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Kalangan. In Manabo and the villages of that vicinity a period of about seven years elapses between the building of tangpap and the celebration of Kalangan, but in most of the valley towns the latter ceremony follows Pala-an after two or three years. The ceremony is so similar to the Tangpap just described that only the barest outline will be given here.
The Pala-an ceremony is the first round on the social and religious ladder. It is here given in some detail, and is then followed by others, in the order of their importance. Pala-an. The Pala-an is held when some member of the family is ill, or when the structure of that name needs repair.
Many spirits visit the people during this rite, but the one chiefly interested is Idadaya, the spirit of the east. He and his ten grandchildren wear in their hair the notched tail-feathers of a rooster, which are known as igam. From time to time these lose their luster, and they can only be refreshed by having some mortal celebrate Pala-an.
Later, when the medium was again herself, we questioned her concerning her knowledge of this dance, but she professed absolute ignorance. Early the next morning, the men went to some banana trees near to a rice granary, and there constructed a little spirit house, which resembled the pala-an, except that it was only about four feet high.
The pala-an needed a few repairs, and two of the old men looked after these, while others made two long covered bamboo benches which might be used either by visiting men or spirits. Four long bamboo poles were set in the ground, and a roof placed over them to form the bang-bangsal, a shelter always provided for the spirits of Soyau.
When it is ready to serve, the five men again go to the top of the structure and eat it, together with cooked rice, then they take the bamboo cooking tube, tie some of the sacred vines from behind the curtain about it, and fasten it to one pole of the pala-an. The men in the house are free to eat, and when they are finished, the women dine.
'Ala, I shall go down to the Ipogau, He truly went down to them, 'What is the matter with you? 'We are all sick who live in the same place, said those sick ones. It is best that you make Pala-an, since you have received their igam, for that is the cause of your illness, After that they made Pala-an, and they recovered from their sickness, those who lived in the same place.
As soon as the pounding is finished, the medium places some of the newly broken rice in a bamboo dish, and places this on a rice winnower. She also adds a skirt, five pieces of betel-nut, two piper leaves, and a little dish of oil, and carries the collection below the pala-an, where a bound pig lies.
After the flesh has been cut into small pieces, most of it is carried into the dwelling to be cooked for the guests, but a portion is placed in a bamboo tube, and is cooked beneath the pala-an.
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