o replace such as may chance to fail upon
removal. These plantations, in the same manner as the ladangs, it is
necessary to cleanse from weeds at least twice in the first two or three
months; but no maize or other seed is sown among the crop. When the padi
begins to form the ear or to blossom, as the natives express it, the
water is finally drawn off, and at the expiration of four months from the
time of transplanting it arrives at maturity. The manner of guarding
against the birds is similar to what has been already described; but the
low ground crop has a peculiar and very destructive enemy in the rats,
which sometimes consume the whole of it, especially when the plantation
has been made somewhat out of season; to obviate which evil the
inhabitants of a district sow by agreement pretty nearly at the same
time; whereby the damage is less perceptible. In the mode of reaping
likewise there is nothing different. Upon the conclusion of the harvest
it is an indispensable duty to summon the neighbouring priests to the
first meal that is made of the new rice, when an entertainment is given
according to the circumstances of the family. Should this ceremony be
omitted the crop would be accursed (haram) nor could the whole household
expect to outlive the season. This superstition has been by the
Mahometans judiciously engrafted on the stock of credulity in the country
people.

The same spot of low ground is for the most part used without regular
intermission for several successive years, the degree of culture they
bestow by turning up the soil and the overflowing water preserving its
fertility. They are not however insensible to the advantage of occasional
fallows. In consequence of this continued use the value of the sawah
grounds differs from that of ladangs, the former being, in the
neighbourhood of populous towns particularly, distinct property, and of
regularly ascertained value. At Natal for example those consisting
between one and two acres sell for sixteen to twenty Spanish dollars. In
the interior country, where the temperature of the air is more favourable
to agriculture, they are said to sow the same spot with ladang rice for
three successive years; and there also it is common to sow onions as soon
as the stubble is burned off. Millet (randa jawa) is sown at the same
time with the padi. In the country of Manna, southward of Bencoolen, a
progress in the art of cultivation is discovered, superior to what
appears in almo