NATIVES 



differ from us most radically, or else all our dietetic 

 theories are wrong. It is a well-known fact that 

 any native requires a triple dose of white man's 

 medicine. Furthermore a native's sensitivenesss to 

 pain is very much less than the white man's. This 

 is indubitable. For example, the Wakamba file — 

 or, rather, chip, by means of a small chisel — all 

 their front teeth down to needle points. When 

 these happen to fall out, the warrior substitutes an 

 artificial tooth which he drives down into the socket. 

 If the savage got the same effects from such a per- 

 formance that a white man's dental system would 

 arouse, even "savage stoicism" would hardly do 

 him much good. There is nothing to be gained by 

 multiplying examples. Every African traveller can 

 recall a thousand. 



Incidentally, and by the way, I want to add to the 

 milk-and-blood joke on dietetics another on the 

 physical culturists. We are all familiar with the 

 wails over the loss of our toe nails. You know what 

 I mean; they run somewhat like this: shoes are the 

 curse of civilization; if we wear them much longer we 

 shall not only lose the intended use of our feet, but 

 we shall lose our toe nails as well; the savage man, 

 etc., etc., etc. Now I saw a great many of said 

 savage men in Africa, and I got much interested in 

 their toe nails, because I soon found that our own 



221 



