POTTERY
There are many kinds of pots—large water-jars, the large cooking-pots used for making porridge, and the small ones for boiling its accompaniments. The women, having procured the right kind of earth, break it up on a stone and knead it with water till it attains the proper consistency; then they mould a round lump, make a hole in the middle and work away at it with their hands and now and then a bamboo splint. No wheel or mould is used. Sometimes an incised pattern is made while the clay is soft. When finished, the pot is stood in the shade for a day; then they put it out into the sun, and when dry, burn it in an open wood fire. I am nearly sure, however, though, most unfortunately, I did not make a note of the fact at the time, that I once saw something like a small oven in use for the purpose. Pots not expected to stand the fire are considered fit for use after drying in the sun, and will hold water satisfactorily, though apt to grow soft if kept continuously wet. Smaller pots are sometimes coloured red by mixing oxide of iron with the clay; sometimes they have quite a good glaze, and the red surface is variegated with black bands. A large water-jar always stands inside the hut, which is filled up every day when the women fetch water from the nearest stream. They carry a large earthen or calabash jar on their heads; on the River this is balanced on a thing called a ngoti, which is a little wooden stand, with a saucer-shaped depression above and one below, something like a flat double wine-glass (the frontispiece will give a better idea of it than any description), the upper concavity fitting the jar, and the lower one the head. I suppose this eases the pressure on the head, like the grass rings or pads (nkata) used by all who carry heavy loads; but at first sight it seems as if it would add to the difficulties of carriage.
A long-handled gourd is carried along as a dipper, to ladle the water into the jar, and after it is full, a few leaves, or a twist of grass, are put on the top to keep the water from spilling. I have seen flat wooden crosses used (I think in Cornwall) for the same purpose.
In places where there is danger from crocodiles, as in some parts of the Shiré, the women carry a gourd at the end of a long pole, so that they can dip the water from the top of a high bank, and run no risk of being seized. Accidents of this kind have frequently happened to women stooping at the water’s edge to fill their jars. The crocodile seems to turn round and knock people over with a swing of his tail, if he cannot get near enough to seize them with his jaws. A letter written in English by a native a few years ago, related a tragic occurrence of this sort—how a man, going down the river with his wife, and camping for the night on a sandbank, awoke in the morning to find that ‘the woman had gone away with a crocodile!’