382 THE LAND OF THE LION 



well proved his faithfulness and competency. I found him 

 with some difficulty, and then the extent of the plot was 

 evident. Surrounded by Mohammedans he lay in a deep 

 hypnotic trance, and 250 rupees, three months' wages, had 

 already disappeared. For several days he was in a dreamy 

 and irresponsible state. When his mind cleared up I think 

 I made him see the extent of his folly, at any rate he placed 

 himself under my doctor's care, and gave me his word he 

 would have nothing more to do with native "dowa" 

 (medicine) . These men, as he said, had " put dowa on him " 

 for years, and thereby had probably robbed him of quite 

 half what he had earned. 



I have only space to touch thus briefly on some of the 

 most evident of moral and social shortcomings of the East 

 African native. I do not believe, nor do I think that many 

 who know the native believe, them to be capable of any 

 sudden social, moral, or religious conversion. They must 

 be helped slowly, they are Nature's retarded children, and 

 to hurry them, is in the end but to push them backward 

 and downward. 



But to deny, on the other hand, their capability for 

 steady progress and development toward better things, is 

 to deny the evidence of palpable facts. Men who have 

 travelled far in Africa are sometimes found saying that 

 the native is without natural affection, that he neglects 

 his children, that he casts out unburied his dead, that he 

 makes no provision for the future, but squanders all he 

 wins. In many cases this is true, but in many more it is 

 untrue. I have seen evidence often of a tender care for 

 children, and a willingness to provide for parents who were 

 old and past all work. If we but knew better and were in 

 a position to enter into their tribal life, we could judge as 

 now we cannot. Those whose testimony on such subjects 

 is of real value, are the missionaries. They know the 

 native as no traveller, no official, ever can (Lieutenant 



