The medium, who is summoned for this event, calls for oil and a rooster with long spurs.  When these are brought, she strokes the fowl with the oil, and chants the following diam.  “There is a very old woman in the sea, and she says to her spirits, who are Dapeg (a spirit which kills people), Balingenngen (a spirit which causes bad dreams), and Benisalsal (a spirit which throws things and is unpleasant), ’Go beyond the sea and spread your sickness,’ The spirits are going.  They arrive and begin their work, and if the people do not make Sangasang, many will die.  Now it is morning, and the spirits are going to the river to see what the people have offered to the old woman, who is Inawen.  If they do not find anything, they will say, ’All the people in this town shall die,’ and then they will go on to another place.”

“Inawen, who is waiting, sends Kideng (a servant) to search for the spirits, who are killing people, to tell them to return.  Dapeg leaves the first town.  He goes to another, and the dogs bark so that the people cannot sleep.  A man opens the door, to learn the cause of the barking, and he sees a man, fat and tall, with nine heads, and he carries many kinds of cakes.  The man says, ’Now take these cakes, and if you do not make Sangasang for my mistress, at the river, you shall die.  You must find a rooster with long tail and spurs; you must mix its blood with rice, and put it in the river at dawn when no one can see you,’ The man makes Sangasang the next night, and puts the blood, mixed with rice, in a well dug by the river, so that the spirits may take it to their mistress.  Kideng also arrives and says, ’you must come with me now, for she awaits you who are bearing this offering.’  They go and arrive.  Their mistress eats and says, ’I did not think that the blood of people tasted so badly, now I shall not send you again, for you have already killed many people.’”

When this chant is completed, the chicken is killed, as directed in the song; and at night the blood and rice are offered beside the stream. [140] The chicken is eaten by the family, and its feathers are tied to a string, stretched across the room.  Leaves are attached to the house-ladder as a warning that all visitors are barred, and for three days the family remains quietly indoors.

Sagobay. [141]—­This is one of the most widespread of the ceremonies, for it not only covers the entire Tinguian belt, but extends into the Igorot villages of the Upit river region and Ilocos Sur, as well as into the Kalinga villages of the Malokbot valley.

Its occurrence in connection with the rice-culture is fully, described elsewhere (cf. p. 400), so that at this place only its second function, that of keeping illness from the town, is described.

When an epidemic appears in a nearby settlement, the lakay summons the old men in council, and they decide on the number of pigs, and the amount of rice, basi, and other articles required, after which the necessary funds are secured by levying a tax on all the people of the village.