AGRICULTURE, FARM, AND FOREST PRODUCTS 129 
used in pounding rice and millet are hewn by hand out of solid blocks of wood 
with the machete or the adze. The bodies of drums and long wooden trumpets 
are likewise carved out of such blocks, and in some villages along the rivers, 
canoes are made by digging out tree trunks, which are brought to the required 
thinness by the use of the adze and of fire. Plates, platters, and bowls of all 
sizes are also made of wood, as well as stools and benches and the framework 
of beds. Small boxes for holding snuff and scabbards for knives are also made 
of wood, but combs are more often carved from bone or ivory. Masks of ebony 

No. 87. — Liberian mat 
or other hard wood, roughly resembling the human face, or of grotesque or 
conventional design, are also carved and used for the ceremonies connected 
with the devil bush. Small fetishes or idols are likewise carved out of blocks 
of wood. The Vai make calendars with small squares of wood, which they 
decorate with their insignia, and hang on strings. They use long decorated 
boards with short legs on which to play a game named po, which is somewhat 
like back-gammon. The Mandingoes construct a form of xylophone with 
crossed slabs of resonant wood, and make flutes of wood, also small drums 
and rattles. In fact, the handearving of wood, although crude, may be said to 
constitute the most important artistic industry of the interior of the country. 
Spinning cotton thread from cotton raised in the vicinity is practiced in 
