IN WESTERN AFRICA. 
27 
The country being held in common by the chiefs, 
who are also head-men of towns, there is no 
such thing as property in real estate; and if one 
a little more industrious than his fellows does 
labor and economize until he stores up a quantity 
-of rice, or anything else in the way of persona 
property, head-men will extort from him, and 
others sponge upon him, until the fruits of liis 
labor are gone. If one had it in his heart to lay 
up for a time of need, or for his progeny, he would 
not be able to do so. 
What farming they do is very imperfectly done, 
and on a small scale. Having no horses or oxen, 
or animals of any kind, with which to cultivate 
the soil, and being entirely without farming uten- 
sils, save a rudely-coustructed hoe, they can not 
cultivate the soil to advantage. With the hoe 
they loosen up the surface of the ground a little, 
and cultivate rice, cassada, cocoa, potatoes, sweet- 
potatoes, yams, etc. Rice and cassada are the 
staple commodities of agriculture. 
The women do most of the farming, as well as 
every other kind of work, with the exception that 
the men generally clear off the ground. This they 
do with the ax and cutlass. An African ax is 
some longer, but not much more than half as 
broad as ours. It is a poor affair to chop with. 
But they only chop off the trees and bush, and 
