CHAPTER IX

INDIGENOUS PRODUCTS:  RUBBER ^

The rubber vine, called in the Mendi language Jehn-Jehy
which is found throughout the country wherever vegetation
is big and tall, especially in forests, is a species of Lan-
dolphia. It attains a great height, and I have seen it at
times as thick as three to four inches in diameter, although
its usual workable stem is only about an inch and a quarter.
I found on visiting Upper Mendi that the people knew
absolutely nothing about the properties of rubber, but they
knew the vine, and that if they made an incision in it, a
milky fluid would ooze out.

In some of the towns I spoke to the people of the great
importance of their turning their attention to the making
this fluid into rubber. I showed sundry articles made of
rubber, such as waterproof sheeting, the soles of boots and
so on, which surprised them, as they had not the slightest
idea that there was any use at all for it. I also assured
them that it was much wanted in England, and that the
merchants in Sherbro would pay them good prices for it.
I gave them a few empty bottles and told them to fetch

1 Rubber is an article of commerce for which, just now, the demand
is so great that it must have a chapter to itself.