mplements which
they use in agriculture, if they possess them.

Yams and similar vegetables are planted by men in August and
September, near to the young tree stems up which they are to trail,
and at distances apart of 2 or 3 yards. In this case, however, there
are two plantings. In the first instance the yam tubers are planted
in pretty deep holes, the tubers being long. The yams then grow,
and twine over the tree stems, and spread. After about ten months
the men dig up the tubers, which in the meantime have grown larger,
and cut away from them all the trailing green growth, and then hang
the tubers up in the houses and _emone_, to let the new growing points
sprout. Then in about another two months the men replant the smaller
tubers, while the larger ones are retained for food.

There are two curious Mafulu practices in connection with
yam-planting. First, before planting each tuber they wrap round it
an ornamental leaf, such as a croton, which they call the "sweetheart
of the yam." Against this leaf they press a piece of limestone. They
then plant the tuber with its sweetheart leaf around it and the piece
of limestone pressing against its side, and fill in the soil; but as
they do the latter they withdraw the piece of limestone, which they
use successively for other yams, and, indeed, keep in their houses
for use year by year. In the villages near the Mafulu Mission Station
the limestone used is generally a piece of stalactite, which they
get from the limestone caves in the mountains. The belief is that by
planting in this way the yams will grow stronger and better. Secondly,
there is a little small-leafed plant of a spreading nature, only a
few inches high, which grows wild in the mountains, but which is
also cultivated, and a patch of which they always plant in a yam
plantation. This plant they also call the "sweetheart of the yam";
and they believe that its presence is beneficial to the plantation.

Yams are ready for supplying food eight or ten months after
planting. They are not, like the potatoes, dug up from day to day,
as they can be stored. The usual period of digging and storing is
about June or July, and this digging is done by both men and women,
the former dealing with the larger yams, which are difficult to get
up, and the latter with the smaller ones.

The yam is apparently regarded by the Mafulu people as a vegetable
possessing an importance which one is tempted to think may have a
more or less su