Protecting

The rice begins to fruit early in April, at which time systematic
effort to protect the new grain from birds, rats, monkeys, and wild
hogs commences. This effort continues until the harvest is completed,
practically for three months. Much of this labor is performed by
water power, much by wind power, and about all the children and old
people in a pueblo are busied from early dawn until twilight in the
sementera as independent guards. Besides, throughout the long night
men and women build fires among the sementeras and guard their crop
from the wild hog. It is a critical time with the Igorot.

The most natural, simplest, and undoubtedly the most successful
protection of the grain is the presence of a person on the terrace
walls of the sementera, whether by day or night. Hundreds of fields
are so guarded each day in Bontoc by old people and children, who
frequently erect small screens of tall grass to shade and protect
themselves from the sun.

The next simplest method is one followed by the boys. They employ
a hollow section of carabao horn, cut off at both ends and about 8
inches in length; it is called "kong-ok'." This the boys beat when
birds are near, producing an open, resonant sound which may readily
be heard a mile.

The wind tosses about over the growing grain various "scarecrows." The
pa-chek' is one of these. It consists of a single large dry leaf,
or a bunch of small dry leaves, suspended by a cord from a heavy,