During the ceremony of Lis-lis, at the close of the annual harvest of palay, both the cha-nug’ and the pa-chi’-pad are destroyed by burning.

Chaka

On February 10, 1903, the rice having been practically all transplanted in Bontoc, was begun the first of a five-day general ceremony for abundant and good fruitage of the season’s palay.  It was at the close of the period I-na-na’.

The ceremony of the first day is called “Su-yak’.”  Each group of kin —­ all descendants of one man or woman who has no living ascendants —­ kills a large hog and makes a feast.  This day is said to be passed without oral ceremony.

The ceremony of the second day was a double one.  The first was called “Wa-lit’” and the second “Mang’-mang.”  From about 9.30 until 11 in the forenoon a person from each family —­ usually a woman —­ passed slowly up the steep mountain side immediately west of Bontoc.  These people went singly and in groups of two to four, following trails to points on the mountain’s crest.  Each woman carried a small earthen pot in which was a piece of pork covered with basi.  Each also carried a chicken in an open-work basket, while tucked into the basket was a round stick about 14 inches long and half an inch in diameter.  This stick, “lo’-lo,” is kept in the family from generation to generation.

When the crest of the mountain was reached, each person in turn voiced an invitation to her departed ancestors to come to the Mang’-mang feast.  She placed her olla of basi and pork over a tiny fire, kindled by the first pilgrim to the mountain in the morning and fed by each arrival.  Then she took the chicken from her basket and faced the west, pointing before her with the chicken in one hand and the lo’-lo in the other.  There she stood, a solitary figure, performing her sacred mission alone.  Those preceding her were slowly descending the hot mountain side in groups as they came; those to follow her were awaiting their turn at a distance beneath a shady tree.  The fire beside her sent up its thin line of smoke, bearing through the quiet air the fragrance of the basi.

The woman invited the ancestral anito to the feast, saying: 

“A-ni’-to ad Lo’-ko, su-ma-a-kay’-yo ta-in-mang-mang’-ta-ko ta-ka-ka’-nen si mu’-teg.”  Then she faced the north and addressed the spirit of her ancestors there:  “A-ni’-to ad La’-god, su-ma-a-kay’-yo ta-in-mang-mang’-ta-ko ta-ka-ka’-nen si mu’-teg.”  She faced the east, gazing over the forested mountain ranges, and called to the spirits of the past generation there:  “A-ni’-to ad Bar’-lig su-ma-a-kay’-yo ta-in-mang-mang’-ta-ko ta-ka-ka-nen si mu’-teg.”

As she brought her sacred objects back down the mountain another woman stood alone by the little fire on the crest.