Note 17 — DOMESTIC LIFE
Reading edition
The crop is reaped with a small iron sickle (vekhuo) with a saw edge. Several stalks are grasped together with the left hand and cut a few inches below the ears. The unthreshed rice is stored in the field-house till everyone in the village has reaped his crop. Each man on the day when he first goes down to thresh again performs the Liritang ceremony as before, except that a fowl—either cock or hen—takes the place of the pig’s head. To thresh the grain the ears are heaped on mats outside the field-house, and after being well trampled are flicked against the right shin.17 To winnow the grain one man pours it slowly from a basket held with both hands above his head while another fans it vigorously with a winnowing fan (saveng)—a bamboo mat with the two corners of one end drawn together, resulting in a thing rather like a sugar scoop in shape.