CiTAP. XV. ISHOGO WEAVERS. 291 



are seen, each containing four or five looms, with 

 the weavers seated before them weaving the cloth. 

 In the middle of the floor of the ouandja a wood-fire 

 is seen burning, and the weavers, as you pass by, are 

 sure to be seen smoking their pipes and chatting to 

 one another whilst going on with their work. The 

 weavers are all men, and it is men also who stitch the 

 bongos together to make denguis or robes of them ; the 

 stitches are not very close together, nor is the thread 

 very fine, but the work is very neat and regular, and 

 the needles are of their own manufacture. The 

 bongos are very often striped, and sometimes made 

 even in check patterns ; this is done by their dyeing 

 some of the threads of the warp, or of both warp and 

 woof, with various simple colours ; the dyes are all 

 made of decoctions of different kinds of wood, except 

 for black, when a kind of iron ore is used. The 

 bongos are employed as money in this part of Africa. 

 Although called grass-cloth by me, the material is 

 not made of grass, but of the delicate and firm cuticle 

 of palm-leaflets, stripped off in a dexterous manner 

 with the fingers. 



Mokenga is a beautiful village, containing about 

 1 60 houses ; they were the largest dwellings I had 

 yet seen on the journey. The village was surrounded 

 by a dense grove of plantain-trees, many of which 

 had to be supported by poles, on account of the 

 weight of the enormous bunches of plantains they 

 bore. Little groves of lime-trees were scattered every- 

 where, and the limes, like so much golden fruit, 

 looked beautiful amidst the dark foliage that sur- 

 rounded them. Tall, towering palm - trees were 



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