xx NOTES ON LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 203 



can drink beer, either the liquor brewed by his 

 friends, or that made from the products of his own 

 garden. I think this forms a striking contrast to the 

 absolute penury and struggle for a bare existence, 

 among wretched surroundings, that is the lot of the 

 greater part of the working classes in civilized 

 countries to-day. With reference to the cheapness 

 of food, it may. interest the housewife to know that 

 six to eight fowls may be bought for one shilling and 

 fourpence, and fifty to a hundred eggs for the same 

 money. 



Considering the native as to his mental aspect, I 

 should describe him as intensely natural, and when 

 his mind comes into contact with European ideas of 

 justice, the consequence is sometimes ludicrous in 

 the extreme. Let me give an example in 

 illustration. 



A year or so ago, a native came to the Boma 

 at Liwale to complain that a confederate had 

 swindled him out of the proceeds of a robbery, and 

 begged the Bwana Mkubwa (Big Master) to see 

 that justice was done. Asked to state his case, he 

 said that, during the native rebellion in 1906, he and 

 another man had murdered an Indian trader and 

 looted his stock of goods and money, and that, up 

 to date, his accomplice in the crime had not divided 

 the spoil in an equitable manner. The magistrate 

 managed to keep an unmoved countenance and sent 



