SO MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



Hamites of North-east Africa. Thus the Unyoro chief, Riongo, 

 placed photographs in their proper position, and was able to 

 identify the negro portraits as belonging to the Shuli, Lango, or 

 other tribes, of which he had a personal knowledge. This I have 

 called a remarkable fact, because it bespoke in the lower races a 

 natural faculty for observation, a power to recognise what for 

 many Arabs or Egyptians of high rank was a hopeless puzzle. 

 An Egyptian pasha in Khartum could never make out how a 

 human face in profile showed only one eye and one ear, and he 

 took the portrait of a fashionable Parisian lady in extremely low 

 dress for that of the bearded sun-burnt American naval officer 

 who had shown him the photograph 1 ." From this one is almost 

 tempted to infer that, amongst Moslem peoples, all sense of 

 plastic, figurative, or pictorial art has been deadened by the 

 Koranic precept forbidding the representation of the human form 

 in any way. 



The Welle peoples show themselves true Negroes in the 

 possession of another and more precious quality, 

 Hurnour * ne sense f humour, although this is probably a 



quality which comes late in the life of a race. Any- 

 how it is a distinct Negro characteristic, which Junker was able 

 to turn to good account during the building of his famous 

 Lacrima station in Ndoruma's country. " In all this I could 

 again notice how like children the Negroes are in many respects. 

 Once at work they seemed animated by a sort of childlike sense 

 of honour. They delighted in praise, though even a frown or a 

 word of reproach could also excite their hilarity. Thus a loud 

 burst of laughter would, for instance, follow the contrast between 

 a piece of good and bad workmanship. Like children, they would 

 point the finger of scorn at each other 2 ." 



One morning Ndoruma, hearing that they had again struck 

 work, had the great war-drum beaten, whereupon they rushed to 

 arms and mustered in great force from all quarters. But on 

 finding that there was no enemy to march against, and that they 

 had only been summoned to resume operations at the station, 

 they enjoyed the joke hugely, and after a general explosion of 



1 i. p. 245. 2 n. p. 140. 



