end is set on the path and the other is supported in the air above
it by a string. One end of this string is fastened to a tall stick
planted in the earth, the lower end is tied to a short stick --
a part of the "spring" held rigid beneath the dead fall until the
trigger is touched. The dead fall drops when the rat, in touching
the trigger, releases the lower end of the cord. The animal springs
the trigger either by nibbling a bait on it or by running against it,
and is immediately killed, since the dead fall is weighted with stones.

Sementeras near some forested mountains in the Bontoc area are pestered
with monkeys. Day and night people remain on guard against them in
lonely, dangerous places -- just the kind of spot the head-hunter
chooses wherein to surprise his enemy.

All border sementeras in every group of fields are subject to the
night visits of wild hogs. In some areas commanding piles of earth
for outlooks are left standing when the sementeras are constructed. In
other places outlooks are erected for the purpose. Permanent shelters,
some of them commodious stone structures, are often erected on these
outlooks where a person remains on guard night and day (Pl. LXVIII),
at night burning a fire to frighten the wild hogs away.

At this season of the year when practically all the people of the
pueblo are in the sementeras. it is most interesting to watch the
homecoming of the laborers at night. At early dusk they may be
seen coming in over the trails leading from the sementeras to the
pueblo in long processions. The boys and girls 5 or 6 years old or
more, most of them entirely naked, come playing or dancing along --
the boys often marking time by beating a tin can or two sticks --
seemingly as full of life as when they started out in the morning. The