On all occasions, when there is any apprehension of danger, arms are worn. During meals, even of festive occasions, the Manóbo eats with his left hand, holding his right in readiness for an attack. The guests at a feast are seated in such a way that an attack may be easily guarded against. Various other laws of intercourse, such as those governing the passing of one person behind another and method of unsheathing a bolo, regulate the dealings of man with man and clan with clan.
Commercial relations between Bisáyas and Manóbos, both pagan and Christianized, constitute, on the part of the first-mentioned, a system of deliberate and nefarious spoliation which has been denounced from the time of the first missionaries and which, by the establishment of trading posts by the Government, eventually will be suppressed. Absolutely inadequate values both in buying and selling commodities, use of false weights and measures, defraudation in accounts, demands of unspeakably high usury, wheedling by the puának or friendship system, advancing of merchandise at exorbitant rates, especially just before the rice harvest, and the system of commutation by which an article not contracted for was accepted in payment though at a paltry price--these were the main features of the system. It may be said that the resultant and final gain amounted to between 500 and 1,000 per cent.
The bartering was carried on in a spirit of dissimulation, the Manóbo being cozened into the idea that the sale was an act of friendship and involved a comparative loss on the part of the Bisáya. A period, more or less extended, was allowed him wherein to complete the payment, with a promise of further liberal advances.
Since the Manóbo has become aware of the stupendous gain of the Bisáya, he is not so prompt in his payments and in fact often thwarts his creditor by deliberate delays. Hence the frequent bickerings, quarrels, and ill will that are ever a result of these commercial relations.
It is needless to say that throughout the valley there was most undue fluctuation of prices. Moreover, the Manóbo sold a part of his rice in harvest time at 50 centavos a sack, and in time of scarcity repurchased it at as much as 5 pesos.
The internal commerce of the Manóbos presents, on the whole, a very different spectacle. It consists in simple exchanges. There is no circulating medium. The units of exchange are slaves (valued at from 15 to 30 pesos each), pigs, and plates, but with the exception of the first, these units are not constant in value.
The measures used are the gántang, a cylindrical wooden vessel with a capacity of from 10 to 15 liters; the kabán,1 which contains 25 gántang; the yard, measured from the end of the thumb to the middle of the sternum; the span, the fathom, the finger, and the finger joint.
1Called also bákid and anéga. A kabán is measured by counting out 25 gántang.
Slavery is a recognized institution, but since the diminution of intertribal and interclan wars the number of slaves has diminished. Slaves were originally obtained by capture and then passed from hand to hand in making marriage payments. It sometimes occurs, in an exigency, that a man delivers a child, even his own, into captivity.
The slave is generally not ill-treated but has to do all the work that is assigned to him. He has no rights of any kind, possesses no property except a threadbare suit, and is usually not allowed to marry. However, he receives a sufficiency of food and seems to be contented with his lot.