and it is men also who stitch the bongos together to make denguis or robes of them; the stitches are not very close together, nor is the thread very fine, but the work is very neat and regular, and the needles are of their own manufacture.  The bongos are very often striped, and sometimes made even in check patterns; this is done by their dyeing some of the threads of the warp, or of both warp and woof, with various simple colors; the dyes are all made of decoctions of different kinds of wood, except for black, when a kind of iron ore is used.  The bongos are employed as money in this put of Africa.  Although called grass-cloth by me, the material is not made of grass, but of the delicate and firm cuticle of palm leaflets, stripped off in a dexterous manner with the fingers."[86]

Nearly all his mechanical genius seems to be exhausted in the perfection of his implements of war, and Dr. Livingstone is of the opinion, that when a certain perfection in the arts is reached, the natives pause.  This, we think, is owing to their far remove from other nations.  Livingstone says,—­

“The races of this continent seem to have advanced to a certain point and no farther; their progress in the arts of working iron and copper, in pottery, basket-making, spinning, weaving, making nets, fish-hooks, spears, axes, knives, needles, and other things, whether originally invented by this people or communicated by another instructor, appears to have remained in the same rude state for a great number of centuries.  This apparent stagnation of mind in certain nations we cannot understand, but, since we have in the latter ages of the world made what we consider great progress in the arts, we have unconsciously got into the way of speaking of some other races in much the same tone as that used by the Celestials in the Flowery Land.  These same Chinese anticipated us in several most important discoveries, by as many centuries as we may have preceded others.  In the knowledge of the properties of the magnet, the composition of gunpowder, the invention of printing, the manufacture of porcelain, of silk, and in the progress of literature, they were before us.  But then the power of making further discoveries was arrested, and a stagnation of the intellect prevented their advancing in the path of improvement or invention.”

Mr. Wood says,—­

“The natives of Southern Africa are wonderful proficients in forging iron; and, indeed, a decided capability for the blacksmith’s art seems to be inherent in the natives of Africa, from north to south, and from east to west.  None of the tribes can do very much with the iron, but the little which they require is worked in perfection.  As in the case with all uncivilized beings, the whole treasures of the art are lavished on their weapons; and so, if we wish to see what an African savage can do with iron, we must look at his spears, knives, and arrows—­the latter, indeed, being but spears in miniature.”

The blacksmith, then, is a person of some consequence in his village.  He gives shape and point to the weapons by which game is to be secured and battles won.  All seek his favor.