On the slopes above and below, groups of men and boys and a few girls of Shoupa's family were cutting the rice. The harvesters cut sheaves of rice-stalks and left them on the ground to be picked up by small boys who in turn carried them to the threshing hut. The reapers worked in lines or semi-circles, shouting as they proceeded with surprising speed. The effect was almost that of a machine, and plots of high waving rice-plants were suddenly reduced to bare ground where only the large leaves of taro plants emerged from heaps of cut rice-stalks. (From the field notes of Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf, 1970-08-29)