E-text prepared by Carl D. DuBois

MEMOIRS

OF THE

NATIONAL ACADEMY
OF SCIENCES

VOLUME XXIII

FIRST MEMOIR

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 1931

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. - - - - - - - - - - Price $1.00 (paper cover)

MEMOIRS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

VOLUME XXIII

FIRST MEMOIR

- - - - - -

THE MANÓBOS OF MINDANÁO

BY

JOHN M. GARVAN

PRESENTED TO THE ACADEMY AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, 1929

THE MANÓBOS OF MINDANÁO

BY

JOHN M. GARVAN

CONTENTS

PART I. DESCRIPTIVE

CHAPTER I

CLASSIFICATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MANÓBOS
AND OTHER PEOPLES IN EASTERN MINDANÁO

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

"EASTERN MINDANÁO"

Throughout this monograph I have used the term "eastern Mindanáo" to include that part of Mindanáo that is east of the central Cordillera as far south as the headwaters of the River Libagánon, east of the River Tágum and its influent the Libagánon, and east of the gulf of Davao.

THE TERM "TRIBE"

The word "tribe" is used in the sense in which Dean C. Worcester defines and uses it in his article on The non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon:¹

A division of a race composed of an aggregate of individuals of a kind and of a common origin, agreeing among themselves in, and distinguished from their congeners by physical characteristics, dress, and ornaments; the nature of the communities which they form; peculiarities of house architecture; methods of hunting, fishing, and carrying on agriculture; character and importance of manufacture; practices relative to war and the taking of heads of enemies; arms used in warfare; music and dancing, and marriage and burial customs; but not constituting a political unit subject to the control of any single individual nor necessarily speaking the same dialect.

¹Philip. Journ. Sci., 1: 803, 1906.

PRESENT USE OF THE WORD "MANÓBO"

The word "Manóbo" seems to be a generic name for people of greatly divergent culture, physical type, and language. Thus it is applied to the people that dwell in the mountains of the lower half of Point San Agustin as well as to those people whose habitat is on the southern part of the Sarangani Peninsula. Those, again, that occupy the hinterland of Tuna Bay² come under the same designation. So it might seem that the word was originally used to designate the pagan as distinguished from the Mohammedanized people of Mindanáo, much as the name Harafóras or Alfúros was applied by the early writers to the pagans to distinguish them from the Moros.

²Tuna Bay is on the southern coast of Mindanáo, about halfway between Sarangani Bay and Parang Bay.

In the Agúsan Valley the term manóbo is used very frequently by Christian and by Christianized peoples, and sometimes by pagans themselves, to denote that the individual in question is still unbaptized, whether he be tribally a Mandáya, a Mañgguáñgan, or of some other group. I have been told by Mandáyas on several occasions that they were still manóbo, that is, still unbaptized.

Then, again, the word is frequently used by those who are really Manóbos as a term of contempt for their fellow tribesmen who live in remoter regions and who are not as well off in a worldly or a culture[sic] way as they are. Thus I have heard Manóbos of the upper Agúsan refer to their fellow-tribesmen of Libagánon as Manóbos, with evident contempt in the voice. I asked them what they themselves were, and in answer was informed that they were Agusánon--that is, upper Agúsan people--not Manóbos.

THE DERIVATION AND ORIGINAL APPLICATION OF THE WORD "MANÓBO"

One of the earliest references that I find to the Manóbos of the Agúsan Valley is in the General History of the Discalced Augustinian Fathers (1661-1699) by Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis.³ The author says that "the mountains of that territory⁴ are inhabited by a nation of Indians, heathens for the greater part, called Manóbos, a word signifying in that language, as if we should say here, robust or very numerous people." I have so far found no word in the Manóbo dialect that verifies the correctness of the above statement. It may be said, however, in favor of this derivation that manúsia is the word for "man" or "mankind" in the Malay, Moro (Magindanáo), and Tirurái languages. In Bagóbo, a dialect that shows very close resemblance to Manóbo, the word Manóbo means "man," and in Magindanáo Moro it means "mountain people,"⁵ and is applied by the Moros to all the mountain people of Mindanáo. It might be maintained, therefore, with some semblance of reason that the word Manóbo means simply "people." Some of the early historians use the words Manóbo, Mansúba, Manúbo. These three forms indicate the derivation to be from a prefix man, signifying "people" or "dweller," and súba, a river. From the form Manúbo, however, we might conclude that the word is made up of man("people"), and húbo("naked"), therefore meaning the "naked people." The former derivation, however, appears to be more consonant with the principles upon which Mindanáo tribal names, both general and local, are formed. Thus Mansáka, Mandáya, Mañgguáñgan are derived, the first part of each, from man ("people" or "dwellers"), and the remainder of the words, respectively, from sáka ("interior"), dáya ("up the river"), guáñgan ("forest"). These names then mean "people of the interior," "people that dwell on the upper reaches of the river," and "people that dwell in the forest." Other tribal designations of Mindanáo races and tribes are almost without exception derived from words that denote the relative geographic position of the tribe in question. The Banuáon and Mamánua are derived from banuá, the "country," as distinguished from settlements near the main or settled part of the river. The Bukídnon are the mountain people (bukid, mountain); Súbanun, the river people (súba, river); Tirurái, the mountain people (túduk, mountain, etéu, man);⁶ Tagakaólo, the people at the very source of a river (tága, inhabitant, ólo, head or source).

³Blair and Robertson, 41: 153, 1906.

⁴The author refers to the mountains in the vicinity of Líano, a town that stood down the river from the present Veruéla and which was abandoned when the region subsided.

⁵Fr. Jacinto Juanmarti's Diccionario Moro Magindanáo-Español (Manila, 1892), 125.

⁶My authority for this derivation is a work by Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera on The Origin of Philippine Tribal Names.

The derivation of the above tribal designations leads us to the opinion that the word Manóbo means by derivation a "river-man," and not a "naked man."

A further alternative derivation has been suggested by Dr. N. M. Saleeby,⁷ from the word túbo, "to grow"; the word Manóbo, according to this derivation, would mean the people that grew up on the island, that is the original settlers or autochthons. The word túbo, "to grow," is not, however, a Manóbo word, and it is found only in a few Mindanáo dialects.

⁷Origin of Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy, Manila, Nov. 1, 1911.

Father F. Combes, S. J.,⁸ says that the owners, that is, the autochthonic natives of Mindanáo, were called Manóbos and Mananápes.⁹ In a footnote referring to Mananápes, it is stated, and appears very reasonable and probable, that the above-mentioned term is not a tribal designation but merely an appellation of contempt used on account of the low culture possessed by the autochthons at that time.

⁸Historia de Mindanáo y Jolo (Madrid, 1664). Ed. Retana (Madrid, 1897).

⁹The word mananáp is the word for animal, beast in the Cebu Bisáya, Bagóbo, Tirurái, and Magindanáo Moro languages. Among some of the tribes of eastern Mindanáo, the word is applied to a class of evil forest spirits of apparently indeterminate character. It is noteworthy that these spirits seem to correspond to the Manubu spirits of the Súbanuns as described by Mr. Emerson B. Christie in his Súbanuns of Sindangan Bay (Pub. Bur. Sci., Div. Eth., 88, 1909).

Hence there seems to be some little ground for supposing that the word Manóbo was originally applied to all the people that formerly occupied the coast and that later fled to the interior, and settled along the rivers, yielding the seashore to the more civilized invaders.

The following extract from Dr. N. M. Saleeby¹⁰ bears out the above opinion:

¹⁰The Origin of the Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy on Nov. 1, 1911.

