CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 327 



thinks solely of self-gratification. Gratitude with him 

 is not even a sense of prospective favours ; he looks upon 

 a benefit as the weakness of his benefactor and his own 

 strength ; consequently, he will not recognise even the 

 hand that feeds him. He will, perhaps, lament for a 

 night the death of a parent or a child, but the morrow 

 will find him thoroughly comforted. The name of 

 hospitality, except for interested motives, is unknown 

 to him : u What will you give me ? " is his first ques- 

 tion. To a stranger entering a village the worst hut is 

 assigned, and, if he complain, the answer is that he can 

 find encamping ground outside. Instead of treating him 

 like a guest, which the Arab Bedouin would hold to be a 

 point of pride, of honour, his host compels him to pay and 

 prepay every article, otherwise he might starve in the 

 midst of plenty. Nothing, in fact, renders the stranger's 

 life safe in this land, except the timid shrinking of the 

 natives from the " hot-mouthed weapon " and the ne- 

 cessity of trade, which induces the chiefs to restrain the 

 atrocities of their subjects. To travellers the African 

 is, of course, less civil than to merchants, from whom he 

 expects to gain something. He will refuse' a mouthful 

 of water out of his abundance to a man dying of thirst ; 

 utterly unsympathising, he will not stretch out a hand 

 to save another's goods, though worth thousands of 

 dollars. Of his own property, if a ragged cloth or a 

 lame slave be lost, his violent excitement is ridiculous to 

 behold. His egotism renders him parsimonious even in 

 self-gratification ; the wretched curs, which he loves as 

 much as his children, seldom receive a mouthful of food ? 

 and the sight of an Arab's ass feeding on grain elicits a 

 prolonged " Hi ! hi ! " of extreme surprise. He is ex- 

 ceedingly improvident, taking no thought for the morrow 

 — not from faith, but rather from carelessness as to 



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