"ko'-mis." It consists of several posts
set vertically in the ground, to which horizontal poles are tied, The
posts are the stem and root sections of the beautiful tree ferm. They
are set root end up, and the fine, matted rootlets present a compact
surface which the Igorot has carved in the traditional shape of the
"anito." Some of these heads have inlaid eyes and teeth of stone. Hung
on the ko'-mis are baskets and frames in which chickens and pigs have
been carried to the place for ceremonial feasting.

These two ko'-mis were built four years ago when Bontoc and Samoki had
their last important head-hunting forays with Tulubin. When Bontoc or
Samoki (and usually they fight together) sought Tulubin heads they
spent a night at one of the ko'-mis, remaining at the first one,
if the signs were propitious -- but, if not, they passed on to the
second, hoping for better success. They killed and ate their fowls and
pigs in a ceremony called "fi-kat'," and, if all was well, approached
the mountains near Tulubin and watched to waylay a few of her people
when they came to the sementeras in the early morning. If a crow flew
cawing over the trail, or a snake or rat crossed before the warriors,
or a rock rolled down the mountain side, or a clod of earth caved
away under their feet, or if the little omen bird, "i'-chu," called,
the expedition was abandoned, as these were bad omens.

The ceremony of the ko'-mis is held before all head-hunting
expeditions, except in the unpremeditated outburst of a people to
immediately punish the successful foray or ambush of some other. The
ko'-mis is built along all Bontoc war trails, though no others are
known having the "anito" heads. So persistent are the warriors if
they have decided to go to a particular pueblo for heads that they
often go day after day to the ko'-mis for eight or ten days before
they are satisfied that no good omens will come to them. If the omens
are persistently bad, it is customary for the warriors to return to
their ato and hold the mo-ging ceremony, during which they bury under
the stone pavement of the fawi court one of the skulls then preserved
in the ato.

In this way they explode their extra emotions and partially work off
their disappointment.

Occasionally a town has a bad strain of blood, and two or three men
break away without common knowledge and take heads. The entire body
of warriors in the pueblo where those murdered lived promptly rises
and pours itself u