ishing
and in hunting.

If a man wants to have his field attended to, the first thing he
has to do is to prepare a good quantity of the national stimulant,
a kind of beer called tesvino. The more of this he has, the larger
the piece of land he can cultivate, for the only payment his helpers
expect and receive is tesvino.

The master of the house and his sons always do first one day's work
alone, before their friends and neighbours come to help them. Then
they begin in earnest to clear the field of stones, carrying them
in their arms or blankets, and cut down the brushwood. Tesvino is
brought out into the field, and iskiate, and the men, all very much
under the influence of the liquor, work with the animation of a heap
of disturbed ants.

When the work of hoeing and weeding is finished, the workers seize
the master of the field, and, tying his arms crosswise behind him,
load all the implements, that is to say, the hoes, upon his back,
fastening them with ropes. Then they form two single columns, the
landlord in the middle between them, and all facing the house. Thus
they start homeward. Simultaneously the two men at the heads of the
columns begin to run rapidly forward some thirty yards, cross each
other, then turn back, run along the two columns, cross each other
again at the rear and take their places each at the end of his row. As
they pass each other ahead and ill the rear of the columns they beat
their mouths with the hollow of their hands and yell. As soon as they
reach their places at the foot, the next pair in front of the columns
starts off, running in the same way, and thus pair after pair performs
the tour, the procession all the time advancing toward the house.

A short distance in front of it they come to a halt, and are met
by two young men who carry red handkerchiefs tied to sticks like
flags. The father of the family, still tied up and loaded with
the hoes, steps forward alone and kneels down in front of his
house-door. The flag-bearers wave their banners over him, and the
women of the household come out and kneel on their left knees, first
toward the east, and after a little while toward each of the other
cardinal points, west, south, and north.

In conclusion the flags are waved in front of the house. The father
then rises and the people untie him, whereupon he first salutes the
women with the usual greeting, "Kwira!" or "Kwireva!" Now they all
go into the house, and the man makes a short speech