[Mihalic] Pometia is ton.

[Bryant Allen]

Thank you Thomas for the fascinating etymological list. One small picky 
thing ...

Some years ago one of my colleagues and I had a fairly heated debate on how 
the Pidgin word for Pometia pinnata should be spelled in our PNG 
agricultural systems books. I said it should be spelled the way Mihalic 
(1971, 196) spells it and the way it is pronounced i.e. "ton", while they 
favoured "taun". After some days of everyone wandering around muttering 
"dawn", "fawn" "lawn", "tawn" to themselves, I won the argument.

Pometia should be spelled "ton".  "Taun" is 'town'.

The Urat (ESP) collect dried 'ton' leaves that have been cut from the trees 
during the harvesting of the fruit around December ("harvesting" involves 
cutting off whole branches and eating as much almost green fruit as 
possible before a really bad tummy ache ensues from not waiting until the 
fruit is properly ripe) and place the leaves in the holes with some 'mami' 
(Dioscorea esculenta) cultivars. They are said to keep the skin of the 
tubers smooth, but probably also provide nutrients. The attached JPEG shows 
a woman carrying the leaves to the new gardens.

The seed from inside the 'ton' fruit is eaten, despite being highly 
poisonous. It is soaked in running water for some months and then baked on 
a fire.

Ton is planted extensively in fallow gardens (it is actually planted along 
the upslope edge in the new gardens in large numbers from seeds and 
although the survival rate is low, many trees survive) in the Torricelli 
foothills and with breadfruit (and more recently betelnut) makes up 
orchards along the tops of the ridges.

Dr Bryant Allen
Senior Fellow
Land Management Group
Department of Human Geography
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
ACT 0200 Australia

ANU CRICOS Provider Number is 00120C

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