Pounding of the rice from the three baskets.--When the rice had been sufficiently dried, it was once more collected in the baskets, and carried back to the house to be pounded. [429] That operation took place the same evening, when the rice was pounded and winnowed [430] in the ordinary way, the only noteworthy addition being the tying of bunches of the grass called sambau dara to the upper ends of the long wooden pestles which the Malays use for the pounding operation. Disposal of the empty rice-stalks from the three baskets.--The chaff thus obtained was deposited in a heap by the owner of the field in a place where three paths met, crowned with a wreath made of the empty rice-stalks, and covered by a big stone which was intended, I was told, to keep it from being blown away. The sugar-cane was left to grow in the midst of the mother-sheaf, until the latter should be reaped by the wife of the owner; when this takes place, it is carried back to the house and used for next year's reaping. Meanwhile the "heads" of the mother-sheaf are pounded, and the grain thus obtained is mixed with the grain obtained from the Rice-soul, and deposited in the rice-bin (kepok) together with a stone, a lump of rosin (damar), and a wreath composed of the empty rice-ears. I may add that I saw the articles which had been deposited in the previous year in the rice-bin of the Malay at whose house I witnessed the ceremony which I have just described. I did not witness the preliminary search for the mother-sheaf (in which the Rice-soul was supposed to be contained), but it was described to me by the Pawang, and performed for my benefit by the people of the house. The Pawang's description ran as follows: In order to confine the "Rengkesa" (a Spectral Reaper) to the boundaries, visit the four corners of the field, and at each corner tie a knot in a rice-leaf, and hold your breath while you repeat the following charm:-- "In the name of God, etc., A swallow has fallen striking the ground, Striking the ground in the middle of our house-yard. But ye, O Shadows and Spectral Reapers (Rengkesa), Have your appointed place on the Boundaries (of this field). By virtue of," etc. These noxious spirits being thus confined to the Four Corners, you may search in safety till you find one of the special varieties of rice-ear in which the Rice-soul resides.