The traditions and legends of the primitive tribes of the Philippine Archipelago show very clearly that they believe that their forefathers arose in this land and that they have been here ever since their creation. They further say that the coast tribes and foreigners came later and fought them and took possession of the land which the latter occupy at present. When Masha' ika, the earliest recorded immigrant, reached Súlu Island, the aborigines had already developed to such a stage of culture as to have large settlements and rajas or datus.

These aborigines are often referred to in Súlu and Mindanáo as Manubus, the original inhabitants of Súlu Islands, the Budanuns, were called Manubus also. So were the forefathers of the Magindanáo Moros. The most aboriginal hill tribes of Mindanáo, who number about 60,000 souls or more, are called Manubus.

[Transcriber's note: Both of the above paragraphs comprise the quotation.]

The idea that the original owners were called Manóbos is the opinion of San Antonio also, as expressed in his Cronicas.¹¹ Such a supposition might serve also to explain the wide distribution of the different Manóbo people in Mindanáo, for, besides occupying the regions above-mentioned, they are found on the main tributaries of the Rio Grande de Kotabáto--the Batañgan, the Biktósa, the Luan, the Narkanitan, etc., and especially on the River Pulañgi--on nearly all the influents of the last-named stream, and on the Hiñgoog River in the Province of Misamis. As we shall see later on, even in the Agúsan Valley, the Manóbos were gradually split on the west side of the river by the ingress, as of some huge wedge, of the Banuáons. Crossing the eastern Cordillera, a tremendous mass of towering pinnacles--the home of the Mamánuas--we find Manóbos occupying the upper reaches of the Rivers Hubo, Marihátag, Kagwáit, Tágo, Tándag, and Kantílan, on the Pacific coast. I questioned the Manóbos of the rivers Tágo and Hubo as to their genealogy and former habitat and found that their parents, and even some of themselves, had lived on the river Kasilaían, but that, owing to the hostility of the Banuáons, they had fled to the river Wá-Wa. At the time of the coming of the Catholic missionaries in 1875, these Manóbos made their way across the lofty eastern Cordillera in an attempt to escape from the missionary activities. These two migrations are a forcible example of what may have taken place in the rest of Mindanáo to bring about such a wide distribution of what was, perhaps, originally one people. Each migration led to the formation of a new group from which, as from a new nucleus, a new tribe may have developed in the course of time.

¹¹Blair and Robertson, 40: 315, 1906.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MANÓBOS IN EASTERN MINDANÁO¹²

¹²See tribal map.

IN THE AGÚSAN VALLEY

The Manóbos occupy the whole Agúsan Valley as far as the town of Buai on the upper Agúsan with the following exceptions:

1. The upper parts of the rivers Lamiñga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and Óhut, and the whole of the river Maásam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably the territory beyond in the district of Misamis, as far over as the habitat of the Bukídnon tribe.¹³

¹³The reason for the insertion of this last clause is that the people inhabiting the mountains at the headwaters of the above rivers have the same physical types, dress, and weapons as the Bukídnons, if I may judge from my slight acquaintance with the latter.

2. The towns of Butuán, Talakógon, Bunáwan, Veruéla, and Prosperidad.

3. The town of Tagusab and the headwaters of the Tutui and Binuñgñgaan Rivers.

ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE PACIFIC CORDILLERA

In this region I include the upper waters of the Liañga, Hubo, Oteiza, Marihátag, Kagwáit, Tágo, Tándag, and Kantílan Rivers.

ON THE PENINSULA OF SAN AGUSTIN

I desire to call the reader's attention to the fact that this monograph has no reference to the Manóbos of Port San Agustin nor to the Manóbos of the Libagánon River and its tributaries, nor to the Manóbos that occupy the hinterland above Nasipit as far as the Bugábus River. I had only cursory dealings with the inhabitants of the last-named region but both from my own scant observations and from the reports of others more familiar with them, I am inclined to believe that there may be differences great enough to distinguish them from the other peoples of the Agúsan Valley as a distinct tribe.

As to the Manóbos of Libagánon, it is probable that they have more or less the same cultural and linguistic characteristics as the Manóbos that form the subject matter of this paper, but, as I did not visit them nor get satisfactory information regarding them, I prefer to leave them untouched until further investigation.

Of the Manóbos of the lower half of the peninsula of San Agustin, I know absolutely nothing except that they are known as Manóbos. I noted, however, in perusing the Jesuit letters¹⁴ that there were in the year 1891 not only Manóbos but Moros, Biláns, and Tagakaólos in that region.

¹⁴Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 335, et seq., 1892.

THE MAMÁNUAS, OR NEGRITOS, AND NEGRITO-MANÓBO HALF-BREEDS

The Mamánuas, or Negritos, and Negrito-Manóbo half-breeds of Mindanáo occupy the mountains from Anao-aon near Surigao down to the break in the eastern Cordillera, northwest of Liañga. They also inhabit a small range that extends in a northeasterly direction from the Cordillera to Point Kawit on the east coast.

I heard three trustworthy reports of the existence of Negritos in eastern Mindanáo. The first report I heard on the Umaíam River (Walo, August, 1909). It was given to me by a Manóbo chief from the River Ihawán. He assured and reassured me that on the Lañgilañg River, near the Libagánon River exists a group of what he called Manóbos but who were very small, black as an earthen pot, kinky-haired, without clothes except bark-cloth, very peaceable and harmless, but very timid. I interrogated him over and over as to the bark-cloth that he said these people wore. He said in answer that it was called agahan and that it was made out of the bark of a tree whose name I can not recall. He described the process of beating the bark and promised to bring me, 60 days from the date of our conference, a loin cloth of one of these people. I inquired as to their manner of life, and was assured that they were tau-batañg; that is, people who slept under logs or up in trees. He said that he and his people had killed many of them, but that he was still on terms of friendship with some of them.

The second report as to the existence of Negritos I heard on the Baglásan River, a tributary of the Sálug River. The chiefs whom I questioned had never visited the Negritos but had purchased from the Tugawanons¹⁵ many Negrito slaves whom they had sold to the Mandáyas of the Kati'il and Karága Rivers. This statement was probably true, for I saw one slave, a full-blooded Negrito girl, on the upper Karága during my last trip and received from her my third and most convincing report of the existence of Negritos other than the Mamánuas of the eastern Cordillera. She had been captured, she said, by the Manóbos of Libagánon and sold to the Debabáons (upper Sálug people). She could not describe the place where her people live, but she gave me the following information about them. They are all like herself, and they have no houses nor crops, because they are afraid of the Manóbos that surround them. Their food is the core¹⁶ of the green rattan and of fishtail palm,¹⁷ the flesh of wild boar, deer, and python, and such fish and grubs, etc., as they find in their wanderings. They sleep anywhere; sometimes even in trees, if they have seen strange footprints.

¹⁵The Tugawanons were described by my Sálug authorities as a people that lived at the headwaters of the River Libagánon on a tributary called Tugawan. They were described as a people of medium stature, as fair as the Mansákas, very warlike, enemies of the reported Negritos, very numerous, and speaking an Atás dialect. Perhaps the term Tugawanon is only a local name for a branch of the Atás tribe.

¹⁶O-bud.

¹⁷Ba-hi (Caryota sp.).

Their weapons are bows and arrows, lances, daggers, and bolos. According to her description, the bolos are long and thin, straight on one side and curved on the other. The men purchase them from the Atás in exchange for beeswax. The people are numerous, but they live far apart, roaming through the forests and mountains, and meeting one another only occasionally.

The statements of this slave girl correspond in every particular with the report that I received on the upper Sálug, except that the Sálug people called these Negritos Tugmaya and said that they live beyond a mountain that is at the headwaters of the Libagánon River.

Putting together these three reports and assuming the truth of them, the habitat of these Negritos must be the slopes of Mount Panombaian, which is situated between, and is probably the source of, the Rivers Tigwa (an important tributary of the Rio Grande de Kotabáto), Sábud (the main western tributary of the Ihawán River), and Libagánon (the great western influent of the Tágum River).

