He soon learns to smoke tobacco, to chew betel nut, and even to take a drink of the brew that is being passed around, and thus he grows up to be, at the age of 14 or 15, a little full-fledged man with his teeth blackened, his lips stained, and his bolo at his side.
He enters youth without any special ceremony. It is true that as the boy grows to puberty his teeth are ground and blackened and he is tatooed[sic] and circumcised. Such operations might be considered as an initiation into manhood or at least as a survival of a custom that is so much in vogue in certain parts of Oceania. In other words, the youth begins to tattoo and to assume other ornamentation in order that he may attract the attention of the female portion of the tribe.
It is needless to say that he receives no schooling. In fact, the average Manóbo who has not come in contact with civilization would not know what to think of a pencil. On one occasion I accidentally allowed some Manóbos to see my pencil. The sight of it aroused an animated discussion as to the nature of the tree that yielded such peculiar wood. All the schooling which the Manóbo boy gets is from the forest and the streams. From them he learns to trap the timid deer and to catch the wily fish. In them he acquires a quick step, a sharp eye, and a keen ear. In the ways of nature he is a scholar, because the first moment that he can clamber down the notched pole he betakes himself to the surrounding forest and schools himself in all her ways and moods.
As soon as the boy reaches the age at which he feels that he is a man, he ceases to be under paternal restraint, which even up to that age has been more or less lax. At this period he assumes as much independence as his father, but will obey any behest without understanding the propriety or the necessity of complying. As a general rule, filial relations are most cordial, and great respect is entertained for both parents, but it may be said that male children respect and love the father, while girls love their mother.
BIRTH ANOMALIES
MONSTROSITIES
Monstrosities are extremely rare. I met only one case, that of a child with an abnormally large head.31 Idiocy also is very uncommon, only one case having come under my observation.
31Bása, Simúlao River, middle Agúsan.