A PLEA FOR THE NATIVE 383 



Governor Jackson, who knows the country as few do, 

 said once to me, that one of the chief values of the mis- 

 sionary to the administration is this priceless one that he 

 learns to think in Kikuyu, Waganda, etc), and the mis- 

 ionaries are far from admitting that the native is hopelessly 

 callous. Even such unsatisfactory opportunities as were 

 afforded me, were quite sufficient to convince me that on 

 the score of heedless wastefulness the East African native 

 does not deserve the universal censure poured on him. 



I struggled with my men and I must admit, struggled 

 in vain, to induce them to save their earnings, which seemed 

 to melt away as soon as we reached Nairobi. I did not 

 expect to be able to accomplish much in the case of the 

 casual porter who was without home or family, but it did 

 disappoint me when I found that often the hard-earned 

 savings of the men I had been intimately associated with 

 as well as the liberal bakshisch I gave them, seemed to go 

 almost as quickly as did the ten rupees a month of the mere 

 burden bearers of our band. It took' me many months of 

 quiet searching and hours of talk and expostulation, before 

 I got any light in the matter; but finally I did. The nomad, 

 of course, is not naturally given to economy. In his long 

 past there has been too small a possibility of guarding his 

 little savings to encourage thrift in him. The theory put in 

 practice by my Kavorondo in the matter of their three 

 days' potio, was a philosophic attitude enough. In days 

 gone by "lions were plentiful, sickness prevalent, potio 

 rare, so let us make sure of a good meal while nature allows 

 us^a good appetite." African environment in their case 

 had done its work thoroughly, so they gladly and glutton- 

 ously set themselves to eat three days' food in one. Evi- 

 dently such people have much to learn before they become 

 a thrifty race, and we cannot hurry them. But they, even 

 they, have a social economy of their own, for which much 

 can be said. In the old book a parable is told of a certain 



