ther advice, he said, "The other spirits do not
like me very well, so I cannot go to their places. I went to their
places, but they said many bad words to me. I offered them _basi_,
but they did not wish to take; so I asked the way, and they showed
me to the other spirits' place. I was poor, and had nothing to eat
for noon or night. When I was in the road, I met many long snakes,
and I had to push them apart so I could walk. And I met many eels,
and asked of them the road; but the eels bit me, and took me into
their stomachs, and carried me to Luluaganan to the well there; then
I died. The people, who go to the well, say, 'Why is Ayaonwan dead? We
have a bad odor now;' and the eels say, 'Whose son is this?' and they
rubbed my dead spirit, and I received life again. Then I took blood
and rice with me to the sky to the other eels to make _Sayang_. The
eels gave me gold for my wrists; the monkeys gave me gold for my teeth
and hair; the wild pig gave me bracelets. There is much more I can
tell you, but now I must go." The spirit departed, and a new one was
summoned. This spirit took the spear in his hand, and after chanting
about the illness of the woman, he drank _basi_ out of a dish, sitting
on the head-axe. Then singing again he dipped the spear in the oil,
and allowed it to fall drop by drop on the stomach of the sick woman;
later he touched the heads of all present with the spear, saying,
"You will not be sick any more," and departed.

_Pinaing_ or _Pinading_ (Plate XXX).--At the gate or entrance of
nearly every village will be found a number of peculiarly shaped,
water-worn stones, either beneath a small shelter, or nestling among
the roots of some great tree. These are the "guardian stones," and
in them lives Apdel ("the spirit who guards the town"). Many stories
cluster about these _pinaing_, [131] but all agree that, if proper
offerings are made to them at the beginning of a great ceremony;
when the men are about to undertake a raid; or, when sickness is in a
nearby village, the resident spirit will protect the people under his
care. Thus it happens that several times each year a group of people
may be seen early in the morning, gathered at the stones. They anoint
the head of each one with oil, put new bark bands on their "necks,"
after which they kill a small pig. The medium mixes the blood of
the slain animal with rice, and scatters it on the ground while she
recites the story of their origin. Then she bids the s