I02 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO ch.p. 



days after the sowing. Several varieties of padi 

 are in common use, some more suitable for the 

 hillsides, some for the marshy lands. On any one 

 patch three or four kinds are usually sown according 

 to the elevation and slope of the part of the area. 

 Since the rates of growth of the several kinds are 

 different, the sowings are so timed that the whole 

 area ripens as nearly as possible at the same moment, 

 in order that the birds and other pests may not 

 have the opportunity of turning their whole force 

 upon the several parts in turn. The men now 

 build on each patch a small hut, which is occupied 

 by most of the able-bodied members of the room- 

 hold until harvest is completed, some fourteen to 

 twenty weeks after the sowing of the padi, according 

 to the variety of grain sown. They erect contriv- 

 ances for scaring away the birds ; they stick bamboos 

 about eight feet in length upright in the ground 

 every 20 to 30 yards. Between the upper ends 

 of these, rattans are tied, connecting together all 

 the bamboos on each area of about one acre. The 

 field of one roomhold is generally about four acres 

 in extent; there will thus be four groups of bamboos, 

 each of which can be agitated by pulling on a single 

 rattan. From each such group a rattan passes to 

 the hut, and some person, generally a woman or 

 child, is told off to tug at these rattans in turn 

 at short intervals. Upon the rattans between the 

 bamboos are hung various articles calculated to 

 make a noise or to flap to and fro when the system 

 is set in motion. Sometimes the rattan by which 

 the system of poles is set in movement is tied to 

 the upper end of a tall sapling, one end of which 

 is thrust deeply into the mud of the floor of the 

 river. The current then keeps the sapling and 

 with it the system of bamboos swaying and jerking 

 to and fro. The Kayans admit that they have 

 learnt this last " dodge " from the Klemantans. The 



