Wheedling or the puának system.--Another means of exploitation practiced on the Manóbos of the upper Agúsan was the puának system, invented by the Bisáya trader. The puának was some prosperous Manóbo who was chosen as an intimate friend and who, out of friendship, was expected to furnish his Bisáya friend anything which the latter might ask for. The Bisáya in return was expected to do the same.
The Bisáya paid his Manóbo friend a few visits every year, on which occasions he was received with all the open-hearted hospitality so characteristic of the Manóbo. Pigs and chickens, purchased frequently at high rates, were killed in his honor. The country was scoured for sugar-cane wine or other drink, and no means were left untried to make the reception royal. The Bisáya, in the meanwhile, lavished on his host soft, wheedling words, at the same time giving him sad tales of the rise in the price of merchandise, of his indebtedness to the Chinese, and before leaving gave him a little cloth or some other thing of small value. In return he received paddy, tobacco, and such other articles as he needed. The farewell was made with great demonstrations of friendship on the Bisáya's part and with an invitation to his Manóbo friend to visit him at a certain stated time.
During his friend's visit the Manóbo had gone around the country canvassing for paddy and such other articles as he had been instructed to barter for. His wife and female relatives had stamped out several sacks of paddy for their friend. His sons and other male relatives had cleaned the Bisáya's boat and supplied him with rattan. In a word, the whole family had made menials of themselves to satisfy the Bisáya's every desire.
At the stated time the Manóbo started downstream with the various commodities that had been requested of him, paddy, tobacco, and other things. At his friend's house he was received with a great exhibition of joy and welcome. During his stay he was kept happy by constant doses of vino. Besides the killing of a suckling pig and of a few chickens, a little wheedling and palavering were about the only entertainment he received. But as the grog kept him in good humor and it is supposed to cost one peso per liter, he was perfectly happy, turned over his wares to the host, had his accounts balanced for him (he was usually in a hilarious condition while this was being done), received further advances of merchandise at the usual usurious rates, and left for his upland home to tell his family and relatives of the glorious time he had at his puának's.
Bartering transactions.--The following schedule of approximate values of commodities in the Agúsan, 1905 to 1909, will serve to show the commercial depredations committed on Manóbos and conquistas by the Bisáyas who have ever looked upon them as their legitimate prey.
To this list might be appended the values of exchange in paddy, beeswax, and rattan and the corresponding gain made when these latter are bartered in their turn for hemp or disposed of to the Chinese merchants.
From the above list it is evident that a Bisáya trader could go up the river with goods valued at 26 pesos and within a few weeks return with abaká valued at 138 pesos to 175 pesos, according to the scales and other measures used. His total expenses, including his own subsistence, probably would not exceed 30 pesos.