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Contents

Preface xxiii

PART I Introduction And Internet Applications

Chapter 1 Introduction And Overview 1

1.1 Growth Of Computer Networking 1

1.2 Why Networking Seems Complex 2
1.3 The Five Key Aspects Of Networking 2
1.4 Public And Private Parts Of The Internet 6
1.5 Networks, Interoperability, And Standards 8
1.6 Protocol Suites And Layering Models 9
1.7 How Data Passes Through Layers 11
1.8 Headers And Layers 12
1.9 ISO And The OSI Seven Layer Reference Model 13
1.10 Remainder Of The Text 14
1.11 Summary 14

Chapter 2 Internet Trends 17

2.1 Introduction 17
2.2 Resource Sharing 17
2.3 Growth Of The Internet 18
2.4 From Resource Sharing To Communication 21
2.5 From Text To Multimedia 21
2.6 Recent Trends 22
2.7 From Individual Computers To Cloud Computing 23
2.8 Summary 24

Chapter 3 Internet Applications And Network Programming 27

3.1 Introduction 27
3.2 Two Basic Internet Communication Paradigms 28
viii Contents

3.3 Connection-Oriented Communication 29

3.4 The Client-Server Model Of Interaction 30
3.5 Characteristics Of Clients And Servers 31
3.6 Server Programs And Server-Class Computers 31
3.7 Requests, Responses, And Direction Of Data Flow 32
3.8 Multiple Clients And Multiple Servers 32
3.9 Server Identification And Demultiplexing 33
3.10 Concurrent Servers 34
3.11 Circular Dependencies Among Servers 35
3.12 Peer-To-Peer Interactions 35
3.13 Network Programming And The Socket API 36
3.14 Sockets, Descriptors, And Network I/O 36
3.15 Parameters And The Socket API 37
3.16 Socket Calls In A Client And Server 38
3.17 Socket Functions Used By Both Client And Server 38
3.18 The Connect Function Used Only By A Client 40
3.19 Socket Functions Used Only By A Server 40
3.20 Socket Functions Used With The Message Paradigm 43
3.21 Other Socket Functions 44
3.22 Sockets, Threads, And Inheritance 45
3.23 Summary 45

Chapter 4 Traditional Internet Applications 49

4.1 Introduction 49
4.2 Application-Layer Protocols 49
4.3 Representation And Transfer 50
4.4 Web Protocols 51
4.5 Document Representation With HTML 52
4.6 Uniform Resource Locators And Hyperlinks 54
4.7 Web Document Transfer With HTTP 55
4.8 Caching In Browsers 57
4.9 Browser Architecture 59
4.10 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) 59
4.11 FTP Communication Paradigm 60
4.12 Electronic Mail 63
4.13 The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) 64
4.14 ISPs, Mail Servers, And Mail Access 66
4.15 Mail Access Protocols (POP, IMAP) 67
4.16 Email Representation Standards (RFC2822, MIME) 67
4.17 Domain Name System (DNS) 69
4.18 Domain Names That Begin With A Service Name 71
4.19 The DNS Hierarchy And Server Model 72
4.20 Name Resolution 72
4.21 Caching In DNS Servers 74
Contents ix

4.22 Types Of DNS Entries 75

4.23 Aliases And CNAME Resource Records 76
4.24 Abbreviations And The DNS 76
4.25 Internationalized Domain Names 77
4.26 Extensible Representations (XML) 78
4.27 Summary 79

PART II Data Communication Basics

Chapter 5 Overview Of Data Communications 85

5.1 Introduction 85
5.2 The Essence Of Data Communications 86
5.3 Motivation And Scope Of The Subject 87
5.4 The Conceptual Pieces Of A Communications System 87
5.5 The Subtopics Of Data Communications 90
5.6 Summary 91

Chapter 6 Information Sources And Signals 93

6.1 Introduction 93
6.2 Information Sources 93
6.3 Analog And Digital Signals 94
6.4 Periodic And Aperiodic Signals 94
6.5 Sine Waves And Signal Characteristics 95
6.6 Composite Signals 97
6.7 The Importance Of Composite Signals And Sine Functions 97
6.8 Time And Frequency Domain Representations 98
6.9 Bandwidth Of An Analog Signal 99
6.10 Digital Signals And Signal Levels 100
6.11 Baud And Bits Per Second 101
6.12 Converting A Digital Signal To Analog 102
6.13 The Bandwidth Of A Digital Signal 103
6.14 Synchronization And Agreement About Signals 103
6.15 Line Coding 104
6.16 Manchester Encoding Used In Computer Networks 106
6.17 Converting An Analog Signal To Digital 107
6.18 The Nyquist Theorem And Sampling Rate 108
6.19 Nyquist Theorem And Telephone System Transmission 108
6.20 Nonlinear Encoding 109
6.21 Encoding And Data Compression 109
6.22 Summary 110
x Contents

