The Manóbos of Mindanáo / Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir

by John M. Garvan

PRETENDED CHASTITY AND AUSTERITY

Chastity and austerity also were means calculated to promote faith in the sincerity of the priest, and consequently in the truth of their assertions and divine interpretations. The abstention from sexual intercourse was strictly enjoined on all who had received a Magbabáya, and observance of the restriction was rigid apparently. The priests and their wives slept in the religious building, but did not cohabit, the men sleeping in one place and the women in another. But, as I was told by one high priest before my departure that he had observed the injunction only in appearance, I am inclined to think that the same was true of all the other priests.

Abstinence from food was also enjoined by the decrees of the great Magbabáya of Libagánon. Hence priests pretended to abstain from all food when in their own settlements but during their religious tours ate and drank on the plea that the spirits had forbidden them to abstain, as such abstinence might cause offense because of the laws of hospitality, which require a visitor not to refuse the bounty of his host. The customs as to abstinence were not uniform. One priest maintained that his deity required from him total abstinence while he was in his own settlement. Another asserted that only partial abstinence was required of him, as, for example, from rice, or from chicken, or from drink, and he observed the rule rigidly. Total abstinence, however, was only a pretense. I had occasion to verify this fact in the case of a priest who maintained emphatically that he had not eaten a morsel for three whole days. I went to his house and found him eating inside the mosquito-bar. Of course I was fined for my curiosity.

The doctrine of the withdrawal of the ancient tribal divinities and the substitution for them of the new-fangled ones at a time of such common peril was well calculated to arouse the inherent religious fanaticism and fear of these primitive peoples. Let us review the principal points of the creed. The ancient deities had abandoned the world in disgust and decreed its downfall. The great Magbabáya of Libagánon had gone down to the pillars of the world and was prepared to shake the earth to its very foundations until it toppled over. He and the spirits with whom he communicated were powerful deities, able and disposed to rescue their worshipers not only in the awful moment of dissolution when the earth would become a vast charnel house full of darkness and desolation, but also in all the concerns of life up to the very end.

These new-fangled spirits were endowed with marvelous powers. They could resuscitate the dead, restore the sick to health, discern the future, impart invulnerability and other wondrous qualities, and in the moment of final dissolution rescue their faithful worshipers from the irrevocable vengeance of the ancient tribal divinities. Many and many a Manóbo told me, when I suggested to him the possibility of error or of deception in the whole system, that it was better to be sure than sorry, and that it was well worth the loss of the worldly goods to be sure of securing immunity from the threatened danger. Who would not be afraid when even the mighty Magbabáya of Libagánon would at times demand a lance from every settlement and keep careful watch? When many of them began to discover the fraud they were ashamed to confess their credulity and fanaticism, and so, seeing a good opportunity to recover their pecuniary losses, joined in the fraud and deliberately swindled others out of their temporal goods.

THE END OF THE MOVEMENT

The beginning of the end came about December, 1910. The various inconsistencies in the reports from Libagánon, the continual postponement by Meskínan of the end for one flimsy reason or another, the discovery by individuals of lies and fraudulent conduct on the part of the priests, the hunger and misery consequent upon the abandonment of the crops, the constant advice on the part of Bisáyas and others, and the ever-increasing scarcity of valuables that might be given as offerings to the priests and to their assistants--all these contributed to bring about the termination of a religious swindle that victimized at least 50,000 people.

It is evident that when the time announced for the dissolution approached some reason for its failure to take place would have to be patched up and propagated. Thus in the beginning the catastrophe was to take place after one moon, but Meskínan made a long journey for the purpose of interceding with the old tribal gods and succeeded in getting a prorogation of three moons. Toward the end of the three moons, Meskínan decided to wait for one more before putting into execution the fatal decree. And so things went on from moon to moon. Now the end would be postponed because Meskínan had to finish a mystic piece of cloth on a loom near the pillars of the world. Then it would not take place because he had hied him to an "island of the sea." And thus things continued until people began to weary of the suspense and to suspect the fraud.

At the time of my departure from the upper Agúsan the whole country was getting into a turmoil. The Mandáyas, enraged at the loss of their property bootlessly bestowed on the priest, threatened to make an attack upon the people of the Agúsan. The Manóbos announced their intention of raiding the Debabáons. The Mañgguáñgans menaced the Tágum Mandáyas. In a word trouble was so imminent that had it not been for the establishment of government on the upper Agúsan to protect the Christianized peoples already settled in towns, probably there would have been much bloodshed.