They practice baptism or gúnting, which they have learned, although badly, from the Christian captives.
For the administration of baptism, they prepare cocoanut oil, rice flour, water from the cocoanut and natural water. When the child is four or six months old, on that day that they think best, the imam takes a little of each of those ingredients abovesaid, and places them on the forehead of the child, at the same time uttering certain words from the Koran. At the end of the ceremony the feast follows, and the imam is the first to whom the large tray of food must be presented.
Marriage
The fathers or owners of the young girls rather sell than give them for wives. Fees are assigned for the petitions made by the young men to the fathers or masters of their sweethearts. Consequently, it is seldom that the young woman is given to the suitor at his first or second petition. The young woman is granted to the suitor, who pays greater or less fees, according as the family is more or less principal and as the young woman is more or less good-looking. Consequently, thirty, fifty, or more pesos are demanded for her delivery, besides the marriage feast.
The ceremonies observed by them, as I have seen them, are as follows. The groom chews his buyo as he is required, then goes into the midst of the guests, makes some wry faces, and passes his hands along his face. By that means they say that he is asking pardon of God by confessing his sins. This is called magtanbat. Then if the groom has not paid because of poverty, for a suitable banquet, some of the chiefs present strike him several blows on the back with a rattan formed like a hand, more or less numerous, according to what he has neglected to prepare for the banquet.
Then the groom goes to wash his feet and clothe himself in white garments. On coming out he seats himself on a mat, and places his right hand between the two hands of one chief, and his left upon the right hands of the other chiefs. Then the imam covers his right hand and that of the groom with a white handkerchief, and thus being united, they utter some words from the Koran. The imam lifts his hands, and extends them so that his palms are turned outwards and at a distance of two cuartas,[13] and lifts them to his head. The groom does the same, but the palms of his hands are turned toward his face. They clasp hands again with the chiefs in the manner abovesaid, and then the feast immediately follows. At the end of the feast, they go to the home of the bride, and the same ceremonies are there repeated with her as with the groom.
At intervals they play the culintíngan, and if the groom is an influential person, there is a discharge of musketry, and a cow or carabao is killed, and innumerable Moros invited in. The richer one is the more guests there are; and at intervals there is generally a war dance.
Burial
When the sickness is severe, the imam performs the magtaual, by sprinkling a little water on the sick person, and reciting some prayers to their false prophet. They clothe the deceased in a white garment which covers them from top to toe. Those who are present or who visit the deceased, are invited to a feast. The grave that is made is deep or shallow according to the rank of the person who is to be buried, but it is always one and one-half or two varas deep, and in the shape of a crescent. In one side of it they open a kind of cave, where the body is to be buried. Once the body is deposited there, they set upright stakes in the cave and then make a platform over the hole while two persons scare away the flies with a white cloth so that they may not come near. At the ends of the grave they place a tabo[14] of water and food. The imam comes, recites some Mahometan prayers, approaches the dish of food which they have placed there for him, and there at the very grave, he stuffs himself with dexterity, and retires. At the termination of that gastronomic operation, the death-guards (or tunguquibul) who watch the dead for the space of a few days and nights, enter. This is done by various families in turn, according to the wealth or property of the family of the deceased, for they are paid in food and cloth whenever they stand guard. When the deceased, or rather his relatives have nothing more with which to recompense them, the guards cease to watch the dead.
If any of the family of the deceased do not wish that guard to be made, the imams and some others circulate the rumor that the dead person has escaped and is running through the hills terrifying the passers-by. That ghost they call pañata, and until the guard has been made, that rumor does not cease to be circulated.