| caption: |
girls sing and beat rhythm with rice pounding pestles |
| text: |
A boy came to get me and I stalked through the pitch black night with umbrella and raincoat while my torch only barely lit the way. But the girls did not come. For two hours we sat around a fire in the Ang's house. Lots of young men came but the girls feared the rain which annoyed Chingai a lot as the singing after the rice harvest is a custom which should not be changed. Finally, about six girls began, among them two Ang daughters. They stood on both sides of the rice stamping table at the back end of the Ang house and with their long pestles they beat a uniform rhythm to their monotonous song. Slowly they moved up and down the stamping table and the young men crouched on the ground and found much opportunity for laughter. |
