ands
while the harvesters sit in silence. The owner says:

"So-mi-ka-ka' pa-ku' ta-mo i-sa'-mi sik'-a kin-po-num' nan a-lang',"

which, freely rendered, means, "Palay, when we carry you to the
granary, increase greatly so that you will fill it."

As soon as the ceremonial is said the speaker harvests one handful
of the grain, after which the laborers arise and begin the harvest.

In the trails leading past the sementera two tall stalks of runo are
planted, and these, called "pud-i-pud'," warn all Igorot that they
must not pass the sementera during the hours of the harvest. Nor will
they ignore the warning, since if they do they are liable to forfeit
a hog or other valuable possession to the owner of the grain.

I spent half a day trying to get close enough to a harvesting party
to photograph it. All the harvesters were women, and they scolded our
party long and severely while we were yet six or eight rods distant;
my Igorot boys carrying the photographic outfit -- boys who had
lived four months in my house -- laughingly but positively refused
to follow me closer than three or four rods to the sementera. No
photographs were obtained at that time. It was only after the matter
was talked over by some of the men of the pueblo that photographs
could be willingly obtained, and the force of the warning pud-i-pud'
withdrawn for our party. Even during the time my Igorot boys were
in the trail by a harvest party all other Igorot passed around the
warning runo. The Igorot says he believes the harvest will be blasted
even while being gathered should one pass along a pathway skirting
any side of the sementera.

Several harvesters, from four to a dozen, labor together in
each sementera. They begin at one side and pass across the plat,
gathering all grain as they pass. Men and women work together,
but women are recognized the better harvesters, since their hands
are more nimble. Each fruited stalk is grasped shortly below the
fruit head, and the upper section or joint of the stalk, together
with the fruit head and topmost leaf, is pulled off. As most Bontoc
Igorot are right-handed, the plucked grain is laid in the left hand,
the fruit heads projecting beyond between the thumb and forefinger
while the leaf attached to each fruit head lies outside and below the
thumb. When the proper amount of grain is in hand (a bunch of stalks
about an inch in diameter) the useless leaves, all arranged for one
grasp of the right hand, are strip