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BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
with a knife, and the skin is then well rubbed with earth and water and made 
thoroughly soft. Although the country abounds with acacia trees which would 
provide bark for tanning purposes, I have never heard of it or any other form of 
tan being used by the natives for curing skins ; except on the Lower Shire 
where they have been taught by the Portuguese, and where some native leather 
workers make excellent boots and shoes. Leather is not used for as many 
purposes as might be imagined. Skins are dressed in order to be worn on the 
body and are occasionally used as mats. 
Drums are covered with skins from which all the hair has been removed. 
Sometimes the outside of the drum is very neatly covered with ox-hide which 
retains the hair, and has been stretched over the body of the drum whilst still 
moist. 
For the smaller drums, skin of the monitor lizards ( Varanus), or of snakes, 
WOMAN MAKING I'O'I S 
is used. Often a piece of india-rubber is worked into the leather covering of 
the drum as it is supposed to give greater resonance. 
Dyes are obtained from certain roots and leaves but are not much used In 
adorning the person a red ointment is often made from clay impregnated with 
red oxide of iron, which is found in the river valleys. This red oxide is often 
mixed with the clay of their pottery and gives it a beautiful Indian'red tint. 
Copper and iron are almost the only metals worked in British Central Africa, 
though lead is said to be used by the Yao for making small plugs to go 
through the wing of the nose in women. This they probably obtain from 
leaden bullets or from lead bought at the European stores. I have not yet 
heard that lead is found and smelted in British Central Africa. I doubt 
whether copper is actually obtained by the natives from the soil in British 
territory though it is certainly worked in great quantities in the region of 
Katanga to the north, and possibly in some of the Zambezi countries to the 
west. If copper is worked at all within the territory under description it would 
be in the mountains to the west of Lake Nyasa. There are evidences of its 
presence in the rocks. But the copper of Katanga finds its way down in large 
quantities to the tribes of British Central Africa and many of them are very 
