| caption: |
Chapter five: land tenure and agriculture |
| caption: |
protection of crops from animals; traps and bird-scarers |
| note: |
footnotes indicated by boxes within square brackets |
| text: |
By July the maize is ripening and the fields need constant watching to protect them from bear, deer, pig and monkey. Where fields are far from the village families camp in the cultivation for several days at a time, either sending back to the village for supplies as necessary or receiving them regularly by some member who has remained at home. When the rice begins to ripen in August traps and bird-scaring devices are set up round and in the fields, and men are on watch at night to drive off game. In August the rice-harvest begins in Asalu and in the other warm, low-lying villages, and follows on the higher settlements in approximately the order of their altitude. Laisong, Hangrum and Nenglo, usually the last to begin harvesting, do so almost three weeks later than Asalu. |
