After much preliminary talking, two chicks were brought
and a bundle of old sword-blades, which Tama Bulan, in his character
of peace-maker, carries with him whenever he travels abroad. A chief
of either party took a chick and a sword and presented them to the
other. Then one led his men a little apart and began to rattle off
an invocation beginning, "O sacred (Bali) chick," snipped off its
head with the sword, and with the bloody blade smeared the right
arm of his followers as they crowded round him. The old fellow kept
up the stream of words until every man was smeared; and then they
all stamped together on the floor raising a great shout. Then the
other party went through a similar performance; and the peace being
thus formally ratified, we sat down to cement it still further by a
friendly drinking bout.
Another ceremony in which the fowl plays a prominent part is that by
which the wandering soul of a sick person is found and led back to
his body by the medicine-man. This is described in Chapter XIV.
It seems clear that the fowl, like the pig, is used on these occasions
as a messenger sent by man to the Supreme Spirit. In most cases when
a fowl is slaughtered in the course of a ceremony, it is first waved
over the heads of the people taking part in it, and its blood is
afterwards sprinkled upon them.
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