Montano states that during his visit to the Philippines (1880-81) there were on the island of Samal a class of half-blood Ata' with distinctly Negroid physical characteristics. Treating of Ata' he says that it is a term applied in the south of Mindanáo by Bisáyas to Negritos "that exist (or existed not long ago) in the interior toward the northwest of the gulf of Davao."¹⁸ A careful distinction must be made between the term Atás¹⁹ and the racial designation Ata', for the former are, according to Doctor Montano, a tribe of a superior type, of advanced culture, and of great reputation as warriors. They dwell on the northwestern slope of Mount Apo, hence their name Atás, hatáas, or atáas, being a very common word in Mindanáo for "high." They are, therefore, the people that dwell on the heights. I heard of one branch of them called Tugawanons, but this is probably only a local name like Agúsanons, etc.

¹⁸Une Mission aux Philippines, 346, 1887.

¹⁹Called also Itás.

I found reports of the former existence of Negritos in the Karága River Valley at a place called Sukipin, where the river has worn its way through the Cordillera. An old man there told me that his grandfather used to hunt the Negritos. The Mandáyas both of that region and of Tagdauñg-duñg, a district situated on the Karága River, five days' march from the mouth, on the western side of the Cordillera, show here and there characteristics, physical and cultural, that they could have inherited only from Negrito ancestors. One interesting trait of this particular group is the use of blowpipes for killing small birds. In the use of the bow and arrow, too, they are quite expert. These people are called taga-butái--that is, mountain dwellers--and live in places on the slopes of high mountains difficult of access, their watering-place being frequently a little hole on the side of the mountain.

THE BANUÁONS

The Banuáons,²⁰ probably an extension of the Bukídnons of the Bukídnon subprovince. They occupy the upper parts of the Rivers Lamiñga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and Óhut, and the whole of the River Maásam, together with the mountainous region beyond the headwaters of these rivers, and probably extend over to the Bukídnons.

²⁰Also called Higaunon or Higagaun, probably "the Hadgaguanes--a people untamed and ferocious"--to whom the Jesuits preached shortly after the year 1596. (Jesuit Mission, Blair and Robertson, 44:60, 1906.) These may be the people whom Pigaffetta, in his First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522) calls Benaian (Banuáon ?) and whom he describes as "shaggy and living at a cape near a river in the islands of Butuán and Karága--great fighters and archers--eating only raw human hearts with the juice of oranges or lemons" (Blair and Robertson, 30:243, 1906).

THE MAÑGGUÁÑGANS

This tribe occupies the towns of Tagusab and Pilar on the upper Agúsan, the range between the Sálug and the Agúsan, the headwaters of the Mánat River, and the water-shed between the Mánat and the Mawab. The physical type of many of them bespeaks an admixture of Negrito blood, and their timidity and, on occasions, their utter lack of good judgment, brand them as the lowest people, after the Mamánuas, in eastern Mindanáo. One authority, a Jesuit missionary, I think, estimated their number at 30,000. An estimate, based on the reports of the people of Compostela, places their number at 10,000 just before my departure from the Agúsan Valley in 1910. The decrease, if the two estimates are correct, is probably due to intertribal and interclan wars.

THE MANSÁKAS

The Mansákas do not seem to me to be as distinct tribally as are the Manóbos and Mandáyas. It would appear from their physical appearance and other characteristics that they should be classed as Mandáyas, or as a subtribe of Mandáyas with whom they form one dialect group. I judge them to be the result of intermarriage between the Mañgguáñgans and the Mandáyas. They occupy the Mawab River Valley and the region included between the Hijo, Mawab, and Madawan Rivers. They are probably the people whom Montano called Tagabawas, but I think that this designation was perhaps a mistaken form of Tagabaas, an appellation given to Mañgguáñgans who live in the bá-as, or prickly swamp-grass, that abounds at the headwaters of the Mánat River.

THE DEBABÁONS

The Debabáons are probably a hybrid group forming a dialect group with the Manóbos of the Ihawán and Baóbo, and a culture group in dress and other features with the Mandáyas. They claim relationship with Manóbos, and follow Manóbo religious beliefs and practices to a great extent. For this reason I have retained the name that they apply to themselves, until their tribal identity can be clearly determined. They inhabit the upper half of the Sálug River Valley and the country that lies to the west of it as far as the Baóbo River.

THE MANDÁYAS

These form the greatest and best tribe in eastern Mindanáo.²¹ One who visits the Mandáyas of the middle Kati'il can not fail to be struck with the fairness of complexion, the brownness of the hair, the diminutiveness of the hands and feet, and the large eyes with long lashes that are characteristic of many of these people. Here and there, too, one finds a distinctly Caucasian type. In psychological characteristics they stand out still more sharply from any tribe or group of people that I know in eastern Mindanáo. Shrewd and diplomatic on the one hand, they are an affectionate, good-natured and straight-forward people, with little of the timidity and cautiousness of the Manóbo. Their religious instincts are so highly developed that they are inclined to be fanatical at times.

²¹It is very interesting to note that the people called Taga-baloóyes and referred to by so many of the writers on Mindanáo can be none other than the Mandáyas. Thus San Antonio (Blair and Robertson, 40: 407, 1906) states that "the Taga-baloóyes take their name from some mountains which are located in the interior of the jurisdiction of Caraga. They are not very far distant from and trade with the villages of (Karága) and some, indeed, live in them who have become Christians. * * * These people, as has been stated above, are the descendants of lately arrived Japanese. This is the opinion of all the religious who have lived there and had intercourse with them and the same is a tradition among themselves, and they desired to be so considered. And it would seem that one is convinced of it on seeing them: for they are light complexioned, well-built, lusty, very reliable in their dealings, respectful, and very valiant, but not restless. So I am informed by one who has had much to do with them: and above all these are the qualities which we find in the Japanese."

In further proof, Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis (ibid. 41: 138, et seq.) says: "The nearest nation to our village [Bislig] is that of the Taga-baloóyes who are so named from certain mountains that they call Balooy. * * * They are a corpulent race, well built, of great courage and strength, and they are at the same time of good understanding, and more than halfway industrious. Their nation is faithful in its treaties and constant in its promises, as they are descendants, so they pride themselves, of the Japanese, whom they resemble in complexion, countenance, and manners." The writer describes briefly their houses and their manner of life, and mentions in particular the device they make use of in the construction of their ladders. It is interesting to note that the same device is still made use of by the more well-to-do Mandáyas on the Karága, Manorigao, and Kati'il Rivers. In other respects their character, as described, is very similar to that of the present Mandáyas of the Kati'il River who in physical type present characteristics that mark them as being a people of a superior race.

In Medina's historia (Blair and Roberston, 24:175, 1906,) we find it related that Captain Juan Niño de Tabora mistreated the chief of the Taga-baloóyes in Karága and that as a result the captain, Father Jacinto Cor, and 12 soldiers were killed. Subsequently four more men of the religious order were killed and two others wounded and captured by the Taga-baloóyes.

Zuñiga in Estadismo (ibid. 2:71, et seq.) notes the fairness of complexion of the Taga-baloóyes, a tribe living in the mountains of Balooy in Karága.

Father Manual Buzeta in Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de las Islas Filipinas (1: 506, 1905) makes the same observation, but M. Felix Renouard de Sainte Croix in Voyage commercial et politique aux Indes Orientales (1803-1809) goes further still by drawing attention to these people as meriting distinction for superior mentality.

