The Manóbos of Mindanáo / Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir

by John M. Garvan

In preparing a pig, wild boar, or deer, a rough support, consisting of four vertical pieces of wood and a few horizontal parallel pieces, is erected outside the house, if the weather permits. A fire is built beneath the frame and the whole animal, minus the entrails, is laid upon it. Two men or more then set to work with pieces of wood, sharpened lengthwise, and scrape off the hair as fast as it becomes well singed. The operation lasts only about 15 minutes in the case of a large animal. When the hair has been removed the carcass is given a washing more or less thorough, according to the amount of water conveniently available, and the quartering begins.

The game is laid upon leaves; the four legs are removed in order; the head is chopped off; the ribs and remaining parts are hacked crossbone. During this operation the family dogs usually cause an infinite amount of trouble by their incessant attempts to secure a piece of the meat.

If the meat is for distribution, as it always is, except on occasions of festivity or of sacrifice, it is scrupulously divided at this moment. If it is for a feast, it is hacked up into small pieces and loaded into earthen pots, iron pans, and bamboo joints. The dogs are then allowed to lick the blood-stained leaves and to clean the floor.

The preparation of a domestic fowl is also left to the men and deserves a few words. When the fowl is not killed sacrificially, it is burnt to death. Catching the chicken firmly by the feet and wings with one hand and by the head and neck with the other, the owner singes it over the fire till it shows no more signs of life. It may be thought that this is a cruel way of killing an animal, for it kicks and twists and flutters unless firmly held, but the Manóbo is not allowed by his tribal institutions to kill the fowl as other peoples do. To cut off the head is strictly tabooed, a cruel and unbecoming procedure, for there is no one "to revenge the deed," he will tell you. So he chokes and burns it to death. All signs of life being extinct, he pulls out a few of the tail and wing feathers. I can give no reason for this procedure, but as the custom is so universal, I think it has a peculiar significance of its own.

As the singeing proceeds, the feather ends are plucked out and a. cursory washing given the fowl. The entrails, even the intestines with the exception of the gall bladder, are removed and utilized. Finally the head, the ends of the wings, and the lower parts of the legs are cut off, and ordinarily are given to the children who have been anxiously awaiting such delicacies.

The pounding and winnowing of the rice is such a common and important operation in the whole of eastern Mindanáo that it deserves special mention.

As the rice used by the mountain Manóbos is exclusively of their own harvesting, it must be hulled, a process that is performed just before every meal wherein it is used. The implements are a wooden mortar and a few heavy wooden pestles. The mortar is a piece of wood of varying dimensions, in the center of which is hollowed out, by burning and cutting, a conical hole, whose depth averages 24 centimeters in height and whose diameter is about 20 centimeters. One sees from time to time a mortar with two holes, or one on which there is evidence of an attempt at artistic effect by means of primitive carving, but, in the main, the mortar is a rough-hewn log with a conical hole in it and with the upper surface so cut that the paddy or rice will have a tendency to fall back into the hole.

The pestle is a pole, preferably and usually of heavy hardwood, about 1.5 meters long and 20 centimeters in circumference. It is a marked exception to find pestles decorated in any way. On the Umaíam River I saw one the end of which had been carved in open fretwork with a round loose piece of wood within the fretwork, a device that was as useful as it was ornamental, for the wooden ball by its rattling within the fretwork cage served to animate the holder and her companions to vigorous and constant strokes.

The following is the process of hulling: The mortar is more than half filled with unhulled rice. One or more women or girls grasp the pestles in the middle with one hand. One begins by driving down her pestle with force upon the paddy. Then another, and still another, if there be three. It stands to reason that, since the hole in the mortar is small, the most exact time must be kept, otherwise the pestles would interfere with one another. The sound made by the falling pestles often resembles that general but strange beat so prevalent in Manóbo drum rhythm. A visitor who has once seen three Manóbo women dressed in gala attire, with coils of beads and necklets, ply their pestles in response to the animated tattoo on the drum will never forget the scene. The pestles are tossed from one hand to the other to afford an instant's rest. They bob up and down with indescribable rapidity and in perfect rhythm as if they were being plied on some imaginary drum.

In a few minutes, from 5 to 15, the hull is shattered from the rice and one of the women bends down and with her hands removes the contents of the mortar to the winnowing tray. After winnowing, they repeat the process till all the husk has been separated from the grain. They then pound a new supply until there is enough rice for the purpose in view. The husk has been shattered from the grain as perfectly, though not as quickly, as if it had been done by a machine.