185particular appearance and a particular substrate appears to be a reliable strategy to
ensure that only culturally-sanctioned mushrooms will be consumed.
(K) Kaḍinalli ja:sti beṇḍe maragaḷu ide. Adu a:negaḷu u:ḷakke murda:kurtave.
Murda:kida:ga adakke ondu eraḍu varsa ṭaim a:gira be:ku. Oṇagira be:ku. A: ṭaimalli
maḷe biḍutte, ju:n julaili. Ava:ga maradindane aṇabe baratte... Karava:di aṇabe ade
tara... Be:re maradalli aṇabe barutte, adu na:vu tegeyalla, ya:kandare adu be:re mara.
There are many beṇḍe trees in the forest. Elephants push them over while foraging. After
they get uprooted, they need to lie there for a year or two. They need to be dry. After that
the rain falls, in June or July. Then, mushrooms appear out of the wood itself... Karava:di
mushrooms are exactly the same... You see mushrooms growing on other trees, but we
don’t take those, because they’re different trees.
In the same way, one presumably feels more at ease collecting doḍḍaṇabe from
around a termite nest, because that is where they are said to usually occur:
(K) Eṇṭu-ombatne tingaḷalli solpa ka:ḍu ja:sti ira ba:rdu... A:mele solpa o:pan ira be:ku.
A:mele ondu tara uttagaḷu barutte alli. Uttagaḷa pakka, adara sadurane... doḍḍaṇabe
barutte... Benki a:da:ga, ka:ḍu benda:ga sigutte. Jami:nalli uve solpa sigutte... Oḷage
gejalu irutte, gejalinda sekkana:gi bara be:ku, ashṭe. Maṇṇindave srushṭi a:ga be:ka:du.
In the eighth or ninth month, (in a place where) the forest isn’t very dense. It should be a bit
open. That’s where you fi nd termite mounds. Near the mounds, all around them... you fi nd
doḍḍaṇabe. When there’s a fi re , after the forest burn, you fi nd them. You also get some from
a fi eld... There are termites inside (the ground), and (the mushrooms ) grow well around
termites. They arise straight from the soil.6.2.4 Intrinsic Signs
All organisms, including humans, give off signals that can be received and inter-
preted by the sensory organs of other organisms. Such signals may be emitted
actively or passively, and can convey useful information pertaining to the presence
or the current state of the emitter, or to a change in state, among other things. Solega
people make liberal use of such signs, and are able to talk about them explicitly, in
sharp contrast to the implicit signs that determine the identifi cation of, and discrimi-
nation between, different organisms. For instance, the doḍḍaṇabe ‘big mushroom ’
mentioned earlier are only good to eat at certain points in its life cycle, and these are
indicated by its physical appearance:
K: Na:vu modalu no:ḍda:ga [doḍḍaṇabe] ondu mogaṭu tara baratte. Mogaṭu tara banda:ga
na:vu tagoḷtivi... mogaṭu tara bandu adu fullu ra:unḍ a:gutte, adu na:vu agalide endu
he:ḷtivi. A: tara banda:ga adara oḷa:ge ondu huḷa bandu uḍte, a:ga na:vu tagoḷalla.
When we fi rst look, [the big mushrooms ] are shaped like a crown. When they’re that shape,
we pick them. After they become crown shaped, they turn fully round, we then say that
they have opened. When they become like that, they’re full of bugs, we don’t pick them
then.
Possibly the most important explicit animal signs for the average Solega are
those that indicate the presence of elephants nearby. Solega speakers often go into
6.2 Types of Signs