Nature,
Adapting Herself To The Requirements Of Animals And Man, Appears In
These Savage Countries To Yield Abundantly Much That Savage Man Can
Want.
Gourds with exceedingly strong shells not only grow wild, which if
divided in halves afford bowls, but great and quaint varieties form
natural bottles of all sizes, from the tiny vial to the demijohn
containing five gallons.
The most savage tribes content themselves with the productions of
nature, confining their manufacture to a coarse and half-baked jar for
carrying water; but the semi-savage, like those of Unyoro, afford an
example of the first step toward manufacturing art, by their COPYING
FROM NATURE. The utter savage makes use of nature - the gourd is his
utensil; and the more advanced natives of Unyoro adopt it as the model
for their pottery. They make a fine quality of jet-black earthenware,
producing excellent tobacco-pipes most finely worked in imitation of the
small egg-shaped gourd. Of the same earthenware they make extremely
pretty bowls, and also bottles copied from the varieties of the bottle
gourds; thus, in this humble art, we see the first effort of the human
mind in manufactures, in taking nature for a model, precisely as the
beautiful Corinthian capital originated in a design from a basket of
flowers.
In two days reports were brought that Kamrasi had sent a large force,
including several of Speke's deserters, to inspect me and see if I was
really Speke's brother. I received them standing, and after thorough
inspection I was pronounced to be "Speke's own brother," and all were
satisfied.
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