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.