INTRODUCTION xiii 



Nowhere have Napoleon's maxims more truth than 

 in deahng with the children of Africa. One's hand is 

 on the pulse of raw humanity. Above all remember 

 this one, " If you wish to command men, pretend to 

 love them ; the best way to pretend is to really love 

 them." 



Another important point. Learn the language — the 

 men's own language. If you have an interpreter it is 

 seldom satisfactory, and both in that case and when 

 you are satisfied with a very casual colloquial know- 

 ledge injustice is often done unwittingly. Who 

 believes the missionary's tale of his thousand con- 

 verts with his " I did not know the language, but 

 I had a splendid interpreter"? The following in- 

 stance of " bimbashi Arabic " is often quoted — I have 

 heard worse : " P am the son of a dog. Why are 

 you still here ^ ? I will put it into a parcel,^ if he 

 says 'ma alaish ' (I beg your pardon) again. I am a 

 bad^ man," &c. &c., which being interpreted ought 

 to have meant, " You * are the son of a dog. Why 

 did you not come in time 2? I will hit^ you if you 

 say ' ma alaish ' (means also ' don't excite yourself ') 

 again. I am going to change^ all this," &c. 



I hope the reader will remember when dipping into 

 the following pages that they make no pretence to lite- 

 rary style. They are the outcome of odd notes, letters, 

 and so on, strung together for the purpose of describ- 

 ing life as a bimbashi. The heights given were not 



Note. — Mixing up (i) ana and enta ; (2) gaya and rah; (3) durb and 

 turd ; (4) badl and battal. 



