-»i Anthropology : Physical 



ably have the well-known musical instrument which is widely 

 spread throughout Negro Africa — a xylophone— -made of long 

 slabs of resonant wood. The Vai people have wooden calendars 

 made of small wooden squares that are hung on strings. Be- 

 sides what have been enumerated, the natives carve little 

 fetishes or idols, more or less clumsily, out of wooden blocks. 



399. WOMAN MAKING COTTON THREAD 



They also make masks of wood (stained black), which are used 

 in their initiation ceremonies or devil dances. The wooden 

 masks that come from the eastern part of Liberia generally 

 display a more serious attempt to resemble a human face than is 

 the case with those used by the Vai people of Western Liberia, 

 in which the face is reduced to a conventionalised design, 

 though a great deal of attention is given to delineating an 



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