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 about two feet long and not quite so wide; another sort of bag, hardly more elaborate in its make, is woven from reeds, from the stalks of plants, or from fan-palm leaves; these are of larger dimensions, and are really sacks for carrying dried fish and the heavier descriptions of fruit. Most of the tribes are skilful in making bags of thick bast, and in putting together very rapidly a kind of sweep-net. A basket that is of very easy manufacture is made from pieces of a bark very much resembling our red birch, sewn together with bast. It is nothing more than a tube closed at one end, and having a piece of wood thrust through the other, or a strap attached to form a handle. It is generally used at the ingathering of fruit. Basket-making of a superior character is exemplified in the makuluani baskets, which are manufactured from the lancet-shaped leaflets of the fan-palm; these are very strongly made, and with their close-fitting covers and firm texture, are sufficiently solid to serve the purpose of boxes or chests; so various are they in form, that it is rare to see two alike. The Matabele who have settled in the Barotse valley weave grass and straw into basket-work, so fine and compact that it is quite watertight, and can be used for drinking-cups.

The best specimens of this kind of handicraft are found in the makenke baskets made by the tribes in the Barotse, in spite of the material out of which they are formed being somewhat unmanageable. This material is the root-fibre of the mosura, a tree not unlike a maple. There are two kinds of them, one without any covering, and generally of uniform shape and size; the other with a close-fitting lid, and found in endless diversity of form and dimen- Rh