ne; I will deceive your enemies, but
I will not deceive you,' The old man, possessed, jumps up and, with
characteristic Ifugao dance step, dances about the rice-wine jar and
about the pig. Quickly follows him a feaster who has called Umalgo,
the Spirit of the Sun, and was possessed by him. Manahaut dances ahead
of Umalgo to show him the pig. Umalgo seizes a spear, dances about the
pig two or three times, when he steps over to it and with a thrust,
seemingly without effort, pierces its heart. The blood spurts out
of the pig's side and there quickly follows a feaster who has been
possessed by Umbulan, who throws himself on the pig and drinks its
blood. He would remain there forever, say the people, drinking the
pig's blood, were it not that one of the Stars, his son, possesses a
feaster, causing him to dance over to Umbulan, catch him by the hair
and lead him from the pig. Following these ceremonies, there came
feasters of various spirits of the Stars to cut the pig's feet and
his head off. Then comes the cutting up of the pig to cook in the
pots. The blood that has settled in its chest is carefully caught;
it is used to smear the _bangibang_ and the _jipag_. The _jipag_ are
interesting. They are little images of two or three of the deities
that help men to take heads. The images are of wood about six or
eight inches high. Sometimes there are images of dogs also. When an
Ifugao goes on a head-hunting expedition, he takes the images in his
head-basket, together with a stone to make the enemy's feet heavy so
that he cannot run away, and a little wooden stick in representation
of a spear, to the end of which is attached a stone--this to make the
enemy's spear strike the earth so that it might not strike him. [28]
"As the pig was being put in the pot to be cooked for the old men
who had performed the feast, some unmannerly young fellow started
to make away with one piece of the flesh. Immediately there was a
scramble which was joined by some three or four hundred Ifugaos of
all the different _rancherias_. Then the feasters (I think there were
about one thousand who attended the feast) leaped for their spears
and shields. The people who had come from Kiangan rushed to where I
was and took their stand in front of and around me, and told me to
stay there and that they would protect me from any harm; all of which,
as may well be supposed, produced no trifling amount of warmth in my
feelings toward them. Fortunately nothing came
|