448 
MANGANJA INDUSTRIES. 
head man and his counsellors. The proceeding’s arc 
always conducted with a great deal of punctilious eti- 
quette. The Manganja are industrious ; they work in 
iron, cotton, and basket-making, beside cultivating the soil. 
The men, women and children of the villages all turn out 
to work in the fields. They clear the ground by cutting 
down the trees with their little axes of soft native iron, 
then burning the trunks and branches, and spreading the 
ashes on the soil. The corn is then planted among the 
•tumps, which are left to rot. Large crops arc raised of 
the mapira, or Egyptian dura ( Jtolcus sorghum), millet, 
beans, ground-nuts ; also patches of yams, rice, pumpkins, 
cucumbers, cassava, sweet potatoes, tobacco, hemp, or bang 
{Cannabis saliva). Maize is grown the year round, and 
cotton is cultivated in almost every village. Three kinds 
of cotton were found here, two foreign and one native. 
The tonjc manga, or foreign cotton, is as good as the best 
upland. It is perennial, but requires to be planted once 
in three years. The tonje cadja, or native cotton, is 
shorter in staple, and feels like wool. It has to be planted 
every year. A great deal of cotton is raised, cleaned, 
spun and woven, though the processes are the slow, and 
rude ones. 
Iron ore is dug, smelted, and worked. Each village ha# 
its smelters and blacksmiths. They make axes, spears, 
needles, arrow heads, bracelets and anklets. A hoe about 
two pounds in weight is sold for about eight cents’ worth 
of calico. In villages near Lake Shirwa, a great deal of 
pottery is made, and decorated with plumbago, found in 
the hills. Baskets are manufactured from the bamboo, or 
the fibres of the buazc ; and an active trade is carried on 
between the various villages. The men are intelligent and 
fine-looking. They take great pride in the fanciful deco- 
ration of their hair, wearing it in various styles. They 
wear rings on their fingers and thumbs, beside throatlets, 
bracelet#, and anklets of brass, copper, and iron. Th» 
pepele, or upper lip ring of the women, is the most extra- 
