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RICE CULTURE The race is held in a flooded ricefield between rival teams of specially trained bulls. The oxen are crowned with ornaments of tooled gilt leather, and silk banners decorate their yokes. Enormous wooden bells, often three feet across, are attached to their necks. Bets are placed as the contending teams are lined up with their drivers standing on the rakes to which the bulls are hitched. At a signal from the referee, they are off with a speed one does not usually associate with ploughing oxen. The yelling drivers, on the rakes that glide along the mud, whip and entice the bulls to run across the field, always with an elegant gait. Their heads are raised high, forced up by the great thumping bells, giving them an added elegance. However fast they may run, the referee gives his decision not to the fastest, but to the team with the most stately bearing. It is typical of the Balinese to place style before mere physical speed. When the field is prepared, the mother-seed, which has been picked from the largest and most beautiful ears, is soaked for two days and two nights, then spread on a mat and sprinkled with water until the germ breaks through. A nursery plot is prepared in a corner of the field to receive the young sprouts, which must be planted on a propitious day set by the religious calendar. They remain in the nursery for about two months; then when they have developed enough, they are pulled out, washed, pruned, tied in bunches, and exposed to the air for one night. By this time the sawas are clean and ready to receive the young plants; offerings (sudjuk) to Dewi Sri are made again and the owner of the sawa with his own hands, plants the first nine sprouts in a small group at the uppermost corner of the plot. He begins with a single central one, then one to the right; one towards himself (in the direction of the sea behind him) ; then to the left; towards the mountain in front; and finally to the four intermediate points, in t following order: A more detailed explanation of this important ritual principle by which the Balinese rule their actions will be given later, 1 for the sake of convenience let it be understood that the points correspond, in principle, to our North, South, East, West, a Centre, remembering that the point called kadja, which we shall call " North," is invariably towards the Gunung Agung or the local great mountain, and the klod, " South," is always towards the sea. After the nine cardinal points have been established, the rest of the seedlings are planted all over the field, the plants stuck into the mud in rows at intervals of one hand-span. Often owner of the field gives a party at this time to bring himself luck. Soon the rice becomes green and new shoots appear, but then the rice requires the utmost care; it must be properly weeded and should have plenty of water. Offerings (sayut sarwa genep) are made to protect the tender plants from caterpillars, and again, after forty-two days, more offerings (dedinan) are made to celebrate its feast day.
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