ine starch is carried with it into a coarse cloth sieve, which
retains all the larger matter but allows the starch to be carried into
another bark vat below. Fresh water passes slowly through this lower
vat, removing the bitter sap from the flour, which is deposited on the
bottom of the vat. From time to time this is scraped up and placed in
baskets where it is kept until needed. The flour, while rather
tasteless, is nutritious and in years of drought is the chief source of
food supply.

[65] _Corypha umbraculifera_.

Preparation of the meals, care of the children, basket and mat making,
weaving and decoration of clothing, take up most of the time of the
women when they are not engaged in the cultivation of the fields or in
search of forest products.

The hardest work in the fields falls to the men; they also strip the
hemp needed in weaving, while a few of them are skilled workers in brass
and copper and turn out bells and other ornaments not at all inferior to
those of the coast natives. Their methods of casting as well as their
manufactures are identical with those of the Bagobo from whom they
probably learned the art. So far as could be learned no iron work is
done by members of this tribe, and the few spears and knives possessed
by the warriors seem to be trade articles.

The old men claim that until recent years the bow and arrow was their
sole offensive weapon. It is certain that today they have a greater
variety of arrows and are more skillful in the use of this type of
weapon than are any of their neighbors. None of the weapons found on the
gulf side of the divide appeared to be poisoned, but a number secured by
Major Porter from the Lake Buluan region seem to have been so treated
(Fig. 38). Different types of arrows have been developed for different
purposes; one for fighting, another for deer and pig, another for
monkeys, and still others for fish and birds (Fig. 39). Birds are killed
also by means of reed blow guns, identical in type with those shown on
page 73, Fig. 18. As a rule such weapons are used by boys. Pitch sticks
(Fig. 40), chicken snares, and fish traps are in common use, but bird
nets and wooden decoys seem to be unknown.

FIG. 38. BOWS, ARROWS AND QUIVER FROM LAKE BULUAN REGION.

FIG. 39. BOWS AND ARROWS IN COMMON USE.

FIG. 40. PITCH STICK USED IN THE CAPTURE OF SMALL BIRDS.

When on a raid warriors carry beautifully carved shields, bows and
arrows, spears, and fighting knives (Plates