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They are set root end up, and the fine, matted rootlets present a compact surface which the Igorot has carved in the traditional shape of the "anito." Some of these heads have inlaid eyes and teeth of stone. Hung on the ko'-mis are baskets and frames in which chickens and pigs have been carried to the place for ceremonial feasting.
The ceremony of the ko'-mis is held before all head-hunting expeditions, except in the unpremeditated outburst of a people to immediately punish the successful foray or ambush of some other. The ko'-mis is built along all Bontoc war trails, though no others are known having the "anito" heads.
Should the injured pueblo immediately retaliate, it finds its enemies alert and on guard. At two places near the mountain trail between Samoki and Tulubin is a trellis-like structure called "ko'-mis." It consists of several posts set vertically in the ground, to which horizontal poles are tied, The posts are the stem and root sections of the beautiful tree ferm.
So persistent are the warriors if they have decided to go to a particular pueblo for heads that they often go day after day to the ko'-mis for eight or ten days before they are satisfied that no good omens will come to them.
These two ko'-mis were built four years ago when Bontoc and Samoki had their last important head-hunting forays with Tulubin. They killed and ate their fowls and pigs in a ceremony called "fi-kat'," and, if all was well, approached the mountains near Tulubin and watched to waylay a few of her people when they came to the sementeras in the early morning.
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