ch an important
event as the planting of rice, or for going on the warpath, then the
ceremony extends over ten days or two weeks, and the opinion of the
small barking deer also must be consulted; furthermore, the whole
household is under the ban of a taboo, or _permantang_, as they call it,
and the people must all stay indoors while the three men who are
appointed as searchers are abroad on their omen-seeking errand. So firm
is their trust in the wisdom of the birds that even if they have worked
for months at a clearing they will abandon it and never plant it, if the
omens at the time of sowing be unfavorable. Certain birds must be seen
on the right hand to be favorable, while others are most propitious when
they soar overhead, or give a shrill cry on the left; on more than one
occasion, when traveling in native canoes, a bird which ought to have
appeared on the right has been seen on the left, and, to my utter
bewilderment, without a word the boat has been swung round in the stream
so as to bring to the right what was on the left, thus slyly fabricating
a bad omen into a good one, and for some distance we have gone in the
opposite direction, but now with highly favorable omens. When they
conclude that the bird has forgotten his warning or lost sight of us,
the boat has been again turned, fate has been deceived, and we journey
on as before. Once our whole party of eight or ten boats had to pull up
at the bank and walk through the jungle for a quarter of a mile or so to
make a bothersome white-headed hawk think that he had mistaken the
object of our expedition. When a favorable bird has been seen, a fire of
chips is at once built on the bank of the river, thereby letting the
bird know that his kind attention has been appreciated, Fire is always
the go-between of man and the birds, or any of the spirits; it forms an
important part in the ceremonies of consecration and absolution, and by
means of fire a man may break through a taboo, or _permantang_. Should
a man have a fruit-tree, for instance, which he wishes to protect, he
places about it several cleft sticks with stones thrust in the clefts,
and the stones are told to guard the tree and afflict with dire diseases
any pilferer of the fruit. Now, should a friend of the owner see this
sign of _permantang_ and yet wish some of the fruit, let him but build a
fire and commission the fire to tell the stones that he is a friend of
the owner, and that it is all right if he takes