J02 cobn. — Insects, 



Wftk€8, &e. The Malays are obstinate in believing 

 that they swan? across from Penang because a great 

 many hud been observed floundering in the mud after 

 the retreat of the tide; but the most current opinion 

 wiih them is that these rats were produced in oyster 

 or other shells ! 



4 



As the year of the rice appeal's, the water is gene- 

 rally allowed gradually to drain off to hasten its filling, 

 hut it will fully ripen without this precaution. The 

 ryots assist each other both in sowing and reaping. 



The grain is cut with the sickle when it has been 

 laid douw by its own weight or by w ind, or is other- 

 wise; in jeopardy. But as the straw is here of little 

 or no value, grass being abundant throughout the 

 year, and as the grain is often, from perhaps an inter- 

 mixture of different sorts, not all ripe at once ; and as 

 the ryots do not readily walk out of the patli which 

 their forefathers followed, recourse is generally had to 

 the more dilatory and expensive method of cutting by 

 pbtgeVMi by which only enough of the stalk is left to 

 admit of its being grasped by the hand and tied up 

 in bunches. 



Viewed with the eye of an economist, it is a beauti- 

 ful object, a ripe waving paddie-field of ten miles or 

 more in extent. Tin: whole ail* is prefuined by the 

 mellow aroina. The Malay then is in his glory, and 

 all the old women and elderly matrons are seen with 

 conical straw hats plucking the ears of corn ; the 

 married women and spiuters under a certain age are 

 left at the distaff and loom and other household 

 duties. 



The Malays hold sacred the first three days of 

 harvest, and the presiding spirit of the grain is again 

 evoked and propitiated. These days are pantang or 

 under an interdict ; or tabooed, as the African would 

 express himself ; and until they are past, the tultiva- 



