242 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



obtained from the Zulus, and which resembles Menenius Agrippa's 

 famous apologue: " Guess this: A person is invested with the func- 

 tions of a king. He does nothing; his people work for his profit, while 

 he continues idle. He tells them what they have to do, since he sees 

 for them. It is he who directs them to where there is something to 

 eat, then his people bring the food to the house; but he himself does 

 nothing; he remains the sovereign, and only deigns to help his sub- 

 jects. One day they rebelled. They came to the king and said: 

 ' You ought not to be our sovereign and to be doing nothing; we 

 do not feel any good from your power.' He answered: ' Yery well; 

 since you will not have me for your king, I will be still and look on 

 the ground, and it will not be long before you find out that I am in- 

 deed your king; you will fall over precipices, you will be eaten up 

 by wild beasts, and you will starve to death because you can not 

 find anything to eat. You will go blind if you try to fight against 

 me.' 



" Then the rebels saw indeed that he was a sovereign if he could 

 talk that way. And they said: *We will recognize you as our 

 ruler so that we may live, since, if we starve to death, the royal 

 majesty we claim for ourselves will do us no good. A man is no 

 king if he is not alive.' So he was recognized as sovereign by all the 

 country, and his kingdom was happy. 



" He was a person who never worked, and always stayed at home. 

 If he fell sick, all his people were in danger of starving; nobody left 

 his house, for fear of falling into a pit; every one prayed for the 

 recovery of the monarch, and rejoiced when he was well." 



The answer to the riddle is, " The eye." 



Songs are abundant among the blacks, and fill partly the func- 

 tions of the Greek comedies in the time of Aristophanes and of 

 newspapers in modern states. They denounce suspected persons, 

 glorify victorious soldiers, and abuse the enemies of the country. 

 Sometimes the singers improvise variants and celebrate the praises 

 of their hearers, but this very rarely happens with respect to the 

 whites, for the negroes generally cherish a great aversion against 

 them, and they apply satirical verses to Europeans. For example, 

 a Hottentot pupil ridiculed his European master: " O son of a little 

 woman — who never had milk enough — you were sent among us! 

 The white man first examines carefully the place where he is going to 

 sit — and only then helps you. Oh, the little man — son of a little 

 woman — our people are sons of lions." 



The songs vary much in construction according to the tribe. 

 They consist of strophes and are generally rhymed. Among some 

 peoples, however, the ear is gratified with a simple assonance. The 

 musical sense is much developed among the blacks, and a European 



