NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 463 
skilful in using it for ornamental purposes on the handles of their spears and 
axes. 
Over the greater part of Nyasaland, however, brass is of more common use 
for decorative purposes than copper. All the brass in Central Africa must, of 
course, be procured from the outer world, from the Europeans or Indians 
trading on the coast, as there is no race in Africa which combines zinc and 
copper to make brass. Nevertheless, this amalgam may be found in use among 
African tribes that have never seen a white man, possibly never even heard of a 
white race. It is like tobacco and Indian corn : articles which have defied all 
obstacles and have swept across Africa and into its darkest recesses in two or 
three centuries. But if the native of British Central Africa cannot make brass 
he can work it into all manner of things from the rough form in which it is 
introduced in the course of trade. Brass wire of various thicknesses is made 
in the following manner:—After cutting the brass (which may have arrived in 
thick coils a quarter of an inch in diameter, or in rods or buttons or in other 
forms) into convenient sized bits the metal is put into the forge and smelted. 
When it is thoroughty fused in a mass and has cooled down, the metal-worker 
beats it out until it is in very long thin strips. One end of a strip is then seized 
with pliers and is forcibly drawn through a plate of iron which is pierced with 
a number of holes of graduated sizes. The strip of brass is first dragged 
through the largest hole. Then the end is beaten and pointed and dragged 
through the second hole. The iron plate in which the holes are pierced is 
generally fixed in the fork of a tree so that it may be pulled against from the 
other side with great force without being dislodged. As the wire is pulled it is 
being wound round a neighbouring branch or sapling. From time to time the 
brass is dipped into oil and passed through smaller and smaller holes until the 
wire is of the necessary fineness. Molten brass is also hammered out and 
shaped into bracelets and necklets, or is made into rings for the ears or fingers. 
On the Lower Shire and Zambezi the brass work is extraordinarily good ; the 
handles of spears or walking-sticks will be beautifully worked with a filigree of 
brass wire. 
Though gold may be present in the rocks of British Central Africa, or even 
found alluvial here and there, it is not known to the natives except as an 
introduced article. But within the watershed of the Zambezi the negroes have 
for untold centuries collected the alluvial gold, and, under Portuguese tuition, 
they have learned to do goldsmiths’ work with extraordinary skill and delicacy. 
This art even extends to British territory on the Lower Shire. Here the natives 
will make exquisitely fine gold chains, scarcely thicker than a stout thread, 
besides finger rings in which an elephant’s hair is often enclosed. 
Iron ore is dug and smelted in a furnace, which is made of clay and is let 
down into a hole in the ground. Above this cavity they build up a clay wall 
all round the edges till it appears to form a huge chimney. A tunnel is dug 
from the surface of the ground down to the bottom of the bed where the 
charcoal is laid and ignited. The iron ore is put into the clay furnace. A 
goat-skin bellows 1 with a stone nozzle is then plied vigorously till the charcoal 
is in a white heat. The clay chimney conserves the heat and the iron is 
smelted. Then it is taken out and hammered. After that it is removed 
to the forge and worked in a somewhat similar manner with a charcoal fire 
blown by bellows of goat-skin. The ore is hammered by rude iron hammers 
1 I have seen bellows in West Africa made of banana leaves, and no doubt other substances are used 
besides skin. 
