L 



98 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



China, to prepare the land for the padi seed by- 

 leading buffaloes to and fro across it while it lies 

 covered with water. The Kalabits lead the water 

 into their fields from the streams descending from 

 the hills. 



With these exceptions the preparation of the 

 land is everywhere very crude, consisting in 

 the felling of the timber and undergrowth, and in 

 burning it as completely as possible, so that its 

 ashes enrich the soil. After a single crop has 

 been grown and gathered on land so cleared, the 

 weeds grow up very thickly, and there is, of course, 

 in the following year no possibility of repeating the 

 dressing of wood ashes in the same way. Hence 

 it is the universal practice to allow the land to lie 

 fallow for at least two years, after a single crop has 

 been raised, while crops are raised from other lands. 

 During the fallow period the jungle grows up so 

 rapidly and thickly that by the third year the weeds 

 have almost died out, choked by the larger growths. 

 The same land is then prepared again by felling the 

 young jungle and burning it as before, and a crop 

 is again raised from it. When a piece of land has 

 been prepared and cropped in this way some three 

 or four times, at intervals of two, three, or four 

 years, the crop obtainable from it is so inferior 

 in quantity that the people usually undertake 

 the severe labour of felling and burning a patch 

 of virgin forest, rather than continue to make 

 use of the old areas. In this way a large village 

 uses up in the course of some twelve or fifteen 

 years all the land suitable for cultivation within a 

 convenient distance, i,e. within a radius of some 

 three miles. When this state of affairs results, the 

 village is moved to a new site, chosen chiefly with 

 an eye to the abundance of land suitable for the 

 cultivation of the padi crop. After ten or more 

 years the villagers will return, and the house or 



