St. John. 'St. Matthew,' he observed, 'is very laughable reading.'
Blasts of wild music and the braying of colossal horns honoured our
departure, and our difficult descent to the apricot groves of
Deskyid. On our return to Hundar the grain was ripe on Gergan's
fields. The first ripe ears were cut off, offered to the family
divinity, and were then bound to the pillars of the house. In the
comparatively fertile Nubra valley the wheat and barley are cut, not
rooted up. While they cut the grain the men chant, 'May it increase,
We will give to the poor, we will give to the lamas,' with every
stroke. They believe that it can be made to multiply both under the
sickle and in the threshing, and perform many religious rites for its
increase while it is in sheaves. After eight days the corn is
trodden out by oxen on a threshing-floor renewed every year. After
winnowing with wooden forks, they make the grain into a pyramid,
insert a sacred symbol, and pile upon it the threshing instruments
and sacks, erecting an axe on the apex with its blade turned to the
west, as that is the quarter from which demons are supposed to come.
In the afternoon they feast round it, always giving a portion to the
axe, saying, 'It is yours, it belongs not to me.' At dusk they pour
it into the sacks again, chanting, 'May it increase.' But these are
not removed to the granary until late at night, at an hour when the
hands of the demons are too much benumbed by the nightly frost to
diminish the store. At the beginning of every one of these
operations the presence of lamas is essential, to announce the
auspicious moment, and conduct religious ceremonies. They receive
fees, and are regaled with abundant chang and the fat of the land.

In Hundar, as elsewhere, we were made very welcome in all the houses.
I have described the dwelling of Gergan. The poorer peasants occupy
similar houses, but roughly built, and only two-storeyed, and the