in manufacturing cotton cloth.  They prepare the cotton for spinning by laying it in small quantities at a time upon a smooth stone or piece of wood, and rolling the seeds out with a thick iron spindle; and they spin it with the distaff.  The thread is not fine, but well twisted, and makes a very durable cloth.  A woman with common diligence will spin from six to nine garments of this cloth in one year, which, according to its fineness, will sell for a minkalli and a half or two minkallies each. {7} The weaving is performed by the men.  The loom is made exactly upon the same principle as that of Europe, but so small and narrow that the web is seldom more than four inches broad.  The shuttle is of the common construction, but as the thread is coarse the chamber is somewhat larger than the European.

The women dye this cloth of a rich and lasting blue colour by the following simple process:  —­The leaves of the indigo, when fresh gathered, are pounded in a wooden mortar, and mixed in a large earthen jar with a strong ley of wood-ashes; chamber-ley is sometimes added.  The cloth is steeped in this mixture, and allowed to remain until it has acquired the proper shade.  In Kaarta and Ludamar, where the indigo is not plentiful, they collect the leaves and dry them in the sun; and when they wish to use them they reduce a sufficient quantity to powder and mix it with the ley, as before mentioned.  Either way the colour is very beautiful, with a fine purple gloss, and equal in my opinion to the best Indian or European blue.  This cloth is cut into various pieces and sewed into garments with needles of the natives’ own making.

As the arts of weaving, dyeing, sewing, etc., may easily be acquired, those who exercise them are not considered in Africa as following any particular profession, for almost every slave can weave, and every boy can sew.  The only artists who are distinctly acknowledged as such by the negroes, and who value themselves on exercising appropriate and peculiar trades, are the manufacturers of leather and of iron.  The first of these are called karrankea (or, as the word is sometimes pronounced, gaungay).  They are to be found in almost every town, and they frequently travel through the country in the exercise of their calling.  They tan and dress leather with very great expedition, by steeping the hide first in a mixture of wood-ashes and water until it parts with the hair, and afterwards by using the pounded leaves of a tree called goo as an astringent.  They are at great pains to render the hide as soft and pliant as possible, by rubbing it frequently between their hands and beating it upon a stone.  The hides of bullocks are converted chiefly into sandals, and therefore require less care in dressing than the skins of sheep and goats, which are used for covering quivers and saphies, and in making sheaths for swords and knives, belts, pockets, and a variety of ornaments.  These skins commonly are dyed of a red or yellow colour—­the red by means of millet stalks reduced to powder; and the yellow by the root of a plant the name of which I have forgotten.