718 SPEKE CORRECTED. 



bondage to my Beluch soldiers.' — Speke, pp. 234, 235. For the 

 sake of the little story of ' a bear mother/ Speke made a gen- 

 eral assertion on a very small and exceptional foundation. 

 Frequent inquiries among the most intelligent and far-travelled 

 Arabs failed to find confirmation of this child-selling, except in 

 the very rare case of a child cutting the upper front teeth before 

 the under, and because this child is believed to be ' moiko ' 

 (unlucky), and certain to bring death into the family. It is 

 called an Arab child, and sold to the first Arab, or even left at 

 his door. This is the only case the Arabs know of child-selling. 

 Speke had only two Beluch soldiers with him, and the idea that 

 they loaded themselves with infants at once stamps the tale as 

 fabulous. He may have seen one sold, an extremely rare and 

 exceptional case; but the inferences drawn are just like that of 

 the Frenchman who thought the English so partial to suicide in 

 November, that they might be seen suspended from trees in the 

 common highways. 



" In crossing Tanganyika three several times I was detained 

 at the islet Kasenge about ten weeks in all. On each occasion 

 Arab traders were present, all eager to buy slaves, but none 

 were offered, and they assured me that they had never seen the 

 habit alleged to exist by Speke, though they had heard of the 

 ' unlucky ' cases referred to. Every one has known of poor 

 little foundlings in England, but our mothers are not credited 

 with less affection than she-bears." 



He had studied the customs and dispositions of the people as 

 a Christian teacher, in the interest of Christianity, with special 

 reference to the mission work, and he writes : " I would say to 

 missionaries, Come on, brethren, to the real heathen. You have 

 no idea how brave you are till you try. Leaving the coast and 

 devoting yourself heartily to the savages, as they are called, you 

 will find with some drawbacks and wickednesses a very great 

 deal to admire and love. Many statements about them require 

 confirmation. You will never see women selling their infants ; 

 Arabs never did, nor have I. An assertion of this kind was 

 made by mistake." In this connection we feel assured that 

 many of our readers will be pleased to have the privilege of 

 reading for themselves Dr. Livingstone's "Advice to Mis- 

 sionaries," and it is due to him that on such a subject he be 

 heard in his own words. It is as follows : 