The Jesuit missionary Pastells in 1883 (Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 4:212, 1884) writes that the people above Manresa (southeastern Mindanáo) are perhaps of Moro origin but bettered by a strain of noble blood, which their very appearance seems to him to indicate. In support of this view he cites the authority of Santayana, who claims Japanese descent for them and repudiates the opinion of those who attribute Hollandish descent. In a footnote, the above celebrated missionary and scholar adds that the town of Kinablangan (a town on the east coast of Mindanáo) owes its origin to a party of Europeans who were shipwrecked on Point Bagoso and took up their abode in that place, intermarrying with the natives. I was informed by a Bisáya trader, the only one that ever went among the mountain Mandáyas, that he had seen a circular, clocklike article with strange letters upon it in a settlement on the middle Kati'il. The following year I made every effort to see it, but I could not prevail upon the possessors to show it to me. They asserted that they had lost it. It is probable that this object was a ship's compass.

[Transcriber's note: The preceding six paragraphs are all part of footnote 21.]

On the whole, the impression made upon me in my long and intimate dealings with the Mandáyas of the Kati'il, Manorigao, and Karága Rivers is that they are a brave, intelligent, clean, frank people that with proper handling might be brought to a high state of civilization. They are looked up to by Manóbos, Mañgguáñgans, Mansákas, and Debabáons as being a superior and more ancient race, and considered by the Bisáyas of the Agúsan Valley as a people of much more intelligence and fair-dealing than any other tribe. The Mandáyas consist of four branches:

THE TÁGUM BRANCH

These occupy the country from near the mouth of the Tágum to the confluence of the Sálug and Libagánon Rivers, or perhaps a little farther up both of the last-mentioned rivers. It is probable that the Debabáons farther up are the issue of Manóbos and Tágum Mandáyas.

THE AGÚSAN VALLEY BRANCH

It is usual for the people of the upper Agúsan from Gerona to Compostela to call themselves Mandáyas, but this appears to be due to a desire to be taken for Mandáyas. They have certainly absorbed a great deal of Mandáya culture and language, but, with the exception of Pilar and Tagusab, they are of heterogeneous descent--Mandáya, Manóbo, Mañgguáñgan, Debabáon, and Mansáka.

At the headwaters of the Agúsan and in the mountains that encircle that region live the Mandáyas that are the terror of Mandáyaland. They are called by the upper Agúsan people Kau-ó, which means the same as Tagakaólo, but are Mandáyas in every feature, physical, cultural, and linguistic.

THE PACIFIC COAST BRANCH

They occupy the following rivers with their tributaries: the Kati'il, the Baganga, the Mano-rigao, the Karága, the Manai, the Kasaúman, and the upper reaches of the Mati. There are several small rivers between the Kasaúman and the Mati, the upper parts of all which, I think, are occupied by Mandáyas.

THE GULF OF DAVAO BRANCH

These occupy the upper reaches of all the rivers on the east side of the gulf of Davao, from Sumlug to the mouth of the Hijo River whose source is near that of the Agúsan and whose Mandáyas are famous in Mandáyaland.

THE MOROS

Moros or people with a preponderance of Moro blood and culture occupy the coast towns on the eastern and northern sides of the gulf from Sumlug to the mouth of the Tágum. Of course they have other settlements on the north and west sides of the gulf.

In Mati and its vicinity, I believe there are a comparatively large number of Moros or Mohammedanized Mandáyas.

THE BILÁNS²²

²²Called also, I think, Bi-la-an.

Biláns were found according to the testimony of the Jesuit missionaries²³ in Sigaboi, Tikbakawan, and Baksal, on the peninsula of San Agustin.

²³Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 331, et seq., 1889-1891.

THE TAGAKAÓLOS

According to the authorities just cited there were Tagakaólos in Sigaboi, Uañgen, Kabuaya, and Makambal between the years 1889 and 1891. It is probable that these people are scattered throughout the whole of the hinterland to the west of Pujada Bay, and that they are only Mandáyas who, unable to withstand the stress of war, fled from the mountains at the headwaters of the Agúsan River. I base this suggestion on the fact that the Mandáyas at the headwaters of the Agúsan are known as, and call themselves, Kau-ó²⁴ and that they were, and are probably still at the date of this writing, the terror of Mandáyaland. If the Tagakaólos of Point San Agustin are fugitive Kau-ó, according to the prevailing custom they would have retained their former name; this name, if Kau-ó, would have been changed by Bisáyas and by Spanish missionaries to Tagakaólo.

²⁴Kau-ó would be Ka-ólo in Bisáya, from the prefix ka, and ólo, head or source.

THE LÓAKS OR LÓAGS

According to the authority of Father Llopart²⁵ the Lóaks dwell in the mountains southwest of Pujada Bay. He says that in customs they differ from other tribes. They dress in black and hide themselves when they see anyone dressed in a light color. No stranger is permitted to enter their dwellings. The same writer goes on to state that their food is wholly vegetable, excluding tubers, roots, and everything that grows under the ground. Their chief is called posáka,²⁶ "an elder who with his mysterious words and feigned revelations keeps his people in delusion and under subjection." It is the opinion of Father Llopart that these people are only fugitives, as he very justly concludes from the derivation of their name.²⁷

²⁵Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 9: 337-338, 1891.

²⁶Posáka means in Malay, and in nearly all known Mindanáo dialects, an "inheritance" so that in the usage attributed to these Lóaks it would appear that there may be some idea of an hereditary chieftainship. The word in Bagóbo, however, means something beloved, etc., so that the reported Lóak posáka or chief might be so called because of his being beloved by his people.

²⁷He states that lóak is probably from lóog, "to flee," "to take to the mountains." In several dialects of eastern Mindanáo laag, lag, means, "to get lost," while lágui is a very common word for "run" or "run away."

Another writer, Father Pablo Pastells²⁸ makes mention of these Lóak as being wild Tagakaólos who are more degraded than the Mamánuas. He designates the mountains of Hagimitan on the peninsula of San Agustin as their habitat. I am inclined to think that the authority for this statement was also a Jesuit missionary.

²⁸Ibid., 8: 343, 1887.

THE CONQUISTAS OR RECENTLY CHRISTIANIZED PEOPLES

The work of Christianizing the pagans of eastern Mindanáo was taken up in earnest in 1877 by the Jesuit missionaries and carried on up to the time of the revolution in 1898. During that time some 50,000 souls were led to adopt Christianity. These included Mandáyas, Manóbos, Debabáons, Mansákas, Mañgguáñgans, and Mamánuas, and members of the other tribes that live in eastern Mindanáo. For the present, however, we will refer to the conquistas of the Manóbo, Mandáya, Mamánua, Mañgguáñgan, Mansáka, and Debabáon tribes.

THE MANÓBO CONQUISTAS

The inhabitants of all the settlements in the Agúsan Valley except Novela, Rosario, the towns south of Buai, the towns within the Banuáon habitat, and a few settlements of pagan Manóbos on the upper Umaíam, Argáwan, and Ihawán, Wá-wa and Maitum are Manobó conquistas.

On the eastern slope of the Pacific Cordillera in the vicinity of San Miguel (Tágo River), on the Marihátag and Oteiza Rivers there are several hundred Manóbo conquistas. The towns up the Hinatuán and Bislig Rivers are made up of both Manóbo and Mandáya conquistas.

THE MANDÁYA CONQUISTAS

In the Agúsan Valley the towns on the Sulibáo River and perhaps on the Adlaian River are made up of Mandáya conquistas for the most part. These Mandáyas evidently worked in from the Hinatuán River for one reason or another, perhaps to avoid missionary activity on the east coast or to escape from Moro raids.

On the Pacific coast we find Mandáya conquistas to a greater or less extent in nearly all the municipalities and barrios from Tándag to Mati, with the exception of such towns as have been formed by immigration of Bisáyas from Bohol and other places. There can be no doubt but that in former years the Mandáyas covered the whole Pacific slope from Tándag to Mati, for we still find recently Christianized Mandáyas in Kolon and Alba on the Tágo River and in Kagwáit and Bakolod on the Kagwáit River. The inhabitants of these eastern towns are not known by the designation of conquistas, but assume the name and status of Bisáyas and are not so dependent on the older Christians as are the conquistas of the Agúsan Valley who are called conquistas and treated as inferiors by the older Christians.

