298 COMMERCE.

zors,* double-edged swords,f camel-bells, antimony, arsenic, J iron and brass wire,|| lucifers, Bohemian products, ordinary cloths, looking-glasses in paper cases, finger-rings set with stones, glass beads of every colour,**— that of lapis lazuli, is the most of various sizes, furaished with a ring and hook, and employed for the purpose of baking bread. They are indispensable to the caravans.

* The razors (the commonest sort manufactured in the capital of Styria,) are not used for shaving the beard ; some few natives employ them for the hair of the head, but the greater number for shaving the hair of the pudenda. They are also put into use in the circumcision of girls and in the mutilation of boys.

f Two-edged swords, of Austrian manufacture, are thirty-six inches and a half in length, and one inch and three-quarters in breadth, of equal diameter throughout, and rounded off inferiorly.

Seven inches and a quarter in the curve, and marked : J with a lion. The scabbards and hilts are made in the country. They are in most request in Darfour. The sale is attended with considerable profit, but those marked with a death's-head from the workshops of Peter Knell, in Solingen, are preferred.

J Antimony from various mines in the province of Austria, and reduced to a powder, is used as a cosmetic by the women and girls, who cover their eyelids with it.

§ Arsenic from different parts of Austria is bought in those negro states where gold is found. It is transmitted from Kordofan as far as Bunda.

II Iron wire and brass wire from the Tyrol and the province of Austria, is in great request in all parts of Africa for the decoration of lances and tobacco-pipes, and also for ear-rings. In some districts the natives wear as many as ten brass rings in one ear.

*ir Common cloths from Bohemia termed technically Londerin seconds. The scarlet colours are preferred in Darfour. ** Glass beads from Bohemia play a very prominent part in the commerce of Africa. In some places the red are in demand, in others again the blue or yellow beads, but where a particular