144 PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
carried water, fetched wood, or cooked while he pos- 
sessed any kinswomen; and his wife or daughter would 
feel and share in his disgrace. The Filipino takes turns 
with his wife tending the children and farming. If it is 
inconvenient for her to cook, he does so. He brings in 
the firewood. He does the heavier work of agriculture, 
while the more tedious occupations of transplanting and 
weeding rice generally fall to her. Often men and 
women go to their field labors together. Of course 
custom does considerably segregate the occupations of 
the sexes; but rarely to the point of enforcing the sepa- 
ration under penalty of stigma. 
The ‘‘medium”’ who is the only priest or recognized 
religious officiator of the Filipino is, throughout the 
islands as a whole, as often a woman as a man. The 
Bisaya, Tagalog, Tinggian, and Subanun_ usually 
favored women for this office; men predominate 
among the Bontok, Ifugao, Bagobo, and Mandaya. 
No tribe excludes either sex. 
Marriage. Marriage is universally by purchase, 
and a dwelling together by man and woman without 
the bride price having been formally paid over is illegiti- 
mate and casts a shadow on the children as well as 
the couple. The transaction must be looked upon as 
an expression of respect, of publicly professed value, 
and as ensuring a foundation for the economic and 
therefore social well being of the descendants of the 
couple. The woman is far from being bartered about 
like a pig. The first advances of courtship frequently 
come from her. At the wedding she acts in total equality 
with the groom. They sit on the same mat or eat out of 
one dish as the cardinal symbolic act of the rite. 
Small children are often betrothed, especially among 
the well-to-do who lay stress on alliances suited to main- 
tain family dignity. In any event there is always a 
