THE FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT OF THE HOUSE
The Manóbo house fittings are of the scantiest and most necessary kind. The tenure of the house may be brief, depending, as it does, upon a suspicion of danger or even on a dream. So the Manóbo does not indulge in the luxury of chairs, tables, or similar articles. The upraised portion of the floor, or the floor itself, serves him as a chair and a bench. For a table he uses a small board such as is so universally used throughout Mindanáo by the poorer classes. Yet many are the houses that can not boast of even this simple equipment. He has no bedsteads, for the bamboo floor with a grass mat thrown over it affords him a cool and comfortable resting place. He has a fair abundance of mats, but they are ordinarily short, being made according to the length of the grass he happens to find. By day these mats are rolled up and laid aside on the floor or upon the beams of the house. If left on the floor, they afford the family dogs, who ensconce themselves therein, a convenient refuge from flies.
He dispenses with the use of pillows, unless the handiest piece of wood or of bamboo can be called a pillow. Lacking that, he lays his head upon the mat and enjoys as good a sleep, perhaps, as his more civilized fellowmen.
It is seldom, indeed, that he uses a mosquito bar, though wild abaká is abundant and his wife is a weaver. The mosquito bars which are in use are made out of abaká fiber. As the cloth for them, made on the ordinary loom, is less than a meter wide, and as much as 24 meters long, it must be cut up into strips nearly 2 meters long and sewn together to form the mosquito bar. It must be made of an odd number of pieces of cloth, for an even number is unlucky. A net made of 11 or 13 pieces is considered especially lucky. The use of the mosquito bar is very common among the conquistas of the Lake region.
Pictures and like ornaments are unknown, but in lieu of them may be seen trophies of the chase, such as wild-boar jawbones, deer antlers, and hornbill skulls and beaks. It is not infrequent to see the tail of some large fish fastened to one of the larger beams, under the roof. There is a special significance in the preservation of this trophy.
There is one article, however, which the Manóbo prizes as a mark of wealth and as a venerable relic. It is the sacred jar.8 I have been unable to obtain any information as to the origin of these jars except that they were usually obtained as marriage fees and that they were bought from the Banuáons. Be that as it may, they are a matter of pride in Manóboland, and on every occasion, festive and religious, they are set out, brimful of brew. Not every Manóbo is the proud possessor of one of these, but he who has one is loath to part with it. A glance at Plate 14 k, l, will give an idea of what these jars look like. They are decorated, as a rule, in alto relievo with figures of birds, snakes, etc., and to judge from their appearance are of Chinese workmanship. When given as marriage payments or for other purposes they are valued at about 4 pesos if they have no ears, but when they have ears they are worth as many pesos minus 1 as they have ears.
8Ba-hán-di.
Next to jars the Manóbo values plates and bowls, even those of the cheapest kind, and it is with a gleam of satisfaction on his face that the host sets out an array of old-fashioned plates for his guests. The Manóbo of the middle Agúsan, unlike his Mandáya neighbor, is particularly poor in plateware. I found houses that could not boast of a single plate, but as a rule each house has about four plates, a bowl, and a glass.
Depending from the roof are to be seen baskets of various shapes intended for a variety of uses, fish baskets, rice baskets of several kinds, storage baskets, betel-nut baskets, pack baskets, some of wickerwork and some of plaited rattan. Also, hanging from the rafters are to be seen fish traps, wild chicken traps, religious objects such as oblation trays, a guitar, or a bamboo harp, and if it is a priest's house, a drum and gong.