ceremonies connected with the birth or naming of a child unless unusual
events have convinced the people that the spirits are in some way
displeased.[87]

[87] Triplets are killed, as with the Bagobo.

The afterbirth is placed in the care of an old woman who carries it
directly to a sturdy molave[88] tree and there attaches it to the
branches "so that the child may become strong like the tree." While on
this mission the bearer looks neither to the right nor to the left, nor
does she hesitate, for such actions on her part might influence the
disposition of the child or cause it to have physical deformities.[89]
No special attention is given to youths when they reach the age of
puberty, although it is customary to file and blacken their teeth at
about that period.

[88] Vitex littoralis Decne.

[89] Similar beliefs are held by the Tinguian of Northern Luzon.

Marriage is attended by gifts and ceremonies, such as we have previously
described. We find the groom paying a price for his bride, but receiving
a return gift from her parents; the couple feed one another with rice
and are thereby legally married; and finally we learn that a child is
kept with them until they have had intercourse. It is customary for the
youth to serve his father-in-law-to-be for two or three years preceding
the wedding, after which he is released from such service.

As is the case with the neighboring tribes, polygamy is practiced, the
only bar to marriage being blood relationship. Upon the death of the