AGRICULTURE loi 



making and repairing the implements to be used 

 in cultivating, harvesting, and storing the crop, 

 and also in sowing at the earliest possible moment 

 small patches of early or rapidly growing padi 

 together with a little maize, sugar - cane, some 

 sweet potatoes, and tapioca. The patches thus 

 sown generally lie adjacent to one another. If the 

 weather is fine, the fallen timber becomes dry enough 

 to burn well after one month. If much rain falls it 

 is necessary to wait longer in the hope of drier 

 weather. Choosing a windy day, they set fire to 

 all the adjacent patches after shouting ^^ 

 out warnings to all persons in the fields. ^^^^S| 

 While the burning goes on, the men |flpt^^ffl| 

 '' whistle for the wind," or rather blow ^^g^^g 

 for it, rattling their tongues in their ^^^m^ 

 mouths. Some of the older men make ^^^^ 

 lengthy orations shouted into the air, ^^^8 

 adjuring the wind to blow strongly and ^^M^m 

 so fan the fire. The fire, if successful, i^^^^l_^ 

 burns furiously for a few hours and then f^^^^^^ 

 smoulders for some days, after which f^^^^^H 

 little of the timber remains but ashes ^ v v ^ 

 and the charred stumps of the bigger fig. 12. — Sea 

 trees. ^ If the burning is very incom- fo^^j^^S.' 

 plete, it is necessary to make stacks 

 of the lighter timbers that remain, and to fire 

 these again. As soon as the ashes are cool, sow- 

 ing begins. Men and women work together ; 

 the men go in front making holes with wooden 

 dibbles about six inches apart ; the women follow, 

 carrying hung round the neck small baskets of 

 padi seed (Fig. 12), which they throw into the 

 holes, three or four seeds to each hole. No care 

 is taken to fill in the holes with earth. By this 

 time the relatively dry season, which lasts only 

 some two months, is at an end, and copious rains 

 cause the seed to shoot above the ground a few 



