Note 28 — Economic Life

Early the next morning, the man who has been designated by Kadaklan to perform the Padīam makes ready, at his own expense, a large pig and cooked rice, and carries these to the fields. He must be dressed in striped garments known as gīnalīt, must carry a headaxe, and wear on his head the cloth band of the medium, beneath which are thrust two īgam, that is, chicken feathers notched or decorated with bits of colored thread (cf. p. 313). He is accompanied by his wife, attired in a red jacket (sinasáya) and a skirt (pīnápa), and by a medium who also wears the īgam beneath a headband of sīkag;28 while the townspeople follow behind. Arrived at the field, the medium Page 399squats before the bound pig, and holding a spear, betel-nuts, and oil, begins to recite a dīam, meanwhile she strokes the animal from time to time with oiled fingers. This concluded, she stabs the pig, and having mixed its blood with rice, scatters it over the field, calling to the spirits to come and eat, and then to grant a full harvest. The people eat part of the animal while in the field, but before returning home, the head of each family receives a small strip of uncooked flesh, which he fastens above the door as a sign that the ceremony has been held.29 The following day, the owner and the medium return to the field and break a little soil with a spear, and the ceremony is complete, but for some days these two are barred from eating shrimp, carabao, or wild pig. The owner must also pay the medium ten bundles of rice for her assistance in insuring his own crops, as well as those of the community. Should lightning strike a field or a tree in it, this ceremony is repeated, with the exception that the strips of flesh are not distributed, nor is the soil broken with a spear.30