In all classes of work for which only food is given,
much time is left to the laborers in which the men may weave their
basket work and the women spin the bark-fiber thread for skirts.
Five manojos of palay is the daily wage for all laborers except
those mentioned in the last paragraph. This is the wage of the wood
gatherer in the mountains, of the builder of granaries, sementeras,
irrigating ditches, and dikes, and of those who prepare soils and
who plant and harvest crops.
There is much exchange of labor between individuals, and even between
large groups of people, such as members of an ato. Formerly exchange
of labor was practiced slightly more than at present, but to-day,
as has been noted, all dwellings are built by the unpaid labor
of those who come for the accompanying feast and "good time," and
because their own dwellings were or will be built by such labor. A
great deal of agricultural labor is now paid for in kind; practically
all the available labor in an ato turns out to help a member when a
piece of work is urgent. However, it is not customary for poor people
to exchange their labor, since they constantly need food for those
dependent on them. When the poor man desires a wage for his toil he
needs only to tell some rich person that he wishes to work for him --
both understand that a wage will be paid.
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