112 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



fully preserved for this purpose in a special basket. 

 The basket contains grains of padi from good 

 harvests of many previous years. This is supposed 

 to have been done from the earliest time ol padi 

 planting, so that the basket contains some of the 

 original stock of seed, or at least the virtue of it 

 leavening the whole. This basket is never emptied, 

 but a pinch of the old padi is mixed in with the 

 new, and then a handful of the mixture added to 

 the old stock. The idea here seems to be that the 



old grain, preserving continu- 

 ity generation after generation 

 with the original seed padi of 

 mythical origin,^ ensures the 

 presence in the grain of the 

 soul or spirit or vital principle 

 Pjg j5 oipadi. While mixing the old 



with the new seed grain, the 

 woman calls on the soul of the padi to cause the seed 

 to be fruitful and to grow vigorously, and to favour 

 her own fertility. For the whole festival is a celebra- 

 tion or cult of the principle of fertility and vitality 

 — that of the women no less than that of the padir 

 The women who have been delivered of children 

 during the past year will make a number of toys, 

 consisting of plaited work, in the shapes of various 

 animals filled with boiled rice (Fig. i6). These 

 they throw to the children of the house, who 

 scramble for them in the gallery. This seems to 

 be of the nature of a thank-offering. 



At this time also another curious custom is 

 observed. Four water beetles, of the kind that 

 skates on the surface of the still water, are caught 

 on the river and placed on water in a large gong. 

 Some old man specially wise in this matter watches 



1 See Chap. XVII. 



- The same connexion of ideas is illustrated by the practice of sterile 

 women who desire children sleeping upon the freshly gathered ears in the huts 

 in the fields. 



