24 THE MANOBOS OF MINDANAO— GARVAN IM,M( Wxxi£ 



feast some of the captives may be given to warriors who were unlucky or who desire to satisfy 

 their vengeance. The captives are dispatched in the near-by forest. 



Ambush is also a very ordinary method of warfare. Several warriors station themselves 

 in a selected position near the trail and await their enemy. 



Whenever there is open rupture between two parties, it is customary for each of them 

 to erect a high house in a place remote and difficult of access, and to surround it with such obstacles 

 as will make it more dangerous. In these houses, with their immediate relatives and with such 

 warriors as desire to take their part, they bide their time in a state of constant watch and ward. 



When both parties to a feud are tired, either of fighting constantly or of taking refuge in 

 flight, a peacemaking may be brought about through the good services of friendly and influential 

 tribesmen. On the appointed day, the parties meet, balance up their blood debts and other 

 obligations and decide on a term within which to pay them. As an evidence of their sincere 

 desire to preserve peace and to make mutual restitution, a piece of green rattan is cut by the 

 leaders, and a little beeswax is burnt, both operations being symbolic of the fate that will befall 

 the one that breaks his plighted word. 



Intertribal arid analogous relations. — Intertribal relations between pagan Manobos and Christ- 

 tianized Manobos, and between the former and Bisayas were comparatively pacific during my 

 residence in the Agusan Valley. Between Manobos and other mountain tribes, excepting Maflg- 

 guangans, the relations were, with casual exceptions, rather friendly, due, no doubt, to the les- 

 sons learned by the Manobos in then long struggles with Mandayas, Banuaons, and Debabaons 

 up to the advent of the missionaries about 1877. The Manobos are inferior to the tribes men- 

 tioned in tribal cohesion and in intellect. Their dealings, however, with Maflgguangans, who 

 are undoubtedly their physical and intellectual inferiors, present a different aspect. With the 

 Mandayas and Debabaons, they have helped to reduce the once extensive Mangguangan tribe 

 to the remnant that it is to-day. 



Manobos and other mountain tribes have little to do with each other. Only particular 

 individuals of the various tribes, who have the happy faculty of avoiding trouble, travel among 

 other tribes. In general, Manobos are afraid of the aggressiveness of their neighbors (excluding 

 the Maflgguangans), and their neighbors fearMan6bo instability and hot-headedness; hence both 

 sides pursue the prudent policy of avoidance. 



Interclan relations have been comparatively peaceful since the establishment of the special 

 government in the Agusan Valley. Occasional killings took place formerly and probably still 

 take place in remote regions, notably on the upper Baobo. It is probable that since my depar- 

 ture from the Agusan in 1910 these murders take place much less frequently, as the special 

 government organized in 1907 has made great headway in getting in contact with the more 

 warlike people of the interior. 



Up to the time of my departure dealings between the various clans were purely commercial 

 and of a sporadic nature. Old enmities were not forgotten, and it was considered more prudent 

 to have as little as possible to do with one another. 



On all occasions, when there is any apprehension of danger, arms are worn. During meals, 

 even of festive occasions, the Manobo eats with his left hand, holding his right in readiness 

 for an attack. The guests at a feast are seated in such a way that an attack may be easily 

 guarded against. Various other laws of intercourse, such as those governing the passing of one 

 person behind another and method of unsheathing a bolo, regulate the dealings of man with 

 man and clan with clan. 



Commercial relations between Bisayas and Man6bos, both pagan and Christianized, 

 constitute, on the part of the first-mentioned, a system of deliberate and nefarious spoliation 

 which has been denounced from the time of the first missionaries and which, by the establish- 

 ment of trading posts by the Government, eventually will be suppressed. Absolutely inade- 

 quate values both in buying and selling commodities, use of false weights and measures, 

 defraudation in accounts, demands of unspeakably high usury, wheedling by the pudnak or 

 friendship system, advancing of merchandise at exorbitant rates, especially just before the rice 

 harvest, and the system of commutation by which an article not contracted for was accepted in 



