ley is sometimes added. The cloth is steeped in this mixture, and allowed to remain until it has acquired the proper shade. In Kaarta and Ludamar, where the indigo is not plentiful, they collect the leaves, and dry them in the sun ; and when they wish to use them, they reduce a sufficient quantity to powder, and mix it with the ley as before mentioned. Either way, the colour is very beautiful, with a fine purple gloss; and equal, in my opinion, to the best Indian or European blue. This cloth is cut into various pieces, and sewed into garments, with needles of the natives' own making. As the arts of weaving, dying, sewing, &c. may easily be acquired, those who exercise them are not considered in Africa as following any particular profession ; for almost every slave can weave, and every boy can sew. The only artists which are distinctly acknowledged as such by the Negroes, and who value themselves on exercising appropriate and peculiar trades, are the manufacturers of leather and of iron. The first of these, are called Karrankea (or as the word is sometimes pronounced Gaungay). They are to be found in almost every town, and they frequently travel through the country in the exercise of their calling. They tan and dress leather with very great expedition, by steeping the hide first in a mixture of wood-ashes and water, until it parts with the hair; and afterwards by using the pounded leaves of a tree called goo, as an astringent. They are at great pains to render the hide as soft and pliant as possible, by rubbing it frequently between their hands, and beating it upon a stone. The hides of bullocks are converted chiefly into sandals, and therefore require less care in dressing than the skins of sheep and goats, which are used for covering quivers and saphies, and in making sheaths for swords and knives, belts, pockets, and a variety of ornaments. These skins are commonly dyed of a red or yellow colour ; the red, by means of millet stalks reduced to powder ; and the yellow, by the root of a plant, the name of which I have forgotten. The manufacturers in iron are not so numerous as the Kar- rankeas ; but they appear to have studied their business with equal diligence. The Negroes on the Coast being cheaply supplied with iron from the European traders, never attempt the manufacturing of this article themselves; but in the inland parts, the natives smelt this useful metal in such quantities, as not only to supply themselves from it with all necessary weapons and instruments, bat even to make it an article of commerce with some of the neighbouring states. During my stay at Kamalia, there was a smelting furnace at a short distance from the hut where I lodged, and the owner and ¡his workmen made no secret about the manner o f conducting the operation ; a n d readily allowed me to examine the furnace, and assist them in breaking the iron stone. The furnace was a circular tower of clay, about ten feet high, and three feet in diametersurrounded in two places with withes, to prevent the clay from cracking and falling to pieces by the violence of the heat. Hound the lower part, on a level with the ground (but not so low as the bottom of the furnace, which was somewhat concave), were made seven openings, into every, one of which were ¡placed three tubes of clay, and the openings again plastered up in such a manner that no air could enter the O o 2
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