(saved with
care from the choicest of the preceding crop) of which they drop four or
five grains into every hole, and, passing on, are followed by the younger
children who with their feet (in the use of which the natives are nearly
as expert as with their hands) cover them lightly from the adjacent
earth, that the seed may not be too much exposed to the birds, which, as
might be expected, often prove destructive foes. The ground, it should be
observed, has not been previously turned up by any instrument of the hoe
or plough kind, nor would the stumps and roots of trees remaining in it
admit of the latter being worked; although employed under other
circumstances, as will hereafter appear. If rain succeeds the padi is
above ground in four or five days; but by an unexpected run of dry
weather it is sometimes lost, and the field sowed a second time. When it
has attained a month or six weeks' growth it becomes necessary to clear
it of weeds (siang-menyiang), which is repeated at the end of two months
or ten weeks; after which the strength it has acquired is sufficient to
preserve it from injury in that way. Huts are now raised in different
parts of the plantation, from whence a communication is formed over the
whole by means of rattans, to which are attached scarecrows, rattles,
clappers, and other machines for frightening away the birds, in the
contrivance of which they employ incredible pains and ingenuity; so
disposing them that a child, placed in the hut, shall be able, with
little exertion, to create a loud clattering noise to a great extent; and
on the borders of the field are placed at intervals a species of windmill
fixed on poles which, on the inexperienced traveller, have an effect as
terrible as those encountered by the knight of La Mancha. Such
precautions are indispensable for the protection of the corn, when in the
ear, against the numerous flights of the pipi, a small bird with a
light-brown body, white head, and bluish beak, rather less than the
sparrow, which in its general appearance and habits it resembles. 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.

At the time of sowing the padi it is a common practice to sow also, in
the interstices, and in the same manner, jagong or maize, which, growing
up faster and ripening before it (in little more than three months) is
gathered without injury to the former. I