Harvesting Time

On the instigation of Tini Rungya, Abotani had married her and divorced his virtuous wife, Diilyañ Diibyu. As the years went by, Tiini Rungya showed her true colors and ruined Abotani. A day came when not a morsel of grain was left.

Abotani realized his mistake, divorced Tini Rungya and tried to woe Diilyañ Diibyu back. Ayo Diilyañ Diibyu would not listen. Abotani begged for some food. No mercy.

He had to survive. Humankind had to survive. He had to get some food somehow.

"Go to Diilyañ Diibyu's house," Abotani told his dog. "She must be drying paddy on the piipiñ. Roll on it and come back running fast."

The faithful dog did as he was told. However, Diilyañ Diibyu saw Tani's dog and immediately knew his trick. She caught hold of the dog, cleaned all the paddy crops sticking to his hair and sent the dog back, "Now you can go back to Tani."

When the dog returned Tani was disappointed. As he petted the dog, however, he noticed a morsel of grain in each of the small pocket that all dogs have on their ears. Now, he had to multiply these grains to feed mankind.

The first year, Tani sowed the grain in the hearth - ugu. Next, he sowed them in the space around the urinal - si sita. Thus as the years went by, he had enough grains to be sown in the seed bed - midiñ.

It is entii piilo now. Time for harvesting paddy that our ancestor had propagated all around. This is one of the two seasons when the Apatanis cannot wait for anything. The other is the transplantation time of the paddy saplings.

The dog being the one who brought grains to us, the Apatanis never beat them during harvesting time.

Entii piilo is also the time for entii patañs to get together. A patañ usually consists of ten members - five male and five female. It is because it takes around two weeks to complete the harvesting of paddy.

It is a time to rejoice - reaping the fruits of the year-long labor.