And May England Never Again Dream Of Forfeiting, Or
Playing With, The Conquests Won For Her By Those Heroes Of Commerce,
The West Coast Traders; For Of Them, As Well As Of Such Men As Sir
Gerald Portal, Truly It May Be Said - Of Such Is The Kingdom Of
England.
APPENDIX. THE INVENTION OF THE CLOTH LOOM.
This story is taken down from an Eboe, but practically the same
story can be found among all the cloth-making tribes in West Africa.
In the old times there was a man who was a great hunter; but he had
a bad wife, and when he made medicine to put on his spear, she made
medicine against his spear, but he knew nothing of this thing and
went out after bush cow.
By and by he found a big bush cow, and threw his spear at it, but
the bush cow came on, and drove its horns through his thigh, so the
man crept home, and lay in his house very sick, and the witch doctor
found out which of his wives had witched the spear, and they killed
her, and for many days the man could not go out hunting. But he was
a great hunter, and his liver grew hot in him for the bush, so he
dragged himself to the bush, and lay there every day. One day, as
he lay, he saw a big spider making a net on a bush and he watched
him. By and by he saw how the spider caught his game, and that the
spider was a great hunter, and the man said "If I had hunted as this
spider hunts, if I had made a trap like that and put it in the bush
and then gone aside and let the game get into it and weary itself to
death quickly, - quicker and safer than they do in pit-falls - that
bush cow would not have gored me." And so after a time he tried to
make a net like the spider's, out of bush rope, and he did this
thing and put his net into the forest, and caught bush deer
(gazelles) and earthpig (pangolins) and porcupines, and he made more
nets, and every net he made was better, and he grew well, and became
a greater hunter than before. One day he made a very fine net, and
his wife said "This is a cloth, it is better than our cloth (bark
cloth) because when the rain gets to it, it does not shrivel. Make
me a cloth like this and then I will beat it with the mallet and
wear it." And the man tried to do this thing, but he could not get
it a good shape and he said, "Yet the spider gets a shape in his
cloth. I will go and ask him again this thing." And he went to the
spider, and took him another offering, and said: "Oh, my lord,
teach me more things." And he sat and watched him for many days.
By and by he saw more (his eyes were opened) and he saw the spider
made his net on sticks, and so he went home and got fine bush rope
that he had collected, and taken there, to make his game nets with,
and he brought them to the bush near the spider, and fixing the
strings on to the bush he made a new net and he got shape into it,
and he made more nets this way, and every net he made was better.
And his wife was pleased and gave him sons, and by and by the man
saw that he did not want all the sticks of a bush to make his net
on, only some of them; and so he took these home and put them up in
his house, and made his nets there, and after a time his wife said:
"Why do you make the stuff for me with that bush rope? Why do you
not make it with something finer?" And he went into the bush and
took offerings to the spider and said: "Oh, my lord, teach me more
things!" And he sat and watched the spider, but the spider only
went on making stuff out of his belly. And the man said: "Oh, my
lord, you pass me. I cannot do this thing." And as he went home he
thought and saw that there are trees, and there are bush ropes,
thick bush rope and thin bush rope, and then there is grass which
was thinner still, and he took the grass, and tried to make a net
with it, and did this thing and made more nets and every net he made
was better. And his wife was pleased and said "This is good cloth."
And the man lived to be very old and was a great chief and a great
hunter. For it is good for a man to be a great hunter, and it is
good for a man to please women. This is the origin of the cloth
loom.
It was in the old time, and men have got now thread on spools from
the white man, for the white man is a great spider; but this is how
the black man learnt to make cloth.
NOTES.
{14} Sierra Leone has been known since the voyage of Hanno of
Carthage in the sixth century B.C., but it has not got into general
literature to any great extent since Pliny. The only later classic
who has noticed it is Milton, who in a very suitable portion of
Paradise Lost says of Notus and Afer, "black with thunderous clouds
from Sierra Lona." Our occupation of it dates from 1787.
{15} Lagos also likes to bear this flattering appellation, and has
now-a-days more right to the title.
{28} Along the Coast, and in other parts of Africa, the coarser,
flat-sided kinds of banana are usually called plantains, the name
banana being reserved for the finer sorts, such as the little
"silver banana."
{37} From Point Limbok, the seaward extremity of Cameroons Mountain,
to Cape Horatio, the most eastern extremity of Fernando Po, the
soundings are, from the continent, 13, 17, 20, 23, 27, 29, 30, 34
fathoms; close on to the island, 35 and 29 fathoms.
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