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 (sic) 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 is 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. The 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 



