Note 6 — Economic Life
Reading edition
After the transplanting, the grain needs constant attention; at first, to keep it properly weeded and flooded; later, to protect it from animals and birds. Hence many workers are always in the fields, but it is, nevertheless, the happy time for the people, and if one approaches a group of workers unawares, he will hear one or more singing the daleng, a song in which they compliment or chide the other workers, or relate some incident of the hunt or of village life. Toward midday little groups will gather in the field shelters to partake of their lunches, to smoke, or to rest, and usually in such a gathering will be a good story-teller who amuses with fables, or tales of adventure.6