If this treatment proves to be of no avail and the patient dies his body is placed in the center of the house and for two days and nights is guarded by relatives and friends.  During the time that the body remains in the dwelling the family is required to fast and all the people of the settlement are prohibited from playing on agongs, from singing or indulging in other signs of merriment.  Finally, the body is wrapped in a mat and is buried in the forest.[2]

[2] Maxey gives the following account of burial near Cateel:  “The dead person is dressed in his best clothes, wrapped in a piece of abaca cloth, and placed in a coffin of bamboo poles, or one hewn from a solid log, if the person was one of means, and buried.  If of the poorer class he is merely wrapped in a piece of matting-, and either buried or covered over with stones, sticks, and the like.  If of high rank, the body is not buried, but after preparation is taken into the forest and placed in a small hut under a balete tree.  Food, spears, bolos, hats, shields, and some articles of furniture are placed on the graves to placate the spirits who might otherwise bring harm to the surviving members of the clan or family.  There is no fixed period of mourning, but the members of the family must wear black for some time after the death.  The sick are never abandoned prior to death, but slaves nearing death are sometimes killed to stop their sufferings.  The owner, however, must first consult with others of the clan.”

Returning from the burial all the people partake of a feast and then set fire to the dwelling “because we do not like the asuang which killed the man in that house.”  During the ensuing nine days the spouse of the dead dresses in black and for a month following, or until they can purchase a slave, the whole family is barred from merry-making.  Two reasons for the purchase of this slave were advanced by members of the tribe.  One was that the family could be happy if they were still rich enough to purchase a slave.  The second, that they thus replaced the dead man with another, “for the slaves are like members of our own family.”

DECORATIVE ART.

The decorative art of the Mandaya is similar in many respects to that of the Bagobo and Bila-an, yet in part it differs greatly from both.  As is true with the other tribes, the weavers make use of many figures which they do not associate with any living forms, but which, nevertheless, strongly suggest that they may have been derived from realistic designs.  In addition to such patterns they frequently employ figures which are intentional copies of human or animal forms.  Of these the most common are those representing a man and a crocodile; these sometimes appear together, sometimes alone.  The requirements of the space to be filled, as well as readiness of the worker to alter any part in order to give a more pleasing effect to the design have resulted in many distorted and conventionalized figures which can only be explained by the artist.  The accompanying drawings are taken from articles collected by the writer and now in the Field Museum of Natural History.