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.