Pinaing or Pinading (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 pinaing, [131] 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.

In Bakaok and some other villages it is customary for the medium to summon several spirits at this time, and this is followed by the dancing of tadek.  The people of Luluno always hold a ceremony at the pinaing before the planting of the rice and after the harvest.

Following this ceremony in the village of San Juan, a miniature raft (taltalabong) was loaded with food and other presents, and was set afloat, to carry provisions to any spirit, who might have been prevented from enjoying the feast.

These stones are of particular interest, in that they present one of the few instances in which the Tinguian associates supernatural beings with natural objects.

Saloko (Plate XXV).—­Besides the houses, in the fields, and at the gate of many villages, one often sees long bamboo poles with one end converted into a basket-like receptacle.  Offerings of food and betel-nut are now found in them; but, according to some of the older men, these were, until recently, used to hold the heads of slain enemies, as is still the case among the neighboring Apayao.

The ritual of the Saloko ceremony seems, in part, to bear out this claim; yet the folk-tales and equally good informants assure us that the heads were placed on sharpened bamboo poles, which passed through the foramen magnum.  It is probable that both methods of exhibiting skulls were employed in the Tinguian belt.

Nowadays the saloko found near to the villages are usually erected, during a short ceremony of the same name, as a cure for headache.  A medium is summoned; and, after securing a chicken, she strokes it, as she chants: 

“You spirits of the sagang, [132] who live above. 
“You spirits of the sagang, who live on the level ground. 
“You spirits of the sagang, who live in the east. 
“You spirits of the sagang, who live in the west. 
“You Lalaman [133] above. 
“You Lalaman on the wooded hill. 
“You Lalaman in the west. 
“If you took the head of the sick man,
“You must now grant him health, as you please.”