258 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. 



that meets the intellectual gaze of every native of this 

 country which prevents, more than all else, their advance- 

 ment on the road toward civilization. Their interests 

 are purely personal, and, at furthest, local. They seemed 

 actuated by no curiosity about my home and my coun- 

 try in the questions 

 which they asked me. 

 In this connection they 

 showed a marked dif- 

 ference from the inhab- 

 itants of Kilimanjiro, 

 although perhaps oth- 

 erwise their equals. 

 There, the different 

 chiefs never appeared 

 so interested as when 

 questioning me about 

 the way I lived at home, 

 and about the relative 

 power of the different 

 countries of Europe ; 

 although they had no 

 conception of geogra- 

 phy and had rarely, if 

 ever, heard that the few 

 white men who visited 

 them belonged to dif- 

 ferent nationalities. 

 As may readily be supposed, the Embe had no 

 exact measure of time. They counted from moon to 

 moon, and from rainy season to rainy season. If 

 more than one rainy season had elapsed between 



LiRIA 



Most influential man among- the Embe 



