There
they are laid to rest on a small erection or on a cushion of
rice-straw. The whole arrangement, we are informed, has for its
object to induce the rice to increase and multiply in the granary,
so that the owner may get more out of it than he put in. Hence when
the people of Bali bring the two sheaves, the husband and wife, into
the barn, they say, "Increase ye and multiply without ceasing." When
all the rice in the barn has been used up, the two sheaves
representing the husband and wife remain in the empty building till
they have gradually disappeared or been devoured by mice. The pinch
of hunger sometimes drives individuals to eat up the rice of these
two sheaves, but the wretches who do so are viewed with disgust by
their fellows and branded as pigs and dogs. Nobody would ever sell
these holy sheaves with the rest of their profane brethren.
The same notion of the propagation of the rice by a male and female
power finds expression amongst the Szis of Upper Burma. When the
paddy, that is, the rice with the husks still on it, has been dried
and piled in a heap for threshing, all the friends of the household
are invited to the threshing-floor, and food and drink are brought
out.
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