Villages, especially mountainside villages, often had customary handicrafts which the women hawked in the market. Brooms, made from the twigs of a certain mountain bush, were a hawker monopoly, as were the hand-woven ribbons used to tie up the traditional Hakka headcloth. The special leaves used to tie up steamed rice dumplings were similarly prepared and sold by women from the mountain villages.
Some products could only be got in the mountains - game, some medicinal herbs, tea, and some other special products. Only a few households, mostly mountain ones, kept bees and had honey for sale. Honey was usually sold from the street by retail - few villagers would ever have had more than a small quantity for sale at any time. Honey was mostly used for medicinal purposes. Villagers with tea to sell, or medicinal herbs, would usually sell to shops in the market if they had a large quantity, but otherwise they would sell by retail from the street. Game was usually sold by men. Some villages kept packs of hunting dogs, and caught wild boar, the meat of which was then sold in the market-town streets, while porcupine, civet cats, and wildfowl were trapped live and then sold. Markets like Sha Tau Kok, with substantial areas of mountain in the market district, were famous for the game trade.
These trades were specialties - only those villages able to keep hunting dogs could catch wild boar, and the skills of finding and preparing medicinal herbs, or trapping wild fowl, were a jealously guarded secret, known only to a few villages, and within those villages, only to a few households. One specialist mountain product was Shue Leung (#), a tuber which, when sliced up and macerated in water, provided a juice which water-proofed ropes. This tuber was needed by the boat-people, who would treat their tackle and nets with it once or twice a year. When boat-people needed it, they would look out for a mountainside villager known to them, and order a load for the next market day. Mountainside villages were as concerned to preserve their Shue Leung from illicit harvest by outsiders as they were to preserve their stands of fuel trees - outsiders found poaching would be driven off with violence.
Poultry were sold live in the streets by villagers, especially from the lowland villages near the market - buyers took them home and slaughtered them themselves. Poultry was not always available, but the market would be full of sellers just before a festival. Seed-pigs and day-old chicks were usually sold on the street by any villager who happened to
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Villages, especially mountainside villages, often had customary handicrafts which the women hawked in the market. Brooms, made from the twigs of a certain mountain bush, were a hawker monopoly, as were the hand-woven ribbons used to tie up the traditional Hakka headcloth. The special leaves used to tie up steamed nice dumplings were similarly prepared and sold by women from the mountain villages.
Some products could only be got in the mountains - games, some medicinal herbs, tea, and some other special products. Only a few households, mostly mountain ones, kept bees and had boney for sale. Honey was usually sold from the street by retail - few villagers would ever have had more than a small quantity for sale at any time. Honey was mostly used for medicinal purposes. Villagers with tea to sell, or medicinal herbs, would usually sell to shops in the market if they had a large quantity, but otherwise they would sell by retail from the street. Game was usually sold by men. Some villages kept packs of hunting dogs, and caught wild boar, the meat of which was then sold in the market-town streets, while porcupine, civet cats, and wildfowl were trapped live and then sold Markets like Sha Tau Kok, with substantial areas of mountain in the market district, were famous for the game trade.
These trades were specialties - only those villages able to keep hunting dogs could catch wild boar, and the skills of the finding and preparing medicinal herbs, or trapping wild fowl, were a jealously guarded secret, known only to a few villages, and within those villages, only to a few households One specialist mountain product was Shue Leung (#), a tuber which, when sliced up and macerated in water, provided a juice which water-proofed ropes. This tuber was needed by the boat-people, who would treat then tackle and nets with it once or twice a year. When boat-people needed it, they would look out for a mountainside villager known to them, and order a load for the next market day. Mountainside villages were as concerned to preserve then Shue Leung from illicit harvest by outsiders as they were to preserve their stands of fuel trees - outsiders found poaching would be driven off with violence.
Poultry were sold live in the streets by villagers, especially from the lowland villages near the market - buyers took them home and slaughtered them themselves. Poultry was not always available, but the market would be full of sellers just before a festival. Seed-pigs and day- old chicks were usually sold on street by any villager who happened to
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