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.
{44} I am informed that the allowance made to these priests exceeds
by some pounds the revenues Spain obtains from the Island. In
Spanish possessions alone is a supporting allowance made to
missionaries though in all the other colonies they obtain a
government grant.
{47} Ten Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians, T. J. Hutchinson.
{48a} There is difference of opinion among authorities as to whether
Fernando Po was discovered by Fernando Po or by Lopez Gonsalves.
{48b} From April 1777 till the end of 1782, 370 men out of the 547
died of fever.
{51} Porto is the Bubi name for black men who are not Bubis, these
were in old days Portuguese slaves, "Porto" being evidently a
corruption of "Portuguese," but it is used alike by the Bubi to
designate Sierra Leonian and Accras, in fact, all the outer
barbarian blacks. The name for white men, Mandara, used by the
Bubis, has a sort of resemblance to the Effik name for whites,
Makara, i.e., the ruling one, but I do not know whether these two
words have any connection.
