388 The Tinguian 



After the clearing, the field is fenced in so as to protect it from 

 deer, wild pigs, and carabao. The rudest type of protection consists 

 of a barricade of brush, strengthened with forked sticks, in the crotches 

 of which poles are laid. The more common method is to set bamboo 

 tubes, at intervals, around the whole plot and to lash to them other 

 tubes which have been split in half. A still better fence is made by 

 cutting three holes, about a foot apart, through each upright and to 

 insert smaller bamboo through these. 



When the rains begin, the men go to the fields, each with two 

 hardwood sticks whittled to tapering rounded ends. These are driven 

 alternately into the soil making shallow holes an inch or so in depth, 

 into each of which the women drop several seed rice. The whole field 

 is gone over in this way; soil is pushed into the holes with the feet, 

 and frequently the task is finished by sowing a few handfuls of seed 

 broadcast and distributing it by brushing back and forth with a leafy 

 branch. 1 



In the valley districts the planting sticks are cut as needed, but in 

 the mountains, where the upland rice is more important, strong bam- 

 boo poles fitted with hardwood points are in general use. These im- 

 plements, known as tEpon (Fig. 15, No. 1), are invariably carefully 

 decorated with incised designs, and are preserved from year to year. 

 Commonly, the divisions between the sections of the bamboo are 

 knocked out and the tube used as a receptacle for the seed rice. 



As the mountain fields need special protection, it is customary to 

 build near them little elevated houses in which the workers may rest, 

 and in which the watchers can live during the time the grain must 

 be guarded. If the plots are near to a village, such a house seldom 

 consists of more than a rude framework of poles, which support a 

 grass roof, and to which a bamboo floor is lashed, two or three feet 

 above the ground ; but if the fields are at a distance, these structures 

 are provided with sides, and are raised high on strong logs. Such high, 

 well built houses are necessary, both to protect the occupants from 

 surprise attacks of enemies, and to afford shelter against driving 

 winds or rains. It is not an uncommon occurrence for a whole family 

 to go to one of these isolated mountain dwellings and reside for a con- 

 siderable period, particularly when the rice is approaching maturity. 



These upland fields produce much smaller crops than do the wet 

 lands, and as they are quickly exhausted, it is not customary to plant 

 them to rice for more than two seasons. At the end of this time, they 



1 This is similar to the method followed in Sumatra. See Marsden, History 

 of Sumatra, 3d ed., pp. 71-72 (London, 1811). 



