The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

DAILY LIFE 119
regular rhythm. As each one lifts her pestle, she
deftly sweeps back into the pit with her foot the
grain scattered by her stroke.
After pounding the padi for some minutes without
interruption, one woman takes a winnowing pan,
a mat made in the shape of an English housemaid's
dustpan, but rather larger than this article, and
receives in it the pounded grain which the other
throws out of the pit with her foot.
Both women then kneel upon a large mat laid
beside the mortar ; the one holding the winnowing
pan keeps throwing the grain into the air with a
movement which causes the heavier grain to fall to
the back of the pan, while the chaff and dust is
thrown forward on to the mat. Her companion
separates the rice dust from the chaff by sifting it
through a sieve. A considerable quantity of the
dust or finely broken rice is formed by the pounding
in the mortar, and this is the principal food given to
the pigs. The winnowed grain is usually returned
to the mortar to be put through the whole process a
second time. The clean rice thus prepared is ready
for the cooking-pot.
The winnowing and sifting is often done by old
women, while the younger women continue the
severer task of plying the pestle. In the Kayan
houses the mortars are in many cases double, that
is to say, there are two pits in the one block of
timber, and twopairsof women work simultaneously.
In the middle of the afternoon the whole house resounds
with the vigorous blows of the pestles, for
throughout the length of the gallery two or more
women are at work beside each room, husking the
day's supply of rice for each family.
For the women of all the peoples, except the
Punans, the husking of ih&padi is a principal feature
of the day's work, and is performed in much the
same fashion by all. The Kenyahs alone do their