I think that from Liñgig to Mati all the barrios, both of the coast and in the hinterland, are made up of Mandáyas that have been Christianized since 1877.

THE MAMÁNUA CONQUISTAS

These Mamánua conquistas live in the vicinity of Anao-aon and Malimono' on the northeast coast; in San Roque and San Pablo, also on Lake Maínit; on the River Asiga, a tributary of the River Jabonga; and somewhere up the Lanusa River on the east coast.

THE MAÑGGUÁÑGAN CONQUISTAS

During my stay on the upper Agúsan, there were only two towns of Mañgguáñgan conquistas--Tagusab and Pilar--and even these were mere suggestions of towns. It may be, however, that since the appointment of a deputy governor, the great numbers of Christianized Mañgguáñgans that had fled from the wrath of their enemies into the swamp region at the headwaters of the Mánat River have returned and that Mañgguáñgan towns now exist.

THE MANSÁKA CONQUISTAS

In Compostela, Gandia, and Tagaunud are found a few Mansáka conquistas. The inhabitants of these towns, however, are of such a heterogeneous blend that it is difficult to assign any tribal place to them. It may be said, in general, that these towns are still passing through a formative period, the result of which will probably be their complete adoption of Mandáya culture and language, if they are left free to follow their own bent.

THE DEBABÁON CONQUISTAS

The Debabáon conquistas are found in the town of Moncayo and are also scattered about on the upper Sálug. The missionaries found the Debabáon people very recalcitrant; the comparatively few converts made evinced, on the one hand, all the fickleness and instability of the Manóbo and, on the other, the aggressiveness of the Mandáya.

THE BISÁYAS OR CHRISTIAN FILIPINOS

The Bisáyas or Christian Filipinos in the Agúsan Valley occupy the towns of Butuán, Talakógon, Veruéla, Bunáwan, and Prosperidad, of which latter they formed, during my last visit to the Agúsan Valley, a majority. Outside of the Agúsan Valley, they occupy all the towns on the north coast except the towns of Tortosa, Maasao, Tamolayag, and Malimono'. On, and in the vicinity of Lake Maínit, they occupy the towns of Sison, Timamana, Maínit, Jabonga, Santiago, Santa Ana and several other small ones. On the east coast they occupy all the coast towns from Surigao to Bislig. South of Bislig only the towns, of Kati'il, Baganga, Karága, Santiago, and Mati may be said to be Bisáya, although the Christianized Mandáyas of the intervening towns call themselves Bisáyas. But even the above-mentioned towns, with the exception of Santiago, have hardly any claim to be considered Bisáya in the sense in which that word is applied to the Bisáyas of the town of Surigao. The same holds true of a great portion of the inhabitants of Tándag, Tágo, La Paz, and Kagwáit, where the Mandáya element in language and in superstitious beliefs still holds sway to a considerable extent among the lower class of the inhabitants.

In the Agúsan Valley a great part of the Bisáyas of Talakógon can not be considered as Bisáyas in the full sense of the word. Many of them called Sulibáonon are of no higher culture than the conquistas of the River Sulibáo from which they come. They are distinctly Mandáya in physical type and in manner of life except that they have abandoned the ancient Mandáya religious beliefs and adopted those of Christianity. They are probably the first group of Mandáya conquistas that were induced to leave the Sulibáo and take up their abode in Talakógon.

CHAPTER II

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE MANÓBOS OF EASTERN MINDANÁO

PHYSICAL TYPE

DIVERGENCE OF TYPES

There seem to be differences in physical type between the Manóbos on the lower part of the Agúsan as far as the Bugábus River and those of the Ihawán and the upper Agúsan Rivers. On the upper Agúsan the variations become more noticeable as we approach the confines of the Mandáyas and the Debabáons, both of whom differ from the Manóbos in physical characteristics to such an extent that even an ordinary observer can not fail to notice it. Again, on the upper Agúsan, in the vicinity of Tagusab, we find types that remind us of the Mañgguáñgan with his manifestly Negroid characteristics. Over on the Tágo River, too, and on the far upper Wa-wa, there are groups of so-called Manóbos who are clearly descendants of Mamánuas. With these exceptions the following delineation holds good, I think, for the great mass of Manóbos with whom one comes in contact throughout eastern Mindanáo.

GENERAL PHYSICAL TYPE

In general, the Manóbo man is of athletic build and of strong constitution, although he is often short of stature. His muscular development denotes activity, speed, and endurance rather than great strength. Corpulency and prominence of the abdomen are never present, so far as I have observed. His skin, as a rule, is of a reddish-brown color that turns to a somewhat dark brown after long exposure to the sun, as in the case of those who engage in fishing in the lake region.

The hair is abundant, long, black, straight, and coarse. As we approach the domains of the Mañgguáñgans and of the Mamánuas, the hair is a little less abundant and shows traces of curliness. Occasional waviness may be observed also among those Manóbos who live near the territory of the Mandáyas, Debabáons, and Mansákas.

Beard and body hair are not abundant. In this respect the Manóbo differs from the Mandáya and from the Banuáon, both of whom have a more copious growth (though I can not be definite as regards the latter people), and, in some cases, beards that are abundant enough to suggest admixture with white people.

The head appears to be well developed, being rather high and arched, as compared with that of the average Bisáya.¹ There is no flattening of the occiput. This roundness of the posterior part of the cranium, due, as Montano² states, to the prominence of the parietal bumps, becomes very apparent when comparison is made with the heads of Bisáyas of other islands. The occipital arch of the latter is invariably flattened.

¹In physical comparisons between Manóbos and Bisáyas no reference is made to the Bisáyas of eastern Mindanáo, the great majority of whom are undoubtedly of Manóbo or other pagan origin.

²Une Mission aux Philippines, 349,1906.

Owing to the prominence of the jawbones and to the above-mentioned height of the cranium, the face is decidedly lozenge-shaped, a feature that distinguishes it, on the one hand, from the long face of the Mandáya and of the Banuáon and, on the other, from the short, round face of the Mamánua and of the Mañgguáñgan. Montano³ says that this peculiar shape is due to the development of the zygomatic arches or cheek bones and to the diminution of the minimum frontal line, that is, the shortest transverse measurement of the forehead.

³Loc. cit.

Prognathism is marked but variable according to the testimony of Montano, who took the anthropometrical measurements of many crania which he obtained from caves in northeastern Mindanáo.

The forehead is somewhat high and prominent, and the superciliary ridges are salient. The eyes are brown in color. The palpebral opening is elongated as compared with that of the Mandáya, whose eye is round. There is no trace of the Mongolian falciform fold, and the transverse axis is perfectly horizontal.

The nose is prominent and well-developed but short, and, as a rule, straight. Toward the confines of the Banuáons we sometimes notice a slight curve upward at the top. The nostrils are somewhat slender, but otherwise well developed. They are a little larger than those of Bisáyas. The ridge is broader than that of Bisáyas, and the root is lower down.

The lips bear resemblance to those of the Bisáyas except that the upper lip of the Manóbo is more prominent and more developed, due, it is suggested, to the universal, incessant practice of carrying a quid of tobacco partly under it and partly protruding out between it and the lower lip.

The chin is round and well developed, but is not prominent.

The above statements hold true of the women in all details except that of stature. The difference between the stature of the male and female Manóbo is much greater than that between the sexes among Bisáyas and other civilized people of the Philippines. This difference in the stature of the sexes is apparent in all the tribes of eastern Mindanáo with the exception of certain groups of Mandáyas, and may be attributed, on the one hand, to the excessive burdens carried, and the onerous labor performed by the women in the discharge of their household and other duties, and, on the other, to the unencumbered outdoor life pursued by the men in their hunting, fishing, and trading expeditions.

