AN IFUGAO BURIAL CEREMONY. 235 



up!'"' During this time, also, until the morning of the third day, 

 an almost constaiit ceremony was held in the house. Two or three 

 priests relieved one another at long intervals. I have not yet obtained 

 the text of those house ceremonies and can say little about them except 

 that their general purpose was to keep the soul of the dead man, the 

 ancestral souls of the clan, and other friendly spirits always near 

 at hand. This was probably both for present protection and in pre- 

 paration for the great ceremonies to follow on the third day. 



THE CEREMONIES ON THE HILL. 



At earliest dawn on the morning of the third day a party of men 

 proceeded to a small level plateau lying about 400 meters west (toward 

 Lingai) and 90 meters above Bahatan's house. They cut down the 

 tall grass on a place from 60 to 90 meters across, and built a small 

 grass shelter on the south side of this clearing. Around this shelter, 

 and enclosing an 8-meter space in front of it, they planted a circle of 

 bunches of green rtino stalks with the leaves left on. Soon after sun- 

 rise five priests came, bringing with them various of the sacred ob- 

 jects and paraphernalia used in religious ceremonies. Others arrived 

 at intervals during the next hour until the final number of priests was 

 sixteen, including all those of highest rank in Banauol clan. They 

 took up their station within the ?-Mno-enclosed circle, and after the begin- 

 ning of the ceremony it was taboo for any other person to step within 

 that circle. 



From 8 o'clock until 10 o'clock the people began to gather for the 

 great ceremony of the munlnmung, until more than 2,000 were in 

 the vicinity of the plateau. They came in parties of from 20 to 200 

 people each, from all the clans at peace with Banauol within half a 

 day's jourtiey about. The procedure in the case of each party was 

 the same as that so well described by Barton in Part III of this paper, 

 and I shall not give it in detail here. The men who were to take part 

 in the burial procession always led, while the women and children fol- 

 lowed in a group at the rear. The striped shields, the bangibang,^^ 

 and the headdresses are well shown in Plates I, II, and IV. The 

 white markings on the shields are painted with a mixture of lime and 

 water. The white bark band of the headdress holds the blood-red 

 dangla ^° leaves in place. Everyone was dressed in his or her finest 



""Bumdngon-ka! BahatanI Bumdngon-ka!" 



" See footnote No. 8. 



^'Dangla is Cordyline terminalis Kunth, (Liliaceae), and is the most important 

 and most used of the sacred plants of the Ifugao. Large quantities of it are 

 planted on the walls of the rice terraces (See Plates' III, VII, and VIII). These 

 spots of crimson color attract every traveler's attention, as they form the most 

 striking ornament on the giant stairways of terraces that run up the mountain- 

 sides almost to their very tops. 



