WIRE, CLOTH, AND BEADS. 



147 



the Banyan monopolisers unstrung, and are afterwards 

 mounted by the merchant upon T'hembe, or threads of 

 palm-fibre ; much depends for success in sale upon the 

 regularity and the attractiveness of the line. The 

 principal divisions are the bitil and the khete, which 

 may represent the farthing and the penny. The former 

 is a single length from the tip of the index to the wrist ; 

 the latter, which comprises four of the former, is a 

 double length round the thumb to the elbow-bone, or what 

 is much the same, twice the circumference of the throat. 

 Ten khete compose the fun do or knot, which is used 

 in the larger purchases, and of these from two to three 

 were daily expended in our small expenses by the 

 Goanese servants, whilst the usual compensation for 

 rations to an African is a single khete. The utmost 

 economy should be exercised in beads : apparently ex- 

 haustless a large store goes but a little way, and a man's 

 load rarely outlasts a month. It is difficult to divine 

 what becomes of these ornaments*: for centuries ton after 

 ton has been imported into the country, they are by no 

 means perishable substances, and the people carry, like 

 the Indians, their wealth upon their persons. Yet not 

 a third of the population was observed to wear any con- 

 siderable quantity ; possibly the excessive demand in 

 the lands outlying direct intercourse with the coast, 

 tends to disperse them throughout the vast terra incog- 

 nita of the central African basin. 



The African preserves the instincts of infancy in the 

 higher races. He astonished the enlightened De Gama 

 some centuries ago by rejecting with disdain jewels, gold, 

 and silver, whilst he caught greedily at beads and other 

 baubles, as a child snatches at a new plaything. To the 

 present day he is the same. There is something pain- 



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