370 THE LAND OF THE LION 
them or spurred them upward? What is it that has ever 
held the black man back? Probably many causes com- 
bined to produce this tragedy of arrested development, 
causes that science is not likely ever fully to know, for 
the African, as far as we know, has no history and no 
tradition. 
But one cause, and one most important to the student 
of humanity, we may understand and be guided by. It 
is the particularly favourable (szc) nature of the African 
environment. In his case, that richness and favourable- 
ness are in themselves his greatest hindrance. ‘The opulence 
of his sunny native land is his undoing. He scratches the 
ground with wooden hoe and twice in the year it answers 
him with abundant harvest. For months in the spring- 
time he can wander where he will. So long as he keeps out 
of enemies’ country he has no need for thought of the 
morrow. The bees alone can and do feed him, and the 
honey bird daily guides him to the luxury he craves. This 
is on the high tablelands where the thorny mimosas grow 
on hundreds of square miles of luxuriant green uplands. 
In the lower country, near the coastline, life is easier still. 
The sea 1s swarming with delicious fish. Bananas grow 
with little cultivation all the year round. Beans, sugar- 
cane, cocoa-nut and a great variety of vegetables ripen 
easily. [he only shelter he needs is quickly constructed 
from the sedges of a neighbouring river bank, or the long 
tough elephant grass. So long as he is left in peace and is 
safe from the slave-hunter, his is a life of careless ease, of 
sunshine and of plenty. If he is a herdsman, as are many of 
the more inland tribes, existence may be more precarious, 
but under usual circumstances his life could not be accounted 
a hard one. His goats, sheep, donkeys, camels and cattle, 
multiply exceedingly, and he pays nothing for their pas- 
turing. The little boys and growing youths tend the herds 
in the daytime, during the night the more fully grown men 
