Filling the village field.
Rice-barn.
Now the dookoon, the owner of the field and his family, all those who have in any way helped in preparing the "Sawah," or planting the rice, sit down to a "Slamettan," a repast which is at the same time a sacrifice to the gods, and a further celebration of the marriage just contracted; and, at the end of the banquet, the doekoen, rising up, solemnly declares that the hour of the harvest has come.
Now, it is the kindly custom of Javanese land-owners to invite to the harvest-feast all who, during the past month, have taken any part, however slight, in the cultivation of the Sawah. And as, under so elaborate a system of agriculture as is demanded by the growing of rice, these are necessarily many, the Pari Penganten is a feast for the whole "dessa" as well as for a single family. The men leave their work in the shops or the market, the women lay down the sarong-cloth on which for weeks and weeks they have been patiently tracing elaborate patterns with wax, and blue and brown pigment; and all, in holiday attire and with flowers wreathed in their hair or stuck into a fold of their head-kerchief, repair to the ripe rice-field.
Peasant ploughing.
The dookoon-sawah is the first to enter it; and, as he does so, he in this wise greets the spirits of the field.