Life and Travels of Mungo Park

by Mungo Park

With the love of music is naturally connected a taste for poetry; and, fortunately for the poets of Africa, they are in a great measure exempted from that neglect and indigence, which, in more polished countries, commonly attend the votaries of the Muses. They consist of two classes; the most numerous are the singing men, called Jilli kea, mentioned in a former part of my narrative. One or more of these may be found in every town. They sing extempore songs, in honour of their chief men, or any other persons who are willing to give "solid pudding for empty praise." But a nobler part of their office is to recite the historical events of their country; hence, in war they accompany the soldiers to the field, in order, by reciting the great actions of their ancestors, to awaken in them a spirit of glorious emulation. The other class are devotees of the Mahomedan faith, who travel about the country, singing devout hymns, and performing religious ceremonies, to conciliate the favour of the Almighty; either in averting calamity, or insuring success to any enterprise. Both descriptions of these itinerant bards are much employed and respected by the people, and very liberal contributions are made for them.

The usual diet of the Negroes is somewhat different in different districts. In general, the people of free condition breakfast about daybreak, upon gruel made of meal and water, with a little of the fruit of the tamarind, to give it an acid taste. About two o'clock in the afternoon, a sort of hasty pudding, with a little shea-butter, is the common meal; but the supper constitutes the principal repast, and is seldom ready before midnight. This consists almost universally of kouskous, with a small portion of animal food, or shea-butter, mixed with it. In eating, the Kafirs as well as Mahomedans use the right hand only.

The beverage of the Pagan Negroes is beer and mead; of each of which they frequently drink to excess. The Mahomedan converts drink nothing but water. The natives of all descriptions take snuff, and smoke tobacco; their pipes are made of wood, with an earthen bowl of curious workmanship. But in the interior countries, the greatest of all luxuries is salt. It would appear strange to an European, to see a child suck a piece of rock-salt as if it were sugar. This, however, I have frequently seen; although, in the inland parts, the poorer class of inhabitants are so very rarely indulged with this precious article, that to say a man eats salt with his victuals, is the same as saying he is a rich man. I have myself suffered great inconvenience from the scarcity of this article. The long use of vegetable food creates so painful a longing for salt, that no words can sufficiently describe it.

The Negroes in general, and the Mandingoes in particular, are considered by the whites on the Coast as an indolent and inactive people; I think without reason. The nature of the climate is, indeed, unfavourable to great exertion; but surely a people cannot justly be denominated habitually indolent, whose wants are supplied, not by the spontaneous productions of nature, but by their own exertions. Few people work harder, when occasion requires, than the Mandingoes; but not having many opportunities of turning to advantage the superfluous produce of their labour, they are content with cultivating as much ground only as is necessary for their own support. The labours of the field give them pretty full employment during the rains; and in the dry season, the people who live in the vicinity of large rivers employ themselves chiefly in fishing. The fish are taken in wicker baskets, or with small cotton nets; and are preserved by being first dried in the sun, and afterwards rubbed with shea butter, to prevent them from contracting fresh moisture. Others of the natives employ themselves in hunting. Their weapons are bows and arrows; but the arrows in common use are not poisoned.[18] They are very dexterous marksmen, and will hit a lizard on a tree, or any other small object, at an amazing distance. They likewise kill Guinea-fowls, partridges, and pigeons, but never on the wing. While the men are occupied in these pursuits, the women are very diligent in manufacturing cotton cloth. They prepare the cotton for spinning, by laying it in small quantities at a time, upon a smooth stone, or piece of wood, and rolling the seeds out with a thick iron spindle; and they spin it with the distaff. The thread is not fine, but well twisted, and makes a very durable cloth. A woman, with common diligence, will spin from six to nine garments of this cloth in one year; which, according to its fineness, will sell for a minkalli and a half, or two minkallies each.[19] The weaving is performed by the men. The loom is made exactly upon the same principle as that of Europe; but so small and narrow, that the web is seldom more than four inches broad. The shuttle is of the common construction; but as the thread is coarse, the chamber is somewhat larger than the European.

[18] Poisoned arrows are used chiefly in war. The poison, which is said to be very deadly, is prepared from a shrub called koona (a species of echites,) which is very common in the woods. The leaves of this shrub, when boiled with a small quantity of water, yield a thick black juice, into which the Negroes dip a cotton thread; this thread they fasten round the iron of the arrow, in such a manner that it is almost impossible to extract the arrow, when it has sunk beyond the barbs, without leaving the iron point, and the poisoned thread, in the wound.

[19] A minkalli is a quantity of gold, nearly equal in value to ten shillings sterling.

The women dye this cloth of a rich and lasting blue colour, by the following simple process: The leaves of the indigo when fresh gathered are pounded in a wooden mortar, and mixed in a large earthen jar, with a strong ley of wood ashes; chamber-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, dyeing, 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 Karrankeas; 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, but 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 of conducting the operation; and readily allowed me to examine the furnace, and assist them in breaking the ironstone. The furnace was a circular tower of clay, about ten feet high, and three in diameter; surrounded in two places with withes, to prevent the clay from cracking and falling to pieces by the violence of the heat. Round 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 furnace but through the tubes; by the opening and shutting of which they regulated the fire. These tubes were formed by plastering a mixture of clay and grass round a smooth roller of wood, which as soon as the clay began to harden was withdrawn, and the tube left to dry in the sun. The ironstone which I saw was very heavy, and of a dull red colour, with greyish specks; it was broken into pieces about the size of a hen's egg. A bundle of dry wood was first put into the furnace, and covered with a considerable quantity of charcoal, which was brought ready burnt from the woods. Over this was laid a stratum of ironstone, and then another of charcoal, and so on until the furnace was quite full. The fire was applied through one of the tubes, and blown for some time with bellows made of goats'-skins. The operation went on very slowly at first, and it was some hours before the flame appeared above the furnace; but after this, it burnt with great violence all the first night, and the people who attended put in at times more charcoal. On the day following the fire was not so fierce, and on the second night some of the tubes were withdrawn, and the air allowed to have freer access to the furnace; but the heat was still very great, and a bluish flame rose some feet above the top of the furnace. On the third day from the commencement of the operation, all the tubes were taken out, the ends of many of them being vitrified with the heat; but the metal was not removed until some days afterwards, when the whole was perfectly cool. Part of the furnace was then taken down, and the iron appeared in the form of a large irregular mass, with pieces of charcoal adhering to it. It was sonorous; and when any portion was broken off, the fracture exhibited a granulated appearance, like broken steel. The owner informed me that many parts of this cake were useless, but still there was good iron enough to repay him for his trouble. This iron, or rather steel, is formed into various instruments, by being repeatedly heated in a forge, the heat of which is urged by a pair of double bellows of a very simple construction, being made of two goats' skins; the tubes from which unite, before they enter the forge, and supply a constant and very regular blast. The hammer, forceps, and anvil, are all very simple, and the workmanship (particularly in the formation of knives and spears) is not destitute of merit. The iron, indeed, is hard and brittle, and requires much labour before it can be made to answer the purpose.

Most of the African blacksmiths are acquainted also with the method of smelting gold, in which process they use an alkaline salt, obtained from a ley of burnt corn-stalks evaporated to dryness. They likewise draw the gold into wire, and form it into a variety of ornaments, some of which are executed with a great deal of taste and ingenuity.