RELIGIOUS TOURS
In order that the pious fraud might be carried out more effectively and with less risk to the missionaries of it, it was proclaimed at the beginning that all feuds should cease and that all quarrels were tabooed. This permitted intercourse between former enemies and enabled the priests and their assistants to travel unmolested from settlement to settlement. Together with an injunction that prohibited any controversy as to the truth of the movement or of any of its tenets, under penalty of failing to participate in its ultimate advantages, the proscription of feuds and quarrels insured personal safety to all who might desire to visit other settlements.
To provide a lodging for the great number of priests and others who would presumably visit settlements outside of their own, the originators of the fraud decided and proclaimed that religious structures should be erected in every settlement. It was thought, probably, that the erection of these would give greater eclat to the affair and thereby tend to bring about a general and more ready adherence to the movement.
As a safeguard against the discovery of the fraud, it was taboo to dispute or to express doubts about any detail of the doctrines, even the most minute. As a further precaution against the suspicions of doubting Thomases, great care was exerted in the selection of priests and of their assistants. In nearly every case the persons selected were active, popular, and, apparently at least, guileless young men. I myself was shocked on discovering to what length these young fellows, in all other respects attractive and popular, went in their propagation of the fraud and of their insidious utilization of its benefits.
They traveled from settlement to settlement, bearing the latest reports about Meskínan; how he had failed to come to an agreement with the ancient deities, how he was wandering around in the starry regions; how he had assistants who were forging chains of steel with which to pull up the religious building in the hour of the earth's doom. After convincing their listeners of the gravity of the situation and of the necessity for renewed efforts, they would dance, chant, tremble, prophesy, shake their sacred kerchief at or over some desired object, receive a harvest of donations, and go on their way rejoicing with the sacred booty in their possession.
An idea of the magnitude of the pious offerings sometimes made may be gained from the following list of articles received by a high priest from the upper Sálug during a religious tour from the Agúsan to the Manorígao, Karága, Mánai, and Kasaúman districts.
3 old English muzzle-loaders.
100 ornamental silver breastplates.
300 old Spanish and Mexican pesos.
60 pieces of Mandáya skirt cloth.
9 pigs (not including those that had been sacrificed in the course of the tour).
30 various other objects, such as suits of clothes.
I estimate the cash value of the above to be, more or less, 1,000 pesos, an amount with which the priest could have purchased 33 slaves or 5 of the most costly maids in his tribe.
The case of a high priest who was under old financial obligations to me is another instance of the extent of the sacred traffic. Upon my arrival I advised him of my purpose and told him to get ready to settle his debt. Though he had absolutely no property at the time, he assured me that he could pay as much as a thousand pesos, so he started out for a trip among the Mandáyas of Manorígao and within a few weeks received enough pious offerings wherewith to pay his debt.