4

Chap. 2.] Southern Ada and Western Afriea. 247

The blacksmiths of Java use the same kind. Raffles, in his History oftke Island, (2 vol. 193,) after quoting Dampier’s description of the bel-lows of Mindanao , observes his account “ exactly corresponds” withthat of Java. “The blacksmiths’ bellows of Sumatra ,” says Mr. Marsden,

“ are thus constructed : two bamboos of about four inches diameter andiive feet in length, stand perpendicularly near the fire, open at theupper end and stopped below. About an inch or two from the bottom asmall joint of bamboo is inserted into each, which serve as nozzles, point-ing to and meeting at the fire. To produce a stream of air, bunches offeathers, or other soft substance, are worked up and down in the uprighttubes like the piston of a pump. These, when pushed downwards, forcethe air through the small horizontal tubes; and by raising and sinkingeach alternately, a continual current of air is kept up.” c The BasheeIsländers use the same kind of bellows. d The smiths of Bali have themalso: “ their instruments are few and simple, their forge small, andworked by a pair of upright bellows, such as we find described in Raf-fles’ Java.” e They are not confined to Southern Asia and the EthiopianArchipelago, but are used in Continental Afriea. “ The bellows of thenegro artificers on the Gambia , are a thick reed or a hollow piece of wood,in which is put a stick wound about with feathers, [a piston,] which bymoving of the stick, makes the wind.” f

Without entering into the controversy respecting the origin of woodenbellows, it may be inferred from the preceding extracts, that such havebeen in use from remote times ; and that the cylindrical forcing-pump, sofar as regards the principle of its construction, is equally ancient: of this,the instrument now to be described, affords another indication. It is thebellows of the most numerous and most singulär of all existing people—a people, the wisdom of whose government has preserved them as a na-tion, through periods of time unexampled in the history of the world, andwhich still preserves them amidst the prostration by European cupidity ofnearly all the nations around them; a people, too, who notwithstandingall that our vanity may suggest to depreciate, have furnished evidence ofan excellence in some of the arts that never has been surpassed. TheChinese , like the ancient Egyptians, whom they greatly resemble, havebeen the instructors of Europeans in several of the useful arts; but the pu-pils, like the Greeks of old, have often refused to acknowledge the sourcewhence many inventions possessed by them were derived, but haveclaimed them as their own: of the truth of this remark, we need onlymention printing, the mariner’s compass, and gunpowder.

In the bellows of the Chinese , we perceive the characteristic ingenuityand originality of that people’s inventions. A description and figure of theirbellows were published in London , 1757, by Mr. Chambers, in a work en-titled “Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and •Utensils, from drawings made in China .” The following account fromthe fourth volume of the “ Chinese Repository,” a very interesting workpublished at Canton in China , is substantially the same. “ The bellowsused by them is very aptly called ‘ Fung Seäng, ‘ wind box,’ and iscontained in an oblong box about two feet long, ten inches high, and sixinches wide. These dimensions, however, vary according to the whim ofthe maker, and they occur from eight inches, to four feet or more in length,and so of the width and height. The annexed profile view will give^some idea of the principle upon which it is constructed.”

c History of Sumatra, p. 181. d Dampier’s Voyages, i. 429. e Chinese Repository»iv. 455. f Ogilvy’s Afriea, Lon. 1670, p. 356.