purpose of a pocket-knife, and are worn round the neck, or under the left arm, by a string passing over the right shoulder, or, if small, tied on the upper left arm. The sheath is made with a projecting ear or loop for the string to pass through. [Illustration: 1. “MBENGO” (“Angoni Handkerchief”) and NYANJA SHEATH-KNIFE 2. YAO KNIFE, WITH HANDLE OF HIPPOPOTAMUS IVORY In the Ethnological Museum at Cambridge] The Yaos prefer another style of knife, with one edge, and two or three grooves on the blade; the specimen in the cut has a handle of hippopotamus ivory. The illustration shows another product of the smith’s art—that known as an ‘Angoni handkerchief’; it is worn round the neck, and used (with a vigour calculated to strike amazement into the unsophisticated beholder) to remove the results of toil from the forehead, or even to perform the ordinary office of a handkerchief for the nose. Wood-carving is of a primitive sort, though often very neatly done. The patterns on the knife-sheaths above mentioned mostly consist of triangles, chevrons, and lozenges, and are not nearly so elaborate as some specimens of Mashona and Zambezi work. Indeed, the former seem, at least in some cases, to have originated in unskilful copying of the interlaced pattern usually called Celtic, which is found in some of the latter, and probably introduced in the first instance by the Portuguese. The carving on blackened wood, which is very popular among the Yaos, is confined to the same elementary designs, and is done with very little relief, and no attempt at modelling of surface, the only object being to show the white figures on the dark ground. Pillows or neck-rests of the Mashona or ancient Egyptian pattern are in use, but I never saw one being made, nor came across a new one. But it must be remembered that the people of the Shiré Highlands were, ten years ago, comparatively unused to the experience of a settled life, in which you can begin an important piece of carving with a reasonable prospect of being able to finish it. The country west of the Shiré has not been quite free from alarms and excursions for even so long as that. Quaint figures of birds are sometimes attempted by adventurous artists, but these are not very common, and I do not even remember coming across a stick with the top carved into the likeness of a human head, except the _tsanchima_ staff mentioned in a previous chapter, which must have been of considerable age. POTTERY