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

152 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)Among theaborigines ofAustralia thewomen providedthe vegetable food,while the menhunted.[127]of the moon and of the sun, we need not hesitate to ascribe to theimmeasurably more advanced Greeks at the dawn of history theknowledge of a somewhat more elaborate calendar founded on acycle of eight solar years. 403Among the equally rude aborigines of Australia, to whomagriculture in every form was totally unknown, the division oflabour between the sexes in regard to the collection of foodappears to have been similar. While the men hunted game,the labour of gathering and preparing the vegetable food fellchiefly to the women. Thus with regard to the Encounter Baytribe of South Australia we are told that while the men busiedthemselves, according to the season, either with fishing or withhunting emus, opossums, kangaroos, and so forth, the womenand children searched for roots and plants. 404 Again, amongthe natives of Western Australia “it is generally considered theprovince of women to dig roots, and for this purpose they carrya long, pointed stick, which is held in the right hand, and drivenfirmly into the ground, where it is shaken, so as to loosen theearth, which is scooped up and thrown out with the fingers ofthe left hand, and in this manner they dig with great rapidity.But the labour, in proportion to the amount obtained, is great.To get a yam about half an inch in circumference and a foot inlength, they have to dig a hole above a foot square and two feetin depth; a considerable portion of the time of the women andchildren is, therefore, passed in this employment. If the men areabsent upon any expedition, the females are left in charge of onewho is old or sick; and in traversing the bush you often stumbleon a large party of them, scattered about in the forest, diggingroots and collecting the different species of fungus.” 405 In fertile403 See above, pp. 81 sq.404 H. E. A. Meyer, “Manners and Customs of the Encounter Bay Tribe,” inNative Tribes of South Australia (Adelaide, 1879), pp. 191 sq.405 (Sir) George Grey, Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-Westand Western Australia (London, 1841), ii. 292 sq. The women also collect the