120 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Having moved toward the slope leading up to the village, the 

 priestess then faced the west, laid down on a stone one nut in its 

 leaf and, speaking very slowly, adressed the Buso of the Rattan. 200 

 "To you, Tigbanua Balagan, I give this areca-nut, for now. as 

 every year, we hold a festival for the ancient balekat. AYe beg 

 you not to send sickness upon us, and we want you to tell all of 

 your friends not to hurt us. It is with areca and with betel that 

 we ask from you this favor." 



After this, she turned to face the south and, laying a nut and 

 a leaf on a stone as before, she spoke first to the buso, and then 

 to that glorious and divine malaki who dwells at the never-failing 

 spring of all the waters. "To you, Tigbanua, I offer this areca- 

 nut, and I pray to you all, to move you to be kind to us. Take 

 this, and do not make us sick while we celebrate the Grinum. 

 You. .Malaki t'Olu k'Waig, keep us by your power from illness 

 and from stormy weather, for you are the all-wise (matul us) Anito." 



Before the ceremony, a very small shrine had been set up on the 

 western border of the stream, having the usual white bowl wedged 

 into a rod of split balekayo; toward this tambara the priestess 

 now turned and laid in the bowl one areca-nut and one betel-leaf. 

 Having done this, she took up her bundle of green sagmo (the 

 medicine plants) and handed to the girl. Sigo, the branch of 

 blossoming sprays from the betel palm that had been kept entire. 

 Without speaking, the young virgin placed the branch in her girdle 

 or within the waist folds of her panapisan. Singan then laid in 

 the water — one at each end of that section of the stream that 

 had been set apart for the purification - - a young plant or a leafy 

 cluster selected from the sagmo. and placed one spray of bagebe' 

 on the little shrine. 



At that moment Oleng, who up to this point had remained seated, 

 rose and called Singan's name. The priestess turned to him and Oleng 



100 Similarly, on the Peninsula, "the annual bathing expeditions ... are supposed to 

 purity the persons of the bathers and to protect them from evil." W. W. Skeat : op.<if.. 

 p. 21. Ceremonies of purification having the special intention of driving away demons are 

 mentioned in Somadeva's stories; e.g.: "Then he bathed in the Vitasta and worshiped 

 (ianesa . . . and performed the ceremony of averting evil spirits from all quarters by 

 waving the hand round tin' head and other ceremonies." Op.cit., p. 197. Cf. the Iranian 

 ceremony in which an offering is made to the water itself. "He offered the sacrifice to 

 the good waters of the good Daitya." J. Dabmbsteteb (tr.): "The Vendidad." Sacred 

 books of tin Bast, vol. 4, p. 210. 1895. 



