Each warrior gets credit for the number of people whom he kills, and is entitled to the slaves that he may capture. The warrior chiefs open the breasts of one or more of the headmen of the slain, insert a portion of their charm collars into the openings, and consume the heart and liver in honor of their war spirits.
During the return home the successful warriors make the forest resound with the weird ululation of the battle cry, and adorn their lances with palm fronds. Upon arrival at their settlement they are welcomed with drum and song and loud acclaim. A purificatory bath is followed by a feast in which each one recounts the minutest details of the attack. After the feast some of the captives may be given to warriors who were unlucky or who desire to satisfy their vengeance. The captives are dispatched in the near-by forest.
Ambush is also a very ordinary method of warfare. Several warriors station themselves in a selected position near the trail and await their enemy.
Whenever there is open rupture between two parties, it is customary for each of them to erect a high house in a place remote and difficult of access, and to surround it with such obstacles as will make it more dangerous. In these houses, with their immediate relatives and with such warriors as desire to take their part, they bide their time in a state of constant watch and ward.
When both parties to a feud are tired, either of fighting constantly or of taking refuge in flight, a peacemaking may be brought about through the good services of friendly and influential tribesmen. On the appointed day, the parties meet, balance up their blood debts and other obligations and decide on a term within which to pay them. As an evidence of their sincere desire to preserve peace and to make mutual restitution, a piece of green rattan is cut by the leaders, and a little beeswax is burnt, both operations being symbolic of the fate that will befall the one that breaks his plighted word.
Intertribal and analogous relations.--Intertribal relations between pagan Manóbos and Christtianized[sic] Manóbos, and between the former and Bisáyas were comparatively pacific during my residence in the Agúsan Valley. Between Manóbos and other mountain tribes, excepting Mañgguáñgans, the relations were, with casual exceptions, rather friendly, due, no doubt, to the lessons learned by the Manóbos in their long struggles with Mandáyas, Banuáons, andv Debabáons up to the advent of the missionaries about 1877. The Manóbos are inferior to the tribes mentioned in tribal cohesion and in intellect. Their dealings, however, with Mañgguáñgans, who are undoubtedly their physical and intellectual inferiors, present a different aspect. With the Mandáyas and Debabáons, they have helped to reduce the once extensive Mañgguáñgan tribe to the remnant that it is to-day.
Manóbos and other mountain tribes have little to do with each other. Only particular individuals of the various tribes, who have the happy faculty of avoiding trouble, travel among other tribes. In general, Manóbos are afraid of the aggressiveness of their neighbors (excluding the Mañgguáñgans), and their neighbors f ear Manóbo instability and hot-headedness; hence both sides pursue the prudent policy of avoidance.
Interclan relations have been comparatively peaceful since the establishment of the special government in the Agúsan Valley. Occasional killings took place formerly and probably still take place in remote regions, notably on the upper Baóbo. It is probable that since my departure from the Agúsan in 1910 these murders take place much less frequently, as the special government organized in 1907 has made great headway in getting in contact with the more warlike people of the interior.
Up to the time of my departure dealings between the various clans were purely commercial and of a sporadic nature. Old enmities were not forgotten, and it was considered more prudent to have as little as possible to do with one another.