acadeky of sciknces] PERSONAL ADORNMENT 53 



it may be said that where he has his choice he selects red, yellow, black, and white. He prefers 

 the small seed bead, but likes to have a few large beads to place at recurring intervals. 



Necklets are occasionally worn. They consist of bands of beads, arranged symmetrically 

 according to color in geometrical figures — a triangle of yellow beads, a rectangle of black ones, 

 or other patterns. This necklet is usually about 2 centimeters broad and long enough to fit 

 the neck tightly. It is fastened at the back by a button and usually has a single string of beads 

 depending from it and lying upon the back. Men may wear this necklet, but its use by them is 

 very infrequent. They, however, occasionally wear a necklace from which to suspend the hair 

 eradicator. I observed this only on the upper Agiisan, and, as it is an ordinary Mandaya practice 

 I suppose that the custom is borrowed — another indication of the influence of Mandaya culture 

 on the Manobos of the upper Agiisan. The eradicator is a small pair of tweezers made, 

 ordinarily, out of a piece of beaten brass wire bent double and having inturned edges. 



The only breast ornament, besides tattooing on the skin and embroidery on the jacket, is 

 the silver plaque or disk worn nearly always by unmarried women and frequently by others. 

 The wearing of these disks is a custom practiced only on the upper Agiisan, Ihawan, and Simiilau 

 Rivers, and is without doubt of Mandaya origin. The plaque is a large thin sheet of beaten 

 silver varying from 7 to 10 centimeters in diameter. It is of Debabaon or of Mandaya workman- 

 ship. It has a pattern of concentric circles and other symmetrical figures traced upon it, together 

 with a fretwork of small triangular holes. The more elaborate ones display an amount of artistic 

 skill that gives the Mandaya 8 the high reputation that he has in eastern Mindanao as a man 

 of superior attainments. 



ARM AND HAND ORNAMENTATION 



Men wear on one or both upper arms black bands of braided nito. These are about IK centi- 

 meters in breadth and are braided into one continuous piece of such a size as to fit the arm 

 tightly. The writer has seen many that fitted so closely that they caused sores. They are, 

 besides being distinctly ornamental, designed to serve another purpose, for they are supposed 

 to impart strength to the muscles. 



Men often wear, on one or both wrists, one or more vegetable ligatures plaited in one con- 

 tinuous piece. These are of a jet black glossy color when made of the dg-sam 6 vine. They are 

 rectangular in cross section, being about 6 millimeters by 6 millimeters. They must be moistened 

 to make the filaments expand so that the wearer can pass them over his hands on the wrist. 

 On drying they contract to the size of the wrist. Women often wear a few of these with their 

 forearm ornaments. 



Crude rings, round or flat, more commonly beaten out of brass wire or of copper money, 

 but occasionally made of silver money and still less occasionally of carabao horn, adorn in greater 

 or less number the fingers of both men and women. 



The forearm adornments of women are more numerous and elaborate than those of men. 

 Besides the vegetable circlets described above, segments of the black coral plant, 7 cut into palm 

 lengths and bent into rings by heating, are worn on either or both arms, though, in case of an insuffi- 

 cientsupply, the left arm is adorned in preference to the right. These marine ringlets are not solely 

 for purposes of ornamentation, for a magic influence is attributed to them, at least by the Mano- 

 bos of the upper Agiisan. They are thought to contract and grip, as it were, the wearer's 

 arm on the approach and in the presence of danger. Hence they are greatly prized but are 

 comparatively rare. This is due to the difficulty of obtaining the plant as it grows in deep 

 water where the danger from sharks deters the native divers. 



s Mandayaland produces nearly all the lances, spears, bolos, daggers, and artistic cloth used by the Manobos throughout eastern Mindanao. 

 Outside of a few silversmiths among the Debabaons, and a few among the hybrid group occupying the upper Agiisan from Oerona to Tagaunud, 

 the Mandaya smiths are the only ones that are skilled in silverwork. 



8 Both pug-nut and ag-sam are spec'es of nito (Lygodium sp.). 



' Called sag-ai-sdg-ai in Manobo and bani-ug in Bisaya (Antipatharia sp.). 



