Blench & Walsh (2009) and found wanting. They concluded, "[The] data is so exiguous and so scattered, that it is unlikely to constitute a significant record of a substrate vocabulary, as opposed to a set of idiosyncratic words, not untypical for a population of former foragers." The speech of the Beosi people, short-statured hunter-gatherers of the highlands, has a higher proportion of unidentifiable vocabulary. Economy The arid conditions of the spiny forest, which receives less than 600 millimeters of rainfall each year, largely shape Mikea economic activities. Nearly everything they consume is scavenged from the forest, and the average Mikea needs two hours or less to collect adequate food for the day. Their main source of food is tubers, particularly during the dry season when few other foods may be reliably available. Adults and children of both genders work to dig up using a metal-tipped digging stick (antsoro) and a digging bowl (kipao). The starchy ovy tuber is roasted or boiled before eating, while the Mikea eat the watery babo (or baboho) raw for hydration or use its water for boiling other foods; the tavolo tuber is dried and ground to make a flour that is sold at village markets. They also gather forest fruits, melons and honey, with the latter a particularly important source of income for the Mikea during the rainy season. To obtain water during the rainy season the Mikea capture rain run-off from the rooftops of their houses using hollowed-out logs or transport water on foot or zebu-drawn wagon from the villages, while during the cool dry season the Mikea consume their store of water-engorged babo tubers and drink water from natural or man-made wells when possible. Key protein sources include birds and tenrecs. Mikea adults and children of both sexes use clubs to kill the small tenrec (tambotrika, 0.4 kilograms), which is widespread year round, and the larger one (tandraka, 2-3 kilograms), which is mainly caught during the rainy season. To a lesser extent they also hunt or trap two to three species of lemur, feral cats, occasional wild boars, turtles and rodents using blowguns, spears and dogs, and use a hook and line to catch fish in saline inland lakes. Some Mikea raise animals such as goats, chickens and guineafowls for food or sale at market; tree nuts also provide additional protein. The principal crop of the Mikea is corn, which was introduced to