Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1894 — CIVILIZED SAVAGES. [ARTICLE]

CIVILIZED SAVAGES.

African Tribes Who Have a Good Idea of the Mechanical Arts. Most people think of the natives of tropical Africa as naked savages, without any of the resources of civilization, says an ex-missionary, but the fact is that many of the tribes are acquainted with not a few of the mechanical arts. You a e probably aware that the mining and working of iron have been understood by the natives of that part of the world ever since prehistoric times. In Liberia the Mande are smelters of iron and workers in gold and silver. They are also tanners of leather and weavers of cloth, and they make an infinite variety of domestic articles. The Makolos are excellent wood carvers, the Djours are skillful iron workers, and the Bechuanas are good metal workers, fur dressers and architects. The Baganidas of Victoria Nyanza do beautiful work in brass, copper and ivory. On the slave coast the people of Dahomey, who otherwise possess an unenviable reputation, are accorded a very respectable position in industrial artisanship. Glass-making is not unknown among them. They make cloths of cotton and many other textiles, and their dyes of bluej red and yellow owe their peculiar richness to native coloring substances. Tanning they also understand, and they obtain salt from sea water by evaporation. The Mandegnas have attained a considerable degree of cultivation and knowledge of the common arts. Their musical instruments are the flute, zither, harp, bell and drum. The Veis of Liberia, having obtained an acquaintance with letters from contact with Arabs, have invented an alphabetical primer of their own language, original and independent both of the Arabic Aid English characters. This is th# greatest effort ever made by an African tribe toward the advancement of culture. The Veis make pens of reeds and use indigo for ipk.