| text: |
If a villager is having difficulty in getting his crop reaped, through illness or other causes, his fellow-villagers may decide to do a day's work for him free. Attendance is not compulsory; as many as are willing go, and he must provide food and drink for them in the field. Four men do the cooking and generally make ready. Numbers are counted by each worker picking a leaf and handing it to the counter. Drink is taken to the reapers in a bamboo chunga, which is carried along the line of reapers, each one taking a pull and handing it back to the cupbearer. The field-owner's wife's relations may also help him in providing the food and drink, but he must be responsible for most of it. Later, in the village, he must feed the helpers again; the men eat in one house, either the giver's or his wife's brother's, or in the house of some one else who has helped provide, and the women in whichever of the two the men do not select. |
