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Samoan Material Culture

Implements

Implements

The implements used in preparing the ground were the digging and the planting sticks.

The digging stick (oso) was of hard heavy wood, between 5 and 6 feet long and about 2 inches in diameter at the thick end which was sharpened. The bark was peeled off and it was devoid of any foot step or ornamentation. It was jabbed into the ground with both hands and the soil loosened by levering up the point. With such a crude implement, only the actual parts where the seed was to be planted were dealt with.

The planting stick termed oso to (to, to plant) was thicker, with a blunt, rounded point. This was thrust down into the loosened ground and levered from side to side to enlarge the hole. Lack of information as to weeding implements implies that special implements had not been devised.

The cultivation was visited from time to time and the spreading creepers or young growth cleared away. Under normal conditions, the people divided their attention between tending their cultivations and fishing in the sea and page 546lagoon. Extra activity in war or political agitations always resulted in neglect of the bush cultivations and a subsequent falling off in the vegetable food supplies.