Sometimes a bolder warrior chief who has a personal grievance may send a war message in the shape of a fighting-bolo,7 or of a lance with an abusive challenge, but this is rare, as far as I have been able to ascertain. It is common, however, for the more famed war chiefs to keep their personal enemies on the qui-vive, by periodic threats. "I will begin my march 10 nights from now," "I will reap his rice," "I will eat his heart and liver," "He won't be able to sow rice for four years," "I need his wife to plant my camotes"--are samples of the messages that reach a clansman and keep him and his family on some mountain pinnacle for many a long year till such time as the threat is carried out and the posts of his house, all wreathed with secondary growth, tell the grim tale of revenge. I have seen such posts scattered over the face of eastern Mindanáo--a memory of the dead.
7Li-kúd-lí-kud.
TIME FOR WAR
The usual time for war is either on the occasion of death in the family or at the time of the harvest season. The former is selected both to soften, by the joy of victory, the sorrow felt for the loss of a dear relative, and to check the jubilation that the enemy would naturally feel and frequently express on such an occasion. The latter is chosen for the purpose of destroying the enemy's rice crop or at least of making it difficult for him to harvest it.
War is undertaken at other times also. Thus a sudden and grievous provocation would cause an expedition to start just as soon as the necessary number of warriors could be assembled, and a favorable combination of omens obtained.
It often happens, I have been told over and over again, that when an attack proves unsuccessful, those who repelled the attack set out at once to surprise their enemies by a shower of arrows while the latter are returning to their homes, or, if possible, reach the settlement before them and massacre the defenseless women and children.
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR
The remote preparations for war consist in locating the house of the enemy and in getting all information, even the minutest, as to the trails, position of traps and bamboo spears. All this must be done through a third party, preferably someone who has a grievance to satisfy, and may require months or even years, for the Manóbo is a cautious fighter and will take no unnecessary risks. During all this time the aggrieved party is enlisting, in a quiet, diplomatic way, the good will of as many as he can trust. If he has no recognized warrior chief on his side he must by all means secure the services of at least one, even though it should be necessary to offer him a material compensation and in divers other ways gain his good will and cooperation.