September, 191 3. Wild Tribes of Davao District — Cole. 81 



in the manufacture of small shell disks with which valuable suits are 

 decorated, but the greater part of those now in use have been inherited, 

 or are purchased from neighboring peoples. The men carve beads out 

 of "Job's tears"'' and make them into necklaces. For this purpose a 

 peculiarly carved and decorated stick is employed (Plate XXVI). This 

 is placed in the palm of the left hand so that the thumb and forefinger 

 can hold the seed which fits into a depression in the top. A knife in the 

 right hand of the artist is worked over the seed thus cutting a line into 

 which dirt is rubbed. Women's combs are made by shaping a half 

 circle out of light wood and then cutting teeth into it with a saw-like 

 blade of tin or iron. 



Among the men, as with the women, certain industries are monop- 

 olized by a few individuals. In this community no men stand higher 

 in the estimation of their fellows than do the smiths and the casters 

 of copper. The writer spent many hours watching To, the brass and 

 copper worker of Cibolan, while he shaped bells, bracelets, and betel 

 boxes at his forge on the outskirts of the village (Plate XXVII). Fea- 

 thered plungers, which worked up and down in two bamboo cylinders, 

 forced air through a small clay-tipped tube into a charcoal fire. This 

 served as a bellows, while a small cup made of straw r ashes formed an 

 excellent crucible. The first day I watched To, he was making bells. 

 Taking a ball of wax the size of a bucket shot, he put it on the end of a 

 stick (Fig. 26a), and over this moulded the form of a bell in damp 

 ashes obtained from rice straw (b). When several bells were thus 

 fashioned they were dipped in melted wax and were turned on a leaf 

 until smooth, after which an opening was cut through the wax at the 

 bottom of each form (c). Strips of wax were rolled out and laid in 

 shallow grooves which had been cut in the sides of the bells and wen- 

 pressed in, at intervals, with 

 a small bamboo knife (d). 

 The top stick was then with- 

 drawn, leaving an opening 

 down to the wax ball inside. 

 Into this hole a thin strip of 

 wax was inserted and was 

 doubled back on itself so as 

 to form a hanger (e) . For 

 three days the forms were 

 ■^ E allowed to harden and then 



FIG. 26. . , 



stages in the manufacture of metal bells, werecovered with several 

 1 Coix lachryma Jobi L. 



n 



