On The Morning Of Their Departure,
A Bullock Is Killed For The First Day's Entertainment, And A Number Of
Prayers And Charms Are Used To Ensure Success; For A Failure On That Day
Is Thought A Bad Omen.
The Manga of Kamalia, with fourteen of his people,
were, I remember, so much disappointed in their first day's washing, that
a very few of them had resolution to persevere; and the few that did had
but very indifferent success:
Which indeed is not much to be wondered at,
for, instead of opening some untried place, they continue to dig and wash
in the same spot where they had dug and washed for years; and where, of
course, but few large grains could be left.
The washing the sands of the streams is by far the easiest way of
obtaining the gold-dust; but in most places the sands have been so
narrowly searched before, that unless the stream takes some new course,
the gold is found but in small quantities. While some of the party are
busied in washing the sands, others employ themselves farther up the
torrent, where the rapidity of the stream has carried away all the clay,
sand, &c. and left nothing but small pebbles. The search among these is a
very troublesome task. I have seen women who have had the skin worn off
the tops of their fingers in this employment. Sometimes, however, they
are rewarded by finding pieces of gold, which they call _sanoo birro_,
"gold-stones," that amply repay them for their trouble. A woman and her
daughter, inhabitants of Kamalia, found in one day two pieces of this
kind; one of five drachms, and the other of three drachms, weight. But
the most certain and profitable way of washing is practised in the height
of the dry season, by digging a deep pit, like a draw-well, near some
hill which has previously been discovered to contain gold. The pit is dug
with small spades or corn hoes, and the earth is drawn up in large
calabashes. As the Negroes dig through the different strata of clay or
sand, a calabash or two of each is washed, by way of experiment; and in
this manner the labourers proceed, until they come to a stratum
containing gold; or until they are obstructed by rocks, or inundated by
water. In general, when they come to a stratum of fine reddish sand, with
small black specks therein, they find gold in some proportion or other,
and send up large calabashes full of the sand, for the women to wash; for
though the pit is dug by the men, the gold is always washed by the women,
who are accustomed from their infancy to a similar operation, in
separating the husks of corn from the meal.
As I never descended into any of these pits, I cannot say in what manner
they are worked under ground. Indeed, the situation in which I was placed
made it necessary for me to be cautious not to incur the suspicion of the
natives, by examining too far into the riches of their country; but the
manner of separating the gold from the sand is very simple, and is
frequently performed by the women in the middle of the town; for when the
searchers return from the valleys in the evening, they commonly bring
with them each a calabash or two of sand, to be washed by such of the
females as remain at home.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 172 of 282
Words from 89964 to 90547
of 148366
