644 THE ORIGIN OF AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 



same as in Africa, but occurs more frequently. Pile dwellings are con- 

 comitants of a fixed domicile, or, rather, a settled mode of living is a 

 result of limited insular spaces fit for habitation. The nomadic habits 

 of the Africans were destructive of stability. The durable pile dwell- 

 ing is therefore declining steadily, and the simple portable card house 

 remains as the continental form of the original Malayo Negrito island 

 hut. H. Frobenius has proved that the round huts show two modes of 

 construction — the one exemplified in the Sudan and along the Nile, the 

 other in the east and south. One of them at least, the northern form, 

 which can be traced back to the tent, is demonstrably of East Indian 

 affinity. 



The chairs and neck rests of the Africans exhibit so rich a variety of 

 forms that it is difficult to disentangle the web without illustrations 

 and lengthy descriptions. It may be stated that the South Africans, 

 excluding Hottentots and Bushmen, show transitional forms pointing 

 to Oceania. There are two or four feet. The seat is supported by 

 figures of men and animals, often degenerating into grotesque orna- 

 ments. The neck rests, however, attain to full development only along 

 the Zambesi, and finally manifest Malayo-Negrito sense of beauty of 

 form only in the Kongo Basin and in North Guinea. Moreover, in 

 many instances it is questionable whether the object under considera- 

 tion is a chair or a neck rest. The form with one round foot belongs to 

 the whole of the north. 



The costumes of the Africans in one respect point to the soil, to the 

 means of support. Wherever in Africa cattle breeding is carried on, 

 that is to say, in the whole of South and East Africa, and in the Sudan, 

 we find hide and leather clothing, except that in the east and the north 

 of the Sudan leather is replaced by cotton. Cotton is met with also in 

 the southeast and in the southwest, pointing to India as the place of 

 departure. The eastern must be added as the last of the cotton areas. 

 In the west, on the other hand, that is, in the Kongo Basin, the 

 fabric that predominates is made of palm fibers, a phenomenon of 

 Malayo-Negrito origin. Two small enclaves on the east side indicate 

 how the manufacture of these tissues reached Africa. The path of dif- 

 fusion of a fourth material, that made of bark, is still more evident. 

 There can be no other explanation for the two broad strips of territory 

 on which it occurs, extending from the east coast, the lake and forest 

 region. In patches of territory, here and there, bark fabrics occur in 

 the Sudan too, but they prevail to the exclusion of all others only iu 

 the northern and western part of the Kongo Basin. In the southern 

 Sudan they appear by the side of other materials. On the western 

 coast, among the southern Cameroons and along the Volta, bark tissues 

 are still in use, and on the Bissagos Islands they were once common. 

 The Malayo-Negrito affinity of the bark fabrics of Africa with the 

 well-known tapa cloth of the natives of Oceania is favored by the 

 fact that the trees yielding the raw material are planted and tended 

 in great quantities in newly-founded villages. 



