CHAPTER XX 



SOME NOTES ON THE LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 



To the white man who has not spent any of his 

 time in Africa, the life of the average African native 

 is a sealed book ; and as there are very great 

 differences of opinion as to the value of that phrase, 

 'the happy savage,' especially in relation to the 

 social conditions of the masses in civilized countries, 

 a brief description of the usual way in which that 

 ' savage ' lives may be of interest and furnish 

 material from which the reader can draw his own 

 conclusions. 



Though customs differ in different districts, there 

 is a great similarity in the home life of natives of 

 most African tribes, more especially those inhabiting 

 that tract of Africa between the Zambesi River and 

 Khartum. The negro comes into the world without 

 either much pain or much forethought on the part of 

 his mother, and goes through life happy and 

 careless. Till the age of eight or nine, he plays 

 about his village as blithe and merry as a puppy or 



