590 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
obvious the value of storing their surplus stock. To do this, the rice is put 
up in bundles that are just large enough to make a good load for one man. 
These bundles resemble large cocoons and are made as follows: the fronds of 
the Raphia palm are split in half along the main rhachis and then cut to the 
appropiate size. The pinnae are interwoven at the ends so that a loose rectan- 
gular basket is formed in which the two halfs of the rhachis form the bottom 
corners and the interwoven ends of the pinnae form the ribs of the two upper 
corners. One end of the basket thus formed is left open. This basket is then 
lined with a layer of banana leaves and inside of these is placed another layer 
of the leaves of Anthocleista. A definite amount of rice is poured into the doubly- 
lined basket and the process is then repeated in reverse until the basket is 
covered and sealed by lacing in the pinnae of a single unsplit frond of the palm, 
cut to proper size. The baskets are then stored away while the leaves are 
still green, and if not used up in three or four months, they are opened and 
the rice is allowed to dry in the sun before being repacked. 
Another industry, though on a less imposing scale, is furnished by the 
cotton plants that grow around the village or at the edges of the rice fields. 
This is the manufacture of cloth. The cotton is ginned by pulling it through 
a comb-like affair and is then, after drying, spun in the same manner as pre- 
viously seen employed by the Indians of the upper Waijombo River in Surinam, 
South America. The dried, ginned cotton is roughly formed into a long, loose 
roll which is passed around the forearm one or two times, over the wrist, and 
then down between the forefinger and thumb. A long conical, top-shaped 
spindle is then spun and that twists the cotton into a tight thread, the thick- 
ness of which is nicely controlled by the manipulations of the thumb and fore- 
finger. The resulting thread, remarkably uniform, is either used as it is pro- 
duced, or else is dyed blue. There are two sources of the dye; one the leaves 
of a tree of which only an imperfect specimen could be obtained and therefore 
not identified, the other source is Indigofera suffruticosa, named ‘‘garnah”’ by 
the Kpwesi tribe. Although the exact manner of dyeing the thread was not ob- 
served, the results nevertheless are very uniform and apparently non-fading. The 
dyed thread is dried in the sun where it is wound around three upright sticks, 
as shown in the photograph (No. 429). Finally it is woven on the loom (Nos. 
429, 430), and the resulting cloth is in long strips six or seven inches wide, which 
in turn are sewn together to make the various and durable articles of wear. 
Mycophagy, judging by the paucity of agarics, is not a very substantial 
means of obtaining energy. A white species of Volvaria and also a species of 
Collybia(?) enter into the menu of the natives on occasion. The latter appears 
to be very highly prized, judging by the exclamations of delight given vent 
to by the natives when they discovered a specimen, and the considerable dis- 
approval expressed when the same specimen was confiscated for scientific 
record. There is small wonder at their disapproval, for the species is one that 
is solitary and at the same time appears to be rare, though its scarcity is made 
up for by its size, — twenty-two centimeters in diameter. Of the non-edible 
fungi, Cordyceps myrmecophila(?), a parasite on the large black ants that was 
