EVOLUTION OF MENTAL CHARACTERS 391 



protection against their enemies, but to avoid his habits and to 

 shut out his ideas. Compared with Europeans their adults are 

 frequently children in imagination and in simplicity of belief, 

 though not infrequently one may have the mental faculties of 

 a full-grown man.' i Of the Bangala of the Upper Congo Weeks 

 says that ' up to the age of 14 and 15, the boys and girls, especially 

 the boys, are very receptive and easily taught ; but after that 

 age comparatively few make real advance in learning '.^ This 

 is attributed partly to the fact that at this age other matters 

 occupy their attention — working on their own account, looking 

 round for a wife, and so on, but more especially to the fact that 

 by this age they have learnt all that their fathers have to teach 

 them and thenceforth settle down into a routine. Of the men of 

 the races of Central Africa Johnston speaks as follows : ' his 

 mental powers are not much developed by native training, but I 

 am certain that he has in him possibilities in the present generation 

 as great of those of the average Indian ; and there is really no 

 saying what he may come to after several generations of education. 

 I think it is truly remarkable the way in which a little savage 

 boy can be put to school and taught to read in a few months 

 and subsequently become a skilful printer or telegraph clerk or 

 even book keeper. The little boys are much sharper and shrewder 

 than the grown-up male. When the youth arrives at puberty 

 there is undoubtedly a tendency towards an arrested development 

 of the mind.' ^ This latter tendency is attributed to the attention 

 paid to sexual matters. This arrest of development is a feature 

 in all descriptions of the mental characters of these races. Junod 

 is inclined, however, to think that these descriptions are on the 

 whole exaggerated.* In order to enable us to form such judgement 

 on this point a few further quotations may be given. Ellis, 

 describing the Ewe-speaking peoples of Togoland, mentions the 

 precocity of the children when compared with Europeans^ and 

 says that, ' at puberty the physical nature masters the intellect 

 and frequently completely deadens it '.^ The Bambala children 

 ' are very precocious, and up to the age of puberty are often 

 astonishingly intelligent ; after puberty, however, they become 

 exceedingly apathetic ; sexual excess and continual intoxication 

 with palm wine contribute largely to this result '.® Speaking 



» Theal, loc. cit., p. 265. ^ Weeks, J. A. I., vol. xxxix, p. 131. ' Johnston, 



British Central Africa, p. 408. * Junod, So^ith African Tribe, p. 100. * Ellis, 

 Ewe-Speaking Peoples, p. 9. ' Torday and Joyce, J. A. I., vol. xxxv, p. 268. 



