The Manóbos of Mindanáo / Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir

by John M. Garvan

³Sái-yung or saung.

TABOOS TO BE OBSERVED BY THE WIFE

1. She must not do any heavy work nor carry anything on her head.

2. She must not sit on a corner of the hearth frame.

3. While in a sitting posture she must leave one knee uncovered.

4. She must be careful in the selection of her food for a period that seems to depend, according to my observation, on individual whim.

Hence after the inception of pregnancy a woman becomes almost fastidious in the choice of her food. Her every whim must be catered to. No general rule can be given, but her general preference is for vegetable food, especially the core of the various wild palm trees,⁴ plantains, and when obtainable, young coconuts. Acid fruits, such as the various species of lemons or the fruits of rattan vines, seem to be her special predilection.

⁴Ó-bud.