140 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



ordinary torches of leaf-wrapped resin. To Maying, the second 

 in age of the virgin daughters of Oleng, the privilege of making 

 the sacred illumination was assigned. She hung several strings 

 of biaii nuts on the forked branches ' of the native candelabra that 

 stood on the floor, and other strings she suspended from house 

 timbers. The nuts were rich in oil, and the flame flared up as 

 soon as lighted, the entire length of the sections being soon a row 

 of flickering lights. The Long House was as bright as if hundreds 

 of candles were burning. The silence was broken by a resounding 

 shout from the men, who now raised the war cry again at the 

 moment the blaze leaped forth. 



Close upon the last war cry of that Talun Ginum, arrangements 

 for the evening ceremonial were gotten under way, and the people 

 grouped themselves at their several activities in the appointed places 

 in the Long House: young women attended to the cooking of foods 

 rice, pig, and venison — for the feast; old women prepared 

 loaf-dishes for a supplementary a was; young men tended the fire 

 under the house and watched the bamboo vessels in which the 

 sacred food was steaming; other young men up in the house helped 

 in the preparation of the feast, by placing cocoanuts ready to bo 

 grated at a later hour. Some of the old men sat near the balekat, 

 while talking or making preliminary moves toward the altar cere- 

 mony now close at hand. Oleng was on his high scat (dega-dega) 

 just north of the balekat, from which he had been observing care- 

 fully the dressing of the fowl, the mixing of the ceremonial food, 

 and the succeeding activities. The weary guests sat in tightly- 

 packed lines on the floor, their faces wearing a patient, solemn 

 expression, and waited. 



The ceremony over the chicken and omok was performed by 

 Oleng and Ido in front of the balekat, on the west side of the house 

 where broad leaves were laid on the floor. On these, the contents 

 of the nine bamboo vessels containing the cooked rice and cocoanut, 

 and of the two vessels containing the chicken food were poured out, 

 the sarabak leaves being left in the lulntan. The chicken and rice 

 which hail been boiled separately were now together in one brown 

 soft mass forming a mixture called t<tf<><tn<iit. Imt in spite of the 

 apparent homogeneity of the food, there was a sharp distinction be- 

 tween the right-hand and the left-hand portions, for, in mixing 

 the chicken and rice, Ido or his assistant poured the contents of 

 the men's bamb< n the rice to his right, and that of the boys' 



