The winnowing tray is a round shallow tray, 40 centimeters in diameter and usually of plaited rattan strips with a rim of thicker rattan. It is held in both hands and by a series of shuffling motions, which are better seen than described, accompained[sic] by a peculiar movement of the thumb of the left hand, the chaff and the little broken fragments of rice are thrown off into another receptacle for the family pigs.
COOKING THE FOOD
Rice is not usually washed before cooking. It is put into a homemade earthen pot,28 which is often lined with sugarcane leaves, not only to prevent the rice from burning, but to impart to it a finer flavor. It is covered with water, the rice being about 5 centimeters below the surface of the water. The pot is set on a hot fire until the water evaporates to the level of the surface of the rice, whereupon the greater part of the fire is removed and the rice is allowed to steam dry. These remarks also apply to the cooking of a variety of millet,29 which is sown sparingly with the rice.
28Kó-don.
29Daú-wa.
Another method of cooking rice, especially when on the trail, is in green bamboo. Joints of green bamboo are filled with rice and water, or rice is wrapped in rattan leaves and then packages are put into the water. Rice cooked in this latter way will keep for three days.
There are two orthodox methods of cooking fish and meat and no other is admissible, under penalty of infringing a very important taboo. One method consists of boiling them in water, with a little seasoning of red pepper, ginger, and possibly lemon grass and one or two other ingredients. The second method consists of broiling the pieces of meat and fish in or over the fire. Meat and fish already cooked are thrown into the fire in order to heat them. The fact that they may be burnt and covered with ashes does not detract from the flavor. The most usual method of broiling, however, is to put the meat on skewers of wood or bamboo a few inches above the fire.
When large game has been secured at such a distance from the house that it must be cooked in the forest, it is cut into quarters, and broiled over a heaping fire. This is the invariable method of cooking the heads even of domestic pigs. Chicken heads, legs, and wing ends are invariably broiled, while the intestines are wrapped up in leaves and cooked better than might be supposed, though the flavor, to my taste, is not the most delicate. They seem, however, to be a choice morsel to the majority of my Manóbo friends. Monkeys, frogs, and the forest carrion lizard are always broiled.
Camotes and taro are usually cooked unpeeled in the common earthen pot. About a half a liter of water is used in an ordinary pot, so that the process is practically one of steaming. If the pot has no cover, or if the imported pan be used, leaves are employed to confine the heat.