1 54 The Gardens of the Szin. [ch. vn. 



The main food product is rice, of which two distinct 

 races are grown. One kind only prospei's in the rich 

 alluvial deposits of the valleys near the streams, where it 

 can be irrigated at particular stages of its growth. The 

 other kind, or "hiU-rice," will grow on the hills up to 

 3000 feet elevation, and prospers in dry red earth, and 

 when growing it closely resembles a barley-field at home. 

 One of the most important of the women's duties is to 

 clean and prepare daily the "padi" or rice in the husk, 

 which, with fish and firuit, forms the main food supply of 

 these islanders. The "padi" is placed in large wooden 

 mortars and beaten with wooden pestles a yard or more 

 in length. This beating or pounding separates the husk 

 from the white grain within. It is a very pretty sight to 

 see the girls of the villages inland thus engaged. As 

 many as three may sometimes be seen heating the rice in 

 one of these large wooden mortars. With one hand they 

 grasp the pestle about the centre, while the other hand is 

 rested on the hip. One woman commences to beat the 

 rice with a steady, regular stroke, then another one joins 

 her, and then a third. Of course, the most exact time 

 has to be observed, and the graceful motions of their 

 slightly-draped figures, the dancing pestles, and the 

 regular thudding sounds produced, are very interesting to 

 a stranger. After the rice has been sufficiently beaten, 

 one of the girls scoops it out of the mortar with her little 

 hands into a shallow tray of closely-woven rattan work of 

 circular form and about two feet in diameter. Standing 

 on the verandah or platform between the houses so as to 

 catch the breeze, the rice is sifted, and now and then 

 dexterously thrown up into the air so that the chaff and 

 refuse is blown away, but the rice falls back into the 

 tray. When finished the rice is as clean and as white as 

 that dressed by the finest machinery in England. Two 



