64 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
The villages are usually well kept and swept clean. The Kpwesis cultivate 
the soil, and have farms in the vicinity of their villages, on which they generally 
raise rice, cassava, and millet, plantains and sugar cane, and also some bananas, 
coffee, cotton, and tobacco, though usually only in sufficient quantities for their 
own needs. Formerly they used to smelt the iron for their own spearheads and 
knives. Iron work is still occasionally done, a termitary of the white ants 1s some- 
times used as a furnace and a shed constructed beside it. Now most of their 
iron implements are obtained by trading, or otherwise, through the coast tribes. 
Among the industries of the men is the construction of big wooden mortars 
in which the women pound rice. They also carve wooden spoons and gourds 
for dishes and cups, and drums and musical instruments and pipes. 
The men also do some leather work, making scabbards for knives and swords, 
and belts, but are not as skillful as the Mandingoes at this work. They do con- 
siderable weaving of cloth but the cotton is raised and the thread spun by the 
women. When the cotton is ripe they pick out the seeds by hand and after card- 
ing it, spin it also (No. 94). The spinner winds a small amount of cotton on 
a bit of rounded stick which she then holds high in the left hand, while with a 
twisting and turning motion of her right hand she spins and winds the thread on 
another rounded stick which has a circular disk of clay at its base. The thread 
is later often dyed blue with indigo, or red with camwood. The women also 
weave mats and baskets for rice out of the strands of the raffia palm which, like 
the cotton, they often dye. Asa usual thing, they also make the pots and pans 
and other clay cooking utensils. 
The tribes in the northwest breed some horses, which, however, are very 
rarely found in the central part of the country. In a few of the larger villages 
we would occasionally encounter a horse. Cattle, however, are bred with 
greater success, though only in small numbers; they are nowhere plentiful. The 
Kpwesis do some hunting, generally using their own knives, but occasionally 
employing bows and arrows. Now and then one of them is armed with an old- 
fashioned cap and powder gun. They shoot or capture monkeys, forest buffaloes, 
duikers, and on rare occasions an elephant. We employed some of the Kpwesis 
as collectors, especially for obtaining smaller animals for our zoological collec- 
tions, since they are much more successful in approaching and obtaining animals 
in the Liberian forest than white men. 
Their musical instruments are very crude. The most common one consists 
of from five to seven fiber strings, strung along a narrow oblong piece of wood 
over a low bridge. ‘There is apparently no fixed method of tuning. Much like 
the Vais they pluck the open strings over and over in sequence, and do this as 
they walk about, sometimes for a quarter or a half hour at a time. They also 
have an hourglass-shaped drum sometimes with metal disks at the side, like a 
tambourine. In addition, they employ a rattle made of a gourd which makes 
a disagreeable noise when shaken (Nos.46 and 82). When dancing is going on, the 
musicians make a frantic attempt to keep time with their bodies in the rhythm 
of the drums. Besides the usual form of native drums, the Jarquellis (a tribe 
of the Kpwesis) have a curious drum consisting of three large gourds which are 
