Chap. III. ERRONEOUS EUROPEAN NOTIONS. 67 



to waste. In reference to it, and its inhabitants, it was 

 long ago remarked, that in Africa everything was contrary ; 

 " wool grows on the heads of men, and hair on the backs of 

 sheep." In feeble imitation of this dogma let us add, that the 

 men often wear their hair long, the women scarcely ever. 

 Where there are cattle, the women till the land, plant the 

 corn, and build the huts. The men stay at home to sew, spin, 

 weave, and talk, and milk the cows. The men seem to pay 

 a dowry for their wives instead of getting one with them. 

 The mountaineers of Europe are reckoned hospitable, gene- 

 rous, and brave. Those of this part of Africa are feeble, 

 spiritless, and cowardly, even when contrasted with their 

 own countrymen on the plains. Some Europeans aver that 

 Africans and themselves are descended from monkeys. Some 

 Africans believe that souls at death pass into the bodies of 

 apes. Most writers believe the blacks to be savages, nearly 

 all blacks believe the whites to be cannibals. The nursery 

 hobgoblin of the one is black, of the other white. Without 

 going farther on with these unwise comparisons, we must 

 smile at the heaps of nonsense which have been written 

 about the negro intellect. When for greater effect we em- 

 ploy broken English, and use silly phrases as if transla- 

 tions of remarks, which, ten to one, were never made, 

 we have unconsciously caricatured ourselves and not the 

 negroes; for it is a curious fact that Europeans almost 

 invariably begin to speak with natives by adding the letters 

 e and o to their words " Givee me corno, me givee you bis- 

 cuito," or "Looko, looko, me wante beero niucke." Our 

 sailors began thus, though they had never seen blacks 

 before. It seemed an innate idea that they could thus suit 

 English to a people who all speak a beautiful language, 

 and have no vulgar patois. Owing to the difference of 



f 2 



