n_ ceremony is the first round on the social and religious
ladder. It is here given in some detail, and is then followed by
others, in the order of their importance.

_Pala-an_.--The _Pala-an_ is held when some member of the family is
ill, or when the structure of that name needs repair. Many spirits
visit the people during this rite, but the one chiefly interested is
Idadaya, the spirit of the east. He and his ten grandchildren wear in
their hair the notched tail-feathers of a rooster, which are known
as _igam._ From time to time these lose their luster, and they can
only be refreshed by having some mortal celebrate _Pala-an_.

When it appears that these ornaments need attention, the Idadaya will
notify some family, either through a medium or by sending illness
to them.

A family having received such a notification summons a medium,
and she at once begins to gather _saklag_ (_Justicia gendarussa_
L.) and _sikag_ (_Lygodium_ sp. near _scandens_) and a grass known
as _bildis_, while the men secure the bamboo and other materials used
in building the spirit structure. One corner of the living room is
screened off with a large white blanket called _tabing_, and behind
it the medium places unthreshed rice and jars which she has decked
with vines and leaves.

While she is thus engaged, the men are busy building the _pala-an_
(Plate XXIV). This consists of four long poles--three of bamboo and
one of a resinous tree, _anteng_, [143] set in a square and supporting,
near the top, a platform of bamboo.

A number of women have been invited to assist the family, and they
now proceed to beat out sufficient rice to serve the guests. When
the pounding is finished, a rice-mortar is set out in the open, and
a little rice is placed in it. The women, armed with long pestles,
gather around and, keeping time to the music of copper gongs, they
circle the mortar contra-clockwise, striking its edge three times
in regular beats of 1, 2, 3; on the next beat the leader strikes the
bottom of her pestle against that of her neighbor, on the first and
second beats, but on the third she pounds the rice in the mortar. This
is repeated by the woman on her right and so on around the circle. Then
the leader strikes the top of her pestle against the top of the one
held by the women next her on two beats and on the third pounds rice,
and this is repeated by all. The music now becomes much faster, and,
keeping time with it, the leader strikes first into