26 WESTERN AFRICA. 
spreads, piano covers, etc., in this country. 
They also manufacture grass mats in great 
abundance, and some of excellent quality. 
These they make by hand altogether. Mats 
are also made of the bamboo branch. 
Blys, or baskets, are made from the ratan 
twig, which is very flexible, and not easily 
broken, and hence is well adapted to that 
purpose. 
The only trades, or approximation to 
trades they have, are canoe building and 
black-smithing ; of the latter only enough 
to make iron fastenings for canoes. The 
canoe made from the tree is raised by fast- 
ening timbers on its sides, and then board- 
ing up. In this way, and by spreading them 
a little, they make them sufficiently large to 
bear as many as six tons burthen. Their 
only modes of transportation are by canoes 
on the rivers, and by portage overland. 
Neither have they any traveling facilities, 
but by canoes on the water, and afoot on the 
land. 
The reason I say they have no other 
trades but the two referred to above, is 
simply because all seem, to understand how 
