They are then expected to accompany their mothers on the daily excursions in search of roots.

When the little girls are first taken out by their mothers they are instructed in the use of the yam-stick, with which the roots are dug up out of the earth.

The stick used by the women is generally three feet or four feet long, but the girl novices use a short one about fifteen inches in length.

Each woman, as I have said elsewhere, is also provided with a reed basket or net, in which to hold the roots, this being usually woven out of strings of prepared bark; or, failing that, native flax or palm straw.
But the unfortunate wife occasionally makes the acquaintance of the heavy yam-stick in a very unpleasant, not to say serious, manner.

Of course, there are domestic rows.