FAMILY AFFECTION 345 



faction, law suits, and at times disturbances which 

 are only finally settled by the local European 

 judicial authority. 



No native ever has the remotest idea of how 

 old he is. Time he reckons by lunar months, and 

 years by seed-time and harvest. He is quite unable 

 to say how many years may have elapsed since the 

 occurrence of even some well-remembered incident, 

 and cannot count or reckon up periods, or, as a 

 rule, anything he cannot see. 



Taken as a whole, I regard the native of the 

 Zambezi Valley as a fine, attractive personahty, 

 possessed of many undoubtedly valuable qualities, 

 and comparing, I am persuaded, most favourably, 

 both physically and mentally, with the indigenous 

 tribes of any part of East Africa, if we except the 

 more or less educated Mussulmans found in the 

 neighbourhood of Zanzibar. On the other hand, 

 they possess but little in the way of religion, and 

 that little is, I should imagine, of but small value 

 either as an incentive to good works or as a 

 deterrent from evil ones. 



As I have just stated, the quality which we 

 should call family affection is rarely noticeable, 

 except between parents and quite young children. 

 I do not think that between a man and his wife 

 any of that intense attachment exists which is so 

 plainly visible in other races. I have come the 

 more to realise this from the fact of having 

 possessed servants and emphyes who were members 

 of the tribes we are considering, and who, at a 

 few hours' notice, have left their women without 

 a murmur on either side for prolonged periods of 



