aummt or Bawcm DOMESTIC LIFE: PREGNANCY, BIRTH, AND CHILDHOOD 115 



POSTNATAL CUSTOMS 



As a rule parturition is not attended with much weakness nor with any danger. In fact, the 

 mother usually can move around the house on the day following the birth or even on the same day. 

 After two or three days she purifies herself by an informal bath, which is taken more for sanitary 

 than for ceremonial reasons, as far as I have been able to ascertain. 



TABOOS 



For a period of a week, more or less, the mother must refrain from the use of all food except 

 the following: The core of the wild palm tree, native rice, fresh fish, and chicken. The chicken 

 must be of a certain color; in the lake region of the Agusan Valley it must be either black or 

 white, and the leg must be dark in color. 



Bathing is interdicted for two or three days according to the custom of the locality. 



After bathing, the new mother and her husband leave the house in order that the little one 

 may have good luck, and also that they themselves may be removed from the malign influence 

 of the malevolent spirits that are inevitably present on the occasion of a birth. 



The birth festivity is not a very solemn nor magnificent affair. The midwife and a few 

 friends, perhaps a dozen in all, are invited. It is at the end of this repast that some little remu- 

 neration is made to the midwife and to the priestess for their services. Among the pagan Man6bos 

 there seems to be no fixed rule as to the amount to be given to the midwife, but among the 

 conquistas or Christianized tribes, there prevails the customary price of 1*1.50 for the first birth, 

 9*1.00 for the second, and 1*0.50 for the third and all successive ones. 



THE BIRTH CEREMONY 22 



When the child is born it is supposed not yet to have received the two spirit companions 23 

 that are to accompany it during its earthly pilgrimage. Whence proceed these spirit-companions, 

 or what is their nature, I have not been able to learn to my satisfaction. Mandait, the tutelary 

 god of the little ones, after being invoked and appeased with offerings, is supposed to select two 

 spirit companions out of the multitudinous beings that hover over human haunts. These 

 spirits then become guardians, as it were, of the child, and do not separate themselves from him 

 till one of them becomes the prey of some foul demon. 



These spirit companions are said to be invisible, and in physical appearance like their 

 corporal companion, 24 whose every action they are supposed to imitate. As was explained to me, 

 when we sit down, our spirit companions also sit down, and when we dress, they also prepare 

 themselves, and when we go forth they accompany us. When the mother leaves the house 

 with her babe, she adjures the spirits to follow and to guard their ward. Of the effect and pur- 

 pose of this consociation no very definite explanation has so far been given to me. 



The rites of the birth ceremony are observed usually within a month after the birth. There 

 seems to be no stated time, but according to my observation and information they take place on 

 the first symptoms of sickness, or of unusual restlessness on the part of the child. It is firmly 

 believed and openly avowed that these symptoms are due to the machinations of Mandait, who 

 is desirous of being regaled with a fowl, for he. like all his fellow spirits, is an epicure and likes the 

 good things of this world. 



The ceremony begins with an invocation to Mandait. A tiny canoe, more or less perfect in 

 design and equipment, according to the caprice and skill of the fashioner, is made, and is hung 

 up in the house after sunset. The nearer relatives assemble and a priest, preferably a relative, 

 takes the chicken that has already been dedicated M to Mandait, and waves it over the babe and 

 around the house, in order to ward off all such bad influences and harmful spirits as might be 

 flitting around, for in the Man6bo's mind, there are not a few of these demons waiting to devour 

 the expected spirit companions. 



" Tag-un-un to bd-ta. » In stature they are described as being somewhat smaller. 



" Um-a-gdd, from i-gad, to accompany. » Sin-ug-bi-han. 



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