As most Bontoc
Igorot are right-handed, the plucked grain is laid in the left hand,
the fruit heads projecting beyond between the thumb and forefinger
while the leaf attached to each fruit head lies outside and below the
thumb. When the proper amount of grain is in hand (a bunch of stalks
about an inch in diameter) the useless leaves, all arranged for one
grasp of the right hand, are stripped off and dropped; the bunch
of fruit heads, topping a 6-inch section of clean stalk or straw is
handed to a person who may be called the binder. This person in all
harvests I have seen was a woman. She binds all the grain three,
four, or five persons can pluck; and when there is one binder for
every three gatherers the binder finds some time also to gather.
The binder passes a small, prepared strip of bamboo twice around
the palay stalks, holds one end between her teeth and draws the
binding tight; then she twists the two ends together, and the bunch
is secure. The bunch, the manojo of the Spaniard, the sin fing-e'
of the Igorot, is then piled up on the binder's head until a load
is made. Before each bunch is placed on the pile the fruitheads are
spread out like an open fan. These piles are never completed until
they are higher than the woman's arm can reach -- several of the last
bunches being tossed in place, guided only by the tips of the fingers
touching the butt of the straw.
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