AGRICULTURE 339 



and completed in three or four weeks. Then comes 

 planting of the paddi preceded by a sacrifice of pig or 

 fowl. The blood, with the usual addition, is presented to 

 antoh and also smeared on the seed, which may amount to 

 ten baskets full. All the blood having been disposed of 

 in this manner, the meat is put over the fire to cook, and 

 at the noon-day meal is eaten with boiled rice. 



In their agricultural pursuits people help each other, 

 taking different fields in turn, and at planting time thirty 

 men may be engaged making holes in the ground with 

 long sticks, some of which may have rattles on one end, 

 a relic of former times, but every one uses the kind he 

 prefers. After them follow an equal number of women, 

 each carrying a small basket of paddi which she drops with 

 her fingers into the holes, where it remains uncovered. 

 They do not plant when rain is falling. After planting 

 is finished, usually in one day, they repair to the kampong, 

 have their evening meal, and drink tuak until midnight. 



In five months the paddi is ready for cutting — a very 

 busy time for the people. There are perhaps fifty ladangs 

 and all must be harvested. Husband, wife, and children 

 all work, and the family may have to labour by them- 

 selves many weeks before helpers come. In the after- 

 noon of the day previous to commencing harvest work the 

 following ceremony is performed, to provide for which 

 the owner and his wife have brought new rice from the 

 ladang as well as the kapatongs, which in the number of 

 two to five have been guarding the crop. 



Inside the room a couple of winnowing trays are laid 

 on the floor and on these are placed the kapatongs in 



