Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/301

 on mats or plantain leaves, which are also kept wet, and in this way it sprouts in two or three days. This sprouting seed is then spread out (raleuë or larcuë) on a comparatively dry piece of the swampy ground, which is called lheuë lareuë or spreading nursery. To promote quick growth, a little water is occasionally let into the nursery, and as soon as the plants are big enough they are planted out in the swamp.

Ladangs (hill plantations) are opened in the forests of the highlands and especially of the East and West Coasts, in order to make the ground suitable for pepper-planting by a years rice-cultivation. Besides padi and pepper, sugarcane, champli (chilis), onions, etc. are planted in these ladangs. The padi-planting is here done by means of dibbling (tajō, teumajō). The trees are first felled and burned, and all roots so big as to cause obstruction are cleared out in a rough and ready manner. Then, as soon as the ground has been somewhat softened by the first rains, deep dibble-holes are made, some seed is thrown into each of them, and the padi is thinned out later if it grows too thick.

A watch is kept all day long against various kinds of rice-birds (tulō, miriëʾ). Scarecrows rudely representing the human form (ureuëng-ureuëng or penyakōt) are hung up in the fields, or a cord is stretched and dry plantain leaves (ōn krusōng) hung on it and kept in motion by constant pulls.

Other enemies of the ripening rice are the field mouse (tikōih) and the foul-smelling insect called geusòng (- walang sangit). Charms written on paper (ajeumat) are used as a defence against both the above; the papers are inserted in a hollow bamboo (bulōh), which is fixed in the middle of the umòng. The prayers employed for these charms are called tangkay tikōih and tangkay geusòng.

Before the war, wild pig were rarely to be seen in the lowlands, owing to the absence of cover. In the highlands on the other hand, a