106 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



that day. These leaf-dishes, or kinttdok, were of the same form 

 as those which had hern made for the feast, but were only about 

 one-fourth as large as the banquet dishes, for they measured not 

 over five by ten inches, some being only three incites in width and 

 nine in length. Like the larger kiniidok, these ceremonial dishes 

 were made by curving a section of hemp-leaf so that the corners 

 of one end over-lapped, and the opposite end opened out flat. The 

 cornucopia-shaped tip thus formed was then folded over on itself 

 and fastened to the body of the leaf by a small stick of sharpened 

 rattan. In these smaller vessels, the suggestion of little boats was 

 somewhat more apparent than in the larger ones, though, as stated 

 in a preceding paragraph, we have at present no evidence to prove 

 that this boat-shape was produced intentionally. 



In all but one or two of the leaf-dishes, the old women laid 

 betel-leaves one very small leaf in each dish — and upon the 



leaves they laid whole areca-nuts, ranging in number from one to 

 nine. In one kinudok there was a single areea-nut; two dishes 

 bad two nuts apiece; one held three, while the remaining nineteen 

 dishes each contained from four to nine nuts. One of the women 

 tore into fragments some of the betel-leaves that were left over, and 

 after wrapping these fragments in small pieces of hemp-leaf, she 

 tied them into a few tiny packages. The remaining hemp-leaves 

 were gathered up by Singan, tied together in a bundle and left on the 

 wide shelf {tagudn ka sekkadu) where the seventy water-buckets stood. 



When all was ready, the women picked up ten of the leaf- 

 dishes, leaving thirteen on the stoop just outside the door, and then 

 our little procession started from the house, to lay the offerings at 

 four different shrines by the wayside. There were but seven of us: 

 the four old women, the girl Sigo, Islao and myself. We turned 

 easl from the Long House, and went a short distance down the 

 narrow path that led southeastward to the river. At a spot where 

 meat trees overhung the path, not more than three or four minutes' 

 walk from the door-step, the women halted and sat down on their 

 feet in the posture common to them. Crouching there on the ground, 

 they set down beside them their ten kinndok. ami uttered low - 

 voiced prayers. The faint sunset glow had blended with the soft 

 light of a moon almost at half when they placed their offerings of 

 areca-nuts and of buyo-leaf, just as their ancestors through long 

 centuries had offered areca and buyo by moonlight on those mountain 

 peaks. 



