| caption: |
ceremonies connected with building and setting up a big drum |
| text: |
When Chinkak came to join us I asked them about the ceremonies connected with the building and setting up of the big slit drums (notebook 6 p. 16-20). That is again an expression of the reciprocity between the morungs. When the The-phong morung drags a drum into the village the Bala girls in addition to everyone from their own morung accompany the procession (240) and participate in the following feast. For this even girls and women of the The-phong and Bala are allowed to enter the morung. It is remarkable that the day when the drum is dragged in is not genna for the The-phong morung but only the day when the carving has been finished and the drum is pulled into the drum house which is always the fifth day after the new moon. This day is genna but no feast costume is put on. Some days later the men of the morung go hunting and put a foot of the captured animal, whether pig or antelope, onto the head of the drum. In the old days a head was captured for this purpose. |