Chapter 7 Transmission Media 113

7.1 Introduction 113

7.2 Guided And Unguided Transmission 113
7.3 A Taxonomy By Forms Of Energy 114
7.4 Background Radiation And Electrical Noise 115
7.5 Twisted Pair Copper Wiring 115
7.6 Shielding: Coaxial Cable And Shielded Twisted Pair 117
7.7 Categories Of Twisted Pair Cable 118
7.8 Media Using Light Energy And Optical Fibers 119
7.9 Types Of Fiber And Light Transmission 120
7.10 Optical Fiber Compared To Copper Wiring 121
7.11 Infrared Communication Technologies 122
7.12 Point-To-Point Laser Communication 122
7.13 Electromagnetic (Radio) Communication 123
7.14 Signal Propagation 124
7.15 Types Of Satellites 125
7.16 Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) Satellites 126
7.17 GEO Coverage Of The Earth 127
7.18 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites And Clusters 128
7.19 Tradeoffs Among Media Types 128
7.20 Measuring Transmission Media 129
7.21 The Effect Of Noise On Communication 129
7.22 The Significance Of Channel Capacity 130
7.23 Summary 131

Chapter 8 Reliability And Channel Coding 135

8.1 Introduction 135

8.2 The Three Main Sources Of Transmission Errors 135
8.3 Effect Of Transmission Errors On Data 136
8.4 Two Strategies For Handling Channel Errors 137
8.5 Block And Convolutional Error Codes 138
8.6 An Example Block Error Code: Single Parity Checking 139
8.7 The Mathematics Of Block Error Codes And (n,k) Notation 140
8.8 Hamming Distance: A Measure Of A Code’s Strength 140
8.9 The Hamming Distance Among Strings In A Codebook 141
8.10 The Tradeoff Between Error Detection And Overhead 142
8.11 Error Correction With Row And Column (RAC) Parity 142
8.12 The 16-Bit Checksum Used In The Internet 144
8.13 Cyclic Redundancy Codes (CRCs) 145
8.14 An Efficient Hardware Implementation Of CRC 148
8.15 Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) Mechanisms 148
8.16 Summary 149
Contents xi

Chapter 9 Transmission Modes 153

9.1 Introduction 153

9.2 A Taxonomy Of Transmission Modes 153
9.3 Parallel Transmission 154
9.4 Serial Transmission 155
9.5 Transmission Order: Bits And Bytes 156
9.6 Timing Of Serial Transmission 156
9.7 Asynchronous Transmission 157
9.8 RS-232 Asynchronous Character Transmission 157
9.9 Synchronous Transmission 158
9.10 Bytes, Blocks, And Frames 159
9.11 Isochronous Transmission 160
9.12 Simplex, Half-Duplex, And Full-Duplex Transmission 160
9.13 DCE And DTE Equipment 162
9.14 Summary 162

Chapter 10 Modulation And Modems 165

10.1 Introduction 165

10.2 Carriers, Frequency, And Propagation 165
10.3 Analog Modulation Schemes 166
10.4 Amplitude Modulation 166
10.5 Frequency Modulation 167
10.6 Phase Shift Modulation 168
10.7 Amplitude Modulation And Shannon’s Theorem 168
10.8 Modulation, Digital Input, And Shift Keying 168
10.9 Phase Shift Keying 169
10.10 Phase Shift And A Constellation Diagram 171
10.11 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation 173
10.12 Modem Hardware For Modulation And Demodulation 174
10.13 Optical And Radio Frequency Modems 174
10.14 Dialup Modems 175
10.15 QAM Applied To Dialup 175
10.16 V.32 And V.32bis Dialup Modems 176
10.17 Summary 177

Chapter 11 Multiplexing And Demultiplexing (Channelization) 181

11.1 Introduction 181

11.2 The Concept Of Multiplexing 181
11.3 The Basic Types Of Multiplexing 182
11.4 Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) 183
xii Contents

11.5 Using A Range Of Frequencies Per Channel 185

11.6 Hierarchical FDM 186
11.7 Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) 187
11.8 Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) 187
11.9 Synchronous TDM 188
11.10 Framing Used In The Telephone System Version Of TDM 189
11.11 Hierarchical TDM 190
11.12 The Problem With Synchronous TDM: Unfilled Slots 190
11.13 Statistical TDM 191
11.14 Inverse Multiplexing 192
11.15 Code Division Multiplexing 193
11.16 Summary 195

Chapter 12 Access And Interconnection Technologies 199

12.1 Introduction 199

12.2 Internet Access Technology: Upstream And Downstream 199
12.3 Narrowband And Broadband Access Technologies 200
12.4 The Local Loop And ISDN 202
12.5 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Technologies 202
12.6 Local Loop Characteristics And Adaptation 203
12.7 The Data Rate Of ADSL 204
12.8 ADSL Installation And Splitters 205
12.9 Cable Modem Technologies 205
12.10 The Data Rate Of Cable Modems 206
12.11 Cable Modem Installation 206
12.12 Hybrid Fiber Coax 207
12.13 Access Technologies That Employ Optical Fiber 208
12.14 Head-End And Tail-End Modem Terminology 208
12.15 Wireless Access Technologies 209
12.16 High-Capacity Connections At The Internet Core 209
12.17 Circuit Termination, DSU / CSU, And NIU 210
12.18 Telephone Standards For Digital Circuits 211
12.19 DS Terminology And Data Rates 212
12.20 Highest Capacity Circuits (STS Standards) 212
12.21 Optical Carrier Standards 213
12.22 The C Suffix 213
12.23 Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) 214
12.24 Summary 215
Contents xiii

