MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE
The Manóbo makes his living by farming, fishing, hunting, and trapping. He clears a patch of the primeval forest, and his womenfolk clean off the brush, sow broadcast a little rice, plant camotes, some taro, maize, and sugarcane. As the rice crop seldom is sufficient for the sustenance of his household, the Manóbo must rely also on the camote for his maintenance.
He obtains his supply of fish from the streams and rivers. When the water is deep and the current is not strong, he shoots the fish with a special bow and arrow. When the water is shallow and swift, he makes use of bamboo traps and at times poisons the whole stream.
To provide himself with meat, he occasionally starts off into the forest with dogs and seldom returns without a deer or a wild boar. He keeps several spring traps set somewhere in the forest but it is only during the rainy season that he may be said to be successful with these. He has a trap for monkeys, a snare for birds, a decoy for wild chickens, and uses his bow and arrow on monkeys and birds.
With the meat that he procures from the above sources, together with lizards and pythons which he sometimes catches, and fungi, larvae, and palm trees, which he finds in the forest, he manages to fill in the intervals between the ceremonial and the secular celebrations that recur so frequently during the year, and to keep himself fairly well supplied.
WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS
The bolo and, in some districts, the dagger, is the inseparable companion of the Manóbo. On the trails he always carries a lance and frequently a shield. For war he has an abaká coat of mail and a bow and arrow. In time of alarm he sets out bamboo caltrops, makes an abatis of fallen trees, and places human spring traps around his lofty house.
For work he has a bolo and a primitive adze[sic]. These, with a rice header, a small knife, a hunting spear, a special arrow for hunting, a fish spear, and perhaps a few fishhooks, serve all the purposes of his primitive life. With one or the other of these he fells the mighty trees of the primordial forest, performs all the operations of agriculture, of hunting and fishing, builds himself a house, in certain districts hews out shapely canoes, whittles out handsome bolo sheaths, and makes a variety of other necessary and often artistic articles. They are the sum total of his tools and serve him instead of all the implements of modern civilization.