On the upper Agúsan both men and women suspend four strings of beads from each ear, when the dignity of the occasion requires it. These strings are about 30 centimeters long and have colored cotton tassels at the ends. Both these tassels and the strings of beads are of the preferred colors, red, white, black, and yellow. I am inclined to think that this custom is also of Mandáya origin. Occasionally one or two buttons4 are worn in the ear lobes of men on the upper Agúsan. This practice seems to have been adopted from the Mandáyas.
4Ordinary undershirt buttons.
NECK AND BREAST ORNAMENTS
The number of necklets and necklaces worn depends on the wealth of the wearer or on her good fortune in having been able to secure a supply of beads. The components of the necklace are principally beads with alternating odoriferous seeds or pieces of seeds. Here and there a small shell may be added, or a larger bead, or a crocodile tooth. The writer has seen worn coils of beads with small shells, seeds, and crocodile teeth, that must have weighed at least 2 kilograms. Such an array as this is not worn every day but is reserved for occasions of religious or secular festivity and for times when the possessor feels bound to make an unusual display. The seeds worn are the same as those that form part of the girdle--pendants, above described.
It may not be out of place here to note the fondness displayed by the feminine portion of the tribe for perfumes. This is characteristic of all the peoples of eastern Mindanáo with whom I have been in contact. Though medicinal and magic virtues are attributed, perhaps, to these odorous seeds, yet their fragrance is also undoubtedly a determining factor in the choice of them.
In the color of the beads used the Manóbo is restricted by the character of the supply, but it may be said that where he has his choice he selects red, yellow, black, and white. He prefers the small seed bead, but likes to have a few large beads to place at recurring intervals.
Necklets are occasionally worn. They consist of bands of beads, arranged symmetrically according to color in geometrical figures--a triangle of yellow beads, a rectangle of black ones, or other patterns. This necklet is usually about 2 centimeters broad and long enough to fit the neck tightly. It is fastened at the back by a button and usually has a single string of beads depending from it and lying upon the back. Men may wear this necklet, but its use by them is very infrequent. They, however, occasionally wear a necklace from which to suspend the hair eradicator. I observed this only on the upper Agúsan, and, as it is an ordinary Mandáya practice I suppose that the custom is borrowed--another indication of the influence of Mandáya culture on the Manóbos of the upper Agúsan. The eradicator is a small pair of tweezers made, ordinarily, out of a piece of beaten brass wire bent double and having inturned edges.
The only breast ornament, besides tattooing on the skin and embroidery on the jacket, is the silver plaque or disk worn nearly always by unmarried women and frequently by others. The wearing of these disks is a custom practiced only on the upper Agúsan, Ihawán, and Simúlau Rivers, and is without doubt of Mandáya origin. The plaque is a large thin sheet of beaten silver varying from 7 to 10 centimeters in diameter. It is of Debabáon or of Mandáya workmanship. It has a pattern of concentric circles and other symmetrical figures traced upon it, together with a fretwork of small triangular holes. The more elaborate ones display an amount of artistic skill that gives the Mandáya5 the high reputation that he has in eastern Mindanáo as a man of superior attainments.
5Mandáyaland produces nearly all the lances, spears, bolos, daggers, and artistic cloth used by the Manóbos throughout eastern Mindanáo. Outside of a few silversmiths among the Debabáons, and a few among the hybrid group occupying the upper Agúsan from Gerona to Tagaúnud, the Mandáya smiths are the only ones that are skilled in silverwork.