The other parts of the bodies of both sexes are in good proportions. The thorax is especially well developed, and the feet are, perhaps, inordinately large.

The general appearance of the men is somewhat unpleasing and, perhaps, among the Manóbos of remote regions, might be said to be coarse. This is especially noticeable among the latter, as their eyes usually bulge out and give them a somewhat wild and even vindictive air. The blackening of the teeth and lips, the quid of black tobacco between the lips, the look of alarm and suspicion, and various other characteristics all tend to heighten this expression.

The women have a more pleasing expression, but the timid furtive look, the ungainly gait, and the ungraceful contour of their abaká skirts, detract from the moderate beauty that they possess in their youth. After marriage their beauty wanes incredibly fast.

Comparing the Manóbo's physical and general appearance with that of neighboring peoples, we may say that he stands fifth, the Mandáya, Mansáka, Debabáon, and Banuáon leading, while below him stand without any question the Mañgguáñgan and the Mamánua. He has not the height, the proportions, the fairness, nor the gentility of the first three. He lacks the nobility, courage, and intelligence of the fourth,⁴ but he maintains his superiority over the Mañgguáñgan, whose repellent features, sparse hair, scanty clothing, and low intelligence put him only a little above the Mamánuas. These latter are only poor homeless forest dwellers like the Negritos of Luzon, and physically, mentally, and culturally stand lowest in the plane of civilization of all the people of the eastern Mindanáo.

⁴My acquaintance with Banuáons is so slight that I can not make any definite physical comparison.

RACIAL AND TRIBAL AFFINITIES

With our present lack of knowledge concerning the great number of tribes that inhabit not only the island of Mindanáo but Borneo, Sumatra, and other islands of the Indies, it is impossible to make any definite statement as to the racial and the tribal affinities of the Manóbo people.

MONTANO'S INDONESIAN THEORY

Montano proposed the Indonesian theory to explain the origin of the Samals, Bagóbos, Giangas, Atás, Tagakaólos, Manóbos, and Mandáyas. He asserts that these peoples are pure Indonesians whose origin can not be explained otherwise than by supposing them to be the indigenes of all the islands included under the term Indonesia. Hence he calls the above tribes Indonesians of Mindanáo.

He claims that these Indonesians are the result of a fusion of three elements: (1) the Polynesian, (2) the Malay-Bisáya, and (3) the Negrito.

The Bisáya element, he says, is considerable and becomes apparent in the increase of transverse diameter of the cranium. The Negrito element is apparent only in the waviness of the hair, the height and prominence of the forehead, and the darker color of the skin.

He further states that the anatomical characteristics of these tribes are their superior stature, their muscular development, and the prominence of the occipital region in contradistinction to the flattening noticeable in Malays in general, and especially in those of the Philippines.

KEANE'S VIEW

Keane in his Ethnology⁵ notes that--

the term "Indonesian," introduced by Logan to designate the light-colored non-Malay inhabitants of the Eastern Archipelago, is now used as a convenient collective name for all the peoples of Malaysia and Polynesia who are neither Malays nor Papuans but of Caucasic type. * * * Doctor Hamy, who first gave this extension to the term Indonesian, points out that the Battaks and other pre-Malay peoples of Malaysia so closely resemble the Eastern Polynesians, that the two groups should be regarded as two branches of an original non-Malay stock. Although all speak dialects of a common Malayo-Polynesian language, the physical type is quite distinct and rather Caucasic than Mongolic, though betraying a perceptible Papuan (or Negrito) strain especially in New Zealand and Mikronesia. The true Indonesians are of tall stature (5 feet 10 inches), muscular frame, rather oval features, high, open forehead, large straight or curved nose, large full eyes always horizontal and with no trace of the third lid, light brown complexion (cinnamon or ruddy brown), long black hair, not lank but slightly curled or wavy, skull generally brachycephalous like that of the Melanochroic European.

⁵Ethnology, 326 et seq., 1901.

Regarding the Indonesians of the Philippine Islands, he says:⁶

Apart from the true Negrito aborigines Blumentritt distinguishes two separate "Malay" invasions, both prehistoric. Montano also recognizes these two elements which, however, he more correctly calls Indonesian and Malay. The Indonesians whom he affiliates to the "Polynesian family" were the first to arrive, being followed by the Malays and then, in the sixteenth century, by the Spaniards, who were themselves followed, perhaps also preceded, by Chinese and others. Thus Blumentritt's Malays of the first invasion, whom he brings from Borneo, are Montano's Indonesians, who passed through the Philippines during their eastward migrations from Borneo and other parts of Malaysia. The result of these successive movements was that the Negritoes were first driven to the recesses of the interior by the Indonesians with whom they afterwards intermingled in various degrees. Then the Indonesians were in their turn driven by the Malays from the coast lands and open plains, which are consequently now found occupied mainly by peoples of true Malay stock. Then with peaceful times fresh blends took place and to previous crossings are now added Spaniards and Chinese with Malays, there "quadroons" and "octoroons" with Indonesians, and even here and there with Negritoes. It has thus become difficult everywhere to distinguish between the true Malays and the Indonesians, who are also less known, dwelling in the more remote upland districts, often in association with the Negritoes and not always standing at a much higher grade of culture.

⁶Op. cit., 332.

THE INDONESIAN THEORY AS APPLIED TO MANÓBOS

Comparing the physical characteristics of the Manóbos with those which are predicated of the Indonesians by these and other writers, I find that, in the case of the Manóbos of the Agúsan Valley, in stature, waviness of the hair, abundance of the beard, and lightness of the skin color there appears to be a divergence from Keane's Indonesian standard. Keane requires 1.795 meters as an average for the stature of the Indonesian, whereas the average of the Manóbo, as I found it from cursory measurements, is approximately only 1.60 meters and Doctor Montano found it to be only 1.4667 meters. As to waviness of the hair, I have observed it rarely among the Manóbos to which this paper refers. Neither is the beard abundant, and as for fairness in the color of the skin, a casual glance at the great mass of Manóbos that occupy the Agúsan and its tributaries will convince one that their color is decidedly ruddy brown and not light. It is true that in the mountains children and even young women are found with fair complexions, but this is probably due to confinement in the house or to protection from the sun while out of doors.

PHYSICAL TYPE OF CONTIGUOUS PEOPLES

In the first part of this chapter a broad comparison was made between the Manóbos and the contiguous tribes of eastern Mindanáo, but, in order to bring out in stronger relief the physical characteristics of the Manóbo, it is considered expedient to give a brief description of the contiguous tribes.

THE MAÑGGUÁÑGANS

In stature the Mañgguáñgan is shorter than the Manóbo. His physical configuration gives one the impression that he is undersized. His cranium is elongated from the front backward along the antero-posterior curve, there being formed accordingly an enlargement on the upper part of the occiput. From this enlargement downward there is a flattening of the curve. The forehead is large, high, and very prominent, and diverges backward from the plane of the face at an observable angle. The face is narrow and flat, the narrowness being due to the prominence of the lower jaw and to a depression that is formed in the side of the face between the jaw and the cheek bone. The hair is lank, coarse, and in males, scant. The beard is very sparse except in elderly men, and even then it is far from being as abundant as that of the Manóbos and especially that of the Mandáyas. The nose is broad and conspicuously depressed, while the nasal orifices are rather large. On the whole, the prognathism is considerable but is not as variable as that of Manóbos and of Mandáyas.

