The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

I02 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO ch.p.
days after the sowing. Several varieties of padi
are in common use, some more suitable for the
hillsides, some for the marshy lands. On any one
patch three or four kinds are usually sown according
to the elevation and slope of the part of the area.
Since the rates of growth of the several kinds are
different, the sowings are so timed that the whole
area ripens as nearly as possible at the same moment,
in order that the birds and other pests may not
have the opportunity of turning their whole force
upon the several parts in turn. The men now
build on each patch a small hut, which is occupied
by most of the able-bodied members of the roomhold
until harvest is completed, some fourteen to
twenty weeks after the sowing of the padi, according
to the variety of grain sown. They erect contrivances
for scaring away the birds ; they stick bamboos
about eight feet in length upright in the ground
every 20 to 30 yards. Between the upper ends
of these, rattans are tied, connecting together all
the bamboos on each area of about one acre. The
field of one roomhold is generally about four acres
in extent; there will thus be four groups of bamboos,
each of which can be agitated by pulling on a single
rattan. From each such group a rattan passes to
the hut, and some person, generally a woman or
child, is told off to tug at these rattans in turn
at short intervals. Upon the rattans between the
bamboos are hung various articles calculated to
make a noise or to flap to and fro when the system
is set in motion. Sometimes the rattan by which
the system of poles is set in movement is tied to
the upper end of a tall sapling, one end of which
is thrust deeply into the mud of the floor of the
river. The current then keeps the sapling and
with it the system of bamboos swaying and jerking
to and fro. The Kayans admit that they have
learnt this last " dodge " from the Klemantans. The