Through Central Borneo An Account Of Two Years' Travel In The Land Of The Head-Hunters Between The Years 1913 And 1917 By Carl Lumholtz
- Page 351 of 489 - First - Home
One Day, Or Even A Shorter Time, May
Suffice To Burn The Accumulations On The Cleared Space, And When The Work
Is Finished All The Participants Must Bathe.
A simple house is then erected for occupancy while doing the necessary
work incident to the raising of crops.
The work of clearing the ground is
immediately begun and completed in three or four weeks. Then comes
planting of the paddi preceded by a sacrifice of pig or fowl. The blood,
with the usual addition, is presented to antoh and also smeared on the
seed, which may amount to ten baskets full. All the blood having been
disposed of in this manner, the meat is put over the fire to cook, and at
the noon-day meal is eaten with boiled rice.
In their agricultural pursuits people help each other, taking different
fields in turn, and at planting time thirty men may be engaged making
holes in the ground with long sticks, some of which may have rattles on
one end, a relic of former times, but every one uses the kind he prefers.
After them follow an equal number of women, each carrying a small basket
of paddi which she drops with her fingers into the holes, where it remains
uncovered. They do not plant when rain is falling. After planting is
finished, usually in one day, they repair to the kampong, have their
evening meal, and drink tuak until midnight.
In five months the paddi is ready for cutting - a very busy time for the
people.
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