e fish back to the
village or community. Each community has waters which it regards as
being its own; but disputes as to this apparently do not arise.

A solitary individual sometimes goes off to catch fish with one of
the hand nets above described or with his hands, and eats or keeps
what he catches; but this is unusual.

Agriculture.

Agriculture is never communistic, being entirely an individual or
family matter, men and households and families having their own
gardens and plantations. The trees and plants chiefly cultivated are
those already mentioned as being used for food.

The clearing of the ground is done by men, and is begun about the
end of June. The trees and their branches are used for fencing, the
fencing being also done by men. The clearing away of the undergrowth
is done by women, who pile it in small heaps, which are spread over
the cleared space, being so close together that they almost touch one
another. When these have got quite dry, which may be in a few days, or
not for some time, they burn them, and the ashes add fertility to the
soil. There is no general digging up of the ground, as distinguished
from the digging of holes for individual plants. The clearing of the
trees is done with stone adzes, or in difficult cases by fire; but some
of the people now have European axes, of which some have been acquired
from white men, and some from plain and coast natives. In clearing for
planting yam and plants of the yam type they leave the upright stems of
some of the trees and shrubby undergrowth for the yams, etc., to trail
over. Cultivation of some of the more usual plants is done as follows.

Sweet potatoes and vegetables of similar type are planted by the women
in August and September. They make little holes in the ground about 2
feet apart, and in them plant the potatoes, the roots used being the
young sarmentose runners, which they cut off from the parent plants,
the latter being merely cut down to the ground, and the old tubers
being left in it. These runners are left to grow, and in about three
or four months the young potatoes are ready for eating, and afterwards
there will be a continuous supply from the runners. The digging up of
the day-to-day supply of potatoes is done by the women, the work in
this, and in all other digging, being done with small pointed sticks,
roughly made and not preserved; though now they sometimes have European
knives, these knives and axes being the two European i