4 oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The negro in his native condition is not apparently of a lower 

 grade of natural intelligence than the European of the common class. 

 He prohahly excels the European in a kind of selfish cunning, while 

 the restraint of moral scruples and of the finer feelings operates less 

 strongly upon him. Yet he is not destitute of a sort of moral in- 

 stinct, of a kind of taboo-conscience, that causes him to hesitate to do 

 wrono-. If he can not resist the temptation, he resorts to sophistics to 

 give himself an apparent justification. This is a remarkably well-de- 

 veloped trait in his character. For this reason the negro is never an 

 open thief, but will always seek or make an excuse, under the opera- 

 tion of which his robbery may be caused to appear in the light of a 

 reparation made to him. Of such character are the numerous mi- 

 longas which play so great a part in the life of the traveling trader, 

 the name of which, a much-used word of unpleasant sound, combines 

 in itself various equivocal ideas of criminal process, liability to penal- 

 ties, oppression, and a great clamor. As an example of the milonga, 

 we may notice a favorite trick among several of the tribes of sending 

 their women into the camps of passing traders to tempt their members 

 by coquettish behavior. On the slightest occasion, the men, who have 

 been watching, rush in in a threatening way, and demand a quantity 

 of goods as a recompense for the affront that has been offered them. 

 The trader has to satisfy them, for he has not force enough to resist 

 them. Another trick is to leave manioc-roots or baskets of grain in 

 the road, where the hungry travelers may be prompted to take them 

 up, when a similar scene of surprise and extortion will be enacted. 



The negro is above everything positivist, practical, and materialist, 

 and is inaccessible to intangible considerations. He is not, it is true, 

 destitute of a sense of beauty, and has a word for the idea. But al- 

 though, other conditions being the same, he will prefer a handsome 

 woman to an ugly one, he is always moved by practical views in his 

 choice. With this practicality is associated the persistent propensity 

 toward falsehood that makes the traveler's way so hard. Hunger and 

 thirst, heat and cold, fever and privation have, I confess, often proved 

 less wearing upon me than the impossibility of ascertaining a fact by 

 means of direct questioning ; and I have frequently, in my vain strug- 

 gles after clear information, been tempted to anathematize language 

 as a tool of error. In indifferent matters the negro will say the first 

 thing that occurs to him, because that is the easiest ; in matters that 

 touch his interest, such as the value of anything he may have for sale, 

 no reply will suit him better than a false one. To these two incentives 

 to lying indifference and cunning is added a third, the sense of the 

 comic which much questioning arouses within him. Some traders are 

 able to enjoy the stories the blacks tell under such circumstances ; and 

 they are perhaps harmless, unless the traveler puts them into his note- 

 book and prints them for truth. The negro's moods are cheerful and 

 wanton, superficial and changeable. Passion and hysterical anger are 



