. The Victoria Nyanza; the land, the races and their customs, with specimens of some of the dialects . ts roofed with grass. Often the grain is stored in the huts in baskets. The meadow iron ore frequently occurring in the country is of great importance to the Wassindja. They make assiduous use of this gift of Nature, and numerous smithies placed in half-open grass huts are to be found outside the villages. The Wassindja themselves are clever smiths, and hammer out the necessary spears, arrows, knives, axes, tools, ornaments, RushBroom. (One- Smithies. USSINDJA 111 etc. In the middle of the sm
. The Victoria Nyanza; the land, the races and their customs, with specimens of some of the dialects . ts roofed with grass. Often the grain is stored in the huts in baskets. The meadow iron ore frequently occurring in the country is of great importance to the Wassindja. They make assiduous use of this gift of Nature, and numerous smithies placed in half-open grass huts are to be found outside the villages. The Wassindja themselves are clever smiths, and hammer out the necessary spears, arrows, knives, axes, tools, ornaments, RushBroom. (One- Smithies. USSINDJA 111 etc. In the middle of the smithy stands the smelting-furnace, which is worked by bellows. Two of these,each cut out of one piece of wood and covered with skin,open into one tube (cf. Karagwe, p. 49). The smeltingyields lumps of iron, very impure and interspersed withbits of burnt wood. When these have been purified asfar as possible, the artisan forges hoes from the ironobtained. Great quantities of these heart-shaped ironhoes are exported north and south, and form a much-valued article of trade far and wide. Countries which. IG. (One-tenthnatural size.) Fig. 139.—(One-eighth naturalsize.) Fig. 140.—(One-tenthnatural size.) Figs. 138-140.—Pots from Ussindja and from the Island of Kome. are poor in iron often obtain all the iron they requirefrom Ussindja, and either shape these hoes into toolsand ornaments or use them, as they are, for cultivatingthe ground. Three such hoes are worth 1 rupee(is. 3d.). Such domestic animals as the Wassindja possess—goats, sheep, and a few kine—they keep at night inseparate open spaces in the villages, protectedby high wooden palings. The beasts inUssindja, as elsewhere, are chiefly tended by Wahumaor Watussi. It is not the custom to use fowls as food. To increase the fertility of the soil, the fields on theshore are irrigated from the lake by means of ditches, Cattle. VICTORIA NYANZA Pombe. and in these fields, with their long, moist trenches,A . ,, the crop
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidvict, booksubjectethnology
