159
Agriculture modic bird-scaring by
the
children.
With the
reaping time all are busy again the crop is cut with small sickles loaded on sleds and drawn to the :
winnowing-ground, a small spot either in the fields or near the village, on which the earth is beaten
down hard and smooth. There,
after the spirits
have
been duly propitiated, the sheaves are strewn out and are trampled upon by the cattle until the grain is
all
detached from the straw.
Winnowing then
takes place, after which the golden yellow grain is stored in specially constructed huts and the year's
work
is
over.
Though
there are
many
large estates in the neigh-
borhood of Bangkok, the property of the royal family and nobility, the greater part of the land is held full
in
small farms by peasant proprietors, having
hereditary rights subject only to the will of the
king, in
whom,
finally, all
rights are vested in ac-
cordance with ancient custom.
Each man ploughs
own
land, but the planting and reaping is usually done with the aid of his neighbors, the whole village his
turning out and working together on each owner's This labor in common is the occafields in turn. sion for
much merry-making,
the young
men and
maidens, glad of the chance of meeting, planting or reaping all day amid bouts of repartee and bursts