I Have Seen
Women Who Have Had The Skin Worn Off The Tops Of Their Fingers In
This Employment.
Sometimes, however, they are rewarded by finding
pieces of gold, which they call sanoo birro (gold stones), that
amply repay them for their trouble.
A woman and her daughter,
inhabitants of Kamalia, found in one day two pieces of this kind;
one of five drachms and the other of three drachms weight. But the
most certain and profitable mode of washing is practised in the
height of the dry season, by digging a deep pit, like a draw-well,
near some hill which has previously been discovered to contain gold.
The pit is dug with small spades or corn-hoes, and the earth is
drawn up in large calabashes. As the negroes dig through the
different strata of clay or sand, a calabash or two of each is
washed by way of experiment; and in this manner the labourers
proceed, until they come to a stratum containing gold, or until they
are obstructed by rocks, or inundated by water. In general, when
they come to a stratum of fine reddish sand, with small black specks
therein, they find gold in some proportion or other, and send up
large calabashes full of the sand for the women to wash; for though
the pit is dug by the men, the gold is always washed by the women,
who are accustomed from their infancy to a similar operation in
separating the husks of corn from the meal.
As I never descended into any one of these pits, I cannot say in
what manner they are worked underground. Indeed, the situation in
which I was placed made it necessary for me to be cautious not to
incur the suspicion of the natives by examining too far into the
riches of their country; but the manner of separating the gold from
the sand is very simple, and is frequently performed by the women in
the middle of the town; for when the searchers return, from the
valleys in the evening, they commonly bring with them each a
calabash or two of sand, to be washed by such of the females as
remain at home. The operation is simply as follows:-
A portion of sand or clay (for the gold is sometimes found in a
brown-coloured clay) is put into a large calabash and mixed with a
sufficient quantity of water. The woman whose office it is, then
shakes the calabash in such a manner as to mix the sand and water
together, and give the whole a rotatory motion - at first gently, but
afterwards more quickly, until a small portion of sand and water, at
every revolution, flies over the brim of the calabash. The sand
thus separated is only the coarsest particles mixed with a little
muddy water. After the operation has been continued for some time,
the sand is allowed to subside, and the water poured off; a portion
of coarse sand, which is now uppermost in the calabash, is removed
by the hand, and, fresh water being added, the operation is repeated
until the water comes off almost pure.
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