The forest god becomes the field god. When the field god is in the field, this bicomes part of the human domain, the land is temporarily assimilated. The seedbed is then prepared. Water, the life of the heavens and the mountains, flows like breath through the 'mouth' into the rice field, inspires growth, so that the grain germinates. Women in festive clothing move in rows, setting the holy plants in the mud.
Male groups celebrate the event with drums and bells.
Yet this custom, mostly regarded as a fertility rite, probably does not go back to furthest antiquity, but developed when the field organization was centralized. The rice grown on them was used for offerings. The pests were symbolically caught with straw dolls, often figures of horsemen attached to poles, and were expelled from the village in processions accompanied by music and smoking rush torches. Today such actions are at best qualifed to amuse. But that is because we no longer understand their original function.