According to several informants, incest is punished by the sacrifice of the guilty parties. They are tied to a tree with their hands drawn backward around the trunks and are then speared to death. This seems to be the one and only occasion when human sacrifice is practiced by members of this tribe.
SICKNESS AND DEATH.
When a person is seriously ill a ballyan is summoned and she, after securing prepared rice, betel-nuts, and a live chicken, enters into communication with the spirits. First she converses with the dead father or other deceased relative of the sick person and requests his aid in effecting a cure, next she presents food to Diwata and implores his aid, and finally calls upon the asuang to whom she offers the live fowl on the condition that they will cease trying to injure the patient. Having thus done all in her power to influence the spirits she may administer some simple remedy, after which she begins to dance contra-clockwise, around a bamboo pole on which leaves and betel-nut have been hung.[137]
[137] This ceremony usually takes place in the house, but if the man was taken ill in the forest or in his field it may be conducted there.
If this treatment proves to be of no avail and the patient dies his body is placed in the center of the house and for two days and nights is guarded by relatives and friends. During the time that the body remains in the dwelling the family is required to fast and all the people of the settlement are prohibited from playing on agongs, from singing or indulging in other signs of merriment. Finally, the body is wrapped in a mat and is buried in the forest.[138]
[138] Maxey gives the following account of burial near Cateel: "The dead person is dressed in his best clothes, wrapped in a piece of abaca cloth, and placed in a coffin of bamboo poles, or one hewn from a solid log, if the person was one of means, and buried. If of the poorer class he is merely wrapped in a piece of matting-, and either buried or covered over with stones, sticks, and the like. If of high rank, the body is not buried, but after preparation is taken into the forest and placed in a small hut under a balete tree. Food, spears, bolos, hats, shields, and some articles of furniture are placed on the graves to placate the spirits who might otherwise bring harm to the surviving members of the clan or family. There is no fixed period of mourning, but the members of the family must wear black for some time after the death. The sick are never abandoned prior to death, but slaves nearing death are sometimes killed to stop their sufferings. The owner, however, must first consult with others of the clan."
Returning from the burial all the people partake of a feast and then set fire to the dwelling "because we do not like the asuang which killed the man in that house." During the ensuing nine days the spouse of the dead dresses in black and for a month following, or until they can purchase a slave, the whole family is barred from merry-making. Two reasons for the purchase of this slave were advanced by members of the tribe. One was that the family could be happy if they were still rich enough to purchase a slave. The second, that they thus replaced the dead man with another, "for the slaves are like members of our own family."
DECORATIVE ART.
The decorative art of the Mandaya is similar in many respects to that of the Bagobo and Bila-an, yet in part it differs greatly from both. As is true with the other tribes, the weavers make use of many figures which they do not associate with any living forms, but which, nevertheless, strongly suggest that they may have been derived from realistic designs. In addition to such patterns they frequently employ figures which are intentional copies of human or animal forms. Of these the most common are those representing a man and a crocodile; these sometimes appear together, sometimes alone. The requirements of the space to be filled, as well as readiness of the worker to alter any part in order to give a more pleasing effect to the design have resulted in many distorted and conventionalized figures which can only be explained by the artist. The accompanying drawings are taken from articles collected by the writer and now in the Field Museum of Natural History.
Patterns A to H in Fig. 54 appear in hemp cloth skirts. These show the steps in the conventionalization of the human figure,[139] as explained by the weavers. In the first four the forms are so realistic that they need no explanation, but E is more complicated. Here two greatly conventionalized figures have been used, one erect, the other with head down. The size of the head has been increased while the body is represented by a small diamond-shaped pattern with outstretched arms attached. The legs and feet of both figures help to form a pattern similar to a head, except that it lacks the "hair" shown in the end designs. F resembles the preceding quite closely. In it the central head-like pattern does not appear and the legs and feet of one figure help to form the head of the other. This design has been doubled, thus necessitating some alteration of the figures at the points of union. In G and H nearly all the realistic elements have vanished, yet certain resemblance to D and E can be discerned.