316 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



generally a hollow twig of the dwarf melewele-tree. 

 As it is rudely bored with hot wire, it must be made 

 air-tight by wax and a coating of brass or copper wire ; 

 a strap of hairy skin prevents the pipe-shank parting 

 from the stick. Iron and brass tubes are rare and 

 highly prized ; the fortunate possessor will sometimes 

 ask for a single specimen two shukkahs. 



Basket-making and mat-weaving are favourite occu- 

 pations in East Africa for both sexes and all ages ; even 

 the Arabs may frequently be seen absorbed in an 

 employment which in Oman would be considered dero- 

 gatory to manliness. The sengo, or common basket, 

 from the coast to the Lake, is an open, shallow, and 

 pan-shaped article, generally made of mwanzi, or 

 bamboo-bark, reddened in parts and stained black in 

 others by the root of the Mkuruti and other trees, and 

 white where the outer coat has been removed from the 

 bamboo. The body, which resembles a popular article 

 in ancient Egypt, is neatly plaited, and the upper ends 

 are secured to a stout hoop of the same material. The 

 kanda (in the plural makanda) acts in the interior as 

 matting for rooms, and is converted into bags for 

 covering bales of cloth, beads, and similar articles. It 

 is made from the myara (rnyala) or Chamserops humilis; 

 the leaf is peeled, sun-dried, and split with a bit of iron 

 into -five or six lengths, joined at the base, which is 

 trimmed for plaiting. The Karagwah, the only mat 

 made in the interior of Africa, is used as bedding and 

 carpeting ; on journeys the porters bivouac under it ; it 

 swells with the wet, and soon becomes impervious to 

 rain or heavy dew. It is of two kinds : one of rushes 

 growing in the vicinity of water, the other of grass rolled 

 up into little bundles. A complicated stitch runs along 

 the whole length in double lines. The best description 



