Note 123 — Chapter VI · Magic Rites as affecting the Life of Man

These trays appear to be divisible into two classes, according to the objects which they are intended to serve. In the one case certain offerings (to be described presently) are laid upon the tray, which is carried out of the house to a suitable spot and there suspended to enable the spirits for whom it is designed to feed upon its contents.123 In the other case certain objects are deposited upon it, into which the evil spirits are ceremoniously invited to enter, in which case it must obviously be got rid of after the ceremony, and is therefore hung up in the jungle, or set adrift in the sea or the nearest river; in the latter case it is called the “keeled sacrifice-tray” (anchak pĕlunas), and falls into line with other objects which are occasionally set adrift for the same purpose.