SOME NATIVE TRAITS. 99 



This is about December, so at that time it is very difficult to get them to leave 

 their villages and act as carriers or do other work. 



As a rule, the natives in this country are very respectful to white men, but their 

 respect can only be gained by never treating them familiarly. 



This respect is rather tinged with fear, and if they did not fear the whites I am 

 quite sure they would not respect them. 



Sometimes they try to take advantage, and then a certain amount of harshness 

 in dealing with them will be necessary. 



A white man should never let them think he is afraid of anything, for all savage 

 races have a great respect for fearlessness. 



The officials are sometimes inclined to give the natives the impression that the 

 non-officials are nobodies, which is the greatest mistake, for at all costs the prestige 

 of the white race should be kept up. In such cases the non-official has to act 

 himself, and show the natives that he is quite capable of safeguarding his own 

 interests. 



When an official has got his district in good order, he should be kept there, 

 as it unsettles natives to have a new master every year or two. The responsibilities 

 of an official in this country are very great, for some of the districts are as big 

 or perhaps bigger than the largest county in the British Isles. Most of the officials 

 are comparatively young men, so they have to be very sensible ones to gain the 

 respect of the whites, as well as the natives, in their district. The laws in force 

 in this country are framed on the same basis as British law, with slight exceptions. 

 A native can hardly be treated from the same standpoint as a white man, and 

 allowance has to be made for the difference in colour and racial feeling. 



One of the finest qualities the natives possess is their spendid endurance under 

 hardships and discomforts. For instance, they will carry a load weighing 5olb. day 

 after day, doing an average of twenty miles daily. I think they are able to do 

 this because their minds are a blank, and they jvalk along in a mechanical way. 

 A white man could not do it, for he would get impatient and worried. 



No man could have better servants in the bush, and considering that it is only a 

 few years since the white men came to live among them they are wonderfully 

 intelligent. The boys and youths seem to be smarter than the older men, doubtless 

 because they are able to accustom themselves to the new condition of things 

 more easily. 



The natives' minds are full of superstition, and no amount of education or 

 enlightenment will ever dispel their belief in the supernatural. 



They still practise witchcraft, and undergo the ordeal by poisoning. The 



