262 
NATIVE BLACKSMITHS. 
[chap. yji. 
and my people regarded me as we do the Polar bear 
at the Zoological Gardens, who begins to feel happy 
on the worst day in our English winter. 
We returned home by a different route, not being 
able to find the path in the trackless state of the 
country during the storm. There were in some places 
unmistakeable evidences of the presence of elephants, 
and I resolved to visit the spot again. I returned to 
the tent at 4 p.m. satisfied that sport was to be had. 
On my arrival at camp I found the natives very 
excited at the appearance of rain, which they firmly 
believed had been called specially by their chief. All 
were busy preparing their molotes (iron hoes), fitting 
new handles, and getting everything ready for the 
periodical sowing of their crop. 
The handles of the molotes are extremely long, from 
seven to ten feet, and the instrument being shaped 
like a miners spade (heart-shaped), is used like a 
Dutch hoe, and is an effective tool in ground that has 
been cleared, but is very unfitted for preparing fresh 
soil. Iron ore of good quality exists on the surface 
throughout this country. The Latookas, like the Baris, 
are excellent blacksmiths, producing a result that would 
astonish an English workman, considering the rough 
nature of their tools, which are confined to a hammer, 
anvil, and tongs; the latter formed of a cleft-stick of 
