468 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
BA3WA KNIFE. 
possessed broad points, and were the first of this style 
I had seen. Almost all the knives, large and small, 
were encased in sheaths of wood covered with noat- 
O 
skin, and ornamented with polished iron bands. They 
varied in size, from a butcher’s cleaver to a lady’s dirk, 
and belts of undressed 
goat-skin, of red buf- 
falo or antelope hide, 
were attached to 
them for suspension 
from the shoulders. There were also seen here iron 
bells, like our cow and goat bells, curiously carved 
whistles, fetishes or idols of wood, uncouth and rudely 
cut figures of human beings, brightly painted in ver- 
milion, alternating with black ; baskets made of palm 
fibre, large wooden and dark 
clay pipes, iron rings for arms 
and legs, numerous treasures 
of necklaces of the Achatina 
monetaria, the black seeds of 
a species of plantain, and the 
crimson berries of the Abrus 
precatorius ; copper, iron, and 
wooden pellets. The houses 
were all of the gable-roofed 
pattern which we had first 
noticed on the summit of the 
hills on which Riba-Riba, 
Manyema, is situate ; the 
shields of the Baswa were also 
after the same type. 
The veo-etation of the island 
O 
consisted of almost every 
variety of plant and tree 
found in this region, and the 
banana, plantain, castor-oil, sugar-cane, cassava, and 
maize flourished ; nor must the oil-palm be forgotten, 
for there were great jars of its dark-red butter in many 
houses. 
The grand problem now before me Avas how to steer 
STYLE OF KNIVES. 
BASWA BASKET AND COVER. 