There can be no doubt as to the Negritic character of the Mañgguáñgan. Owing to the peculiar circumstances that arose after my arrival on the upper Agúsan in 1909, I found it impossible to get into communication with any but the more domesticated Mañgguáñgan in the vicinity of Compostela, but my observation of their physical and mental characteristics and of their low degree of culture led me to a strong conviction of a Negrito origin not far removed.

THE MANDÁYAS

The Mandáya, on the other hand, with the exception of groups on the upper Karága and perhaps on the upper Kasaúman Rivers, is of superior stature. Montano found the stature to be only 1.578 meters, but the number of men measured by him was so small that we can not base any conclusion on his figures. I did not make any measurements of Mandáyas, but it is my impression that the male Mandáyas of the Kati'il, Karága, and Manorigao Rivers are noticeably taller than Manóbos. In fact, one meets a great number that seem to come up to the Indonesian standard of Keane.

The Mandáya's cranial conformation differs, according to Montano, from that of the Manóbo only in one particular, namely, in the straightness of the middle part of the antero-posterior curve of the cranium. In other respects his cranium is similar to that of the Manóbo. The face is oval rather than lozenge-shaped and has a pleasant, sympathetic look, due no doubt to the greater width of the palpebral opening, the largeness of the eye, and the length, darkness, and prominence of the eyelashes.

The nose is straight and prominent, occasionally quite European, and the nostrils are not depressed nor flattened. Their lower edges, instead of being horizontal, slant slightly upward from the tip. The nasal apertures are of medium size.

The superciliary ridges are prominent, but as the hair of the eyebrows is constantly kept shaved, there is not such an impression of prominence as in the Christianized Mandáyas of the southeastern seaboard of Mindanáo.

As to the abundance of beard, it is hard to form a judgment because from youth it is constantly and conscientiously eradicated. The hair of the head is long, black, and abundant, often somewhat wavy and not as coarse, I think, as that of Manóbos.

The most striking characteristic of the Mandáya is his fair color. It is not my intention to give the impression that he is one of a "lost white tribe" or that he is entitled to be called white in the sense in which we use the term when speaking of Europeans. But for a native of the Philippine Islands he certainly may be denominated white, though his skin is not tawny white like that of the Japanese or Chinese but has a peculiar ashy tint. I have seen a few individuals that were very nearly as white as the average American, but who otherwise were not of a pronounced Caucasian type.

It is very difficult to explain the prevailing fairness of this tribe except by presupposing an admixture of some other blood. The Manóbo lives in as dark forests and on as lofty mountains as those occupied by Mandáyas. His manner of life is practically the same, and yet the average tint of his skin is far darker, so much so that the Mandáya, in speaking not only of him but of Mañgguáñgan and even of Bisáya, spurns them all as being "black."

THE DEBABÁONS

As to the Debabáons, I have not come in touch with a sufficient number of them to enable me to make any general statements. The groups that I met in Moncayo, on the Sálug where the Baglásan River empties into it, and in the country extending some 10 kilometers to the west of it, closely resemble the Mandáyas in physical characters, and yet in language, general culture, and religious belief, and by genealogy, they belong to the Manóbo tribe. It is probable that they are the result of intermarriage of Manóbo men of Baóbo and Ihawán origin with Mandáya women of the lower Sálug and Tágum Rivers.

THE MAMÁNUAS

The Mamánuas need little comment. They are full-blooded Negritos in every respect, physical and cultural, like the Negritos of Mariveles, as Montano very explicitly states. The Manóbos of the upper Tágo River constantly intermarry with Mamánua women, as I had occasion to observe on several visits which I made to that region. It is probable that the same thing takes place on the Húbo, Marihátag, Lanusa, and Kantílan Rivers. In the vicinity of Lake Maínit, a great many Mamánuas are reported to be half-breeds.

THE BANUÁONS

I visited only one settlement of Banuáons, near the mouth of the Maásam River. I met members of the tribe here and there along the Agúsan between San Luis and Las Nieves, but my observations of them were casual and superficial so that I am not prepared to make any statements as to their physical characteristics. All reports, both of Manóbos and Bisáyas and the testimony of the Jesuit missionaries, state that they are a superior people. It is probable that this group of people, known as Banuáon in the Agúsan Valley, is a branch of the Bukídnons of whom the celebrated missionary Urios and others make such commendatory mention,⁷ the former in one place going so far as to make the statement that the Bukídnons are fit to be kings of the Manóbos.

⁷Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, passim.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AS MODIFIED BY DRESS AND ORNAMENTATION

The upper garment of both sexes among the Manóbos is a closed square-cut garment with sleeves and with a sufficient opening on top to admit the head. It fits the body either closely or fairly loosely. It is made of abaká fiber when imported cloth is not available. It is always adorned with embroidery of imported red, white, blue, and yellow cotton, on the cuffs, on the seams of the shoulders and the side, and on the neck and lower edges. The garment of the man differs from that of the woman in being all of one color, except that across the back, over the shoulders, and as far down as the breasts, are horizontal, parallel, equidistant lines of inwoven blue cotton yarn.

The body and sleeves of the woman's garment are of different colors. Thus, if the sleeves are black, the body is red and vice versa. Another distinguishing feature is the profuseness of cotton embroidery on the front of the garment.

The lower garment of the man is a pair of trousers, generally of native cotton and abaká fiber, reaching somewhat below the knees, with cotton embroidery in the above-mentioned colors on the sides and at the bottom. The ends of the draw string that holds the trousers in place hang down in front and are ornamented with tassels of the same colors.

The lower garment of the women is a doubled sacklike skirt of abaká fiber, almost invariably of a reddish color, with beautiful designs in horizontal panels or with a series of horizontal equidistant black stripes. A girdle of human hair or of plaited vegetable fiber, held in place with a shell button or with a plaited cord, retains this garment in place. The consequent gathering of the capacious opening of the skirt at the waist and the bulging out at the bottom (which is just a little below the knees), detracts not a little from the gracefulness of the Manóbo woman's figure. From the girdle hang, in varying number and quality, beads, hawk bells, redolent, medicinal, and magic seeds, sea shells, and fragrant herbs.

The hair is worn long by both sexes. It is dressed much like that of a Chinese woman except that it is twisted and tied up in a chignon on the crown of the head.

The man wears a long narrow bamboo hat which protects only the top of the head, and which is held on the head by two strings passing from end to end behind the ears. It usually has a plume of feathers standing up at right angles to the back part. The woman wears no hat as a general rule, but in lieu thereof adorns her head with a bamboo comb, at times inlaid with mother-of-pearl, at others covered with a lamina of beaten silver, but nearly always ornamented with decorative incisions. A pair of ear plugs with ornamental metal laminae are placed in the enlarged ear lobes.

I have seen men who had each ear lobe pierced in one or two places and small buttons fastened over the orifices, but I never saw a case of a Manóbo woman with any other perforation in the ears than the great aperture in each lobe for her ear disks.

Around the neck the woman wears in more or less profusion, according to her means and opportunities for purchase, necklets of beads, and necklaces of seeds, beads, shells, and crocodile teeth.

On her forearms she wears one or more sea-shell bracelets, circlets of black coral or of copper wire, and a close-fitting ringlet of plaited nito. This last adornment is also worn by men, who dispense with the use of other forms of bracelets, but who usually adorn the upper arm with a finely plaited ligature made of a dark fibrous vine. Both men and women frequently wear similar ligatures just below one or both knees. On solemn and festive occasions the woman decks her ankles with loose coils of heavy wire.

A square knapsack of hemp, frequently fringed with cotton yarn of many colors and suspended from the back by strings passing over the shoulders and under the arms, constitutes the man's receptacle for his chewing paraphernalia. It may be more or less elaborate in beadwork and embroidery, but as a rule there is no ornamentation of this kind.

