392 THE LAND OF THE LION 



plateaus between Victoria Nyanza and the sea. But who 

 shall blame the Waganda for cringing ? He has learned 

 to cringe to save his life. Unlike his neighbours to east- 

 ward, he has acquired traditions; he can name for you his 

 kings (running backward for at least five hundred years), 

 and many of these have been bloody monsters. Mtessa, 

 when the humour took him, would have a long trench dug 

 in the porous earth, and above it he would have men's 

 throats cut, till the flowing blood filled the trench to the 

 brim; and that was only a few years ago. Can a people be 

 expected to emerge quickly from a rule such as that into an 

 honourable, self-controlled manner of living ? To expect 

 such a thing is to expect the impossible. 



I have said nothing about the native as a craftsman, 

 but undoubtedly he has in him the makings of a very 

 good craftsman, and no one has made, as yet, much of an 

 effort to help him along this most evident line of advance.* 

 On any sefari it is easy to pick out a number of handy 

 men. I have written elsewhere of the variety of their 

 accomplishments. The Wakamba make quite beautiful 

 iron and brass work. I have seen some chains made by 

 them, that, considering the coarseness of their tools, were 

 wonderfully fine. Several tribes smelted their own iron and 

 sometimes their copper. In parts of East Africa they 

 understand irrigation, and streams of water are carried 

 across wide chasms, and along steep mountain sides with 

 no small engineering skill. 



The point that I wish, then, to insist on, even at the 

 risk of wearying my readers, is this: these people must 

 have time given them. They are full of promise; those 

 who know them always love them. I think I am safe in 

 saying so much. I do not mean the missionaries only, 



* Good industrial schools are now established by the German authorities at Tango. A very small 

 attempt at such teaching may be seen here and there in the Protestant or Catholic Mission schools, 

 but this, the one all-important method of education for the African, has received little attention. 



