Note 4 — The Minor Ceremonies

Pīnáing or Pináding (Plate XXX).—At the gate or entrance of nearly every village will be found a number of peculiarly shaped, water-worn stones, either beneath a small shelter, or nestling among the roots of some great tree. These are the “guardian stones,” and in them lives Apdel (“the spirit who guards the town”). Many stories cluster about these pīnáing,4 but all agree that, if proper offerings are made to them at the beginning of a great ceremony; when the men are about to undertake a raid; or, when sickness is in a nearby village, the resident spirit will protect the people under his care. Thus it happens that several times each year a group of people may be seen early in the morning, gathered at the stones. They anoint the head of each one with oil, put new bark bands on their “necks,” after which they kill a small pig. The medium mixes the blood of the slain animal with rice, and scatters it on the ground while she recites the story of their origin. Then she bids the spirits from near and far to come and eat, and to be kindly disposed.