coarse grass 6 or 8 feet high; the leaf, the sa-gi-kak', hangs 4 feet
above the fruit heads. It swings about slightly in the breeze, and
probably is some protection against the birds. I believe it the least
effective of the various things devised by the Igorot to protect his
rice from the multitudes of ti-lin' -- the small, brown ricebird[25]
found broadly over the Archipelago.

The most picturesque of these wind-tossed bird scarers is the
ki'-lao. The ki'-lao is a basket-work figure swung from a pole and is
usually the shape and size of the distended wings of a large gull,
though it is also made in other shapes, as that of man, the lizard,
etc. The pole is about 20 feet high, and is stuck in the earth at such
an angle that the swinging figure attached by a line at the top of the
pole hangs well over the sementera and about 3 or 4 feet above the
grain (see Pl. LXVII). The bird-like ki'-lao is hung by its middle,
at what would be the neck of the bird, and it soars back and forth,
up and down, in a remarkably lifelike way. There are often a dozen
ki'-lao in a space 4 rods square, and they are certainly effectual,
if they look as bird-like to ti-lin' as they do to man. When seen
a short distance away they appear exactly like a flock of restless
gulls turning and dipping in some harbor.


FIGURE 4

Fig. 4. -- Bird scarer in rice field.


The water-power bird scarers are ingenious. Across a shallow,
running rapids in the river or canal a line, called "pi-chug'," is