DOI article:
Lerche, Grith; Steensberg, Axel: Observations on spade-cultivation in the New Guinea Highlands
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48999#0096
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G. LERCHE & AX. STEENSBERG
digging trenches between the square plots or
for cultivating fallow land covered by pit-pit
grass (see also Waddell 45; Vicedom & Tischner
225; Nilles 210). Nilles remarks that he saw
only spades used where the trenching (i. e. of
chess-board fields) was usual. These spades
were c. 2 m long, paddle-shaped, the handle
c. 4 cm in diameter, the widest part of the blade
c. 15 cm wide by 3 cm thick (Nilles 210). The
tips of new specimens would presumably all be
pointed, and would become blunt or rounded
subsequently during hard work. In fig. 1 the
piece no. 4 seems to have been resharpened
several times, its blade being much shorter
than that of the others. No. 1 has also been
resharpened (fig. 2), and no. 5 possibly has had
its shaft broken some time. Still there is some
difference between the shape of the blades,
some of them having more distinct oblique
shoulders than the others, but none of them
could be forced down by the worker’s foot
like the New Zealand Ko. No. 7 was made of
Casuarina alligata and no. 4 probably of Gor-
donia wallichii. That the spades were used by
the men and made by the men of hard wood,
usually Casuarina is also noticed by Vicedom
& Tischner (225) and Nilles (209).
In the village of Menzim, east of Mt. Hagen
town and Kindeng tea plantation, we met an
elderly man who could demonstrate the use of
the long spade no. 1. He started digging in com-
pact grassy ground at the outskirts of the village
with his right or forward hand grasping the
shaft quite near the blade in overgrip and his
left hand a little below the middle of the shaft
in undergrip, pushing the implement obliquely
into the soil surface (fig. 3). When he had
broken a hole and cleared the earth away, he
started making a real trench, cutting straight
sides with the edge of the blade (fig. 4). He
worked by alternately breaking some soil loose
by lifting the spade and pushing it down, and
then by clearing the pulverized soil away.
This man spoke a language not understood
by our interpreter. Probably he was rather too
old for such hard digging. The next day we met
a man of stouter physique near the village of
Banga southeast of Mt. Hagen. In fig. 5, 6 and
G. LERCHE & AX. STEENSBERG
digging trenches between the square plots or
for cultivating fallow land covered by pit-pit
grass (see also Waddell 45; Vicedom & Tischner
225; Nilles 210). Nilles remarks that he saw
only spades used where the trenching (i. e. of
chess-board fields) was usual. These spades
were c. 2 m long, paddle-shaped, the handle
c. 4 cm in diameter, the widest part of the blade
c. 15 cm wide by 3 cm thick (Nilles 210). The
tips of new specimens would presumably all be
pointed, and would become blunt or rounded
subsequently during hard work. In fig. 1 the
piece no. 4 seems to have been resharpened
several times, its blade being much shorter
than that of the others. No. 1 has also been
resharpened (fig. 2), and no. 5 possibly has had
its shaft broken some time. Still there is some
difference between the shape of the blades,
some of them having more distinct oblique
shoulders than the others, but none of them
could be forced down by the worker’s foot
like the New Zealand Ko. No. 7 was made of
Casuarina alligata and no. 4 probably of Gor-
donia wallichii. That the spades were used by
the men and made by the men of hard wood,
usually Casuarina is also noticed by Vicedom
& Tischner (225) and Nilles (209).
In the village of Menzim, east of Mt. Hagen
town and Kindeng tea plantation, we met an
elderly man who could demonstrate the use of
the long spade no. 1. He started digging in com-
pact grassy ground at the outskirts of the village
with his right or forward hand grasping the
shaft quite near the blade in overgrip and his
left hand a little below the middle of the shaft
in undergrip, pushing the implement obliquely
into the soil surface (fig. 3). When he had
broken a hole and cleared the earth away, he
started making a real trench, cutting straight
sides with the edge of the blade (fig. 4). He
worked by alternately breaking some soil loose
by lifting the spade and pushing it down, and
then by clearing the pulverized soil away.
This man spoke a language not understood
by our interpreter. Probably he was rather too
old for such hard digging. The next day we met
a man of stouter physique near the village of
Banga southeast of Mt. Hagen. In fig. 5, 6 and