After midnight, the Sirayans of Kamasua emerge hand in hand, calling out to the ancestral spirits in the dark of the night, and in the process singing out their own stories, too. (Chuang Kung-ju)	Garlanded girls step barefoot onto banana leaves, singing ceremonial songs known as kankei. Simple, repetitive dance steps accompanying mournful songs prove deeply moving. (Chuang Kung-ju)

The lowland Aboriginal tribes were once among the most active ethnic groups in Taiwan. However, hundreds of years of ethnic assimilation with the Han Chinese have gradually blurred their identity. Each year, nevertheless, at dawn on the fifth day of the ninth lunar month, nocturnal sacrifices of the Sirayan tribe are held at Kamasua in Tungshan Township, Tainan County. Not only is this rite the most authentic of the sacrificial rites of the lowland Aborigines, it also provides a glimpse into the Sirayans' communication with their ancestral spirits and serves as an important marker of their self-identity.

"Kamasua" is a Sirayan word meaning "red silk-cotton tree settlement."

Each year at the intersection of the fourth and fifth days of the ninth lunar month, recurring strains of mournful songs can be heard from the young girls of Kamasua. Hand in hand, the Sirayans cry out to the spirits of their ancestors, singing out their own stories in the process...