Both sexes blacken the lips with soot black, and continually keep them more or less in that condition by the use of a large quid of tobacco, mixed with lime and máu-mau juice, the whole being carried between the lips. This mixture serves not only as an indispensable and pleasing narcotic, but also as the principal factor in bringing about the complete and permanent staining of the teeth.

In order that "they may not look like dogs," both sexes have the upper and lower incisors ground at an early age. They proceed at once to stain what is left with frequent applications of the above-mentioned masticatories.

As white and sharp teeth are doglike, so beard and body hair are suggestive of the monkey. Hence all straggling hairs are sedulously and constantly eradicated.

Tattooing by both sexes is universal. It consists of the puncturing of the skin and the rubbing in of a soot made from a very common variety of resin. The figures tattooed, often artistic, are representations of stars, leaves, crocodiles, etc.

Both sexes are tattooed on the breast, arms, and fingers, but it is customary for women to have an extra design on the calves of the legs and sometimes on the whole leg.

As to the Christianized Manóbos, it is obvious that the great majority have adopted the garb of their Bisáya brethren and abandoned the use of ornaments and mutilations characteristic of their pagan compeers. The change was enjoined by Spanish missionaries for religious reasons and, in the case of clothing, was encouraged by Bisáya traders for commercial motives, but did not benefit the new Christians, as far as my observation goes, either religiously, financially, or esthetically.

CHAPTER III

A SURVEY OF THE MATERIAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL CULTURE OF THE MANÓBOS OF EASTERN MINDANÁO

GENERAL MATERIAL CULTURE

DWELLINGS

For a home the Manóbo selects a site that is clearly approved by supernatural agencies, and that is especially suitable for agricultural purposes by reason of its fertility, and for defense, because of its strategic position. Hereon he builds an unpretentious, square, one-roomed building at a height of from 1.50 meters to 8 meters from the ground. The house measures ordinarily about 3 meters by 5 meters. Posts, usually light, and varying in number between 4 and 16, support the floor, roof, and intervening parts. The materials are all rattan lashed and seldom consist of anything but light materials taken from the immediate vicinity. The floor is made of slats of palm or bamboo, the roof is thatched with palm leaves, and the walls are light, horizontal, superimposed poles laid to about the height of the shoulders of a person sitting on the floor. The space between the top of the walls and the roof constitutes a continuous window. This open space above the low house wall permits the inmates during a fight to shoot their arrows at the enemy in any direction.

The one ceilingless room serves for kitchen, bedroom, and reception room. There is no decoration nor furniture. Scattered around or hung up, especially in the vicinity of the fireplace, are the simple household utensils, and the objects that constitute the property of the owner--weapons, baskets, and sleeping mats. On the floor farthest away from the door are the hearth frames, one or more, and the stones that serve as support for the cooking pots. A round log with more or less equidistant notches, leading from the ground up to the narrow doorway, admits the visitor into the house.

Under the house is the pigpen. Here the family pigs and the chickens make a living off such refuse or remnants as fall from above. The sanitary condition of this part of the establishment is in no wise praiseworthy. The only redeeming point is that the bad odors do not reach the house, being carried away by the current of air that is nearly always passing.

The house itself is far from being perfectly clean. The low, cockroach-infested thatch, the smoke-begrimed rafters, the unswept, dirt-bestrewn floor, the bug-infested slats, the smoke-laden atmosphere, the betel-nut-tinged walls and floor, these and other features of a small over-populated house make cleanliness almost impossible. The order and quietude of the home is no more satisfactory. The crying of the babies, the romping and shouting of the boys, the loud talking of the elders, the grunting of the pigs below, the whining and growling of the dogs above, and the noise of the various household occupations produce in an average house containing a few families a din that baffles description. But this does not disturb the serenity of the primitive inmates, who laugh, chew, talk, and work, and enjoy themselves all the more for the animation of which they form a great part.

ALIMENTATION

In the absence of such a luxury as matches, the fire-saw or friction method of producing fire is resorted to, although the old steel and flint method is sometimes employed.

The cooking outfit consists of a few homemade earthen pots, supplemented by green bamboo joints, bamboo ladles, wooden rice paddles, and nearly always a coconut shell for receiving water from the long bamboo water tube.

The various articles of food may be divided into two classes, one of which we will call the staple part of the meal and the other the concomitant. It must be remembered that for the Manóbo, as well as for so many other peoples of the Philippine Islands, rice or camotes or some other bulky food is the essential part of the meal, whereas fish, meat, and other things are merely complements to aid in the consumption of the main food. Under the heading, then, of staples we may classify in the order of their importance or abundance the following: Camotes, rice, taro, sago, cores of wild palm trees, maize, tubers and roots (frequently poisonous). Among the concomitant or supplementary foods are the following, their order being indicative of the average esteem in which they are held: Fish (especially if salted), domestic pork, wild boar meat (even though putrefied), venison, iguana, larvae from rotted palm trees, python, monkey, domestic chicken, wild chicken, birds, frogs, crocodile, edible fungi, edible fern, and bamboo shoots. As condiments, salt, if on hand, and red pepper are always used, but it is not at all exceptional that the latter alone is available.

Sweetpotatoes, taro, tubers, and rice are cooked by steaming. Maize and the cores of palm trees are roasted over the fire.

There are only two orthodox methods of cooking fish, pork, venison, iguana and chicken: (1) In water without lard; (2) by broiling. Python, monkey, crocodile, wild chicken, and birds must be prepared by the latter method.

When the meal is prepared, it is set out on plates, banana leaves, or bark platters, with the water in glasses or in the coconut-shell dipper. On ordinary occasions the husband, wife, children and female relatives of a family eat together, the unmarried men, widowers, and visitors partaking of their meals alone, but on festive occasions, all the male members, visitors included, gather in the center of the floor.

The hands and mouth are washed both before and after the meal. All begin to eat together on the floor. The men eat with their left hands and, on occasions, when the remotest suspicion of trouble exists, keep their right hand on their ever-present weapons. It is customary not to leave one's place after the meal without giving due notice.

NARCOTIC AND STIMULATING ENJOYMENTS

The most common and indispensable source of everyday enjoyment is the betel-nut quid, It would be an inexcusable breach of propriety to neglect to offer betel nut to a fellow tribesman. Not to partake of it when offered would be considered a severance of friendship. The essential ingredients of the quid are betel leaf, betel nut, and lime, but it is common to add tobacco, cinnamon, lemon rind, and several other aromatic elements. At times substitutes may be used for the betel leaf and the betel nut, if there is a lack of either.

Another important masticatory is the tobacco quid with its ingredients of lime and máu-mau juice. This is carried constantly between the lips. Occasionally, however, the men like to smoke a little mixed tobacco in small pipes or in little leaf cones.

The greatest and the most cherished enjoyment of all is drinking: Men, women, and children indulge, the last two sparingly. In Manóboland the fame of a banquet is in direct proportion to the number of those who became drunk, sobriety being considered effeminate, and a refusal to drink an affront to the host.

The main drinks are of four kinds: Cabo negro toddy, sugarcane brew, bahi toddy, and mead. The first and third are nothing but the sap of the palms that bear their respective names, the sap being gathered in the same manner as the ordinary coconut tuba. The second or sugarcane brew is a fermented drink made from the juice of the sugarcane boiled with a variety of the ginger plant. It is the choice drink of Manóbo deities. The fourth drink mentioned above is mead. It is similar to the last mentioned except that instead of sugar-cane juice, honey is used in its preparation.

One feature of the drinking is that it is seldom unaccompanied by meat or fish. Hence, on every occasion that a supply of these may be obtained, there is a drinking bout. Religious sacrifices, too, afford abundant opportunity for indulgence.

Quarrels sometimes ensue as a result of the flowing bowl, and war expeditions are proposed, but on the whole it may be said that the Manóbo is a peaceful and a merry drinker.