Description

On the bank of a river, three Africans build an ehem, or a "small boat." One breaks a piece of wood over his knee; another chops wood with an axe, and the third wades through the river with a bundle of wood on his back. The cloud of smoke rising from behind the boat suggests that the construction process has necessitated a fire. Behind them, a group of Africans paddle a finished ehem. In the background, a Jenge-Jenge, or an African bridge, stretches across the river. The bridge appears to consist of wooden planks, and each of its four corners is tied to a palm tree, so that two pairs of trees secure the bridge on either side. Ropes stretched between the trees also provide hand-rails. Two men are shown crossing the bridge; each carries a large bundle on his back.; Illustration in Pieter van der Aa's La galerie agreable du monde, où l'on voit et un grand nombre de cartes tres-exactes et de belles tailles-douces, les principaux empires, roiaumes, republiques, provinces, villes, bourgs et forteresses . . . (Le tout mis en ordre & executé à Leide, par Pierre vander Aa [1729?]).; In the absence of pagination, 41 has been written to the right of the set of images.; A closely related version of the engraving (mirror image) had been published earlier in John Ogilby's Africa: Being an Accurate Description of the Regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid (London, 1670), p. 454.

Record Contributed By

The Library Company of Philadelphia

Record Harvested From

PA Digital