490 CAPABILITIES OF THE DANKALLI. 



any other people, murder is considered by them to 

 be highly honourable. Every fresh assassination is 

 rewarded by an additional personal ornament, and 

 the destruction of a sleeping guest, or of a fighting 

 foe, contribute alike to the credit and reputation 

 of the brave. The well dissembled bearing by 

 which they lure the most suspicious into a fatal 

 confidence, and the firm bravery with which they 

 attack a more powerful enemy, can only be referred 

 to the operation of mental powers of the very first 

 order, and, according to my own ideas of the nature 

 of man, they present the extreme of moral degradation 

 that the caste to which they belong can fall into. 

 I am not a willing evidence against a people 

 among whom I spent some not unpleasant days, 

 and received much instruction from the opportu- 

 nities afforded me of studying their character, and 

 the circumstances under which they are placed, 

 and which convinced me that, if properly educated 

 and directed, they would take a very high rank 

 among civilized nations. I feel assured that in 

 a more favourable situation, and under another 

 social economy, those intellectual capabilities now 

 only developed in evil, would fast progress to the 

 most enlightened civilization. 



I must be allowed, in justice, to notice the 

 honesty and good faith that marked the care 

 of the boxes and packages I found at Emir. 

 The interference of the Tajourah people in that 

 matter does not affect the principle I contend for, 



