A Liberian Journey

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Sat Sept 18^th.

            This morning we discovered a magnificent army of driver ants out on a hunt. They came in a steady sheet of ants with a front about 50 ft long killing absolutely all in their way. One lizard was on a fence which the ants climbed so that he was forced to jump – into the sea of them below. And as he touched the ground an ant bit him, others fastened onto that one etc so that he was chained with a chain of living ants. He got 2” and was buried. Such are driver ants. As they were headed for camp we rimmed them with kerosene which turned them fortunately.

            Later I assorted my clothes putting everything to be sent out to Monrovia in one trunk. For the first time there were no medical photos. The Chief came in to call and promised a dance asking for advance gin which we gave him. <Drawing of drum> He had two musicians one with a drum – the other with a gourd and bead rattle. The drum beads were joined by strings as shown so that by tightening the arm – for it was held under the arm – the pitch was altered. Of course it was decorated with bells. The rattle however was fascinating and gave a sound not very different from a drum beat with a wire fly swatter. They went away with the gin to return later – a little bit lit with the gin already given them to dance before our dwelling as we dined.

            In the afternoon I wrote up many days in my diary. Later Hals “monkey boy” brought in a mongoose of which I took a photo. At 400 we went down to see the market and purchase chop if possible. But there ? nothing particularly interesting going on so we returned to camp in time to purchase some hammocks just brought in. Hal got a beautiful one which he is going to send home. Mine is not so big or so well made but it represents native work and as such is interesting. In this country the Mandingos are the industrious people. They make native cloth, native rings, hair pins, etc.

            The weaving is particularly theirs tho it has now spread into other tribes. The cotton is deseeded by chewing and then scraping it with a wooden knife on a wooden block. It is then corded by hand. They place the cotton on what looks like a butter pat with short fine teeth all over it. Then they drag another similar instrument across it until the fibres are all parallel. After that it is spun into a coarse, strong thread by the means of a hand spindle <Drawing of the spindle and “butter pat with short fine teeth”> which is whirled by rubbing it along the bare thigh. Sometimes they do spin it with the fingers but only when a small spin is wanted. The thread is now wound off the spindles onto stakes driven into the round sometimes 15 ft apart and is wound off them onto sticks. Some is dyed a dull dark blue – presumably after being spun as I have never seen them dye the cotton and it is always done before it placed on the stakes. Perhaps they dry it that way.

            They now are ready for weaving which is a simple over and under pattern requiring only two frames which are worked by the feet. The color scheme is likewise simple the warp being either plain white or bands of blue and white while the ways wool is the same. The final result is only about 4”-5” wide and it is usually blue and white longitudinal bands 2”-3” wide altho sometimes a cross band of blue is occasionally added. This cloth is now sewn together into a sleeveless smock with a v neck and pocket for a notch. <Drawing of loom and sleeveless smock> The weaving process was similar to that used on any hand loom.

            In the evening – to continue my story – I developed by customary 200 ft and 4 x 5’s. 

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