PART III Packet Switching And Network Technologies

Chapter 13 Local Area Networks: Packets, Frames, And Topologies 219

13.1 Introduction 219

13.2 Circuit Switching And Analog Communication 220
13.3 Packet Switching 221
13.4 Local And Wide Area Packet Networks 222
13.5 Standards For Packet Format And Identification 223
13.6 IEEE 802 Model And Standards 224
13.7 Point-To-Point And Multi-Access Networks 225
13.8 LAN Topologies 227
13.9 Packet Identification, Demultiplexing, MAC Addresses 229
13.10 Unicast, Broadcast, And Multicast Addresses 230
13.11 Broadcast, Multicast, And Efficient Multi-Point Delivery 231
13.12 Frames And Framing 232
13.13 Byte And Bit Stuffing 233
13.14 Summary 234

Chapter 14 The IEEE MAC Sublayer 239

14.1 Introduction 239

14.2 A Taxonomy Of Mechanisms For Shared Access 239
14.3 Static And Dynamic Channel Allocation 240
14.4 Channelization Protocols 241
14.5 Controlled Access Protocols 242
14.6 Random Access Protocols 244
14.7 Summary 250

Chapter 15 Wired LAN Technology (Ethernet And 802.3) 253

15.1 Introduction 253

15.2 The Venerable Ethernet 253
15.3 Ethernet Frame Format 254
15.4 Ethernet Frame Type Field And Demultiplexing 254
15.5 IEEE’s Version Of Ethernet (802.3) 255
15.6 LAN Connections And Network Interface Cards 256
15.7 Ethernet Evolution And Thicknet Wiring 256
15.8 Thinnet Ethernet Wiring 257
15.9 Twisted Pair Ethernet Wiring And Hubs 258
15.10 Physical And Logical Ethernet Topology 259
15.11 Wiring In An Office Building 259
xiv Contents

15.12 Ethernet Data Rates And Cable Types 261

15.13 Twisted Pair Connectors And Cables 261
15.14 Summary 262

Chapter 16 Wireless Networking Technologies 265

16.1 Introduction 265

16.2 A Taxonomy Of Wireless Networks 265
16.3 Personal Area Networks (PANs) 266
16.4 ISM Wireless Bands Used By LANs And PANs 267
16.5 Wireless LAN Technologies And Wi-Fi 267
16.6 Spread Spectrum Techniques 268
16.7 Other Wireless LAN Standards 269
16.8 Wireless LAN Architecture 270
16.9 Overlap, Association, And 802.11 Frame Format 271
16.10 Coordination Among Access Points 272
16.11 Contention And Contention-Free Access 272
16.12 Wireless MAN Technology And WiMax 274
16.13 PAN Technologies And Standards 276
16.14 Other Short-Distance Communication Technologies 277
16.15 Wireless WAN Technologies 278
16.16 Micro Cells 280
16.17 Cell Clusters And Frequency Reuse 280
16.18 Generations Of Cellular Technologies 282
16.19 VSAT Satellite Technology 284
16.20 GPS Satellites 285
16.21 Software Defined Radio And The Future Of Wireless 286
16.22 Summary 287

Chapter 17 Repeaters, Bridges, And Switches 291

17.1 Introduction 291

17.2 Distance Limitation And LAN Design 291
17.3 Fiber Modem Extensions 292
17.4 Repeaters 293
17.5 Bridges And Bridging 293
17.6 Learning Bridges And Frame Filtering 294
17.7 Why Bridging Works Well 295
17.8 Distributed Spanning Tree 296
17.9 Switching And Layer 2 Switches 297
17.10 VLAN Switches 299
17.11 Multiple Switches And Shared VLANs 300
17.12 The Importance Of Bridging 301
17.13 Summary 302
Contents xv

Chapter 18 WAN Technologies And Dynamic Routing 305

18.1 Introduction 305

18.2 Large Spans And Wide Area Networks 305
18.3 Traditional WAN Architecture 306
18.4 Forming A WAN 308
18.5 Store And Forward Paradigm 309
18.6 Addressing In A WAN 309
18.7 Next-Hop Forwarding 310
18.8 Source Independence 313
18.9 Dynamic Routing Updates In A WAN 313
18.10 Default Routes 314
18.11 Forwarding Table Computation 315
18.12 Distributed Route Computation 316
18.13 Shortest Paths And Weights 320
18.14 Routing Problems 321
18.15 Summary 322

Chapter 19 Networking Technologies Past And Present 325

19.1 Introduction 325

19.2 Connection And Access Technologies 325
19.3 LAN Technologies 327
19.4 WAN Technologies 328
19.5 Summary 332

PART IV Internetworking

Chapter 20 Internetworking: Concepts, Architecture, And Protocols 335

20.1 Introduction 335

20.2 The Motivation For Internetworking 335
20.3 The Concept Of Universal Service 336
20.4 Universal Service In A Heterogeneous World 336
20.5 Internetworking 337
20.6 Physical Network Connection With Routers 337
20.7 Internet Architecture 338
20.8 Intranets And Internets 339
20.9 Achieving Universal Service 339
20.10 A Virtual Network 339
20.11 Protocols For Internetworking 341
20.12 Review Of TCP/IP Layering 341
xvi Contents

