138 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



on along the sloping roof, a feat easily accomplished by the help 

 of house-posts and cross-timbers, and of that monkey-like agility 

 which is characteristic of the movements of Bagobo youths. 



The balekat now being complete for the sacrificial offerings, the 

 composition of the elements that were to form the offerings pro- 

 ceeded. The sacred food that is placed before the Tolus ka Balekat, 

 and afterwards eaten by the men and boys, is a mixture of chicken, 

 red rice and cocoanut. The dessicated fowl, to which some cocoa- 

 nut is added, is cooked by itself, while the bulk of the cocoanut 

 pulp, with all of the rice, is cooked in a separate set of vessels 

 After being taken from the tire, the contents of the different ves- 

 sels — chicken, rice and cocoanut — are mingled together, before 

 being offered to the god. 



When Muku had cut the fowl into bits, he separated it into 

 two portions, the portion on his right hand for the men, the por- 

 tion on his left hand for the adolescent boys. In the meantime, 

 Inok was scraping out white pulp from one-half of a ripe cocoanut, 

 with a grater called parod. This is a little piece of cocoanut shell, 

 armed with a row of teeth notched on one edge. The curve of the 

 remaining margin of the shell fits nicely into the hollow of the palm. 

 As the shredded cocoanut pulp fell down in little heaps. Muku 

 picked it up, handful by handful, and mixed it with the chicken- 

 meat at his right hand. He rubbed each handful of cocoanut thor- 

 oughly with a small part of the chicken, and dropped the mixture 

 into a bamboo joint. He put each handful of cocoanut and chicken 

 as soon as he had rubbed them together into the vessel, then picked 

 up more cocoanut, mixed it with some of the remaining chicken 

 meat, and so on, until all of the chicken on his right was disposed 

 of. Next, he rubbed shredded cocoanut, in the same manner, with 

 the pile of chicken meat on his left hand, but all of this mixture 

 he put into a second bamboo joint. Both of the two bamboo ves- 

 sels had been lined with sarabak leaves before the mess of cocoanut 

 and chicken was dropped into them. finally. Muku poured into 

 each of the vessels sufficient water to cover, in part, the food and 

 tied up the openings with leaves of hem]) or of sarabak. 



Simultaneously, or a little later, nine other bamboo vessels, called 

 lulutan, were being filled with rice and cocoanut in the following 

 manner. Inok continued to grate cocoanut from the same half 

 section of the nut. until he had scraped all of the pulp from the 

 shell. Then, from a large basket beside him. he took a quantity 



