The olla and piece of pork were at once put in the basket, and the journey conscientiously continued to the next sementera. Only when food was eaten at the sementera was the halt prolonged.
A-sĭg-ka-cho′ is the name of the function of the fourth day. On that day each household owning sementeras has a fish feast.
At that season of the year (February), while the water is low in the river, only the very small, sluggish fish, called “kacho,” is commonly caught at Bontoc. Between 200 and 300 pounds of those fish, only one in a hundred of which exceeded 2½ inches in length, were taken from the river during the three hours in the afternoon when the ceremonial fishing was in progress.
Two large scoops, one shown in [Pl. XLIX], were used to catch the fish. They were a quarter of a mile apart in the river, and were operated independently.
At the house the fish were cooked and eaten as is described in the section on “Meals and mealtime.”
When this fish meal was past the last observance of the fourth day of the Cha′-ka ceremonial was ended.
The rite of the last day is called “Pa′-tay.” It is observed by two old Pa′-tay priests. Exactly at high noon Kad-lo′-san left his ato carrying a chicken and a smoldering palay-straw roll in his hand, and the unique basket, tak-fa′, on his shoulder. He went unaccompanied and apparently unnoticed to the small grove of trees, called “Pa-pa-tay′ ad So-kok′.” Under the trees is a space some 8 or 10 feet across, paved with flat rocks, and here the man squatted and put down his basket. From it he took a two-quart olla containing water, a small wooden bowl of cooked rice, a bottle of native cane sugar, and a head-ax. He next kindled a blaze under the olla in a fireplace of three stones already set up. Then followed the ceremonial killing of the chicken, as described in the Mang′-mang rite of the second day. With the scarcely dead fowl held before him the man earnestly addressed a short supplication to Lumawig.
The fowl was then turned over and around in the flame until all its feathers were burned off. Its crop was torn out with the fingers. The ax was struck blade up solid in the ground, and the legs of the chicken cut off from the body by drawing them over the sharp ax blade, and they were put at once into the pot. An incision was cut on each side of the neck, and the body torn quickly and neatly open, with the wings still attached to the breast part. A glad exclamation broke from the man when he saw that the gall of the fowl was dark green. The intestines were then removed, ripped into a long string, and laid in the basket. The back part of the fowl, with liver, heart, and gizzard attached, went into the now boiling pot, and the breast section followed it promptly. Three or four minutes after the bowl of rice was placed immediately in front of the man, and the breast part of the chicken laid in the bowl on the rice. Then followed these words: “Now the gall is good, we shall live in the pueblo invulnerable to disease.”
The breast was again put in the pot, and as the basket was packed up in preparation for departure the anito of ancestors were invited to a feast of chicken and rice in order that the ceremony might be blessed.
At the completion of this supplication the Pa′-tay shouldered his basket and hastened homeward by a different route from which he came.