6Lúm-bia.
A piece of bamboo serves for cup and glass as auxiliary to, or a substitute for, the coconut-shell cup mentioned above.
VARIOUS KINDS OF FOOD
The great staple of Manóboland is the camote.7 During harvest time and for several weeks ensuing rice may constitute the bulk of his daily food, but after that he reserves for feasts, for friends, and for the sick what he does not sell, or part with in payment of debts. Should his camote crop fail he falls back upon the sago8 that abounds in the central Agúsan; or, when sago is not available, he seeks the wild fishtail palm,9 that affords him as pleasant and nutritious a food as any sago palm that ever grew. In the upper Agúsan the Manóbo plants a fair quantity of taro, and in the middle Agúsan, a small amount of maize in season, or even some beans,10 so that it is seldom he has to have recourse to the forest for his maintenance. But the mountain Manóbo is occasionally compelled to draw his sustenance from the various palm trees and vines that are found in such luxuriance throughout his forest domain. I have seen poisonous tubers gathered in time of famine by the Manóbos of the upper Wá-wa region and eaten, after they had been scraped on a prickly rattan branch, and the poison had been removed by a series of washings and dryings.
7Ipomoea batatas Poir.
8Lúm-bia.
9Bá-hi' (Caryota sp.)
10Called bá-tung.
He nearly always has a little sugar cane on the farm but, when it is not intended for making an inebriating drink, it is planted only in sufficient quantity to furnish occasionally a few pieces to the members of the household.