Should his debtor, however, be present, the creditor and his companions are regaled with betel nut and food and the meeting is perfectly goodnatured. But gradually the subject of the debt is introduced and then begins the pandemonium. If the chiefs who have accompanied the creditor's party have enough moral influence to bring about an agreement, the matter is settled, but if not, the visiting party may depart suddenly with yells of menace and defiance, and very frequently may have recourse to the seizure method, taking on their way home any object that they may encounter such as a pig, or even a human being. Hence as soon as it becomes known that no settlement has been made bamboo joints5 are blown--the invariable signal in Manóboland of danger--and everybody goes into armed vigilance. Children and women are not allowed to leave the house, and pigs are frequently taken from below and put up in the house until the enraged creditor and his party have gone.
5Tam-bú-li.
I was in one place where such a state of things existed. My merchandise was taken by my host from under the house and carefully hidden upstairs. I wished to go to meet the collecting party but no one would volunteer to accompany me.
If an agreement to pay has been brought about, the debtor has to make the settlement before the departure of his creditor, even though it may require several days to complete the payment. In this latter case the sustenance of the visiting party and all their needs fall, by custom, upon the poor debtor.
Such is the customary method of collecting debts when all peaceable efforts have been unavailing. To understand the principle involved in it, as also the circumstances that bring it about, it is necessary to bear in mind that once the creditor becomes disgusted with the delay of his debtor in settling the account, he announces his intention to add to the indebtedness a financial equivalent of all fatigues6 and expenses to be subsequently incurred in the collection of the debt. These fatigues not only include the actual trips made both by himself and such messengers as he may send to collect the debt, but such incidental losses, sicknesses, or accidents as may be the outcome of such trips.
6Ka-há-go.
Another principle recognized in this matter is the liability into which the debtor may fall for such losses as the creditor may undergo through his failure to fulfill his obligations to a third person. Thus A owes B a pig, and B owes C, who in his turn must pay a lance to D at a certain time. On account of C's failure to deliver the lance in due time to D, he is, according to a previous contract, mulcted to the equivalent of 15 pesos. Had C been able to purchase a lance with the pig that B owed him he would, by customary law, be justified in putting the fine of 15 pesos to B's account. B attributes his failure to A's delay and on the same grounds, adds 15 pesos to the latter's indebtedness.
It is clear that the principle of liability involved in this system gives rise to an infinity of disputes that may lead to bloodshed whenever the matter can not be arbitrated by the more influential men and chiefs in a public assembly. The debt after a certain time increases beyond reasonable proportions until it finally becomes so great as to be beyond the debtor's means. Notwithstanding the sacredness with which the average Manóbo regards his debts, it happens occasionally that a little bad feeling springs up which, in the course of time may lead to serious consequences. It will be readily understood how easy it is for one party to take umbrage at the words or actions of another and to become obstinate. Happily, however, this does not happen frequently, on account of the salutary fear inspired by the lance and the bolo, and the urgent endeavors of the chiefs and the more influential men to settle matters amicably. I am surprised that disputes and bloodshed arising from, the great credit system do not occur more frequently among such primitive people.
Though in practice the relatives of a debtor assist him to settle his obligations, especially when he is hard pressed by his creditor, yet in theory there is no joint obligation to pay the debt. Neither do they, as a rule, assume a collective responsibility for it.
Between relatives, as between others, the law regarding the payment of a debt is strenuously maintained, though I know of no case between near relatives in which it led to more than family bickerings. A very careful account of the indebtedness of one relative to another is sedulously kept.