420 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
In
the Sudanese province of Bahr el Ghazel elephants abound, and there is
a good supply of ivory. Broken tusks and those of poor quality come to
Omdurman to be worked up by the native carvers into serviette rings,
cigarette holders, mounts for sticks, and large bangles worn on their
arms by the natives. The better tusks are cut into three pieces, the
hollow end with thin sides going to Japan for inlaying work; the solid
middle is sent to England, the tips usually go to the United States for
billiard ball manufacture. The weight used at Omdurman is the kantar (99.05
lbs.); in other parts of the Sudan the weight unit is the farasula
(29.7 lbs. or 13.478 kilo.), equivalent to the weight of 480 dollars or
4,320 dirhems. Exceptionally fine ivory has recently, during the war
period, commanded as much as £40 a kantar at Omdurman, a trifle less
than $2 a pound. Most of the ivory trade in the Sudan is by barter,
mainly, if not exclusively for cattle, preferably cows and calves, but
on occasion bulls may be included to make up a reckoning.
There
has been, on the whole, no very marked change in the average weight of
the tusks imported to Antwerp, although just at the outset, in 1889, an
average of 12-1/2 kilo, was reached; in 1890 the figure was 10-9/10
kilo. These high averages have not been since equalled, and were due to
the number of large tusks, the first to come from the new ivory of the
Congo; withal the total weight of ivory, as will have been noted, was
much less than a few years later. From 1892, however, the average
weights have been singularly constant, if we except a single year,
1896, when for some reason there was a fall to 6f kilo.; in 1913 the
figure was 8| kilo., equivalent to 18.46 lbs.
In
a previous chapter we have given a brief notice of the work of the
native Congo ivory carvers, but it may not prove uninteresting, as
showing the possibilities of tusk decoration, to give here in detail
the figures depicted in
