| caption: |
Chapter Twenty-seven. Return to Nagaland |
| caption: |
filming of the rice harvesting in the fields |
| text: |
(247) The next day we accompanied Shoupa to one of his fields where the rice harvest was in progress. Earlier that year the Bala morung had got burnt accidentally, and as this is the morung with which the Thepong morung has marriage ties and ceremonial relations, Shoupa had assisted the Bala men by donating the entire contents of one of his granaries to feed the workers engaged in the rebuilding. Now the Bala morung repaid their debt of gratitude by providing for one day a labour force of some eighty men and boys to help Shoupa with the harvest of one of his large fields. The path to the field led first through high forest and there it was almost entirely paved and consisted of long flights of stone steps. At a roadside washing place the water was flowing out of three iron pipes, a feature unknown thirty years ago. As we descended further we found the path lined with flimsy bamboo fencing, and this indicated that the forest and the bamboo plantations to both sides were private property, from which no one except the owners was permitted to take wood or bamboo. |
