THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

and September, before the rice plants (and weeds) grew too big. Weeding
was a delicate operat ion since care was needed not to dislodge or
trample on the growing plants, and was principally carried out by women
and older children. As the rice reached maturity, people began to get
anxious about the weather. The monsoon generally petered out in
September, and dry, sunny weather was necessary to ripen the grain.
Harvesting took place from October onwards, but a freak storm during
this time could ruin crops otherwise ready for cutting. In preparation
for the harvest, fields were drained and the rice allowed to dry out and
start ye1 lowing. People with non-agricultural jobs (such as teachers)
would take time off to help with the harvest, People also had to try
and protect their crops from marauding pigeons and other birds during
this time. As the rice reached maturity, wild birds were loathed as a
crop pest and many men went out with pellet bows shooting at any birds
they saw in the fields.
Rice was harvested using hand-held sickles with serrated inner
edges, The cutter held the clump of rice to be cut in one hand and
sliced through the stalks while pushing the clump in the direction the
rice was bending, about 2" above the ground. This gave a clean cut,
without tearing or the rice falling messily towards the cutter, Once a
big bunch had been collected in one hand this was carefully placed on or
just inside the raised banks of the kheT to dry for 4 or 5 days (Plate
24), Harvesting was another hard task, but was entered into with high
spirits, as the following example will show.
On one occasion in November 1989 when I accompanied our family's
harvesting group down the hill to their lower fields I went over to a
neighbour's fields to lend a hand. The young woman (whom I had met a