440 
THE KILIMA-NJABO EXPEDITION. 
of utensils, weapons, and ornaments from the pig-iron 
they receive from the country of Usanga, near Lake 
Jipe. The forge is but a pair of goat-skin bellows 
converging into a hollow cone of wood, to which is added 
two more segments of stone pierced through the centre 
and ending in a stone nozzle which is thrust into the 
furnace of charcoal. The bellows are kept steady by 
several pegs thrust into the ground, and a huge stone 
is often placed on the pipe to keep it firm. After the 
iron has been heated white hot in the charcoal it is 
taken out by the iron pincers and beaten on a stone 
V 
anvil. The Gaga smiths make not only spear-blades 
and knives of apparently tempered steel, but they can 
fabricate the finest and most delicate. Out of a rhino¬ 
ceros horn they will make a beautifully turned and 
polished club, carved by hand, for they have no turn¬ 
ing lathe. Pottery is almost absent. Basket-work is 
carried to great perfection, and they can weave it so 
tightly that milk may be held in these utensils of woven 
grass or banana-fibre. The wooden platters that they 
make show no little skill in shaping, as they are cut 
out of solid blocks of wood, and not joined in any 
way. 
But it is in their husbandry that the Wa-caga mostly 
excel. The wonderful skill with which they irrigate 
their terraced hill-sides by tiny tunnels of water 
diverted from the main stream shows a considerable 
advancement in agriculture. Their time is constantly 
spent in tilling the soil, manuring it with ashes, 
raking it, and hoeing it with wooden hoes. All their 
agricultural implements, except the choppers, adzes, 
and sickles, are of wood—wooden hoes, wooden 
stakes, and so on. They have a very clever mode of 
irrigating equally a given surface. As the little canals 
