CH. X MYTHOLOGY OF THE MINAHAS8ERS 255 



could reckon the number of days since the last fosso, and 

 the time the next was due. In payment for their services 

 they received large presents of rice, flesh, linen, pottery, 

 and other things, so that they frequently became the richest 

 as well as the most influential people of the tribe. 



The minor priests were the Tounahas, whose business 

 it was to listen to and note the cry of the birds, for the 

 guidance of the hunters ; the Teterusan, the chiefs of the 

 braves or headhunters, who played an important part in 

 many of the fossos ; and the Potu-usan, or elders, who were 

 consulted upon the mysteries of religion, the meaning of 

 the extraordinary cries of birds, the tracing of poisonings 

 or thefts, and on other occasions (23). The Mawasal 

 (89) was the priest who presided over the funeral cere- 

 monies. He made a small sacrifice for the dead, gave 

 him half a betel-nut to chew, threw the rest of it away, 

 and drove away his spirit with a sword. His services were 

 paid by a gantang of rice (3^ lbs.) . The Weeres was also 

 a funeral priest. He recounted the ancestral histories on 

 the last night of the mourning. The Menanalinga was the 

 priest who listened for the cries of birds. His help was re- 

 quired at the commencement of wars, and at the selection of 

 sites for new fields and houses. The Tumutungep looked 

 after the opening of the rice fields. The Leleen was the 

 peculiar priest of the rice fields actually in cultivation. 

 His work commenced a month before the seed was sown, 

 and ended when the grain was garnered. He sowed in every 

 garden of his division the first seeds, and gathered the first 

 ears when the rice was ripe. 



The principal holy birds were the Totonbara or Bakeke, 

 the foreteller by day {Phaenicophaes calorhynchus), the 

 foreteller by night {Eudynamis melanorhyncha) , and the 

 ' year bird ' {Cranorrhinus cassidix). 



The fossos, posos, or feasts of the Minahassers were so 



