The following taboos in connection with hunting are of interest:
(1) The mention of such things as are displeasing to the local forest deities must be positively avoided, such as the mention of salt, of fish that are not found in the region, and of the name of the quarry.
(2) The meat must not be cooked with lard, garlic, or in any other way except in the orthodox Manóbo manner of broiling it, or cooking it in water.
(3) The meat must not be salted and dried.
(4) The game must not be skinned, but singed, for the former act would be one of rashness that would incur divine displeasure and result in lack of success on the part of the dogs during all ensuing hunts.
(5) The bones of the game must not be rapped on the floor to remove the marrow. They must be broken with a bolo.
(6) During the process of boiling the water in which the meat has been placed must be allowed to run over.
(7) The bones of the game must not be thrown into water. Such an act would, it is thought, bring sickness on the transgressor or on a member of his family.
(8) An unmarried man, who has had clandestine relations with a woman, may not partake of the meat before he has made an expiatory offering to the owner of the dogs. This offering need not be of any great value and is usually given in an informal way. The infringement of this taboo is said to be attended with the same baneful effects on the hunting dogs as that mentioned above.
(9) For the same reason a married man must make a compensatory offering of some little thing to his wife in case he has been unfaithful to her. However, the majority of those whom I questioned knew of no such counteracting practice.
A consideration of the above restrictions will explain the reluctance that the Manóbo feels in dividing his game with those who are not of his persuasion. He is afraid that the meat may be cooked in lard or that some other regulation may be broken, thereby bringing down upon himself the displeasure of the spirit owner of the game and upon his dogs ill luck or total lack of success in future hunts.
There are various traditional accounts of people who have been charmed 37 by deer and never heard of again. It seems that, at first, they were approached by a circling herd of deer, which they did not fear and allowed to come close. But among the deer was a transformed búsau or demon that advanced and devoured the solitary hunter. It is said that a dog will not follow a deer of this description.38
37Pag-u-sa-hán.
38Called ma-paí-yag.
OTHER METHODS OF OBTAINING GAME
The ordinary bow is used but the arrow frequently varies from the regular fighting arrow in being heavier, thicker, and not provided with feathering. An arrow with a forked point is occasionally used for small birds, while for hornbills sharp spikes of palma brava are used at times to perforate their tough skins. Dart arrows are favorite for monkeys. The blowpipe (sum-pí-tan)39 is not used. Little game is obtained by the bow and arrow, except when the hunter builds a shelter in a fruit tree and picks off, unseen, such birds as come to feast themselves.
39I found a long slender blowpipe all over Mandáyaland used for shooting birds, but it is not a very successful weapon, nor is it used in fighting.