20.13 Host Computers, Routers, And Protocol Layers 342

20.14 Summary 342

Chapter 21 IP: Internet Addressing 345

21.1 Introduction 345

21.2 The Move To IPv6 345
21.3 The Hourglass Model And Difficulty Of Change 346
21.4 Addresses For The Virtual Internet 346
21.5 The IP Addressing Scheme 348
21.6 The IP Address Hierarchy 348
21.7 Original Classes Of IPv4 Addresses 349
21.8 IPv4 Dotted Decimal Notation 350
21.9 Authority For Addresses 351
21.10 IPv4 Subnet And Classless Addressing 351
21.11 Address Masks 353
21.12 CIDR Notation Used With IPv4 354
21.13 A CIDR Example 354
21.14 CIDR Host Addresses 356
21.15 Special IPv4 Addresses 357
21.16 Summary Of Special IPv4 Addresses 359
21.17 IPv4 Berkeley Broadcast Address Form 359
21.18 Routers And The IPv4 Addressing Principle 360
21.19 Multihomed Hosts 361
21.20 IPv6 Multihoming And Network Renumbering 361
21.21 IPv6 Addressing 362
21.22 IPv6 Colon Hexadecimal Notation 363
21.23 Summary 364

Chapter 22 Datagram Forwarding 369

22.1 Introduction 369

22.2 Connectionless Service 369
22.3 Virtual Packets 370
22.4 The IP Datagram 370
22.5 The IPv4 Datagram Header Format 371
22.6 The IPv6 Datagram Header Format 373
22.7 IPv6 Base Header Format 373
22.8 Forwarding An IP Datagram 375
22.9 Network Prefix Extraction And Datagram Forwarding 376
22.10 Longest Prefix Match 377
22.11 Destination Address And Next-Hop Address 378
22.12 Best-Effort Delivery 378
Contents xvii

22.13 IP Encapsulation 379

22.14 Transmission Across An Internet 380
22.15 MTU And Datagram Fragmentation 381
22.16 Fragmentation Of An IPv6 Datagram 383
22.17 Reassembly Of An IP Datagram From Fragments 384
22.18 Collecting The Fragments Of A Datagram 385
22.19 The Consequence Of Fragment Loss 386
22.20 Fragmenting An IPv4 Fragment 386
22.21 Summary 387

Chapter 23 Support Protocols And Technologies 391

23.1 Introduction 391

23.2 Address Resolution 391
23.3 An Example Of IPv4 Addresses 393
23.4 The IPv4 Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) 393
23.5 ARP Message Format 394
23.6 ARP Encapsulation 395
23.7 ARP Caching And Message Processing 396
23.8 The Conceptual Address Boundary 398
23.9 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) 399
23.10 ICMP Message Format And Encapsulation 400
23.11 IPv6 Address Binding With Neighbor Discovery 401
23.12 Protocol Software, Parameters, And Configuration 401
23.13 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) 402
23.14 DHCP Protocol Operation And Optimizations 403
23.15 DHCP Message Format 404
23.16 Indirect DHCP Server Access Through A Relay 405
23.17 IPv6 Autoconfiguration 405
23.18 Network Address Translation (NAT) 406
23.19 NAT Operation And IPv4 Private Addresses 407
23.20 Transport-Layer NAT (NAPT) 409
23.21 NAT And Servers 410
23.22 NAT Software And Systems For Use At Home 410
23.23 Summary 411

Chapter 24 UDP: Datagram Transport Service 415

24.1 Introduction 415

24.2 Transport Protocols And End-To-End Communication 415
24.3 The User Datagram Protocol 416
24.4 The Connectionless Paradigm 417
24.5 Message-Oriented Interface 417
xviii Contents

24.6 UDP Communication Semantics 418

24.7 Modes Of Interaction And Multicast Delivery 419
24.8 Endpoint Identification With Protocol Port Numbers 419
24.9 UDP Datagram Format 420
24.10 The UDP Checksum And The Pseudo Header 421
24.11 UDP Encapsulation 421
24.12 Summary 422

Chapter 25 TCP: Reliable Transport Service 425

25.1 Introduction 425

25.2 The Transmission Control Protocol 425
25.3 The Service TCP Provides To Applications 426
25.4 End-To-End Service And Virtual Connections 427
25.5 Techniques That Transport Protocols Use 428
25.6 Techniques To Avoid Congestion 432
25.7 The Art Of Protocol Design 433
25.8 Techniques Used In TCP To Handle Packet Loss 434
25.9 Adaptive Retransmission 435
25.10 Comparison Of Retransmission Times 436
25.11 Buffers, Flow Control, And Windows 437
25.12 TCP’s Three-Way Handshake 438
25.13 TCP Congestion Control 440
25.14 Versions Of TCP Congestion Control 441
25.15 Other Variations: SACK And ECN 441
25.16 TCP Segment Format 442
25.17 Summary 443

Chapter 26 Internet Routing And Routing Protocols 447

26.1 Introduction 447

26.2 Static Vs. Dynamic Routing 447
26.3 Static Routing In Hosts And A Default Route 448
26.4 Dynamic Routing And Routers 449
26.5 Routing In The Global Internet 450
26.6 Autonomous System Concept 451
26.7 The Two Types Of Internet Routing Protocols 451
26.8 Routes And Data Traffic 454
26.9 The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) 454
26.10 The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) 456
26.11 RIP Packet Format 457
26.12 The Open Shortest Path First Protocol (OSPF) 458
26.13 An Example OSPF Graph 459
Contents xix

