| caption: |
Potpatngi genna: done in September after the early rice has been harvested |
| text: |
The village is closed to strangers. The girls have a feast in the dekichang, bringing meat and rice from their own houses. If the bucks caught fish or crabs the previous day they give them all to the girls for their feast and do not keep any for themselves. The girls put on their best clothes and go round to the homes of all the dekichang members, collecting from each salt, chillies, a fowl, or whatever the parents can afford to give them. The fowls are given to the morung to pluck and clean and are then returned to the dekichung to be cooked and eaten. The girls do not eat from a common dish as the men do, but each eats from her own separate plate. Some zu they bring from their own homes, but this is given to the two senior girls to do the cooking and are in charge of the arrangements and the zu for the feast is provided by the corresponding morung. |
| text: |
No weaving, carrying of wood or other work may be done on this day. |
| text: |
After this there is a lull of one or more days during which field-work and so on may be done as usual, then Heliem is performed. |
