Liberia <*' 



a stage that may even have preceded the Age of Stone, is the 

 utilisation of gourds as receptacles for liquids and solids, and the 

 shaping of blocks of wood into implements. I believe occasion- 

 ally wooden hoes may be met with in the far interior of Liberia, 

 just as they are found amongst savage races in East Africa. 

 Wood-carving, however, is carried by most of the indigenous 

 Liberians to rather an advanced art. Beautiful and fantastic 

 spoons are carved out of solid blocks of wood. The spoon is 

 an implement of widespread use throughout Negro Africa, and 

 must have come into existence at a very early stage of Negro 

 culture, soon after the stone knife, and long before any metal 

 instrument. It is curious how very little any of these backward 

 races think of the fork. There were no forks in use in England 

 till the time of Queen Elizabeth. 



Hewn out of a big block of wood by an adze (and anciently 

 by the use of fire only) is the almost universal wooden mortar and 

 wooden pestle used throughout Negro Africa for pounding. The 

 shape of this wooden mortar scarcely varies between Senegambia 

 and Zanzibar and between Somaliland and Natal. Buttikofer 

 states that the wooden mortars made in Liberia are not at first 

 hollowed out to their full depth, as a good deal of the wood is 

 worn and triturated with the constant pounding, so that as the 

 mortar is used its depth gradually increases — ^which means, of 

 course, that with the food is continually mixed small fragments of 

 wood. This perhaps is why the flour and other native food-stufFs 

 prepared in these African mortars is so indigestible to Europeans ; 

 just as the flour that is ground between stones in Eastern Africa 

 often produces disorders of the bowels if eaten by Europeans, 

 being so full of minute stone grit as to be very indigestible. 

 This experience has been the sad result of many honest attempts 

 of missionaries to " live the life of the people," an experiment 

 which has nearly always resulted in prolonged ill-health. 



lOIO 



