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Chapter Twenty-three. The Spring Festival |
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feasting at the Spring festival |
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The solemn ritual of the feast is now over, and the girls entertain the boys in the chief's house. For days they have pounded rice and brewed beer, pigs have been killed, and the food is steaming in the huge pots on the hearth. Afterwards the dance is continued in the large hall, the girls and the boys dancing separately. It is almost dark, and the gleam of the flickering fire picks here and there on glistening naked backs or blades of swinging dao. Gradually the dancing throng thins; the youngest boys and girls dance on, but the older ones slip away and celebrate the birth of spring in their own way. |
