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 disks, in the center of which a hole is cut. About this opening appear beautiful intricate designs, some engraved, others stamped with metal dies.
All work in metal is limited to a few skilled men, but many lesser industries, such as shaping tortoise shell rings and shell bracelets, carving of spoons, and making baskets, are carried on by other members of the tribe during their leisure hours.
In each district there are one or two mid wives, known as _managamon_. They are women past middle life who are versed in the medicines and rites which should be employed at the time of birth. They are not considered as _ballyan_, yet they talk to the spirits upon certain occasions.
When a pregnant woman is about to be delivered the midwife crushes the bark of the _dap-dap_ tree and makes a medicine called _tagaumo_, which she gives to the patient. It is claimed that this causes the muscles to relax so that they allow an easy delivery. The umbilical cord is cut with a bamboo knife and as soon as the child has been bathed it is given to the mother. The afterbirth is placed in a specially prepared basket and is either hung against the side of the house or in a nearby tree. For a few days the midwife assists about the house and then, if all is well with the child, she takes her payment of rice, chicken, and fish, and returns to her home. Should the child be ailing she will return, and having placed rice and betel-nut on banana leaves she carries these to the top of the house and there offers them to the _asuang_,[136] meanwhile asking those spirits to accept the offering and to cease troubling the child. No ceremony takes place at the time of naming or at the age of puberty, but at the latter period the teeth are filed and blackened so that the young person may be more beautiful and, therefore, able to contract a suitable marriage.