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Chapter One. The Material Background |
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period after breakfast and setting off for fields |
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Breakfast was a leisurely meal and even when it was finished, Konyak men took their time before embarking on the work of the day. At the time known as 'tai-dzim,' "getting together for going," roughly corresponding to 9--10 A.M., the men and boys lounged on the platforms of houses and bachelors' halls, chewing betel, smoking pipes, and gossiping. The time when they set out to work on the fields was called 'tai-wing,' "all-go," and men, women, and sometimes children left the village in small household groups or in larger labor gangs, hurrying in single file along the path to the fields. As the Konyaks' system of slash-and-burn cultivation involved the periodic tillage of land extending over a large area, some of the fields under cultivation were likely to be situated at a distance of more than an hour's walk from the village and the sun would stand high in the sky before a man started to work on his fields. |
