Before the auspicious hour they built a temporary shrine to the guardian spirit of the field, called an eye-level shrine, in a place near the field appointed as the place of the first plowing. They had to prepare both objects of worship and offerings. This eye-level shrine was built only firmly enough to serve temporarily as a shrine. They used six bamboos planted as pillars, as high as eye-level, with crosspieces tied with creepers. The shrine had the form of a high rectangular platform of no very great size, only sufficient to lay the objects of worship and the offerings. The floor of the shrine was made of bamboos laid in a row, or they might be split and flattened. If it was not firm and steady they used creepers or strips of bamboo to tie it; one need not speak of nails, for they had none. What has been described was the usual method of building. If they could not find bamboo, they could use other wood; it was a question of using whatever they had, without limitations. The same was true of offerings; whatever they had to eat, they offered, as chance might afford, or as the popular phrase is, "prawn salad or fish salad". There had to be an offering of rice; this could not be omitted. They were required always to use the top rice of the pot.
These offerings were arranged in a flat basket, or at the very least laid on flat banana leaves. As vessels to contain offerings they used only flat baskets or banana leaves; even in making offerings to the gods the same was the case. This custom probably comes from India, where some groups of Indians of high caste like to eat rice from banana leaves,
regarding them as cleaner and purer than other containers, which might be polluted because of having been used by others. To use a vessel that has already been used by a person of low class is considered a sin, the stain accruing to the person using the vessel afterward; however clean one might wash the vessel, the stain is not removed, according to the belief. Banana leaves are better, both clean and convenient. After use they can be thrown away.
As to objects of worship, there were flowers, incense sticks, and candles. These objects of worship depended upon what one had or could procure. If one had nothing it did not matter, depending on chance. If they simply worship and made offerings without any marker for the place of the spirit of the land, and had a feeling of emptiness, they picked up a lump of earth and laid it on the shrine, pretending that the lump of earth was the place of the spirit. At the time of worshipping and making offerings, they would make a speech asking that their farms this year be fruitful, that their rice produce fine grain, that there be no dangers such as biting crabs or nibbling worms. When they finished worshipping and making offerings they set to work plowing a field, for which the auspicious hour had been set, to serve as a ceremony of first plowing.
The work of first plowing took about one hour; when they had finished, they might return home, and need do nothing further. They left the shrine of the land spirit as it was; there would be one more ceremony of making offerings and worshipping when they began to transplant rice. In some places, for example in the district of Ayutthaya, so far as it has been possible to investigate, they make four triangular flags of white or any color, and set these up at one of the north corners of their fields. They set them up in a rectangle and then sit down and address the Rice Goddess, the Earth Goddess, and the Spirit of the Place asking that harmful creatures such as aphis and crabs not damage the rice which they are about to sow.
In olden times people who depended upon crops as their major source of sustenance had knowledge and experience in planting. They knew which sort of earth were suited to which sort of crops, what should be done at the time of planting to get good results, what to do to provide fertilizer for the earth. But even if they had knowledge and experience in these matters, and were as diligent as they could be, the people in former times were helpless in matters of weather and crop enemies. When they thus found themselves helpless, it was natural for them to turn to magic things for aid, with doctrines and conduct handed down traditionally, to ensure fruitfulness for their farming.
For this reason people formerly feared dangers which might befall their farming, because nothing was such a source of disaster as failure of crops. Because of this fear they had to have ceremonies of making offerings to spirits and gods, and rites connected with every step of farming until their crops were harvested and put away, before their worries were over. For the same reason various nationalities, even those which have progressed, still have various rites and ceremonies connected with farming which have been handed down to the present time. These serve as evidence as to original beliefs, behavior, and conduct. But even if the beliefs have now faded out because famines do not occur often as formerly, and there is not much worshipping and begging of spirits of the place as described above, nevertheless the selection of auspicious hours has not been given up at the time of the first plowing, because this is regarded as important.
People who believe in auspices and who are learned make sure the first plowing is done in an auspicious direction. In the first plowing they plow only three circuits to serve as ceremony. Probably they plow three circuits because three is a number regarded as magic. In some places they have a textbook for beginning first plowing according to the age of the farmer; for example, if he was born in the year of the rat, he begins to plow on Sunday, and if born in the year of the ox, he begins to plow on Wednesday, etc.
Issue No. 1
