of wood or other soft substances, in which the
roughly formed point would stick. [51]

Fire-making. This is a question of process, rather than of implement,
but may be dealt with here. To produce fire, the Mafulu native
takes two pieces of very dry and inflammable wood, one larger than
the other, and some dry bark cloth fluff. He then holds the smaller
piece of wood and the fluff together, and rubs them on the larger
piece of wood. After four or five minutes the fluff catches fire,
without bursting into actual flame, upon which the native continues the
rubbing process, blowing gently upon the fluff, until the two pieces
of wood begin to smoulder, and can then be blown into a sufficient
flame for lighting a fire.

Carrying bags. These are all made of network. I shall say something
about the mode of netting and colouring them hereafter, and will here
only deal with the bags and their use. They are of various sizes,

(1) There are the large bags used by women for carrying heavy objects,
such as firewood, vegetables and fruit, which they bring back to
the village on their return in the afternoon from the gardens and
bush. These bags are carried in the usual way, the band over the
opening of the bag being passed across the front of the head above the
forehead, and the bag hanging over the back behind. They are curved
in shape, the ends of the bag being at both its top and bottom edges
higher than are the centres of those edges, so that, when a bag is
laid out flat, its top line is a concave one and its bottom line is a
convex one. The network at the two ends of the top line is continued
into the loop band by means of which the bag is carried. The usual
dimensions of one of these bags, as it lies flat and unstretched
on a table (the measurements being made along the curved lines)
are as follows--top line about 2 feet, bottom line about 3 feet,
and side lines about 18 inches. But when filled with vegetables,
firewood, etc., they expand considerably, especially those made of
"Mafulu network," of which I shall speak hereafter. These bags are
uncoloured. (2) There are similar, but somewhat smaller, bags, in
which the women carry lighter things, and which in particular they
use for carrying their babies. They frequently carry this bag and
the larger one together; and you will often see a woman with a big
bag heavily laden with vegetables or firewood or both, and another
smaller bag (perhaps also slung behind over the top of the