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

154 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[128]The digging ofthe earth for wildfruits may have ledto the origin ofagriculture.women dug up edible roots and gathered succulent vegetables,such as the young tops of the munya, the sow-thistle, and severalkinds of fig-marigold. The implement which they used to dig uproots with was a pole seven or eight feet long, hardened in thefire and pointed at the end, which also served them as a weaponboth of defence and of offence. 410 Among the tribes of CentralAustralia the principal vegetable food is the seed of a speciesof Claytonia, called by white men munyeru, which the womengather in large quantities and winnow by pouring the little blackseeds from one vessel to another so as to let the wind blow theloose husks away. 411In these customs observed by savages who are totally ignorantof agriculture we may perhaps detect some of the steps by whichmankind have advanced from the enjoyment of the wild fruits ofthe earth to the systematic cultivation of plants. For an effect ofdigging up the earth in the search for roots has probably beenin many cases to enrich and fertilise the soil and so to increasethe crop of roots or herbs; and such an increase would naturallyattract the natives in larger numbers and enable them to subsistfor longer periods on the spot without being compelled by thespeedy exhaustion of the crop to shift their quarters and wanderaway in search of fresh supplies. Moreover, the winnowingof the seeds on ground which had thus been turned up by thedigging-sticks of the women would naturally contribute to thesame result. For though savages at the level of the CalifornianIndians and the aborigines of Australia have no idea of usingseeds for any purpose but that of immediate consumption, and ithas never occurred to them to incur a temporary loss for the sake410 W. Stanbridge, “Some Particulars of the General Characteristics,Astronomy, and Mythology of the Tribes in the Central Part of Victoria,South Australia,” Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, N.S., i.(1861) p. 291.411 Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia(London, 1899), p. 22.