ss ASXALS NEW YO/lK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



bowl of heavy white crockery, supported by an upright rod of light 

 bamboo {balekayo) from three and one-half* to four feet in height, 

 the rod being split down several inches from the top into four 

 forks which are spread out and bound with rattan at the center 

 of parting so as to form a rest for the bowl. Tied to these branching 

 splints of the standard, one often sees slender leaves from plants 

 that possess a magical virtue, especially those that are fragrant, 

 and also flowering sprays called bageM from the areca palm. Bands 

 of rattan fasten the upright standard to one of the timbers of the 

 wall, in the case of the house altar, while a tambara in use out- 

 of-doors has its bamboo rod fixed in the ground. That the bowl 

 is the essential part of this altar, and that it is the tambara proper 

 should be noted, the technical name for the standard being budiibi. 

 When a tambara is set up in any home, the men cut the bamboo 

 for the budiibi and the women place the bowl. In some houses 

 there are two bowls, each in its own standard, and occasionally 

 there are three, side by side against the wall. To this little family 

 shrine recourse is had in case of sickness, when areca-nuts, betel- 

 leaf and old ornaments are placed in the bowls with a prayer to 

 one or another of the diwata; for a bamboo prayer-stand may lie 

 dedicated to a diwata of the house, a diwata of the hearth, the 

 personal gods of the family, or to some other protecting spirit. 



This same type of altar 100 functions at several ceremonies, notably 

 at the feast of Ginum, on which occasion tambara are elected at 

 the (nlge of the river, or in the bed of a stream, for the devotions 

 in connection with Lustration. Other tambara are set up by the 



169 The tambara probably represents one of the most primitive altars of the Bairobo, 

 since it functions in such a number of distinct ceremonies. We liutl this type of altar 

 mentioned in the old mythical romance recited by mountain people, as well as in stories 

 that may be of more modern composition. Of. op. cil., Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. 26, 

 pp. 28, 52. .Ian.— March, 191 3. 



An altar somewhat similar in form is used b\ Peninsular Malays, anion; whom Skeat 

 found, along the wayside, shrines where incense was burned in Little stands made of 

 bamboo rods, one end of the rod being "stuck in the ground and the other split into 

 four or live, and then opened out and plaited with basket work so as to hold a little 

 earth." Cf. W. W. SKEAT : op. cil., p. 67. In one case, I have seen the half shell of a 

 cocoanut used in place of crockery, and this maj have been the ancient receptacle. The 

 tambara La referred to by lather Gisbert in the following words.- "When thej arc sick, 

 they perforin the diuaia in their tamharo. That consists in a dish on top of a bamboo 

 which is fixed in the ground, on which they place bnyo, bonga [areca], lime, mid toll 

 while they sa\ to their god: *We offer thee this. Give as health.'" Blair and Robertson : 

 op. cit., vol. 43, p. 237. 1900. 



