Pioneering in - Far Eastern Bible College

fertilisation. Another round of clearing prepares the ratherundulating ground for cultivation.In the South Seas, there are only two seasons, a wet and a dry.This obliges them to plant only once a year, and this work beginstwo months before the rains. After the planting is completed theybuild thatched shelters among the paddy to live in for theconvenience of looking after the crop.The Dyaks have two big festivals in the year. They are:sowing and reaping. Although they keep cattle, these are not usedfor planting paddy on the hill-slopes. They are used for foodduring the celebrations.Planting solely by human labour has nurtured a cooperativespirit. By turns they help one another in planting and reaping. Forexample, today is my turn to plant. The whole village will come tomy help. If it is your turn tomorrow to plant, the whole villagewould also go to your help, and so on, till all the planting is done.In this cooperative enterprise they not only do not get paid butalso provide their own food for the working expedition. In otherwords, each man eats his own rice while helping out hisneighbour.Speaking about the Dyak’s place of abode, I often declarethem to amphibious. Amphibious not in the sense that they live onland and water but in the sense that they live corporately andseverally. They have villages. But, no matter how few theirnumbers, each village is built on one house which we called“longhouse” and they “lamin”. If their chieftain has picked a spotfor the village by putting up his house, the people would one byone build their homes adjoining one another’s. Although a wholevillage might embrace a population of one or two thousand, thehouse would still be one. Thus, you can measure the numbers in avillage by the length of their house. The longer the house, themore populous the village. The longhouse is not entirely for92