CLOTH-MAKING. 489 



civilization more than he; and this was not a small part of his 

 singular power with the untutored inhabitants of those wilds. 



The villages along his route as he approached the Loangwa 

 were generally surrounded by hedges of bamboo, and the signs 

 of industry were cheering. Besides the noise of forges and 

 furnaces, there was heard everywhere the tap-tap-tapping, 

 which reminded the travellers of the peculiar and ingenious 

 cloth-making which engages so many quick hands. This cloth 

 is manufactured of bark. The bark on being removed from 

 the tree is steeped in water or in a black muddy hole till the 

 outer of the two inner barks can be separated, then commences 

 the tapping with the mallet, by which the fibres are separated 

 and softened and prepared for their rustic looms. Sometimes 

 there were seen beautiful indications of tenderer feelings and 

 loftier thoughts than some may dream of as existing so far away 

 from the confines of the light of boasted civilization. The ideas 

 of God were vague indeed, and there were only the suggestions 

 of the untaught souls about the existence of man beyond the 

 grave, but in these villages there were often seen beautiful little 

 huts, two feet high only, which bereaved parents and friends 

 had made with great care, where they loved to place their daily 

 offerings to the loved ones who had gone into the mysterious 

 gloom. It was sad to think that they had no clearer ideas of 

 the future, but it was a welcome thing to see even such evi- 

 dences of the recognition of human immortality, and it was 

 pleasing to observe such tender mindfulness of the dead. But 

 there are painful contrasts in human nature, and in these very 

 villages* where parents and relatives were so thoughtful of their 

 own dead, there was no friendly hand to stretch across the line 

 of consanguinity and succor the desolate orphan ; if a mother 

 died, no one cared for the helpless child she might leave. Liv- 

 ingstone passed- one of these poor little uncared-for ones crying 

 piteously for its mother, who could not come back out of death, 

 and all the passing women did was to say carelessly, "She 

 is coming." _ His own tender care came too late, and the 

 little crying one passed away. Surely the Christian world 

 cannot withhold from the millions of Africa that blessed truth 

 which, like the heart of Christ, ignores the lines of interest and 

 community, and makes of all men one family in the Lord ! 



