There is no drainage, artificial or natural and no means are provided for the removal of the ordure, unless it be the services of the scavenger pigs, who busy themselves as soon as they become aware of the presence of refuse. The effluvium, however, usually does not reach the inmates unless the house is very low.
As the smoke outlets are comparatively remote from the fireplace, it is obvious that the smoke does not make a rapid exit, but wreathes up among the beams and rafters thereby blackening them out of all semblance to wood. The underside of the thatch, especially those portions above the fire, receives a goodly coating of soot which, mixed with the greasy emanations from the pots, assumes a lustrous black.
Another matter that tends to give the house an air and feeling of uncleanliness is the host of small insects, presumably a species of cockroach, that infest the thatch, and, notwithstanding the volume of smoke that at times almost suffocates the inmates, swarm down into the baskets used for provisions and for other things. These multitudinous insects seem to flourish on the rattan vine especially, and no means are known whereby to exterminate them. Ants, especially the white ant, pay frequent visits to the house, but the worst scourge of all is the ravenous bedbug. This unpleasant insect is found under the joists just beneath the floor laths, but in greatest numbers under those parts of the floor that are continually used as sleeping places, and in the hammocks. Occasionally an effort is made to scrape them out, but they are so cunning in concealing themselves and breed with such rapidity that efforts to get rid of them are unavailing.
The presence of vermin on the bodies of the Manóbos is due to the lack of soap and of washing facilities. But, if questioned, these primitive people will inform you, that the vermin are natural growths or excretions proceeding from the inside.13 It is for this reason that no shame is exhibited in removing publicly the pests from the clothes or from the hair. Owing to the custom of the people of huddling together during the night these insects are propagated from one individual to another, so that it is seldom that the Manóbo is free from them.
13I found this belief to be almost universal in eastern Mindanáo.