88 BARTON. 



Bice wine is consumed at an alarming rate during this ceremony. 



Ceremonial hilling of chickens. — The invocation to the ancestors 

 finished, some chickens are usually killed. The ceremonial killing of 

 chickens is perfoi-med by cutting their throats with a sliver of Ijamboo. 

 The blood is caught in a vessel and a prayer repeated as the chicken 

 is dying. The chicken is then held over the fire until its feathers are 

 burned off, when it is cut up with a knife or Ijy a sawing motion of the 

 bamboo sliver and put into a pot to boil. The intestines are stripped 

 of their contents by being drawn between the thumb and finger. They 

 are then put on a spit, and broiled before the iire. They are the portion 

 of the cook. Of some twelve harvest feasts which I attended, the bamboo 

 sliver was used at two. At others the knife was used. After the chicken, 

 has been killed, the blades of two runo stalks are tied in a j)eculiar 

 manner, and the feet of the chicken stuck into these. Pieces of betel 

 nuts wrapped in betel leaves and stuck on little sticks are tied in the 

 blades. The i-uno stalks, so adorned and called paghing, are placed one 

 on each side of the gate of the fence surrounding the granaries, or in 

 the fence in front of the granary door. They are given to the pili^ 

 the spirit that guards the granary against thieves. 



The invocation of the ancestors proceeds in a rather leisurely manner, 

 and it is generally noon or even later when' it is finished. The chickens 

 that have been killed and cooked are not eaten, but are put in a wide, 

 flat basket as an offering to the spirits that come to the feast. In fact 

 the party has not eaten anj^thing since the night of the previous day and 

 continues to fast until the ceremonies are finished. 



The Ifugao conception of the universe. — In order to make what 

 follows intelligible, it is necessary to explain the universe according to 

 the Ifugao's idea. The Ifugao conceives of three worlds : the Sky World, 

 the Earth "World, and the Under World. Each is populated by a variety 

 of spirits, which live in groups of houses, in trees, gullies, springs, 

 waterfalls, currents, stones, and houses made of skulls. There they 

 abide much as mortals do. They have an insatiable appetite for pig 

 meat, betel nuts, and wines; some of them at least need bolos, blankets, 

 beads, and other things that man uses. In addition to the .three worlds 

 mentioned before, there are two regions, places where the three worlds 

 meet : The East, Lagod, and the West, Daya. In the East live some 

 very vicious place-spirits. The spirits in the East are much more num- 

 erous than those in the West. The Kiangan If ugaos say that they 

 themselves came from the East, which probably accounts for the fact 

 that the East is more thickly populated with spirits. There is no north- 

 em nor southern region thus populated.^' In fact, there are no words 



" Villaverde is in error when he states that Eadungayan, the place where souls 

 of those who die a natural death live, is to the north. This Journal, Sec. A 

 (1909), 4, 248. Eadungayan is in the East. 



