give them a sort of black glaze with plumbago. In
exchange for one of these pots they get as much grain
as it will hold.
The native iron furnace is a curious object to look
upon. It is made of clay, and is another instance of
the design being taken from the human form, for it is
made to represent a seated woman 1 the head is the
chimney, decorated in some cases with eyes, nose, and
mouth, resting on shoulders; the legs are stretched
out and form the sides of the furnace, and to complete
the picture they decorate
the front with breasts
and the tattoo decora1
tions usually found on
female stomachs.1 They
heat the charcoal in the
furnace by means of air
pumped out of goat-skin
bellows through clay
blow-pipes fixed into the
GRANARY DECORATED WITH BREAST e m p ) e r S . It i s a q u a i n t
AND FURROW PATTERN ■ . i a sight x to see them at
w o r k with all their commodities—pillows, knives, and
assegais, fixed on to the reed walls which shut off the
forge from the outer world.
At M’lala too we were first introduced to the
women who have their stomachs decorated with many
long lines, or cicatrices. Between thirty and forty of
these lines ran across their stomachs, executed with
surprising regularity, and resembling the furrows on a
1 Vide illustration, ch. x.
ploughed field. In vain we tried to photograph and
count them. On one occasion I succeeded in counting
sixteen furrows, when the bashful female ran away, and
I think I had done about half. This is the favourite
pattern in Chibi’s country and with the neighbouring
dependent tribes for female decoration, and they
WOODEN PILLOW REPRESENTING HUMAN FORM
admire it so much that they put it also on their
drums, on their granaries, and on their pillows, and,
as I have said, on their forges. ‘ The breast and
furrow I pattern, one might technically term it, and
I fancy it has to do with an occult idea of fertility.
One of these oddly marked ladies was busily