CHAPTER XVI 



MISSIONARIES, SETTLERS, AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS 



Intelligent and self-sacrificing men and women who 

 go out to live and work as missionaries among such tribes 

 as those partly described in the previous chapter, certainly 

 deserve a great deal of credit and commendation. For 

 the people of East Africa are, without exception, in their 

 native state revoltingly dirty, ignorant, superstitious, and 

 cruel. At the same time they seem to be possessed of a 

 great amount of false pride, one tribe thinking itself far 

 superior not only to the other tribes of the country but 

 also to the white man. Love, as we understand it, and 

 tender compassion they seem not to know at all. Not 

 only do they hate their enemies, which generally include 

 all other tribes than theirs, but they are exceedingly cruel 

 even to the people of their own household, often throwing 

 out the old and sick people into the jungle to be devoured 

 by carnivorous beasts. 



One of the numerous superstitions of the natives is 

 that if a person dies in a hut, this will bring great misfor- 

 tune and grief to the other inhabitants. Therefore, as 

 soon as they think that a member of the household is so 

 sick that he or she is liable to die they carry the sick one 

 out and often even tie him in the thorn bush a few hundred 

 yards away from the village, so that he may be killed and 



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