418 



THE WASA W A HILL 



&c, and it is never respected. The language is 

 very foul, and such expressions as Komanyoko are 

 never out of the mouth. The Msawahili will not 

 ask a thing openly : he waits, fidgeting withal, 

 till the subject edge itself in, and then he will 

 rather hint than speak out. At the same time he 

 is an inveterate beggar, and the outstretching of 

 hands seems to relieve his brain. When his mind 

 is set upon an acquisition, he becomes a mono- 

 maniac, like that child-man the savage. His 

 nonchalance, carelessness, and improvidence pass 

 all bounds. He will light his pipe under a dozen 

 leaky kegs of gunpowder ; ' he will set a house on 

 fire, as it were, to roast his eggs ; ' he will wreck 

 his ship because anchoring her to the beach saves 

 trouble in loading; he might make his coast a 

 mine of wealth, but he will not work till hunger 

 compels him, and his pure insouciance has al- 

 lowed his valuable commerce to be wrested from 

 him by Europeans, Hindus, and Arabs. His dis- 

 like of direct action exceeds that of the Bedawi, 

 and yet he quotes a proverb touching procrastin- 

 ation, ' Leo kabli ya kesho,' — to-day is before to- 

 morrow — better than our ' To-morrow never 

 comes.' 



In disposition the Msawahili is at once coward- 

 ly and destructive : his quarrelsome temper leads 



