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Chapter Twenty-three. The Spring Festival |
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secret of the rite at the Spring festival |
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It was months before I could induce a man to confide the secret of this rite. Its theme is also the fertility of the fields, and the central formula runs: "As a woman embraces her lover, so may the earth take the seed of the rice into her womb." The fertility of field and man are closely linked in the mind of the Naga: they (200) are different expressions of the same force, and the prosperity of the village depends on its abundance. |
