[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

1
‘F
ECONOMIC LIFE I85
village and announce that the time has come for the women to
do their part. Here again there is unfortunately no indication
as to how many women are engaged nor whether they are in
any special way related to the owner oi the garden. From
what has been said already we may assume that his wife;
unmarried sisters, and unmarried daughters will be included
among them. Their task is to clean the land oi all small trash,
grass, and weeds by burning it. When it is all burnt clean, the
owner summons his friends (hamm av) and tells them that the
time has come to plant his garden. Early the following morning
the women repair to it, and sweep away all the cinders which
remain from the burning off, after which the men arrive to do
the actual planting. It is not quite clear whether the women
plant in conjunction with the men, though there is some suggestion
that they do so. They certainly do some planting, for one note
tells us that men plant big yarns, women small ones.‘
The planters when they have arrived at the garden divide
themselves into pairs and each pair then works independently
of the others. One man digs the hole, the other man plants the
yam. The former, having furnished himself with a digging stock,
squats down and opposite him sits the planter. He then proceeds
to dig with his hands as deep as he can, after which he continues
working with his digging stick until he has excavated a hole as
deep as the digging stick itself. At ï¬Årst all the soil which he
takes out he puts in a pile on his right-hand side, but after a
while, when he has gathered there sufï¬Åcient almost to ï¬Åll the
hole again, he passes the remainder across to the planter, who
now busies himself breaking up the large clods which are thrown
to him and crumbling them to make the soil light. When the
hole is of the right depth the digger passes on to the next place
where he has to dig, while the planter gets down to his part of
the work. By means of a stick, he excavates a short distance
below the ground a small tunnel-like cavity in the side'of the
hole. Then he takes a piece of wild cane, somewhat longer than
the hole is deep, thrusts it upright in the centre of the hole and
proceeds to ï¬Åll the latter with the rough soil which the digger
had heaped up to one side of him. When the hole is ï¬Ålled up
‘ It is tempting to conjecture whether the “ big yams " may not be those
classed in Seniang as long or " male ", the “ small yams " those classed as short
and round or "female ".—C. H. W.