Anthropology : Physical 



countries and in the lands more adjoining the Sierra Leone 

 boundary and the French Sudan that indigenous Liberian 

 pottery work is carried on at the present day, though French 

 travellers report that the Kru races in the far interior about the 

 Upper Cavalla make a good 

 deal of pottery still, not 

 being sufficiently in touch 

 with the coast to have 

 acted like the Krumen in 

 replacing the native article 

 by imported goods. The 

 potters in almost all cases 

 are women. The illustration 

 of a female potter given on 

 p. 1005 is from a photograph 

 taken near the Sierra Leone- 

 Liberian boundary bv Mr. 

 Firmin. The woman is of 

 Mende race, but the women 

 potters of the closely allied 

 Vai tribe make exactly 

 similar vessels of clay, dry 

 them in the sunshine and 

 the wind, and then bake 

 them in the red-hot ashes 

 of wood fires. In some 

 parts of Western Liberia 

 the jars for holding water or palm wine are very large, con- 

 taining two or three gallons. In the Kpwesi country these 

 large jars are often quite ornamental, with incised patterns in 

 bands, and rows of knobs. 



Perhaps an older art than pottery, and one dating from 

 VOL. u 1009 32 



396. WOMEN POUNDING FOOD IN WOODEN 

 MORTARS 



