330 The Tinguian 



its blood is collected, and is mixed with cooked rice. The carcass is 

 singed at once. Five men then carry it to the top of the pala-an, where 

 it is cut up. The suet and the hind legs are handed to the medium, who 

 places them behind the screen in the room, and the family may then 

 rest assured that the spirits thus remembered will free them from 

 headache and sore eyes. After 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. 1 

 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 



1 This feeding of the spirits with blood and rice is known as ptsek, while 

 the whole of the procedure about the mortar is called sangba. 



