258 ACEOSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



July, moving them up and down alternately as fast as possible. By 

 J^^^_ this means a good and continuous blast is produced. 



After smelting, the iron is worked by smiths into small pieces 

 weighing about two pounds, and shaped like two cones joined 

 together at the base, and a piece or rod the size of a large knit- 

 ting-needle projects from both ends. In this form the metal is 

 hawked about for sale. 



Small open sheds are used as smithies, and the anvils and 

 larger hammers are made of stone ; but small hammers are of 

 iron. Those of stone are provided with two loops of rope to 

 serve as handles, while the iron hammers are simply grasped in 

 the hand and are without handles. 



The dress of the people had now changed somewhat, the men 

 mostly wearing kilts. Heads were still plastered with clay, but 

 not so elaborately as among the first people I saw in Manyu^- 

 ma. The women wore round their waists a small strip of leath- 

 er ornamented with iron and copper beads, and through this 

 and between their legs a piece of rough bark-cloth was passed, 

 the ends being allowed to hang down before and behind. They 

 shaved the tops of their heads, leaving only a sort of trellis pat- 

 tern of very short hair, and a bunch of ringlets hung down the 

 backs of their necks. 



A friend of Syde's and some native chiefs met us here, and 

 they treated us to so many extraordinary stories that it was 

 impossible to rely upon any thing they said. One of the chiefs 

 was very elaborately adorned with kilt, cap, and scarf of varie- 

 gated grass-cloth, and was followed by men carrying shields and 

 spears, while two others brought uj) the rear with an enormous 

 drum slung on a pole. The hindmost one performed vigorous- 

 ly upon this instrument when approaching a village. 



Two days' marching from Manyara brought us to Kwaka- 

 songo. On our way we passed a hill composed almost entirely 

 of black speculum iron ore ; and a curious mount with precipi- 

 tous cliffs, which formed one side of it, rose sheer out of the 

 plain. 



At Kwakasongo there is an Arab settlement of some size, 

 three white Arabs, besides many half-castes and Wamerima, be- 

 ing there. They have good houses and live comfortably, while 

 they send out their caravans, composed of slaves and Wanyam- 



