International studio (80.1925)

inceRnACionAL

THE SEE-SAW RICE POUNDER

RICE POUNDERS WITH MALLETS

until the whole countryside is transformed from a indefatigable rhythm. The instrument resembles
dull brown to a bright and beautiful green—the a violin bow with a single, thick string. Its weight

promise of food and___, is borne bY a P^ant

bamboo rod stuck in
the workman's belt
behind and arching
over his shoulder, so
that he can guide it
with his left hand
while striking the gut
with the mallet in his
right hand. When
fluffed, the cotton
may be sold in bulk or
quilted into bedcovers
or padding for winter
garments.

The factory system
has not as yet pene-
trated into the region
around Ningpo where
the home trades are
still practised: the spinning and weaving of silk
and cotton, basket-weaving, the milling and carv-
ing of wood, tailoring, shoemaking and many
others. Here, in the carving, is a lady at her
wheel, paying the cotton from hand to spindle and
from spindle on to the wheel which she is turning
by hand. Perhaps she has not yet learned to use
a distaff to set her left hand free, but that fact
does not impede the flow of animated conversa-
tion which she is carrying on, we imagine, with
her neighbor who is busily engaged with her
embroidery.

The fall of the year is the social season when
all members of a country family can share in the

plenty.

"Fluffed cotton
for sale here," reads
the sign in front of the
cotton-beater's shop.
Even before you come
upon the sign you can
hear the quick sound
of his instrument,
twanging like a one-
string accompaniment
on a banjo. Far up
and down the dull
musical beat may be
heard, and far into the
night it continues with

MAN GRINDING RICE

JANUARY 1925

three fifteen