The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

142 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[118]done during the first half of the Kiptamo moon (February), whichis the first month of the year, and when the Iwat-kut moon rises(March) all seed should be in the ground. The chief medicineman is consulted before the planting operations begin, but theNandi know by the arrival in the fields of the guinea-fowl, whosesong is supposed to be, O-kol, o-kol; mi-i tokoch (Plant, plant;there is luck in it), that the planting season is at hand. Whenthe first seed is sown, salt is mixed with it, and the sower singsmournfully: Ak o-siek-u o-chok-chi (And grow quickly), as hesows. After fresh ground has been cleared, eleusine grain isplanted. This crop is generally repeated the second year, afterwhich millet is sown, and finally sweet potatoes or some otherproduct. Most fields are allowed to lie fallow every fourth or fifthyear. The Nandi manure their plantations with turf ashes.... Theeleusine crops are harvested by both men and women. All othercrops are reaped by the women only, who are at times assistedby the children. The corn is pounded and winnowed by thewomen and girls.” 370 Among the Suk and En-jemusi of BritishEast Africa it is the women who cultivate the fields and milk thecows. 371 Among the Wadowe of German East Africa the menclear the forest and break up the hard ground, but the womensow and reap the crops. 372 So among the Wanyamwezi, who arean essentially agricultural people, to the south of Lake VictoriaNyanza, the men cut down the bush and hoe the hard ground, butleave the rest of the labour of weeding, sowing, and reaping tothe women. 373 The Baganda of Central Africa subsist chiefly onbananas, and among them “the garden and its cultivation havealways been the woman's department. Princesses and peasant370 A. C. Hollis, The Nandi (Oxford, 1909), p. 19. However, among the BantuKavirondo, an essentially agricultural people of British East Africa, both menand women work in the fields with large iron hoes. See Sir Harry Johnston,The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1904), ii. 738.371 M. W. H. Beech, The Suk (Oxford, 1911), p. 33.372 F. Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894), p. 36.373 F. Stuhlmann, op. cit. p. 75.