not in operation, as the war, of which mention shall be made hereafter, had driven the inhabitants into the larger towns for protection. The furnaces, or the portion of them above the surface of the earth, are made of clay. They are in the form of cylinders, about thirty inches high; the diameter of the bases about six feet. A hole is made in the upper base, communicating both with six or seven similar holes around the convex surface, and, by a small orifice, with a large cavity underground and beneath the cylinder. In this, immediately under the orifice, I found a mass of slag. They use charcoal for fuel, which they produce in abundance in the forests in the midst of which these villages are usually located.
The apparatus of the weavers is very simple. There are two kinds, one used by the men, producing cloth of only a few inches in width, and another by the women, producing cloth as wide as of English manufacture. The men can make cloth of an indefinite length: the apparatus used by the women limits the length of the cloth to about two and a half yards. I forbear a description of either of these contrivances, as such as I could make would hardly be intelligible.
The implements of the farmers are only two, a bill-hook and hoe. The hoe is not bad in itself, but very badly mounted for use by a civilized farmer. The
