DRINKING-BOUTS. 



335 



longer stand, lies down to sleep, and awakes to drink 

 again. Drinking-bouts are solemn things, to which the 

 most important business must yield precedence. They 

 celebrate with beer every event — the traveller's return, 

 the birth of a child, and the death of an elephant — a la- 

 bourer will not work unless beer is provided for him. A 

 guest is received with a gourdful of beer, and, amongst 

 some tribes, it is buried with their princes. The high- 

 est orders rejoice in drink, and pride themselves upon 

 powers of imbibing : the proper diet for a king is much 

 beer and a little meat. If a Mnyamwezi be asked after 

 eating whether he is hungry, he will reply yea, mean- 

 ing that he is not drunk. Intoxication excuses crime in 

 these lands. The East African, when in his cups, must 

 issue from his hut to sing, dance, or quarrel, and the 

 frequent and terrible outrages which occur on these 

 occasions are passed over on the plea that he has drunk 

 beer. The favourite hour for drinking is after dawn, — 

 a time as distasteful to the European as agreeable to the 

 African and Asiatic. This might be proved by a host 

 of quotations from the poets, Arab, Persian, and Hindu. 

 The civilised man avoids early potations because they 

 incapacitate him for necessary labour, and he attempts 

 to relieve the headache caused by stimulants. The bar- 

 barian and the semi-civilised, on the other hand, prefer 

 them, because they relieve the tedium of his monotonous 

 day ; and they cherish the headache because they can 

 sleep the longer, and, when they awake, they have some- 

 thing to think of. The habit once acquired is never 

 broken : it attaches itself to the heartstrings of the idle 

 and unoccupied barbarian. 



In morality, according to the more extended sense of 

 the word, the East African is markedly deficient. He 

 has no benevolence, but little veneration — the negro 



