REASONS FOR NEGLECT 309 



definitely, though perhaps less obviously, through 

 the whole range of culture. When the acts of 

 European administrators are not purely arbitrary, 

 they do not depend upon a correct knowledge of 

 native customs and modes of thought but upon a 

 strange hybrid growth which has come into exis- 

 tence for use between the people and their rulers, 

 though the natives know perfectly well that it does 

 not correspond with the systems of customs, in- 

 herited from their forefathers, which they still 

 regard as right and proper and still follow whenever 

 they are allowed to manage their own affairs. 



The process I have sketched is perhaps a natural 

 mechanism by which indigenous customs are 

 modified as the result of the contact of peoples and 

 the blending of cultures, but though it may be called 

 "natural," it does not promote good government 

 nor does it foster a healthy sentiment of respect 

 towards rulers. It is not good that a people 

 should daily see men who hold themselves to 

 belong to a superior race, believing firmly in a code 

 of knowledge which every native knows to be only 

 a mongrel version of the truth. It would greatly 

 surprise many a white official who governs a subject 

 people if he could hear the natives laughing at his 

 mistakes, not in the good humoured way which 

 meets one willing to learn, but with the touch of 

 contempt which comes from the daily sight of 

 people confident in their wisdom but yet persisting 

 in gross mistakes, and with the touch of bitterness 



