"524 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
2 
Cuyon secsec, and in Tagalo butiqui, is considered very sacred even 
more so than the sneezing of a person. When the tarectec is heard 
at the moment when some undertaking is begun such as a journey, a 
marriage, etc., all work ceases and nothing is done for some hours 
and even days. 
FEASTS 
This tribe celebrates certain feasts on the last three days of the 
last phase of the moon, or the 7th, 8th and oth days of the new. 
moon, and the 15th and 16th days of the full moon. 
On these feast days any kind of work is allowable, save the tilling 
of the soil, or the planting of rice or any other plants necessary for 
the sustenance of life. There are other particular feasts celebrated 
by the rich, such as the chief of a rancheria and the masicampo, 
the chief of the tribe. These days are chosen as fancy dictates, 
always taking care not to select the days of special feasts. These 
feasts usually take place after the harvest of palay, especially if the 
yield has been abundant. Two or three months before the célebra- 
tion of this feast, the family of the chief of the entertaining rancheria 
and the other rich families begin the preparation of the pangasi. 
Rice partly hulled is boiled and then allowed to cool on a petate of 
cane or woven bejuco. When it is thoroughly cooled it is taken up 
in the hands and mixed with a kind of yeast called tapay, which is 
made in the following manner: 
Wild peppers, the leaf of the buyo, ginger, and the shoots of a 
certain species of bejuco known as wa-ag are placed proportionately 
in a mortar and beaten. When crushed this is taken out, put into a 
piece of linen cloth and squeezed. ‘This liquid is the ferment and 
together with water is added to the flour made of rice, which had 
‘previously been made into a kind of wafer. Afterwards the whole 
mass is placed in large jars covered with banana leaves. It is al- 
lowed to ferment for a time and is not opened until the day of the 
feast. The longer it remains unopened, the stronger it becomes. 
On the day previous to the feast, all the women of the rancheria 
hull the rice, prepare the dinner, and make the delicacies known as 
“amit.” These tid-bits are made of powdered rice, or malagquit, 
kneaded with unripe plantanos or wild honey. In all this work none 
of the men take part unless some of them should have killed a wild 
boar. They quarter it but do not prepare the food. On the day 
of the feast the inhabitants of the rancheria and the guests from the 
neighboring rancherias abandon themselves to the eating of the 
foods prepared according to a prescribed mode until the setting of 
