168 THE MANOBOS OF MINDANAO— GARVAN IM ""Tvoi? xSn£ 



As a Manobo once told me, sexual morality is bound up with religion and the greater violations 

 of it are sometimes punished by the divinities. 



Such lighter offenses, as gazing at the person of a woman while she is bathing, or on any 

 other occasion when her person is exposed, are punished with appropriate fines. Improper 

 suggestions and unseemly jokes undergo the same fate. It is a very common report among 

 Bisayas that to touch a Man6bo woman's heel is an exceptionally serious offense against Man6bo 

 law. I never heard of any such regulation among Manobos, although it may exist. To touch 

 any other part of her person, however, is an offense punishable by a good-sized fine. 



Death is the consequence of adultery, fornication, and seduction, except in very exceptional 

 cases where the influence of the guilty one's relatives may save him. But it is certain that 

 in these cases the fine is very heavy. I believe that it is never less than the equivalent of three 

 slaves. 



All reports, both Bisaya and Manobo, state that when fornication has been attempted 

 or accomplished the woman herself may make known the offense to her parents and relatives. 



The law is even more rigid in the matter of adultery. While I was on the upper Agusan 

 River a case of adultery committed by a Christianized man and woman was discovered. The 

 death of the man had been decided upon, and that of the woman was being mooted. I suc- 

 ceeded in having the death sentence commuted to a heavy fine of three slaves. 



It is the common report in Manoboland that, when a woman makes known the act of her 

 lover, the latter does not deny it. Not only under such circumstances, but in nearly all other 

 instances when brought face to face with the truth a Manobo will confess, sometimes even 

 though there be no witness against him. Such is my observation of dealings between Mandbo 

 and Mandbo. In his relations with outsiders, however, the Manobo is not so veracious; on the 

 contrary, he displays no little art in suppressing or in twisting the truth. 



MARRIAGE CONTRACTS AND PAYMENTS 



In the chapter on marital relations it was made manifest that marriage is practically a sale 

 in which a certain amount of the marriage price is returned to the bridegroom. This rule is 

 ver} r stringent. Should the marriage negotiations discontinue without any fault of the man 

 or of his relatives all payments previously made have to be returned, item for item. In this 

 respect it is to be noted that marriage contracts are almost relentlessly rigid, a fact that suggests 

 an explanation of the length of the period that is usually required to terminate the negotiations. 

 For it is only by many acts of attention and even of subservience that the suitor's relatives break 

 down the obdurateness of the fiance's relatives and make them relax the severity of their original 

 demands. Very minute and strict accounts of the various payments, including such small 

 donations as a few liters of rice, are recorded on a knotted rattan strip in anticipation of a final 

 disagreement. 



When it is decided that the marriage is not to take place by reason of the death of one 

 of the affianced parties, the father and relatives of the fianc6 must return all the purchase pay- 

 ments which may have been made. Custom provides that these payments shall be returned 

 gradually, the idea being, presumably, to allow the fiance's relatives an opportunity to profit 

 by the donations of a new suitor, if one should present himself within a stipulated period. It 

 will be readily understood that the nature of the debts incurred by an obligation to return 

 marriage payments determines the character of the payments that will be exacted from a new 

 suitor. Thus, if A's relatives, for good reasons, decide not to continue their suit for the hand 

 of B's daughter, B would be granted a specified time in which to await the presentation of a 

 new suitor for his daughter's hand. This new suitor would be required to bring a lance, for 

 example, and other objects that would serve as first and more urgent payments to A. 



In the case of fornication committed by a man with his fiance, death may be the penalty 

 if the girl's father desires to have the marriage broken off, but I was given to understand that 

 such a heavy penalty is rarely inflicted, the girl's father contenting himself with imposing a 

 heavy fine. 



