HONESTY. 19 



himself in silence beside the fire. The women 

 with doubt and anxiety examine his shoes and 

 dress for spots of blood, that may betoken the 

 death of an animal, but discovering none, put the 

 question, " Did you see no deer ?" " Not one, the 

 deer are all gone, not a single footstep was to be 

 seen." When the colloquy has continued for a 

 time, and hope seems to be extinct, he then draws 

 out from beneath his shirt two or three tongues, 

 as the case may be, and says with an air of the 

 utmost ind inference, " You may go for the meat." 

 It is not, however, merely at such times, and to 

 enhance the pleasure by previous disappointment, 

 that truth is violated, but on almost every occa- 

 sion ; and the skill of an Old Bailey practitioner 

 would find exercise in eliciting facts from the mass 

 of contradictions with which they overload them. 

 A story which was at first a pure invention, or 

 perhaps, a perversion of some simple occurrence, 

 becomes so changed by the additions it receives in 

 its transmission from individual to individual, that 

 it deceives the originators, and if it bears on the 

 safety of the community, may spread consternation 

 among them, and occasion a hasty flight. 



It is pleasant, instead of dwelling longer on this 

 defect, to turn to another feature — their strict 

 honesty ; the practice of the 'Tinne with regard to 



the property of white people differing remarkably 



c 2 



