83G A NATVBALIST IN CELEBES ch. xni 



The legend of the introduction of rice into Minahassa is as 

 follows (22) :— 



In olden times men had no rice to eat. They were 

 satisfied with the fruit of a certain plant called klijat, 

 which was found in the forests. This fruit was very much 

 like the banana. They roasted it and ate it as there was 

 no rice, and with it they drank sagoweer. 



Now there lived at one time a very old man, who walked 

 one day until he came to the centre of the earth. There 

 he found a stone, which he took along with him with some 

 difficulty. Then he saw a deep pit, and a leaf of a tree 

 called puti weren. (The wereng-kusaj of the Alfurs is the 

 Ficus minahassae) (17). He also saw a ladder which 

 was only a long rattan. When the old man got to the 

 bottom of the pit he found there a race of men who were 

 quite different to those above, for their noses were fiat on 

 their faces, instead of being straight and well-formed. 

 Then the old man went for a walk, and he saw for the first 

 time padi — unthreshed rice — which was lying in the sun 

 to dry, so he took some grains of it and hid them in the 

 waist-band of his tjidako and climbed up to earth again. 

 When he looked behind, however, he saw a number of men 

 with flat noses coming after him, so he cut the rattan and 

 they all fell down again into the pit, but he could not see 

 whether they were killed or not. Then he shut up the pit, 

 and went away to sow the padi. Thus was rice first in- 

 troduced into Minahassa, and now it has spread all over 

 the country. 



There are other legends in some districts which relate 

 that the rice was first stolen from the heavenly village 

 Kasendukan. 



Indian corn is also grown in many districts of Minahassa, 

 and forms an important article of food. On the coast it is 

 planted in August, in the mountain districts rather earlier. 



