140 Field Museum of Naturae History — Anth., Vol. XII. 



frighten birds and other intruders away. When the crops have matured 

 all the people of a neighborhood will meet at the home of the chief, 

 and there celebrate a ceremony known as Pandoman. Two bundles of 

 rice are laid on a mat in the center of the room, and beside them a spear 

 is thrust into the floor. These are offerings to the great spirits M£lu 

 and Dwata who are besought to give health to the workers while they 

 are gathering crops. As soon as this offering is made, the men begin 

 to build the rice granaries; meanwhile the women silently guard the 

 mat and gifts, for until the new storehouses are completed there must 

 be no dancing or merry-making. When all is ready for the harvest, the 

 •wife of the owner goes alone to the field, and having cut a few heads of 

 grain, she carries them back to the house. One portion is placed in the 

 sabak another on a little platform, gramso, near to the house, as an 

 offering to M£lu and Dwata; and the balance is cooked and eaten by 

 the family. The following morning all the women go to the fields to 

 gather the harvest. When the last bundle has been carried to the 

 house a celebration begins, agongs and EdEl 1 furnish the music for the 

 dancers, and for a day and a night all feast and make merry; then the 

 workers return to their homes carrying small gifts of cooked food or 

 new rice. 



Aside from clearing the land and helping somewhat with the rice 

 crops, the men seldom concern themselves with work in the fields but 

 leave the cultivation of corn, sweet potatoes, tobacco, and the like to 

 the women. 



A large part of the food of the tribe is furnished by the fruits and 

 herbs of the jungle and here again the women are the chief providers. 

 Although in the sago industry both sexes have well defined duties. 



Along the edge of the cogon lands are many large buri palms, 2 from 

 which a starch commercially known as sago is secured. The men cut 

 down a tree close to its roots and remove the hard outer bark, thus 

 exposing the soft fibrous interior (Plate LIII) ; then a section of bamboo 

 is bent so as to resemble an adze, and with this the men loosen or break 

 up the soft interior portion of the trunk. This is removed to a near-by 

 stream, and is placed in a bark vat into which water is led by means of 

 bamboo tubes. Here a woman works it with her hands until the 

 starch grains are separated from the fibrous matter. As the water 

 drains slowly out the fine starch is carried with it into a coarse cloth 

 sieve, which retains all the larger matter but allows the starch to be 

 carried into another bark vat below. Fresh water passes slowly through 



1 See p. 110 note. 



2 Corypha umbraculifera. 



