DEFECTS AND QUALITIES 347 



outrageously cruel and unfeeling. He will slay a 

 beast or a bird in such a way as to cause it the most 

 prolonged and exquisite suffering, or will often 

 neglect to put it to death after it has been badly 

 wounded and the shattered frame is writhing with 

 anguish. His treatment of domestic animals on 

 the line of march has often aroused my indignation, 

 especially in the case of the most ill-used and 

 indispensable of all — the African fowl. But he 

 does not do this because he is cruel, but from sheer 

 heedlessness ; from want of responsiveness to those 

 feelings of sympathy for pain and misfortune which 

 we call compassion. The latter feeling, in so far 

 as the lower creation is concerned, he literally does 

 not possess ; but I should be sorry to say that 

 towards his own species he is not compassionate. 

 In many ways he wiE have no hesitation, even at 

 great personal inconvenience, in helping or assisting 

 those he may meet in trouble by the way. I have 

 seen him cheerfully double his load and share his 

 last morsel of food in the cause of necessity, and 

 there is, I think, much to be hoped for the future 

 of a savage possessed of redeeming traits of 

 character such as these. 



In his present mental condition the Zambezian 

 is a man with the intelligence and ideas of a child. 

 Easily moved to laughter and gaiety, or as easily 

 plunged into the depths of dejection, his mercurial 

 disposition is yet one which I think as a rule is as 

 incapable of deliberate treachery as of any leaning 

 towards undue lust for revenge. He is, therefore, 

 not vindictive. 



He is, however, incredibly untruthful, and 



