On a few occasions, I noticed that some individuals abstained from rice or from chicken. I was unable to elicit any other reason for the abstinence than the good pleasure of the persons concerned. As they admitted that they had been accustomed to use these foods and would use them again after certain periods, I suspect religious motives for the abstinence.
MEALS
ORDINARY MEALS
Though it may be said that three meals a day are not the rule among the Manóbos, yet they eat the equivalent of three or more, for between pieces of sugarcane and munchings of wild fruit,34 they keep replenishing the inner man pretty constantly. They eat breakfast at about 9 o'clock in the morning, dinner about 1 p. m., and supper at any hour between 6 and 9 p. m.
34There are many wild fruits in the Agúsan Valley, the most common of which are: The famous durian (Durio zibethinus), the jackfruit, lanka (Artocarpus integrifolia l. f.), lanzones (Lansium domesticum Jack.), makópa (Eugenia javanica Lam.), mámbug, támbis, kandíis, kátom (Dillenia sp.), and the fruit of the rattan (kápi). Most of these are of a sour acid nature but for this reason seem to be relished all the more.
All being ready for the meal, the inmates of the house squat down upon the floor, the husband with his wife and children apart, male visitors and the unmarried portion of the house eating together. Slaves eat when all have finished, and get what is left in the pots.
Just before beginning to eat, the host and, in fact, everybody except the women, tenders to visitors and others who have come in an invitation to join in the meal and nobody will begin to eat till everybody else has squatted down and is ready. Once the meal is begun, no one leaves, nor is it good etiquette to call anyone from his meal.
The hands are washed by pouring a little water upon them from a bowl, tumbler, coconut shell, or piece of bamboo; the mouth is rinsed, the water being ejected, frequently with force, through the interstices of the floor. Then all begin to eat. It is the invariable rule for men to eat with the left hand, and where others than relatives are present, to wear a weapon of defense, the right hand resting upon it in anticipation of a possible attack.
The various articles of food have already been set on the floor in the various receptacles heretofore described. Each one falls to with an appetite that can hardly be described. One or more of the womenfolk keep the wants of the diners supplied. The method of eating rice among the mountain Manóbos differs from that prevalent among the Christian tribes. A good-sized mass of rice is pressed together between the five fingers of the left hand and pushed up into the palm where it is made into a ball. Thence it is conveyed to the mouth. At intervals the rice (or camote) is flavored with a little accompaniment of meat or fish, and all is washed down with the soup of the meat or fish.