached to their owners, the matter is more difficult, as they display a reluctance to change hands. A ruse is then resorted to, as in a case which I witnessed. The person, in this case a slave girl, was sent to her purchaser's house, ostensibly for the purpose of procuring salt and of delivering a basket of paddy. As she was about to return her purchaser called her back into the house. She then, realizing the circumstances, burst into tears, but was soon soothed by the wives of her new owner.

On the whole slaves are not mistreated. Like all menials, they at times become remiss in the performance of what is expected of them, and accordingly are given a few blows with a stick or other convenient object. In a very passionate moment, or when drunk, the master may cut off his slave girl's hair or denude her completely in the presence of the household, but such acts are of very rare occurrence.

Immediately after being captured, or after a change of master, the slave feels his lot keenly, but as time goes on and as he realizes that there is no hope of deliverance, the remembrance of his relatives fades away and he resigns himself to his fate. Sometimes one finds a slave who has become so attached to his master that he is unwilling to return to his relatives. This is true of those who have been captured when young, and especially of girls. A fondness often grows up between the latter and their master's wife, and separation causes loud and long weeping.

A slave enjoys no rights, either personal or political. He can be disposed of without his consent either by sale or in marriage, or in any other way his master sees fit. If he runs away he is pursued and brought back to his master's house. If he runs away with frequency, and the owner is unable to dispose of him to some one else, he is simply speared to death. I never witnessed the actual killing, but trustworthy accounts authenticate the fact that formerly, at least, it occasionally took place. If a slave flees from his master's house no one may aid or abet him in his flight, though it is lawful for anyone to capture him with the intention of returning him to his master, who in this case must pay the capturer P15.¹⁵

¹⁵On my last trip among the Mandáyas of southeastern Mindanáo (Karága River) I was instrumental in saving the life of a woman slave who had escaped six times. At the time of her escape six slaves, led by a boy slave of about 14 years of age, had fled from the house of their master. They were recaptured and no punishment except a good scolding and an infinity of threats was meted out to them. A few days afterwards an elderly slave again escaped. She was discovered in a neighboring house and brought back by the wife and daughter of her owner. When her master saw her he rushed from his house with spear and bolo and would have killed her had it not been for my remonstrances and entreaties.

The slave does his share of domestic service. To the female falls the task of drawing water, gathering firewood, pounding rice, cooking, and weeding; to the male that of acting as his master's companion, porter, and general messenger, and of planting camotes and other crops.

The slave's dress is usually sufficient to cover his nakedness and no more. Ear disks, bracelets, and similar articles of feminity[sic] are not allowed, and too neat arrangement of the hair is not countenanced, as it might be indicative of matrimonial inclinations. Marriage of his slaves is not looked upon with favor by the master, and he does not permit it unless the material advantages are so great that they will repay him for the loss of the slave's services.

I know of few slave marriages. Captives, however, are said to be married off for a good payment, when their looks and other good qualities have won the heart of some young man.

My observation and the testimony of Manóboland as to the sexual morality of slaves is that it is excellent, though no vigilance seems to be exercised over them in the matter. The female slave makes trips alone to the water place even by night, and spends many hours of the day in solitary places while working in the clearings or traveling to the granary. This sexual morality is due to the fact that intercourse with a female slave is looked down upon with unmitigated contempt.

The slave fares no worse in the matter of food than the inmates of the house; possibly he fares even better, for he gets more secret tastes of sugarcane and roasted camotes between meal hours; during meals he does not forget himself, as he often has the handling of the pots.