116 GIBBS AND AGCAOILI. 
company. During the drinking the big gongs of the house are 
usually beaten with a will for many hours at a time. The 
younger men, after drinking a while, sometimes jump up and 
dance. The dance is sometimes a pas seul, sometimes a dance 
with a woman partner, whom however the man does not touch, 
and sometimes it consists in joining a ring of men and women 
who hold hands and leap rhythmically around a sort of Maypole 
in the middle of a special dancing platform. 
Drinking plays a very important part in Subanun social life. 
Gasi is usually offered to a visitor of rank, whether a stranger 
or not. It would, of course, be considered exceedingly rude for 
the latter to refuse to drink. At feasts drink is considered as 
essential as food. 
These are usually given by a chief or leading man just after a 
good harvest, or in honor of the dead, or in order to fulfill a vow 
made to certain spirits for recovery from sickness. At such 
times the amount of gasi consumed is often very large. I have 
seen over three hundred Subanuns, at a feast, who drank gasi 
liberally day and night for four consecutive days. I have also 
seen a house with over a dozen Subanuns lying on the floor in 
the daytime, sleeping off the effects of drink. 
It is a common precaution at Subanun feasts for the weapons 
of the guests to be delivered to the representatives of the host 
before the drinking begins. This is to avoid casualities when 
the men are in their cups. Before the drinking begins an 
influential man designated by the host usually ties a number of 
knots in various pieces of rattan attached to the wall in a con- 
spicuous place, each knot representing a certain unit of value, 
such as, gongs, brass cannon, or pieces of cloth. He then shouts 
to the assembled company that the knots represent the amount 
of the fines which will be imposed on any man who commits 
during the feast certain offenses which are specified; such as 
quarrelling, blows, stepping on people, and liberties taken with 
the women. 
In point of fact, Subanuns make allowances for the conditions 
of men under the influence of drink, and small offenses are 
readily condoned, but any serious injury committed under 
alcoholic influence is punished, and any improper advances to 
women. If I may believe what I was told on the subject, the 
man offering the drink is punished as well as the immediate 
culprit. 
It is usual at Subanun feasts for the guests to bring their 
wives and children, who eat and sleep in the host’s house like 
the men. Women and children are free to drink, but do not 
