170 A NATURALIST'S WANDEBINGS 



could be seen as a couple of waterfalls, like long white streaks 

 high up in the face of the Besagi, which formed the back- 

 ground of the Yiew. 



The villagers employed themselves chiefly in the cultivation 

 of tobacco, sold under the name of Eanau tobacco, which, 

 though not the true article, is little inferior to what is grown 

 on the borders of the lake of that name. Great attention was 

 given also to the cultivation of rice, which they grew as in 

 Java, on the wet system, in plot-divided terraces. In Java 

 the plots are allowed to run dry after the fields are harvested ; 

 but here not so, as they were kept carefully stocked with small 

 fishes, which afforded to their owners a large food supply, while 

 the mollusks, which infest the sides and bottom of these tanks, 

 are abundantly eaten by the natives, who obtain from their 

 calcined shells the lime for their betel-chewing. Several deep 

 plots were entirely appropriated to the propagation of fish, and 

 in them Water-lilies {Symnanthemiun) and other aquatic plants 

 grew in great luxuriance, dotting the surface with their large 

 white and pink or yellow flowers, and giving to the fields the 

 appearance of a garden. 



The only periods when a really industrious spirit seems 

 to prevail among these people are during the planting and the 

 reaping seasons. Then the whole family — men, as well as 

 women and children — turn out to assist, and remain in the 

 fields from morninjr till dusk. 



O 



Before beginning to plant the crop, a charm is placed in a 

 favourable and fertile spot in one of the plots, in order to secure 

 a good harvest. Four of the finest ears of paddy from the pre- 

 ceding crop are stuck into the ground in the form of a square, 

 and by the side of each a little wand of the leaf of the Areng 

 palm, to whose extremity is bound a little packet of cotton- 

 wool inclosing a few rice-trrains of large size: in the centre of 



O K^ O ' 



the square is planted a stem of Sasangai grass (which has a long 

 and many-corned ear), Avith a fruit-bearing twig of the Jamhu 



{Myrtacew) on each side of it. This, being interpreted, 

 means : " i\Iay the rice of which this is a sample here grow 

 in these fields stout and strong, and with heads as fruitful as 

 this Sasangai, with corns as large as this sample, and as sweet 

 as the Jambu." In the harvest time this little square is left 

 to the end, and the lucky sheaf is carried last of all. This 