26.14 OSPF Areas 459

26.15 Intermediate System - Intermediate System (IS-IS) 460
26.16 Multicast Routing 461
26.17 Summary 465

PART V Other Networking Concepts & Technologies

Chapter 27 Network Performance (QoS And DiffServ) 469

27.1 Introduction 469

27.2 Measures Of Performance 469
27.3 Latency Or Delay 470
27.4 Capacity, Throughput, And Goodput 472
27.5 Understanding Throughput And Delay 473
27.6 Jitter 474
27.7 The Relationship Between Delay And Throughput 475
27.8 Measuring Delay, Throughput, And Jitter 476
27.9 Passive Measurement, Small Packets, And NetFlow 478
27.10 Quality Of Service (QoS) 479
27.11 Fine-Grain And Coarse-Grain QoS 480
27.12 Implementation Of QoS 482
27.13 Internet QoS Technologies 484
27.14 Summary 485

Chapter 28 Multimedia And IP Telephony (VoIP) 489

28.1 Introduction 489

28.2 Real-Time Data Transmission And Best-Effort Delivery 489
28.3 Delayed Playback And Jitter Buffers 490
28.4 Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) 491
28.5 RTP Encapsulation 492
28.6 IP Telephony 493
28.7 Signaling And VoIP Signaling Standards 494
28.8 Components Of An IP Telephone System 495
28.9 Summary Of Protocols And Layering 498
28.10 H.323 Characteristics 499
28.11 H.323 Layering 499
28.12 SIP Characteristics And Methods 500
28.13 An Example SIP Session 501
28.14 Telephone Number Mapping And Routing 502
28.15 Summary 503
xx Contents

Chapter 29 Network Security 507

29.1 Introduction 507

29.2 Criminal Exploits And Attacks 507
29.3 Security Policy 511
29.4 Responsibility And Control 512
29.5 Security Technologies 513
29.6 Hashing: An Integrity And Authentication Mechanism 513
29.7 Access Control And Passwords 514
29.8 Encryption: A Fundamental Security Technique 514
29.9 Private Key Encryption 515
29.10 Public Key Encryption 515
29.11 Authentication With Digital Signatures 516
29.12 Key Authorities And Digital Certificates 517
29.13 Firewalls 519
29.14 Firewall Implementation With A Packet Filter 520
29.15 Intrusion Detection Systems 522
29.16 Content Scanning And Deep Packet Inspection 522
29.17 Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) 523
29.18 The Use of VPN Technology For Telecommuting 525
29.19 Packet Encryption Vs. Tunneling 526
29.20 Security Technologies 528
29.21 Summary 529

Chapter 30 Network Management (SNMP) 533

30.1 Introduction 533

30.2 Managing An Intranet 533
30.3 FCAPS: The Industry Standard Model 534
30.4 Example Network Elements 536
30.5 Network Management Tools 536
30.6 Network Management Applications 538
30.7 Simple Network Management Protocol 539
30.8 SNMP’s Fetch-Store Paradigm 539
30.9 The SNMP MIB And Object Names 540
30.10 The Variety Of MIB Variables 541
30.11 MIB Variables That Correspond To Arrays 541
30.12 Summary 542

Chapter 31 Software Defined Networking (SDN) 545

31.1 Introduction 545

31.2 Marketing Hype And Reality 545
Contents xxi

31.3 Motivation For A New Approach 546

31.4 Conceptual Organization Of A Network Element 548
31.5 Control Plane Modules And The Hardware Interface 549
31.6 A New Paradigm: Software Defined Networking 550
31.7 Unanswered Questions 551
31.8 Shared Controllers And Network Connections 552
31.9 SDN Communication 553
31.10 OpenFlow: A Controller-To-Element Protocol 554
31.11 Classification Engines In Switches 555
31.12 TCAM And High-Speed Classification 556
31.13 Classification Across Multiple Protocol Layers 557
31.14 TCAM Size And The Need For Multiple Patterns 557
31.15 Items OpenFlow Can Specify 558
31.16 Traditional And Extended IP Forwarding 559
31.17 End-To-End Path With MPLS Using Layer 2 560
31.18 Dynamic Rule Creation And Control Of Flows 561
31.19 A Pipeline Model For Flow Tables 562
31.20 SDN’s Potential Effect On Network Vendors 563
31.21 Summary 564

Chapter 32 The Internet Of Things 567

32.1 Introduction 567

32.2 Embedded Systems 567
32.3 Choosing A Network Technology 569
32.4 Energy Harvesting 570
32.5 Low Power Wireless Communication 570
32.6 Mesh Topology 571
32.7 The ZigBee Alliance 571
32.8 802.15.4 Radios And Wireless Mesh Networks 572
32.9 Internet Connectivity And Mesh Routing 573
32.10 IPv6 In A ZigBee Mesh Network 574
32.11 The ZigBee Forwarding Paradigm 575
32.12 Other Protocols In the ZigBee Stack 576
32.13 Summary 577

Chapter 33 Trends In Networking Technologies And Uses 579

33.1 Introduction 579

33.2 The Need For Scalable Internet Services 579
33.3 Content Caching (Akamai) 580
33.4 Web Load Balancers 580
33.5 Server Virtualization 581
xxii Contents

