It is the common report in Manóboland that, when a woman makes known the act of her lover, the latter does not deny it. Not only under such circumstances, but in nearly all other instances when brought face to face with the truth a Manóbo will confess, sometimes even though there be no witness against him. Such is my observation of dealings between Manóbo and Manóbo. In his relations with outsiders, however, the Manóbo is not so veracious; on the contrary, he displays no little art in suppressing or in twisting the truth.
MARRIAGE CONTRACTS AND PAYMENTS
In the chapter on marital relations it was made manifest that marriage is practically a sale in which a certain amount of the marriage price is returned to the bridegroom. This rule is very stringent. Should the marriage negotiations discontinue without any fault of the man or of his relatives all payments previously made have to be returned, item for item. In this respect it is to be noted that marriage contracts are almost relentlessly rigid, a fact that suggests an explanation of the length of the period that is usually required to terminate the negotiations. For it is only by many acts of attention and even of subservience that the suitor's relatives break down the obdurateness of the fiancé's relatives and make them relax the severity of their original demands. Very minute and strict accounts of the various payments, including such small donations as a few liters of rice, are recorded on a knotted rattan strip in anticipation of a final disagreement.
When it is decided that the marriage is not to take place by reason of the death of one of the affianced parties, the father and relatives of the fiancé must return all the purchase payments which may have been made. Custom provides that these payments shall be returned gradually, the idea being, presumably, to allow the fiancé's relatives an opportunity to profit by the donations of a new suitor, if one should present himself within a stipulated period. It will be readily understood that the nature of the debts incurred by an obligation to return marriage payments determines the character of the payments that will be exacted from a new suitor. Thus, if A's relatives, for good reasons, decide not to continue their suit for the hand of B's daughter, B would be granted a specified time in which to await the presentation of a new suitor for his daughter's hand. This new suitor would be required to bring a lance, for example, and other objects that would serve as first and more urgent payments to A.
In the case of fornication committed by a man with his fiancé, death may be the penalty if the girl's father desires to have the marriage broken off, but I was given to understand that such a heavy penalty is rarely inflicted, the girl's father contenting himself with imposing a heavy fine.
ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN
In all my wandering among the Manóbos, I never knew nor heard of an illegitimate child, so can not say what regulations govern, if such births occur. In Mandáyaland the father of an illegitimate child is obliged to marry the girl and to enter his father-in-law's family in a state of semiservitude. The marriage takes place before the birth of the child.
I was told by Mandáyas that illegitimate children belong to the nearest male relative of the mother, that in case of her marriage they still belong to her relative, and that they are treated in all other respects as legitimate children.