When a boy attains maturity he is supposed to celebrate this by going on his first head-hunting expedition.[57] Usually several boys of about the same age go together on their first expedition, accompanied by older and more experienced warriors of the same group, or sub-tribe. Before going on such an expedition an omen is always consulted--usually a bird-omen, of which I shall speak more fully under the head of Religion--and it depends upon the favourable or unfavourable indication of the omen as to whether the expedition is undertaken forthwith or is postponed. The Taiyal consider it more auspicious to set forth on such an expedition with an odd number of men. They seem to think the chances will be greater of securing a head, which will count as a man, and thus make up the “lucky even number” with which they hope to return to the village. During the absence of the warriors on one of these expeditions, the women of the group will abstain from weaving, or even from handling the material--a sort of coarse native hemp--which customarily they weave into clothing. Except for the studious tending of the fires in their respective huts--for if these were allowed to go out, it would be considered a most evil omen--they do little until they hear in the distance the cries which herald the return of the warriors. Then, depending upon whether the cries denote victory or defeat, the women prepare either for a festival or for a time of lamentation. If the warriors have been successful--that is, if they have returned with one or more heads of slain enemies--a great feast is prepared, and partaken of by the men and women together. In this respect Formosan feasts differ from the victorious warrior-feasts of many other primitive communities, at which only the men are the revellers. This difference also distinguishes the dance that follows the feast, in which both men and women participate, the Formosan aborigines forming an exception to the rule laid down by Deniker that Malay men do not dance. As in feasting and dancing, so do the women also take part in the drinking of wine--made by themselves from millet--and in the smoking of tobacco. Among the Taiyal, as among most of the other tribes, both men and women smoke bamboo pipes--more of the size and shape of those smoked by Europeans than are the tiny pipes smoked by the Chinese and Japanese. These are, however, for some reason which they could not, or would not, explain, often held upside-down while being smoked, the tobacco being very tightly “jammed” into the bowl to prevent its falling out. Among the coast Ami, only the men smoke pipes, the bowls of which are often decorated with bits of metal--bartered from the Chinese--in imitation of the features of a human face. The women of this tribe smoke huge cigars.