The ceremony differs but little from that to Täphágan, as described on previous pages. The invocation to Hakiádan is most elaborate, lasting for several hours in the few instances which I witnessed. It is taken up by one priest after another and every inducement is offered to Hakiádan to prevent the rice from being stolen, or destroyed by their enemies, carried away by floods, wet by rain, raided by rats and ants, or stolen by Dágau, that fickle mischievous spirit whose pleasure seems to be to bring hunger 24 to humankind. The dead, whose final feast25 has not yet been celebrated, are given a betel-nut offering and requested most devoutly not to tamper with the rice. Even the greedy parrakeets[sic], the gregarious ricebirds, and other enemies of the rice have portions of the first fruits set out for them in little leaf packages. Hakiádan is asked to instruct these creatures to behave themselves during this delicate season.
24Ma-ka-bun-tas-úi.
25Ka-ta-pús-an.
The pig is killed in the ordinary way, and the feast ends with the usual revels. When the farmer is unable to procure a pig, a chicken is substituted, specious excuses being made for the failure to provide a larger victim.
After the celebration the women and children of the household, assisted by such of their friends and relatives, women and children, as have agreed to harvest the rice, begin the work in real earnest. Each one starts out with her basket hanging upon her back, supported by the string which passes over her head. In her hand she carries the harvesting knife, which is a clamshell set at right angles in a palm's length of rattan, or in lieu of the shell a similarly shaped piece of tin. With this she snips off a ripe ear with a few inches of the stalk and throws it into her basket, which now hangs from her shoulder. When her basket is full she returns to the place where a larger basket26 has been set and deposits her load in it. Thus the process goes on for the few days (three to five) necessary to harvest the crop.
26Diwítan.
The men in the meantime make the granary 27 somewhere in the clearing, usually in the center. It is ordinarily a crude structure consisting of four small posts, upon which rests a roof of rattan leaf thatch. Intermediate between the roof and the ground is a floor either of bamboo slats or of bark, upon which are set the cylindrical bark or grass receptacles for the rice. Sometimes wooden disks or inverted cones of bamboo slatwork are attached to the posts of the rice granary to prevent the entrance of rats and mice.
27Tam-bó-bung.
The rice in the larger baskets is brought to the granary and in the course of a few days is put on coarse mats of grass and threshed with hands and feet. It is then spread out thinly on these same mats and dried in the sun for one day. After it is dried it is cleaned of chaff by being tossed into the air from the winnowing tray. It is then ready for permanent deposit in the granary, to be disposed of later either by sale or by home consumption.
A field 1 hectare in area will yield, at a low estimate, 25 sacks, but where the soil is particularly well adapted for rice culture, as it is on the upper parts of nearly every river in the Agúsan Valley, 50 sacks are not considered an extraordinary yield.