33.6 Peer-To-Peer Communication 581

33.7 Distributed Data Centers And Replication 582
33.8 Universal Representation (XML) 582
33.9 Social Networking 583
33.10 Mobility And Wireless Networking 583
33.11 Digital Video 583
33.12 Higher-Speed Access And Switching 584
33.13 Cloud Computing 584
33.14 Overlay Networks 584
33.15 Middleware 586
33.16 Widespread Deployment Of IPv6 586
33.17 Summary 587

Appendix 1 A Simplified Application Programming Interface 589

Index 617
Preface

I thank the many readers who have taken the time to write to me with comments
on previous editions of Computer Networks And Internets. The reviews have been in-
credibly positive, and the audience is surprisingly wide. In addition to students who use
the text in courses, networking professionals have written to praise its clarity and to
describe how it helped them pass professional certification exams. Many enthusiastic
comments have also arrived from countries around the world; some about the English
language version and some about foreign translations. The success is especially satisfy-
ing in a market glutted with networking books. This book stands out because of its
breadth of coverage, logical organization, explanation of concepts, focus on the Internet,
and appeal to both professors and students.

What’s New In This Edition

In response to suggestions from readers and recent changes in networking, the new
edition has been completely revised and updated. As always, material on older technol-
ogies has been significantly reduced and replaced by material on new technologies. The
significant changes include:

Updates throughout each chapter

Additional figures to enchance explanations
Integration of IPv4 and IPv6 in all chapters
Improved coverage of MPLS and tunneling
New chapter on Software Defined Networking and OpenFlow
New chapter on the Internet of Things and Zigbee

Approach Taken

Should courses take a top-down or bottom-up approach to the subject? In a

bottom-up approach, one starts with transmission of bits over a single wire, and then
learns how successive layers of protocols expand the functionality. In a top-down ap-
proach, one starts with high-level applications, initially learning only enough to under-
stand how such applications operate. Later, one learns about the underlying details.
xxiv Preface

This text combines the best of top-down and bottom-up approaches. The text be-
gins with a discussion of network applications and the communication paradigms that
the Internet offers. It allows students to understand the facilities the Internet provides to
applications before studying the underlying technologies that implement the facilities.
Following the discussion of applications, the text presents networking in a logical
manner so a reader understands how each new technology builds on lower layer tech-
nologies.

Intended Audience

The text answers the basic question: how do computer networks and internets
operate? It provides a comprehensive, self-contained tour through all of networking that
describes applications, Internet protocols, network technologies, such as LANs and
WANs, and low-level details, such as data transmission and wiring. It shows how pro-
tocols use the underlying hardware and how applications use the protocol stack to pro-
vide functionality for users.
Intended for upper-division undergraduates or beginning graduate students who
have little or no background in networking, the text does not use sophisticated
mathematics, nor does it assume a detailed knowledge of operating systems. Instead, it
defines concepts clearly, uses examples and figures to illustrate how the technology
operates, and states results of analysis without providing mathematical proofs.

Organization Of The Material

The text is divided into five parts. The first part (Chapters 1–4) focuses on uses of
the Internet and network applications. It describes protocol layering, the client-server
model of interaction, the socket API, and gives examples of application-layer protocols
used in the Internet.
The second part (Chapters 5–12) explains data communications, and presents back-
ground on the underlying hardware, the basic vocabulary, and fundamental concepts
used throughout networking, such as bandwidth, modulation, and multiplexing. The fi-
nal chapter in the second part presents access and interconnection technologies used in
the Internet, and uses concepts from previous chapters to explain each technology.
The third part (Chapters 13–19) focuses on packet switching and packet switching
network technologies. Chapters give the motivation for using packets, introduce the
IEEE model for layer 2 protocols, and consider wired and wireless networking technolo-
gies, such as Ethernet and Wi-Fi. The third part also introduces the four basic
categories of network technologies: LAN, MAN, PAN, and WAN, and discusses rout-
ing in WANs. The final chapter presents examples of network technologies that have
been used in the Internet.
Organization Of The Material xxv

The fourth part (Chapters 20–26) focuses on the Internet protocols. After discuss-
ing the motivation for internetworking, the text describes Internet architecture, routers,
Internet addressing, address binding, and the TCP/IP protocol suite. Protocols such as
IPv4, IPv6, TCP, UDP, ICMP, ICMPv6, and ARP are reviewed in detail, allowing stu-
dents to understand how the concepts relate to practice. Because IPv6 has (finally) be-
gun to be deployed, material on IPv6 has been integrated into the chapters. Each
chapter presents general concepts, and then explains how the concepts are implemented
in IPv4 and IPv6. Chapter 25 on TCP covers the important topic of reliability in trans-
port protocols.
The final part of the text (Chapters 27–33) considers topics that cross multiple
layers of a protocol stack, including network performance, network security, network
management, bootstrapping, multimedia support, and the Internet of Things. Chapter 31
presents Software Defined Networking, one of the most exciting new developments in
networking. Each chapter draws on topics from previous parts of the text. The place-
ment of these chapters at the end of the text follows the approach of defining concepts
before they are used, and does not imply that the topics are less important.

