130 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
many of the villages; the strands of thread which have been dyed blue with 
indigo or red with camwood, or, more rarely, yellow with annatto, are some- 
times seen drying in the sun. The simple method of hand spinning of the cotton 
always done by women, has already been described. The weaving of the cloth, 
however, is done, not by the women who do the spinning, but by men in a clumsy 
loom constructed of poles in which the operator sits and uses both his hands 
and feet. As woven, the cloth is in narrow strips, which are later so neatly 
sewn together that it appears as if the cloth were woven in one piece. Blue 
and white striped cloth is the most common and apparently the favorite pattern. 
Plaiting and weaving other materials than cotton is another important 
industry of the interior. Mats are made particularly of the fronds or the fila- 
ments of the stems of Raphia vinifera, and are sometimes dyed different colors. 
Less rarely grass is used in making mats. Baskets of various sizes, hammocks, 
kinjas or hampers for carrying loads on the back and fish nets are also woven 
of palm filaments and fiber. Bark cloth is made and worn by some of the 
tribes, particularly those in the eastern part of the country. For this pur- 
pose the bast or inner bark, especially of the fig tree, is stripped and soaked 
in water and then beaten with wood and rolled into long strips. These strips 
are employed as G strings or loin cloths. Occasionally, though somewhat 
rarely, skins of small animals are used for the purpose by the Liberian tribes. 
Occasionally skirts of grass or palm fiber are worn by the women. 
The respective activities of the men and women are rather definitely de- 
termined and with certain minor exceptions already referred to are on the 
whole similar among the interior tribes. As has been mentioned, the men clear 
the forest of the big trees by way of preparing the farms, and burn over the 
cleared area, but the women do all the farm work. Women, however, usually 
do not carry produce in heavy loads on their back but only comparatively light 
ones, usually on the head. In carrying the heavier loads the men frequently 
employ the characteristic kinja, a kind of oblong hamper attached to a stout 
frame of sticks ( No. 122). In building the house the man prepares and mixes 
the clay or earth with water, fells the necessary trees and poles, does any wood- 
work required and frequently prepares the thatching; the woman carries the 
clay or earth, plasters the walls with it, makes the clay floor, and does the other 
earthern work necessary about the house. She also does the housework, the 
preparation of meals, the cooking, washing of dishes, the threshing of rice, 
the paring, pounding and preparing of mandioca, the preparation of palm oil, 
the manufacture of soap, the preparation of salt, the washing of clothing, the 
carrying of water and wood, the spinning of cotton, and occasionally she catches 
fish. In some of the tribes the men make canoes or fish nets or traps. They 
also collect palm wine or gather kola nuts, and indulge in fishing, and in hunt- 
ing. Unless they are engaged in some discussion at the palaver house, they 
are frequently seen lying or sprawling about, resting during the day. 
Fishing is not extensively carried on in the interior, and apparently no fish- 
ing is done there with hook and line. Most of the fish are caught in traps and 
baskets through weirs that are placed across the streams or rivers. Occasion- 
