THE HIDDEN MIND 381 



entranced attention with which these simple stories, 

 and a hundred like them, are received by African 

 native audiences — and these not of tender years, 

 but grown men and women, who listen to the 

 well-worn recitals open-mouthed, punctuating them 

 with wonder-stricken ejaculations of " Eh-yah," 

 " Eh-bo-o-o-o," "Wah-h-h-h," the palm of the 

 right hand dropped helplessly into that of the left, 

 to signify that the last conceivable condition of 

 wonder has been reached, a sort of " That will 

 do — you cannot beat that " gesture, which is most 

 eloquent. 



Such is the African who inhabits the various 

 portions of the vaUey of the Portuguese Zambezi. 

 He is fuU of curious superstitions, of which those 

 I have enumerated are but an inconsiderable part. 

 But his quaint beliefs, weird and extraordinary to 

 us who thus look in upon him, are, nevertheless, 

 full of the deepest significance to the negro. In 

 all his goings out and comings in they hedge him 

 about with a system of ceremonial and observance 

 which order the events of his daily life far more 

 remorselessly than would those of civilisation. We 

 see the dusky, immobile face, but the mind, with 

 its mysterious promptings and incomprehensible 

 workings, is as yet hidden from us, and, I doubt 

 not, will long continue to be so. The expression 

 of shamefaced self-consciousness the native assumes, 

 and his nervous laugh when we ask the reason of 

 this or the explanation of that, no more indicate, 

 as many persons suppose, any personal disbeUef on 

 his part than if he expounded the matter with 

 exaggerated earnestness. It is only his manner — 



