er the flesh has been cut into small
pieces, most of it is carried into the dwelling to be cooked for
the guests, but a portion is placed in a bamboo tube, and is cooked
beneath the _pala-an_. When it is ready to serve, the five men again
go to the top of the structure and eat it, together with cooked rice,
then they take the bamboo cooking tube, tie some of the sacred vines
from behind the curtain about it, and fasten it to one pole of the
_pala-an_. The men in the house are free to eat, and when they are
finished, the women dine.

In the cool of the afternoon, the people begin to assemble in the
yard, where they are soon joined by the medium carrying a spear in
one hand, a rooster in the other, and with a rice winnower atop her
head. She places the latter on a rice-mortar close to the _pala-an_,
and uncovering it reveals a small head-axe, notched chicken feathers,
her shells, five pieces of betel-nut and two leaves, a jar cover,
a dish of oil, and a coconut shell filled with rice and blood.

At the command of the medium, four or five men begin to play on
copper gongs, while the wife of the host comes forward and receives
the spear and rooster in one hand. The medium takes the head-axe,
and then the two women take hold of the winnower with their free
hands. Keeping time to the music, they lift it from the mortar,
take one step, then stop, strike the spear and head-axe together,
then step and stop again. At each halt the medium takes a little of
the rice and blood from the winnower and sprinkles it on the ground
for the spirits to eat. [144] When they have made half the circuit
of the mortar, they change places and retrace their steps; for "as
they take the gifts partly away and then replace them, in the same
manner the spirits will return that part of the patient's life which
they had removed, and he will become well and strong again."

The blood and rice which remain after this dance is placed on nine
pieces of banana bark. Five of these are carried to the _pala-an_;
one to the east and one to the west gate of the town; one is put on
the _talagan_, a miniature seat erected near by for the convenience of
visiting spirits, and one in a little spirit house known as _tangpap_
(cf.p.311). For an hour or more, the medium makes _dawak_, and summons
many spirits into her body. When the last of superior beings has made
his call, the medium goes to her home, carrying her payment for the
day's work, [145] but the townspeople