The Manóbos of Mindanáo | Page 5

people (súba, river); Tirurái, the mountain people (túduk, mountain, etéu, man);[6] Tagakaólo, the people at the very source of a river (tága, inhabitant, ólo, head or source).
[3] Blair and Robertson, 41: 153, 1906.
[4] The author refers to the mountains in the vicinity of Líano, a town that stood down the river from the present Veruéla and which was abandoned when the region subsided.
[5] Fr. Jacinto Juanmarti's Diccionario Moro Magindanáo-Espa?ol (Manila, 1892), 125.
[6] My authority for this derivation is a work by Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera on The Origin of Philippine Tribal Names.
The derivation of the above tribal designations leads us to the opinion that the word Manóbo means by derivation a "river-man," and not a "naked man."
A further alternative derivation has been suggested by Dr. N. M. Saleeby,[7] from the word túbo, "to grow"; the word Manóbo, according to this derivation, would mean the people that grew up on the island, that is the original settlers or autochthons. The word túbo, "to grow," is not, however, a Manóbo word, and it is found only in a few Mindanáo dialects.
[7] Origin of Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy, Manila, Nov. 1, 1911.
Father F. Combes, S. J.,[8] says that the owners, that is, the autochthonic natives of Mindanáo, were called Manóbos and Mananápes.[9] In a footnote referring to Mananápes, it is stated, and appears very reasonable and probable, that the above-mentioned term is not a tribal designation but merely an appellation of contempt used on account of the low culture possessed by the autochthons at that time.
[8] Historia de Mindanáo y Jolo (Madrid, 1664). Ed. Retana (Madrid, 1897).
[9] The word mananáp is the word for animal, beast in the Cebu Bisáya, Bagóbo, Tirurái, and Magindanáo Moro languages. Among some of the tribes of eastern Mindanáo, the word is applied to a class of evil forest spirits of apparently indeterminate character. It is noteworthy that these spirits seem to correspond to the Manubu spirits of the Súbanuns as described by Mr. Emerson B. Christie in his Súbanuns of Sindangan Bay (Pub. Bur. Sci., Div. Eth., 88, 1909).
Hence there seems to be some little ground for supposing that the word Manóbo was originally applied to all the people that formerly occupied the coast and that later fled to the interior, and settled along the rivers, yielding the seashore to the more civilized invaders.
The following extract from Dr. N. M. Saleeby[10] bears out the above opinion:
[10] The Origin of the Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy on Nov. 1, 1911.
The traditions and legends of the primitive tribes of the Philippine Archipelago show very clearly that they believe that their forefathers arose in this land and that they have been here ever since their creation. They further say that the coast tribes and foreigners came later and fought them and took possession of the land which the latter occupy at present. When Masha'ika, the earliest recorded immigrant, reached Súlu Island, the aborigines had already developed to such a stage of culture as to have large settlements and rajas or datus.
These aborigines are often referred to in Súlu and Mindanáo as Manubus, the original inhabitants of Súlu Islands, the Budanuns, were called Manubus also. So were the forefathers of the Magindanáo Moros. The most aboriginal hill tribes of Mindanáo, who number about 60,000 souls or more, are called Manubus.
[Transcriber's note: Both of the above paragraphs comprise the quotation.]
The idea that the original owners were called Manóbos is the opinion of San Antonio also, as expressed in his Cronicas.[11] Such a supposition might serve also to explain the wide distribution of the different Manóbo people in Mindanáo, for, besides occupying the regions above-mentioned, they are found on the main tributaries of the Rio Grande de Kotabáto--the Bata?gan, the Biktósa, the Luan, the Narkanitan, etc., and especially on the River Pula?gi--on nearly all the influents of the last-named stream, and on the Hi?goog River in the Province of Misamis. As we shall see later on, even in the Agúsan Valley, the Manóbos were gradually split on the west side of the river by the ingress, as of some huge wedge, of the Banuáons. Crossing the eastern Cordillera, a tremendous mass of towering pinnacles--the home of the Mamánuas--we find Manóbos occupying the upper reaches of the Rivers Hubo, Marihátag, Kagwáit, Tágo, Tándag, and Kantílan, on the Pacific coast. I questioned the Manóbos of the rivers Tágo and Hubo as to their genealogy and former habitat and found that their parents, and even some of themselves, had lived on the river Kasilaían, but that, owing to the hostility of the Banuáons, they had fled to the river Wá-Wa. At the time of the coming of the Catholic missionaries in 1875, these Manóbos made their way across the lofty eastern Cordillera in an attempt