WEAVING. 



309 



as a distinction the " faranji," a straight, thin, double- 

 edged, guardless, and two-handed sword, about four feet 

 long, and sharp as a carving-knife ; the price varies 

 from 10 to 100 dollars. 



The negroid is an unmechanical race ; his industry- 

 has scarcely passed the limits of savage invention. 

 Though cotton abounds in the interior, the Wanyam- 

 wezi only have attempted a rude loom ; and the working 

 of iron and copper is confined to the Wafyoma and the 

 Lakist races. The gourd is still the principal succeda- 

 neum for pottery. The other branches of industry 

 which are necessary to all barbarians are mats and 

 baskets, ropes and cords. 



Carpentering amongst the East Africans is still in its 

 rudest stage ; no Daedalus has yet taught them to jag 

 their knives into saws. It is limited to making the cots 

 and cartels upon which the people invariably sleep, and 

 to carving canoes, mortars, bowls, rude platters, spoons 

 stools, and similar articles of furniture. The tree, after 

 being rung and barked to dry the juices, is felled by- 

 fire or the axe ; it is then cut up into lengths of the re- 

 quired dimensions, and hacked into shape with slow and 

 painful toil. The tools are a shoka, or hatchet of puerile 

 dimensions, perhaps one-fifth the size of our broad axes, 

 yet the people can use it to better advantage than the 

 admirable implement of the backwoodsman. The mbizo 

 or adze is also known in the interior, but none except 

 the Fundi and the slaves trained upon the coast have 

 ever seen a hand-saw, a centre-bit, or a chisel. 



Previous to weaving, cotton is picked and cleaned 

 with the hand ; it is then spun into a coarse thread. 

 Like the Paharis of India, the East Africans ignore the 

 distaff ; they twist the material round the left wrist. The 

 mlavi, or spindle, is of two forms ; one is a short stick, in- 



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