Note 25 — The Great Ceremonies

About six o'clock the next morning, the women began the ceremonial pounding of the rice known as kītong (cf. p. 329) in the yard, while one of the mediums went to the bound pig lying in the dwelling and recited a dīam as she stroked its side; she also poured a little basi through the slits in the floor for the use of any visiting spirits. While the women were thus engaged, the men were busy constructing spirit houses in the yard. Of greatest importance was the tangpap (Plate XXVII), a small bamboo structure with a slanting roof, resting on four poles, and an interwoven bamboo floor fastened about three feet above the ground.25 Near one of the house poles a funnel-shaped basket was tied, and in it was set a forked stick, within the crotch of which was a little floor and roof, the whole forming a resting place for the Igorot spirits of Talegteg. The pala-an needed a few repairs, and two of the old men looked after these, while others made two long covered bamboo benches which might be used either by visiting men or spirits.26 Four long bamboo poles were set in the ground, and a roof placed over them to form the bang-bangsal, a shelter always provided for the spirits of Soyau.