BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 139 



of raw red rice that had been crushed in the mortar, and stirred it 

 up with the shredded cocoanut. The red rice is called amok, and is 

 one of the special forms of sacrificial food. 210 I understood that 

 the same name (oinok) was given to the mixture of red rice and 

 cocoanut. Another young man, Ayang, took a part of the little 

 pile of red rice and cocoanut, heaped it on a sarabak leaf, and laid 

 on it another sarabak leaf. He then lifted the leaves with their 

 contents, so that his palms did not touch the omok, and pressed 

 the whole into one of the bamboo vessels — the lulutan. A very 

 little cold water had previously been poured into the vessel. Im- 

 mediately afterward, Buak filled a second lulutan in the same man- 

 ner, thus using up the remaining cocoanut from the first half shell. 

 Inok then attacked the other half of the nut and scraped out all 

 of the meat, which he mixed with the rest of the red rice, where- 

 upon Ayang and Buak proceeded to fill seven additional lulutan. 

 Each of the bamboo vessels was filled up to about two-thirds of 

 its capacity, or a little less; but the amount put into each did not 

 vary, for Buak measured the content exactly, every time, by in- 

 serting a little stick of lava wood into the vessel and minutely 

 examining the point to which the moisture mark rose. When the 

 nine lulutan had been prepared, Inok tied together the two empty 

 halves of cocoanut shell with rattan so as to make one hollow nut, 

 which he left ready to hang on the altar at the close of the even- 

 ing ceremony. 



The nine lulutan and the two bamboo joints containing the chicken 

 and cocoanut were then carried down the steps to a place under the 

 house, where each vessel was filled to the rim with cold water, 

 and its top tied securely with a leaf-cover. On stones encircling 

 a wood fire, all of the vessels were placed where the food might 

 steam until soft, the fresh green bamboo being not at all inflammable. 



It was then deep dusk, and we hastened up into the now dark 

 house so that we might be in time to see the illumination. Long 

 torch-chains of biaii nuts, that had been strung a week earlier, 

 were now to be lighted to take the place, for this one night, of the 



2 ' ° I have been told that the root of a plant, probably saffron, from which a yellow 

 dye is obtained, is used at Ginum to stain the sacrificial food yellow, but, on this occasion, 

 I did not observe that any yellow stain played a part. Mandarangan, however, is said 

 to be very fond of yellow rice. Skeat mentions, frequently, the ceremonial value of yellow 

 among the peninsular Malays; but, as for the Bagobo, red and white seem to be the 

 colors chosen for offerings and for sacrificial use. 



