Construction, being nothing but two beams
placed one over the other, the web standing perpendicularly.
The threads of the web are separated by means of a thin wooden lath,
and the woof passed through by means of the spindle on which
it has been wound in spinning.
The mode of spinning and weaving in Angola, and, indeed,
throughout South Central Africa, is so very like the same occupations
in the hands of the ancient Egyptians, that I introduce a woodcut
from the interesting work of Sir Gardner Wilkinson. The lower figures
are engaged in spinning in the real African method, and the weavers
in the left-hand corner have their web in the Angolese fashion.*
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* Unfortunately, this woodcut can not be represented in this ASCII text.
The caption reads, `Ancient Spinning and Weaving, perpetuated in Africa
at the present day. From Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians", p. 85, 86.'
The web, or cloth on the loom, mentioned, has the vertical threads,
or the warp, hanging, perhaps five feet, from a horizontal beam.
The woof is passed through from side to side. - A. L., 1997.
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Numbers of other articles are brought for sale to these sleeping-places.
The native smiths there carry on their trade. I bought ten
very good table-knives, made of country iron, for twopence each.
Labor is extremely cheap, for I was assured that even carpenters, masons,
smiths, etc., might be hired for fourpence a day, and agriculturists
would gladly work for half that sum.*
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* In order that the reader may understand the social position of the people
of this country, I here give the census of the district of Golungo Alto
for the year 1854, though the numbers are evidently not all furnished:
