Arrived at the quadrangle, they found all the men dressed in full war costume and their faces covered by a taboekah or wooden mask. They all carried their mandauws and lances and now formed around the stake. When everything was arranged the priestesses commenced their chants accompanied by the sound of their katambongs. The singing lasted until past mid-day when the signal for producing the victim was given. While she was fetched from her cage one of the priestesses mounted an especially prepared ladder and sung an invocation, beseeching that a favorable omen might be vouchsafed the impending ceremony. A falcon, as if it had understood the invocation, immediately appeared above the border of the forest. Rising to the left of the fort it soared higher and higher in the air, describing large circles until it had mounted midway in the zenith, when it stopped for a few minutes. After remaining thus motionless for a short time it suddenly uttered a piercing cry and flew away in the direction whence it had come. Every Dayak present was affected. The cry uttered by the bird was construed into a warning and regarded as a most unfavorable omen. In the meantime the poor woman had entered the circle and two men began to tie her. She had scarcely strength enough to stand and kept her head gently hanging sideways. For the rest, she appeared to be calm and freely viewed the environing circle. After having been securely tied Harimaoung Boekit approached Wienersdorf, made a slight incision with his knife on his naked chest and collected the blood in a vessel. He then made a similar incision on his own body, caught the blood in the same vessel and filled it with toeak. He thereupon raised the bloody mixture and pronounced a fearful curse upon himself in case he should ever break the tie of brotherhood which he was now on the point of cementing. He called upon every deity and demon to witness his brotherly affection for the saviour of his life. He invoked their most fearful punishment if he should ever prove false to him and finished by half emptying the vessel held in his hand. This he next offered to Wienersdorf who swallowed the contents although his stomach rebelled against the mixture. After this ceremony the Poenan chief again spoke, addressing the Swiss: “We are brothers now and I will always treat you as such. But another debt of blood still exists between us. When I attacked your party I tried to get your heads. During this struggle one of your companions was killed, several of my own followers perished, and—blood requires blood. See! in order to satisfy this demand we sacrifice one of our hirelings. We will besmear her with our own blood which will cancel this debt and render us free of each other.” Johannes now took Wienersdorf by the hand and mounted with him the steps recently vacated by the priestess.