academy of sci*ncr 8 ] SOCIAL ENJOYMENTS 133 



is a small cavity in the body of the instrument intended to allow sufficient room for the tongue of 

 the harp to move while being played. 



The instrument is played by putting the mouth to the above-mentioned cavity and by 

 blowing as we do in an ordinary jew's-harp. The tongue is made to vibrate by tapping with the 

 finger a needlelike spur that is left at the end of the instrument. This vibration, in conjunction 

 with variations of the mouth cavity of the performer, produces tones which are not unlike those 

 of an ordinary jew's-harp but which are not so loud nor so harmonious. 



THE STAMPER AND THE HORN 22 OF BAMBOO 



On the upper Agusan I witnessed the use of bamboo stampers. They consist of large bamboo 

 joints with one partition wall removed. They are stamped on the floor in rhythm with the drum 

 and gong during a dance, the open end being held up. The use of these stampers by Manobos 

 is rare, the custom being confined almost exclusively to Manggu&ngans of the upper Agusan 

 and upper Salug Valleys. 



Another instrument, but one which can hardly be called musical, is the bamboo horn used 

 for signaling and calling purposes. It consists of an intemode of bamboo with one partition 

 wall removed. An opening large enough for the mouth is made on the side of the bamboo 

 near the other node. In using it the mouth is applied to this aperture and a good pair of lungs 

 can produce a loud booming blast. After the occurrence of a death, especially if the deceased 

 has been slain, it is customary to use this instrument as a means of announcing the death to 

 near-by settlements, thereby putting them on their guard against any of the slain one's relatives 

 who might be impelled to take immediate vengeance on the first human being he met. 



SOUNDERS 



A method of signaling, much in use among the mixed Manobo-Mangguangans of the upper 

 Agusan, consists in beating on the butresses a of trees. It is surprising how far the resultant 

 sound travels in the silence and solitude of the forest. 



In connection with musical instruments it may not be out of place to mention the bamboo 

 sounders 24 attached to looms. They are internodes of bamboo with apertures in the joint wall 

 and a longitudinal slit extending almost from node to node. One of these always constitutes the 

 yarn beam of the loom. 



These internodes, besides serving to support the fabric during the process of weaving, 

 denote by their resonance that the weaver is busy at work. The movement of the batten in 

 driving home the weft produces a sound that, owing to the resonance of the bamboo yarn beam 

 may be heard for several hundred meters. 



When the Manobo maiden is especially desirous of calling attention to her assiduity and per- 

 severance, she has an extra internode placed in an upright position against the yarn beam just 

 described. This doubles the volume of sound and serves to intimate to visiting young men that 

 she would be an industrious wife. 



VOCAL MUSIC 



Singing is as common among the Manobos as among their countrymen of the Christian 

 tribes. The fond mother croons her babe to sleep with a lullaby. In festive hours the song is 

 the vehicle of praise, of joke, of taunt, and of challenge, and in religious celebrations it is the 

 medium through which the priests address their deities. 



THE LANGUAGE OF SONG 



The language used in singing is so different from the common vernacular that Bisayas and 

 Christianized Manobos who speak and understand perfectly the ordinary dialect of conversation 

 find the language of song unintelligible. I have had several songs dictated to me and found 

 the song words to be plainly archaic. This observation applies also to the song-dialect of 

 Mangguangans, Debabdons and Mandayas. 



21 Tam-bu-li. » Da-lii. » Ka-giX. 



