3An-á-hau.
4Of the species called pa-túng.
5Mandáya and Mañgguáñgan bows are smaller and neater than Manóbo bows. They are made commonly of a piece of betel-nut palm and have graceful lashings of rattan strips on the stock for the purpose of imparting strength thereto.
The bowstring is nearly always a strip of rattan about 3 millimeters broad. This is attached to the lower end of the stock by a simple series of loops. To the upper extremity it is attached by a loop that slips along the stock into the upper notch when the bow is strung for shooting. It is needless to remark that the bowstring is about 2 or 3 centimeters shorter than the stock, which in the moment of stringing must be bent to enable the upper extremity of the string to reach the upper notch and thereby acquire a sufficient tension to propel the arrow.
Arrows are of several kinds according to the purpose for which they are used, such as hunting, fishing, and fighting. Those intended for hunting and fishing will be described in their proper places. The following description applies exclusively to the offensive arrow used in fighting.
The shaft of this arrow consists of a reed of bamboo6 about 8 millimeters in diameter and somewhat over a meter long, with a bamboo head. The head is a sliver of bamboo7 varying in length from 20 to 36 centimeters. On the upper Agúsan, where the Manóbos seem to have assimilated much from the Mandáyas, both the head and the shaft of the arrow are much shorter, much neater, and, in general, much handier. The arrowhead is broadest at about two-thirds of its distance from the point. From this broad part, or shoulder, as we might call it, the head tapers to a sharp point at one end and to such a size at the other that it can be inserted into the natural socket of the shaft. In this socket it is retained by a lashing of fine rattan, which serves at once to retain it in place and to prevent the frail bamboo shaft from splitting. A coating of tabon-tábon8 seed pulp over the lashing prevents it from loosening or slipping and at the same time preserves it from atmospheric action. Occasionally one sees arrowheads with square shoulders that act as barbs. I have never seen steel arrowheads in use among Manóbos, though it is certain that they are used by Mañgguáñgans between the Agúsan and the Sálug.9 It is not unlikely, moreover, that they are used by the people of the Ihawán and Baóbo Rivers.
6Of the species known as la-hí'.
7Da-mu-án species.
8Parinarium mindanaense (Rosaceae).
9I purchased for the Bureau of Science Museum a unique specimen which, besides having a steel head, is provided with an ugly spur. The owner claimed that it was one of the arrows that had been shot at him and the party that accompanied him by the people of a Mañgguáñgan settlement. I was one of his party.