Note 12 — The Cycle of Life

Following the meal, the mediums continue summoning spirits until late afternoon when the ceremony known as Gīpas—the dividing—is held.12 The chief medium, who is now possessed by a powerful spirit, covers her shoulder with a sacred blanket,13 and in company with the oldest male relative of the expectant woman goes to the middle of the room, where a bound pig lies with a narrow cloth extending along its body from head to tail. After much debating they decide on the exact center of the animal, and then with her left hand each seizes a Page 262leg. They lift the victim from the floor, and with the head-axes, which they hold in their free hands, they cut it in two. In this way the mortals pay the spirits for their share in the child, and henceforth they have no claims to it. The spirit and the old man drink basi, to cement their friendship; and the ceremony is at an end.