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v CULTIVATION OF RICE 219
to plant rice once a year, and the season for doing
so generally falls about the month of Zilka'idah or
Zilhijah. 1
" In starting planting operations, however, the
object is, if possible,
to coincide with the season
when the West wind blows, because at that time there
are frequent rains, and accordingly the earth of the
rice-field becomes soft and easy to plough. Moreover,
in planting rice it is an invariable rule that there must
be water in the field, in order that the rice may sprout
if there is too
properly ; though, on the other hand,
of water the rice is sure to die. It
great a depth
has also been observed that as a rule the season of
the West wind coincides with the fourth month 2 of
the Chinese calendar, and sometimes also with the
month of Zilka'idah or Zilhijah. 8
" 2. In olden time the order of planting operations
was as follows: First, the elders had to hold a
consultation with the Pawang ; then the date was
fixed ; then Maulud* prayers were read over the
'mother-seed,' and benzoin, (incense) supplied by the
Pawang, was burned ; then all the requisites for rice-
planting were got ready,
1
viz. :
[In 1893 these months extended are required. This is not, of course,
from the iyth
C.O.B.]
May to the I4th July. intended to be an exhaustive description
of the differences between the two
2
[In 1893 from the i6th May to systems (for which there is here no
the 1 3th June. C.O.B.] space), but merely to point out certain
3 In what may be called the " dry "
salient differences. A specimen of the
method of planting rice (bfrhuma or charms used by the orang bOrhuma
bMadang) the ceremonies naturally (" dry padi " planters) will be found in
differ somewhat, as the forest has to the Appendix. The account in the text
be felled, if not every year, at least more refers only to the wet method, which is
often than is the case with the
' '
wet "
by far the more important one, though
system ; and the rice-seed is not sown the dry cultivation is probably the more
in nurseries (as a rule), but either scat- ancient of the two.
tered broadcast or planted with the 4 An account of the birth of Muhamdibble
whilst the ground cultivated is mad which is intoned by a number of
comparatively dry and no embankments people in the mosque.