THE NEGRO IN GENERAL 



293 



from superstitious motives. As Sir Harry Johnston says, " Men will eat the flesh of lions to 

 make them brave, and the heart of a brave enemy is cooked and devoured by those who wish 

 to share his courage." 



The social organisation of the Negroes is primitive, and usually patriarchal. In many 

 cases the people live in independent families or in isolated village communities, with an 

 elder over each. Groups of villages may unite under a committee of elders or under a chief. 

 Many chiefs may be subject to a principal chief or king, whose power may be upheld by a 

 feudal system or be an absolute despotism. In either case slavery is nearly always an 

 important element in organised states. 



The character of the Negro is marked by extreme contrasts, the agricultural tribes differing 

 from the warrior castes of the organised military states. The Negroes are generally described 

 as indolent; but they are capable of great exertion, and where they are protected they will 

 work steadily in their own way. They are certainly usually avaricious, but on an impulse 

 will act with noble generosity; and their selfishness does not debar them from great feats of 

 self-sacrifice and devotion. As soldiers their sanguine disposition renders them naturally brave, 

 but in cases of reverse they are liable to panic; and though usually kind-hearted, in times of 

 excitement they are capable 

 of fiendish cruelty. 



The Negro industries 

 belong to a low stage of 

 civilisation. Even as agri- 

 culturists their methods 

 are crude. Thus the ground 

 is cleared by fire, is never 

 manured, and is broken up 

 by small iron hoes or pointed 

 sticks. Weaving is carried 

 out among the more ad- 

 vanced tribes, and most of 

 them extract iron by simple 

 hand-forges from grains of 

 oxide of iron collected from 

 stream-beds. Tanning is 

 unknown, except where it 

 has been learnt from Berber 

 tribes, and the pottery is all 

 of the most primitive type. 

 Wood-carving is done with 

 knives, but the designs are 

 crude and the objects made 

 are always simple, except 

 when affected by non-Negro 

 influence. 



The religion of the 

 Negroes is typically fetish- 

 ism, though it may be very 

 slightly developed. Ap- 

 parently all Negroes have 

 some idea of a supernatural 

 being, even if their ideas 

 be vague; and they apply 

 their word for god to rain, THREE KAFFIRS. 



fltalo by Mr. 11. E. 



