MALAY LAND TENURE. 85 



" pointu, etdans lesquels ils laissent tomber quelques grains de 

 " paddy qu'ils recouvrent d'un peu de cendres." * 



This is also " the proper national mode of planting rice " in 

 the Lampong districts (Sumatra), where such clearings are 

 called by the Malay name ladang, corresponding with the 

 Javanese ct tipar. " It is practised in Java also, f 



Further east, " nomadic cultivation " is still found, distin- 

 guishing tribes of cognate origin. The Dyaks of Borneo 

 repeat year by year the toilsome operation of clearing forest 

 land for their temporary farms. " They do not suppose that 

 u the soil is in any way incapable of bearing further culture, but 

 " give always as a reason for deserting their farms, that the 

 " weeds and grass which immediately spring up after the padi 

 " has been gathered are less easily eradicated than ground occu- 

 " pied by old jungle is prepared. They never return to the 

 11 same spot until after a period of seven years has elapsed, 

 " which they say was the custom of their ancestors." J 



Among the hill-tribes of India, the same primitive mode of 

 cultivation which Himalaic swarms have carried eastward to 

 Burma, Siam, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo, 

 may be viewed in the very districts, perhaps, in which it origi- 

 nated. The Kukis ( north-east of Chittagong ) cut down the 

 jungle on the declivity of some hill in the month of March, 

 and allow it to remain there until sufficiently decayed to burn 

 freely, when they set it on fire, and thus at once perform the 

 double purpose of clearing away the rubbish and of manuring 

 the ground with its ashes. The women now dig small holes 

 at certain distances in the spot so cleared and into each hole 

 they throw a handful of different seeds they intend to rear. || 



The Abors observe the same method of cultivation, but take 

 three successive crops off it before abandoning it.^f 



In India and Burma the control of this practice has neces- 

 sarily engaged the attention of district officers, and in some 

 districts fiscal regulations have recognised this system of shift - 



* Le Royaume du Cambodge — MoURA, I, 25, 26. 



f Journ. Ind. Arch., V, 635. 



% Low— Sarawak, 232. 



|| Asiatic Researches, VII, 190. 



■If Journ. Ind. Arch., II, 236, 