Use In Courses

The text is ideally suited for a one-semester introductory course on networking

taught at the junior or senior level. Designed for a comprehensive course, it covers the
entire subject from wiring to applications. Although many instructors choose to skip
over the material on data communications, I encourage them to extract key concepts and
terminology that will be important for later chapters. No matter how courses are orga-
nized, I encourage instructors to engage students with hands-on assignments. In the un-
dergraduate course at Purdue, for example, students are given weekly lab assignments
that span a wide range of topics: from network measurement and packet analysis to net-
work programming. By the time they finish our course, each student is expected to
know how an IP router uses a forwarding table to choose a next hop for an IP datagram;
describe how a datagram crosses the Internet; identify and explain fields in an Ethernet
frame; know how TCP identifies a connection and why a concurrent web server can
handle multiple connections to port 80; compute the length of a single bit as it propa-
gates across a wire at the speed of light; explain why TCP is classified as end-to-end;
know why machine-to-machine communication is important for the Internet of Things;
and understand the motivation for SDN.
The goal of a single course is breadth, not depth — to cover the subject, one can-
not focus on a few technologies or a few concepts. Thus, the key to a successful course
lies in maintaining a quick pace. To cover the most important topics in a semester, the
lower layer material in Part II can be condensed, and the sections on networks and inter-
networking can be allocated four weeks each, leaving two weeks for the introductory
material on applications and topics such as network management and security. The de-
tails of socket programming can be covered in programming exercises, either in labs or
as homework problems.
xxvi Preface

Instructors should impress on students the importance of concepts and principles:

specific technologies may become obsolete in a few years, but the principles will
remain. In addition, instructors should give students a feeling for the excitement that
pervades networking. The excitement continues because networking keeps changing, as
the new era of Software Defined Networking illustrates.
Although no single topic is challenging, students may find the quantity of material
daunting. In particular, students are faced with a plethora of new terms. Networking
acronyms and jargon can be especially confusing; students spend much of the time
becoming accustomed to using proper terms. In classes at Purdue, we encourage stu-
dents to keep a list of terms (and have found that a weekly vocabulary quiz helps per-
suade students to learn terminology as the semester proceeds, rather than waiting until
an exam).
Because programming and experimentation are crucial to helping students learn
about networks, hands-on experience is an essential part of any networking course†. At
Purdue, we begin the semester by having students construct client software to access the
Web and extract data (e.g., write a program to visit a web site and print the current tem-
perature). Appendix 1 is extremely helpful in getting started: the appendix explains a
simplified API. The API, which is available on the web site, allows students to write
working code before they learn about protocols, addresses, sockets, or the (somewhat
tedious) socket API. Later in the semester, of course, students learn socket program-
ming. Eventually, they are able to write a concurrent web server. Support for server-
side scripting is optional, but most students complete it. In addition to application pro-
gramming, students use our lab facilities to capture packets from a live network, write
programs that decode packet headers (e.g., Ethernet, IP, and TCP), and observe TCP
connections. If advanced lab facilities are not available, students can experiment with
free packet analyzer software, such as Wireshark.
In addition to code for the simplified API, the web site for the text contains extra
materials for students and instructors:

http://www.netbook.cs.purdue.edu

I thank all the people who have contributed to editions of the book. Many grad
students at Purdue have contributed suggestions and criticism. Baijian (Justin) Yang
and Bo Sang each recommended the addition of text and figures to help their students
understand the material better. Fred Baker, Ralph Droms, and Dave Oran from Cisco
contributed to earlier editions. Lami Kaya suggested how the chapters on data com-
munications could be organized, and made many other valuable suggestions. Special
thanks go to my wife and partner, Christine, whose careful editing and helpful sugges-
tions made many improvements throughout.

Douglas E. Comer

†A separate lab manual, Hands-On Networking, is available that describes possible experiments and as-
signments that can be performed on a variety of hardware, including a single computer or a set of computers
on a local area network.
 About The Author

Dr. Douglas Comer is an internationally recognized expert on computer

networking, TCP/IP protocols, and the Internet. One of the researchers who
contributed to the Internet as it was being formed in the late 1970s and 1980s,
he was a member of the Internet Architecture Board, the group responsible for
guiding the Internet’s development. He was also chairman of the CSNET
technical committee, a member of the CSNET executive committee, and chair-
man of DARPA’s Distributed Systems Architecture Board.
Comer consults for industry on the design of computer networks. In addi-
tion to giving talks in US universities, each year Comer lectures to academics
and networking professionals around the world. Comer’s operating system,
Xinu, and implementation of TCP/IP protocols (both documented in his text-
books), have been used in commercial products.
Comer is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Purdue Univer-
sity. Formerly, he served as VP of Research at Cisco Systems. Comer teaches
courses on networking, internetworking, computer architecture, and operating
systems. At Purdue, he has developed innovative labs that provide students
with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with operating systems, net-
works, and protocols. In addition to writing a series of best-selling technical
books that have been translated into sixteen languages, he served as the North
American editor of the journal Software — Practice and Experience for twenty
years. Comer is a Fellow of the ACM.
Additional information can be found at:

www.cs.purdue.edu/people/comer
This page intentionally left blank
 Enthusiastic Comments About
Computer Networks And Internets

“The book is one of the best that I have ever read. Thank you.”
Gokhan Mutlu
Ege University, Turkey

“I just could not put it down before I finished it. It was simply superb.”
Lalit Y. Raju
Regional Engineering College, India

“An excellent book for beginners and professionals alike — well written,
comprehensive coverage, and easy to follow.”
John Lin
Bell Labs

“The breadth is astonishing.”

