79 



land suitable for the purpose nearer, hut apparently 

 merely to gratify a whim, or faney. Then- time is 

 mostly at their own disposal. A kind of temporary 

 dwelling is erected close to the selected land to which 

 they remove with their families during the season for 

 clearing the land and planting the crop. After this 

 is completed, they return to the town (Koro), and 

 occasional visits are made to the plantation for the 

 purpose of weeding, &c, and to see how the crops are 

 growing. The common people generally assist the 

 chief in the heavy part of his agricultural labour, 

 clearing the land, &c, and the poorer people are 

 aided by their wives. The latter have to carry home 

 from the fields all the yams, canes, &c, the men evi- 

 dently thinking such labour beneath their dignity ; or , 

 more likely, they are debarred by custom from helping 

 the women. 



Their cultivation is migratory. They seldom take a 

 crop of the same piece of land for two successive years, 

 except in well watered districts, when a crop of land 

 dolo may be found succeeding one of yams, or the 

 reverse. One crop, however, is the rule. The land is 

 then abandoned for an indefinite period, until its 

 fertility is restored. When such a system of cultiva- 

 tion prevails, a large area of country is required to 

 supply food to a comparatively small population. In 

 the elevated parts of the windward districts, little 

 injury is done by the unwooding of much forest land 

 annually for plantations — an equal extent being 

 annually abandoned. After an abundant fall of rain, 

 so rapid is the growth, that the land thus abandoned 

 is speedily covered by a dense growth of trees. In this 

 way a kind of balance is effected, provided that upon 

 such land, in after years, fire is prevented from entering 



