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Chapter One. The Material Background |
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ceremony before the rice harvest, feast and presents |
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The rice harvest was inaugurated by a festival lasting for two days during which all work outside the village ceased. At the beginning of the feast a descendant of the village founder went to his fields and cut a few ears of each of the six varieties of rice; these he hung up in his own house. This ceremonial first reaping was followed by the slaughter of cattle and pigs. Kinsmen and families linked by marriage exchanged presents, while the young girls prepared millet breads and distributed them to boys and young men, who moved chanting from one girls' dormitory to the other. |