George Varghese
University of California at San Diego

“It’s truly the best book of its type that I have ever seen. A huge vote of
thanks!”
Chez Ciechanowicz
Info. Security Group, University Of London

“The miniature webserver in Appendix 1 is brilliant — readers will get a big

thrill out of it.”
Dennis Brylow
Marquette University

“Wow, what an excellent textbook.”

Jaffet A. Cordoba
Technical Writer

“The book’s great!”

Peter Parry
South Birmingham College, UK
 More Comments About
Computer Networks And Internets

“Superb in breadth of coverage. Simplicity in delivery is the hallmark. An

ideal selection for a broad and strong foundation on which to build the super-
structure. A must read for starters or those engaged in the networking
domain. The book constitutes an essential part of many of our training solu-
tions.”
Vishwanathan Thyagu
TETCOS, Bangalore, India

“Wow, when I was studying for the CCNA exam, the clear explanations in this
book solved all the problems I had understanding the OSI model and TCP/IP
data transfer. It opened my mind to the fascinating world of networks and
TCP/IP.”
Solomon Tang
PCCW, Hong Kong

“An invaluable tool, particularly for programmers and computer scientists desir-
ing a clear, broad-based understanding of computer networks.”
Peter Chuks Obiefuna
East Carolina University

“The textbook covers a lot of material, and the author makes the contents very
easy to read and understand, which is the biggest reason I like this book. It’s
very appropriate for a 3-credit class in that a lot of material can be covered.
The student’s positive feedback shows they too appreciate using this text-
book.”
Jie Hu
Saint Cloud State University

“Despite the plethora of acronyms that infest the discipline of networking, this
book is not intimidating. Comer is an excellent writer, who expands and ex-
plains the terminology. The text covers the entire scope of networking from
wires to the web. I find it outstanding.”
Jennifer Seitzer
University of Dayton
 Other Books By Douglas Comer
Internetworking With TCP/IP Volume I: Principles, Protocols
and Architectures, 6th edition: 2013, ISBN 9780136085300
The classic reference in the field for anyone who wants to understand Internet tech-
nology in more depth, Volume I surveys the TCP/IP protocol suite and describes each
component. The text covers protocols such as IPv4, IPv6, ICMP, TCP, UDP, ARP,
SNMP, MPLS, and RTP, as well as concepts such as VPNs, address translation, classif-
ication, Software Defined Networking, and the Internet of Things.

Internetworking With TCP/IP Volume II: Design, Implementation, and

Internals (with David Stevens), 3rd edition: 1999, ISBN 0-13-973843-6
Volume II continues the discussion of Volume I by using code from a running im-
plementation of TCP/IP to illustrate all the details.

Internetworking With TCP/IP Volume III: Client-Server Programming

and Applications (with David Stevens)
Linux/POSIX sockets version: 2000, ISBN 0-13-032071-4
AT&T TLI Version: 1994, ISBN 0-13-474230-3
Windows Sockets Version: 1997, ISBN 0-13-848714-6
Volume III describes the fundamental concept of client-server computing used to
build all distributed computing systems, and explains server designs as well as the tools
and techniques used to build clients and servers. Three versions of Volume III are
available for the socket API (Linux/POSIX), the TLI API (AT&T System V), and the
Windows Sockets API (Microsoft).

Network Systems Design Using Network Processors, Intel 2xxx version,

2006, ISBN 0-13-187286-9
A comprehensive overview of the design and engineering of packet processing sys-
tems such as bridges, routers, TCP splicers, and NAT boxes. With a focus on network
processor technology, Network Systems Design explains the principles of design,
presents tradeoffs, and gives example code for a network processor.

The Internet Book: Everything you need to know about computer network-
ing and how the Internet works, 4th Edition 2007, ISBN 0-13-233553-0
A gentle introduction to networking and the Internet that does not assume the
reader has a technical background. It explains the Internet in general terms, without
focusing on a particular computer or a particular brand of software. Ideal for someone
who wants to become Internet and computer networking literate; an extensive glossary
of terms and abbreviations is included.

For a complete list of Comer’s textbooks, see:

www.comerbooks.com
This page intentionally left blank
 PART I

Introduction To
Networking And
Internet Applications

An overview of networking
and the interface that
application programs use
to communicate across
the Internet

Chapters
1 Introduction And Overview
2 Internet Trends
3 Internet Applications And Network
Programming
4 Traditional Internet Applications
 Chapter Contents
1.1 Growth Of Computer Networking, 1
1.2 Why Networking Seems Complex, 2
1.3 The Five Key Aspects Of Networking, 2
1.4 Public And Private Parts Of The Internet, 6
1.5 Networks, Interoperability, And Standards, 8
1.6 Protocol Suites And Layering Models, 9
1.7 How Data Passes Through Layers, 11
1.8 Headers And Layers, 12
1.9 ISO And The OSI Seven Layer Reference Model, 13
1.10 Remainder Of The Text, 14
1.11 Summary, 14
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN