HARVESTING 8i 



vest, and on this occasion they were assisting their chief. 

 It was a scene of much animation, as if it were a festival, 

 which in reahty the harvesting is to them. The long row 

 of men and women in their best garments, with pic- 

 turesque sun-shades, cut the spikes one by one, as the 

 custom is, with small knives held in the hollow of their 

 hands. Assuredly the food which they received was 

 tempting to hungry souls. The rice, after being cooked, 

 was wrapped in banana leaves, one parcel for each, forty- 

 four in all, and as many more containing dried fish which 

 also had been boiled. The people kindly acceded to my 

 request to have them photographed. They then packed 

 the harvested paddi in big baskets, which they carried on 

 their backs to the storehouse in the kampong the same 

 afternoon. From planting time till the end of the har- 

 vest — four or five months — a man is deputed to remain 

 in the kampong to whom fish is forbidden, but who may 

 eat all the rice he wants, with some salt, and as recompense 

 for his services receives a new prahu or clothing. 



A few days later, the chief having early in the morning 

 taken omens from a small bird, the inhabitants with few 

 exceptions departed on a tuba-fishing expedition to the 

 Pipa, a small tributary to the Kayan River farther north. 

 The two kampongs. Long Pelaban and Long Mahan, 

 combined forces, and as so many were going I experienced 

 difficulty in arranging to join the excursion, but finally 

 succeeded in securing prahus and men from the latter 

 place. 



We passed a small settlement of Punans, former 

 nomads, who had adopted the Dayak mode of living. 



