Men, women, and boys went to the bright-green fields of young palay, each carrying the basket belonging to his sex.  In the basket were the sprigs of pa-lo’-ki, a small olla of water, a small wooden dish or a basket of cooked rice, and a bamboo tube of basi or tapui.  Many persons had also several small pieces of pork and a chicken.  As they passed out of the pueblo each carried a tightly bound club-like torch of burning palay straw; this would smolder slowly for hours.

On the stone dike of each sementera the owner paused to place three small stones to hold the olla.  The bundle of smoldering straw was picked open till the breeze fanned a blaze; dry sticks or reeds quickly made a small, smoking fire under the olla, in which was put the pork or the chicken, if food was to be eaten there.  Frequently, too, if the smoke was low, a piece of the pork was put on a stick punched into the soil of the sementera beside the fire and the smoke enwrapped the meat and passed on over the growing field.

As soon as all was arranged at the fire a small amount of basi was poured over a sprig of pa-lo’-ki which was stuck in the soil of the sementera, or one or two sprigs were inserted, drooping, in a split in a tall, green runo, and this was pushed into the soil.  While the person stood beside the efficacious pa-lo’-ki an invocation was voiced to Lumawig to bless the crop.

The olla and piece of pork were at once put in the basket, and the journey conscientiously continued to the next sementera.  Only when food was eaten at the sementera was the halt prolonged.

A-sig-ka-cho’ is the name of the function of the fourth day.  On that day each household owning sementeras has a fish feast.

At that season of the year (February), while the water is low in the river, only the very small, sluggish fish, called “kacho,” is commonly caught at Bontoc.  Between 200 and 300 pounds of those fish, only one in a hundred of which exceeded 2 1/2 inches in length, were taken from the river during the three hours in the afternoon when the ceremonial fishing was in progress.

Two large scoops, one shown in Pl.  XLIX, were used to catch the fish.  They were a quarter of a mile apart in the river, and were operated independently.

At the house the fish were cooked and eaten as is described in the section on “Meals and mealtime.”

When this fish meal was past the last observance of the fourth day of the Cha’-ka ceremonial was ended.

The rite of the last day is called “Pa’-tay.”  It is observed by two old Pa’-tay priests.  Exactly at high noon Kad-lo’-san left his ato carrying a chicken and a smoldering palay-straw roll in his hand, and the unique basket, tak-fa’, on his shoulder.  He went unaccompanied and apparently unnoticed to the small grove of trees, called “Pa-pa-tay’ ad So-kok’.”  Under the trees is a space some 8 or 10 feet across, paved with flat rocks, and here the man squatted and put down his basket.