Iron money.
Loggoh Kullutty. Loggoh melot.
BONGO MONEY.
The “loggoh kullutty” is the circulating medium of the Bongo, the only equivalent which Central Africa possesses for money of any description; but, rough-shaped as it is, it seems really to answer in its way the purpose of regular coin. According to Major Denham, who visited the Central Soudan in 1824, there were at that time some iron pieces which were circulated as currency in Loggon on the Lower Shary, answering to what is now in use among the Bongo; but at the period of Barth’s visit all traces of their use had long disappeared. The “loggoh kullutty” is formed in flat circles, varying in diameter from 10 to 12 inches. On one edge there is a short handle; on the opposite there is attached a projecting limb, something in the form of an anchor. In this shape the metal is stored up in the treasures of the rich, and up to the present time it serves as well as the lance-heads and spades for cash and for exchanges, being available not only for purchases, but for the marriage portions which every suitor is pledged to assign. The axe of the Bongo consists of a flat, cumbrous wedge of iron, into the thick end of which is inserted a knobbed handle; it is an instrument differing in no particular from what may be seen throughout Central Africa.
Bongo lances.
Besides these rough exhibitions of their craft, the Bongo produce arms, tools, and ornaments of admirable quality, and, at the instance of the controllers of the Seribas, have manufactured chains and manacles for the slave-traffic. Very elegant, it might almost be said artistic, is the work displayed on the points of their arrows and lances. The keen and (to use a botanical expression) the “awny” barbs and edges of these instruments, to any one who is aware of the simple means of production in their reach, must be quite an enigma. The lances are readily recognised by their shapes, and may be classified in a threefold way. First, there is the common lancet-formed spear-head, which is known as “mahee;” then, secondly, there is the “golo,” a hastate sort of spear, with long iron barbs below the point extending along the stem to which the wooden stock is attached; whilst the third description is called “makrigga,” and consists of a spike, the stem of which is covered with a number of teeth symmetrically arranged along it, sometimes upwards and sometimes downwards. This makrigga is often merely an article of show, and the technical skill of the smith is concentrated upon its design. The name of makrigga is appropriated to it from the Randia dumetorum,[34] a prickly shrub, which is quite common in the district: seeming to indicate that the pattern is derived from an object in nature, it affords a fresh illustration of the view, that all human arts are only imitations of what may be observed in the free fields of a wide creation.
