SILK 







is the race whose work is confined to the care of cattle 

 and the sale of milk and butter. These people have no 

 fixed abode, but move with the cattle to localities suit- 

 able to the season. An illustration is given of a Cow 

 Fulani woman selling milk at Gwari, a town south of 

 Zaria (Fig. 36). The cattle are large and humped similar 

 to the Indian Zebu type, although in some places the 

 straight-backed kind, which are common in the south, 

 are seen. 



SILK. Four kinds of silkworm are collected for the 

 spinning of yarn used in the embroidery on the Haussa 

 gowns. The best of these is that which feeds upon the 

 Tamarind tree, " Tsamia," and is termed " Tsamian 

 tsamia." The silk cocoons are collected in Bauchi 

 Province and are boiled in water with wood ashes, and 

 subsequently washed. The silk becomes nearly white, 

 and is carded and spun into yarn in the same manner as 

 cotton. The species of insect which produces this silk 

 has not yet been identified, but is almost certainly 

 referable to the genus Anaphe (cf. p. 117). 



A second quality of silk is that called " Tsamian doka," 

 and is obtained from the cocoon masses produced by the 

 larvae of Anaphe Moloneyi, which are found in the same 

 locality, feeding upon the " Bokin doka " tree, which 

 has been determined to be a species of Macrolobium. 

 Several hundred worms congregate together and form 

 a solid mass of pale brown tubular cocoons upon the 

 bark of the tree, covering the outer surface with a whitish 

 envelope of silk. This silk is treated in the same manner 

 as the other, but, after boiling and washing, does not 

 become white. Two other species, which are used for 

 the same purpose, are called " Tsamian fakali " and 

 " Tsamian bauri," and feed on another species of Macro- 

 lobium and a Ficus respectively. They produce inferior 

 kinds of silk. 



Much interest is attached to these Anaphe silks, which, 

 in recent years, have been developed in the German 

 Colonies of East Africa, especially, on a commercial 

 scale. It is reported that, just previous to the declaration 

 of war, German agents in British West Africa made 

 endeavours to obtain as much of the wild silk as possible 

 from Nigeria. Plantations of a species of Bridelia, the 

 common food plant of Anaphe iniracta, were made in the 



