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Which of us is there, who has not passed moments in the company of these brutes, such as might well 'score years from a strong man's life'? Some of us have been gored by the brutes, and most of us, who have pursued the crafty snipe bird in his native pâdi swamps, have put in various mauvais quarts d'heure, with some of these sullenly vindictive animals mouching after us, much in the way that a gendarme pursues a gamin.
Such MALAN affecting the whole house or village obtains during the storing of the PADI for ten consecutive days, during epidemics of sickness in neighbouring villages, and at the time when the preparation of the farm land begins.
These sources of wealth are independent of the profit derived from the trade, which is managed for his master by a person who is styled the king's merchant. The revenues of the nobles accrue from taxes which they lay, as feudal lords, upon the produce of the land cultivated by their vassals. At Pidir a measure of rice is paid for every measure of padi sown, which amounts to about a twentieth part.
The largest are spread on the raised part of the floor, both of the gallery and of the private chambers, when a party sits down to eat or converse. Each individual has his own sleeping mat, and each family has a number of mats used for drying, husking, winnowing, and sieving the PADI.
I think I made my way for about seven feet. One might think that elephants roaming at large would render cultivation impossible, but they have the greatest horror of anything that looks like a fence, and though they are almost powerful enough to break down a strong stockade, a slight fence of reeds usually keeps them out of padi, cane, and maize plantations.
We met here with little or no fruit excepting plantains and pineapples, and these of an indifferent sort. The general produce of the country was maize, padi, potatoes, sweet-potatoes, tobacco, and sugar-cane. The principal part of their clothing was procured from the eastern side of the island.
He arose, smiling, touched his forehead with the back of his brown palm, and asked blandly: "Tuan, want to buy?" The calm assurance of the man amused me. "What, that miserable little monkey?" I said. "Do you take me for a tourist? Look up in those trees and you will see monkeys that know boiled rice from padi." The man grinned and showed his brilliantly red teeth and gums. "Tuan see.
When the whole crop has been gathered, threshed, and dried in this way, it is transported in the large shoulder baskets amid much rejoicing and merry-making to the PADI barns adjoining the house, and the harvest festival begins.
Several of these lighting at once upon a stalk of padi, and bearing it down, soon clear it of its produce, and thus if unmolested destroy whole crops. It is also customary to raise in the same ground a species of momordica, the fruit of which comes forward in the course of two months.
But no sooner was the mother gone than the girl began to husk some PADI and nibble at it. Then at once her body began to itch, and hair began to grow on her arms like the hair of a DOK. Soon the mother returned and the girl said, "Why am I itching so?" The mother answered, "You have done some wicked thing, you have eaten some rice."
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