VOLUBLE TO A DEGREE 305 



simply doubles his legs beneath him, and sits 

 abruptly down, his knees on a level with his chin, 

 and his hands clasped round them. 



On the whole, so long as he is dealing or con- 

 versing with people of his own race, the Zambezian 

 may be correctly described as light-hearted, cheery, 

 and voluble — voluble to a degree. His command 

 of language is fluent in the extreme, and he never 

 suffers interruption until his remarks are concluded. 

 Should any untimely comment be embarrassingly 

 interjected, with praiseworthy simplicity more 

 efficacious than hours of barren wrangling, he 

 merely elevates his tones until contention is 

 drowned in a volume of sound. It will thus be 

 understood that the locality of an argument 

 sustained by thi'ee or four natives of average lung- 

 power and volubility is speedily untenable to 

 anybody who does not wish to be permanently 

 deafened. But with persons of a superior race, 

 the negro is scarcely ever at his ease, no matter 

 whether linguistic difficulties are present or not. 

 He does not even yet understand the white man, 

 and things incomprehensible are ever those which 

 he regards with misgiving akin to suspicion ; it 

 thus happens that the face which is the most 

 mobile and expressive in dialogue with an equal, 

 instantly hardens and becomes expressionless when 

 addressed by a person of white race. The negro at 

 once masks himself, and instead of the open-minded 

 chatterer of a few moments ago becomes the 

 cautious, shifty juggler with phrases whose fond- 

 ness of truth for truth's sake receives only 

 homoeopathic measures of occasional indulgence. 



20 



