Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

SAKAI OF PERAK 351
As soon as the rice began to ripen, all the men.
women, and children set to work to drive off the
birds, apes, elephants, squirrels, and other enemies of
the rice. A small hut or shelter was built in the
field ; and
part or the whole of each family went to
live there while the rice was ripening. The reaping
was done with the same implements as are used by
the Malays. None of the aborigines could remember
any other kind being used. In default of the Malay
reaping-knife ("tuai"), the reaper would pinch off each
head of rice between finger and thumb. From five
to twenty ears, on the other hand, according to the
skill of the reaper, were seized between the finger
and the thumb and cut off close to the ear when the
reaping-knife was used, the stalks being left on the
spot, either to be burnt or to wither. The rice-heads
were then collected together, and thrown upon a
threshing - floor to be separated from the husks.
Here they were trodden to and fro under foot,
and the stalk-ends sifted out. The rice required
for immediate use was then thrown into a massive
wooden mortar, where it was pounded with a heavy
pestle, which split the husks, and the husked rice, as
soon as the husks had been separated from it, was
then ready for cooking,'
Before the commencement of the harvest, how-
ever, a magic ceremony had to be performed, which
took place at sunrise. All who were interested in
the harvest assembled at one of the watchers' huts in
the rice-fields, and seated themselves in a ring round
its walls. In the middle of the hut stood a sack filled
with rice to the brim—an obvious piece of symbolism.
One of the rcaping-knives was then inserted, with the
} \'aughan-Stevens, ii. 151, 152.