155Extract XII (S)
(BG) I:ga na:vu hola ma:ḍidivãlla, i:ga na:vu mutkadgaddeli hola ma:ḍive~.
I:ga na:vu hindeli ma:ḍittu, illi, kaḷḷare beṭṭadalli. Kaḷḷare beṭṭadalli
ma:ḍida:ga, adu buṭṭu banda me:le e:n a:gottu, adu (h)oṭṭuga:ḍu.
Buṭṭa:kina bandu uṭṭõlla, a:seka adu eḷa:vuga:ḍu. buṭṭanta oṭṭuga:ḍu
adu. A:ga oṭṭuga:ḍinalli e:n a:gottu, adu barta, barta, barta, e:n a:gottu,
adu barta, barta, barta, mara, maṇḍi giḍa ella beḷedaru, beḷedaru
bartira:du.
(Now we’ve farmed some land, right? A farm in Mutkadgadde, for exam-
ple. We used to do that in the past as well, on Kallare Betta. After farm-
ing some land there, when you leave it and go away, what happens—you
get oṭṭuga:ḍu. You leave the land and go away, right? First you get
eḷa:vuga:ḍu , and then oṭṭuga:ḍu. And what happens in an oṭṭuga:ḍu? All
sorts of plants and trees keep sprouting and growing in it.)
(MRM) Adakka oṭṭuga:ḍu.
(That’s an oṭṭuga:ḍu .)
(BG) Adu oṭṭuga:ḍu. Eḷa:vu—“No:ḍru ba, neḍi ba:, geṇasina ambu i:teno
neḍi no:ḍru ba:rõ”... “Kalluwe pu:ra, bari maṇṇuwe, pa:ille, geṇasu
a:ga:dille,” A: taradalli na:vu alli ma:ḍida holaka ho:ku na:vu. A: (h)
oṭṭiga. A:ga: ho:da:ga alli geṇasu. A: ja:ga:dalli je: nu sikka:dille. Hola
ma:ḍa idda ja:ga:dalli je:nu sikka:du. E:kendale hola ella ma:ḍa:gidella,
ella a:ḷa:della.
(That’s an oṭṭuga:ḍu. As for eḷa:vu 8 —“Go have a look, come back and
tell me if there are yams there or not.” ... “It’s all rocks and dirt, no
good, you can’t get yams there.” That’s when we’d go the fallow land.
You fi nd yams when you go to the oṭṭuga:ḍu. You don’t fi nd honey in
those places. You only get honey from land that hasn’t been farmed.
It’s because you’ve made a farm, and there are people everywhere,
right?)
It was only when MRM explained some crucial points regarding these two for-
est/landscape terms (during a later transcription session) that the signifi cance of this
rather confusing extract became clear. According to MRM, farmland that has very
recently been abandoned is called eḷa:vuga:ḍu ; after a period of several months,
when this plot of land starts to be recolonised by all manner of local plant species,
it can be called an oṭṭuga:ḍu. About a year after the cessation of farming, the
oṭṭuga:ḍu can be a good source of yams ; honey , on the other hand, is rarely found
in such places, as the Solega tend to choose treeless clearings for farmland. As these
plots are often quite small, however (practical considerations usually force a house-
hold to clear and cultivate only as much land as can be tended by two adults), it
would be unsurprising to fi nd bee colonies on trees in the close vicinity of an
oṭṭug:a:ḍu.
(^8) This is a discursive strategy frequently used by BG: the representation of an event or a process by
means of a mini-conversation between him and an unspecifi ed partner, or group of partners.
5.3 Landscape/Forest Types in Solega