370 A NATUEALIST*B WANBERINQS 



could be seen as a couple of waterfalls, like long white streakg 

 high up in the face of the Besagi, which formed the back- 

 ground of the Tiew. 



The villagers employed themselves chiefly in the cultivation 

 of tobaccoj sold nnder the name of Ranau tobacco, whiehj 

 though not the true article, is little inferior to what is grown 

 on the borders of the hike of that Dtuue. Gjeat attention was 

 given also to the cultivation of rice, which they grew as in 

 Java, on the wet system, in plot-divided termees. In Java 

 the plots are allowed to run dry after the fields are harvested ; 

 but here not so, as they were kept carefully stocked with small 

 iishes, which aflorded to their owners a large food supply, while 

 the mollusks, which iulest the sides and bottom of these tanks, 

 are abundantly eiiten by the natives, who obtain from their 

 calcined shells the lime for their l>etel-ehewing. Several deep 

 plots were entirely appropriated to the propagation of fish, and 

 in them Water-lilies {Sytmumthemum) and other aquatic plants 

 grew in great Inxiu-ianee, dotting the surface with their large 

 white and pink or yellow flowers, and giving to the fields the 

 appearance of a garden. 



The only periods when a really industrious spirit seems 

 to prevail among these people are during the planting and tho 

 reaping seasons. Then the whole family— men, as well as 

 women and children — turn out to assist^ and remain in the 

 fields from morning till dusk. 



\ Befyre beginning to plant the crop» a charm is placed in a 

 favonrable and fertile spot in one of the plots, in order to secure 

 a good harvest. Four of the finest ears of paddy from the pre- 

 ceding crop are stuck into the ground in the form of a square, 

 and by the side of each a little wand of the leaf uf the Areng 

 palm, to whose extremity is bound a little packet of cotton- 

 wool inclosing a few rice-grains of large size ; in the centre of 

 the square is planted a stem of Sasangai grass (which has a long 

 and many-corned ear), with a fruit-bearing twig of the Jambu 

 (Mifrtacew) on each side of it. This, being interj>reted, 

 I means: *' May the rice of which this is a sample here grow 

 I in these fields stout and strong, and with heads as fniitl'ul as 

 I this Sosangai, with corns iis large as this sample, and as sweet 

 as the Jambu." In the harvest time this little square is left 

 to the end, and the lucky sheaf is carried last of all. This 



