190 Field Museum of Naturae History — Anth., Vol. XII. 



"The poison is, according to the writer's informant, prepared as 

 follows: A long bamboo is cut and carried to a tree called camandag. 1 

 The bamboo must be long enough to reach to the limit of the shadow 

 cast by the tree to the trunk of the same, as the tree is so poisonous 

 that it even affects those who stand beneath it. The bamboo has a 

 sharp point which is stuck into the tree and receives the milk which 

 exudes from the cut. After several days the bamboo is removed and 

 the contents emptied into another bamboo which serves for a sheath 

 or quiver for the arrows, these being placed in it point down. The 

 slightest scratch will cause death. A peculiar thing about the tree 

 from which the poison is extracted, is that the person extracting must 

 not only not get under the tree, but must approach it from the windward, 

 as the effects of even the odor are unpleasant and dangerous." 



INDUSTRIES 



In the description of the tribe up to this point we have touched 

 upon those pursuits which engross the greater part of the time. In 

 addition to these, it falls to the lot of the women to manufacture and 

 decorate all the clothing worn by members of the tribe. Some cotton 

 is grown and is used in the manufacture of jackets, but the bulk of the 

 garments are of hemp. In the description of the Decorative Art we 

 shall deal with the decoration of the hemp cloth skirts worn by the 

 women. Here it is only necessary for us to observe that this cloth is 

 produced and colored by exactly the same process as is employed by 

 the Bagobo women. 2 



A very little brass casting is done by the Mandaya of one district, 

 but it is evidently a crude copy of Moro work. By far the greater 

 part of the brass betel boxes, and ornaments of that metal, as well 

 as spear heads, are purchased from the coast Mohammedans. 



Iron working is an ancient art with this people and the beauty and 

 temper of their knives and daggers is not excelled by the output of any 

 other Philippine tribe. In the manufacture of these weapons they 

 employ the same methods as their neighbors to the south and west. 



No wild tribe in the archipelago has made so much use of silver in 

 the production of ornaments as has the Mandaya. Thin silver plates 

 are rolled into small tubes and are attached to the woman's ear plugs 

 (Fig. 49), finger rings of the same metal are produced in great numbers, 

 but the finest work appears in the large silver ornaments worn on the 

 breasts by both sexes (Fig. 53). Silver coins are beaten into thin 



1 Crolon tiglium L. 



2 See p. 79. 



