220 NOTE ON A WEST AFRICAN "STRIKE-A-LIGHT."
The Soosoos are a tribe whose territory lies on the
Mellicourie River to the north of Sierra Leone.
At the time of my uncles' residence in this country, where
they acquired plantations and property, the Soosoos were an
independent people. Owing to the outbreak of a tribal war, my
uncles had to abandon their possessions, and the country was
subsequently seized by the French. It now forms part of the
hinterland of Sierra Leone, under French dominion, which has
been so detrimental to the welfare of the colony.
The Soosoos are Mahomedans, and in accordance with the
tradition that Mahomet was a shoemaker, they are enthusiastic
workers in leather, making therefrom objects of all descriptions
which they ornament elaborately.
Strike-a-lights similarly formed, of a bag with an iron blade
attached, have been in use generally over Central Asia, also in
Norway and Sweden ; specimens of these are to be seen in the
Pitt-Rivers collection at Oxford, so that it is possible the idea of
this African form may have been introduced to the Soosoos by
Arab traders, or even by Europeans. There is no reason to
doubt, however, that this particular object is of native manu-
facture, although possibly the gun flints were imported from
Suffolk or Germany. It is possible also that the iron portion
may have been imported, although there is not so much reason
to suppose this, as iron is so generally worked over the whole of
Africa. I merely suggest this because among the collection
made by my uncles is a "Charmed Koran" written in Arabic
characters and adorned with elaborate coloured diagrams, but
all on paper of English manufacture and ruled for cash.
It is on account of the iron portion of this object that I am
bringing it before the notice of the Essex Field Club, because it
so closely resembles, both in shape and size, a small iron object
that has been met with among relics of the Romano-British
period in this country.
I have figured six examples (Figs, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7) from
General Pitt-Rivers' Excavations in Dorset and Wilts, vols. II. and
III., where he describes them as "Objects of unknown use,
perhaps Strike-a-lights or for fastening two pieces of wood
together." Fig. 4 is an example from a cave near Settle,
Yorkshire, and is now preserved in the British Museum.