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Chapter Three. Phases of Life |
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boys start to frequent girls' dormitories at fifteen or sixteen |
| text: |
The traditional companions of a boy of the Oukheang morung were the girls of the Balang and, to a lesser degree, those of the Bala and Ang-ban. At the age of fifteen or sixteen he would begin to accompany his older morung friends on their visits to the girls' dormitories (yo) of these wards. At first he would sit rather timidly next to his friends, but soon he would begin to join in the chanting and to talk to the youngest of the girls. Such young girls came only for a few hours to the girls' dormitory, and then they went modestly back to their parents' houses. The younger boys too had no other choice but to return to their morung and to go to sleep there. |
