EAST AFRICAN INTELLECT. 



337 



lose his temper, or attempt to dislodge them, he will find 

 it like disturbing a swarm of bees. They will come for 

 miles to "sow gape-seed:" if the tent-fly be closed, 

 they will peer and peep from below, complaining loudly 

 against the occupant, and, if further prevented, they may 

 proceed to violence. On the road hosts of idlers, 

 especially women, boys, and girls, will follow the caravan 

 for hours; it is a truly offensive spectacle — these un- 

 couth figures, running at a " gymnastic pace/' half 

 clothed except with grease, with pendent bosoms shaking 

 in the air, and cries that resemble the howls of beasts 

 more than any effort of human articulation. This 

 offensive ignorance of the first principles of social inter- 

 course has been fostered in the races most visited by the 

 Arabs, whose national tendency, like the Italian and 

 the Greek, is ever and essentially republican. When 

 strangers first appeared in the country they were re- 

 ceived with respect and deference. They soon, however, 

 lost this vantage-ground : they sat and chatted with the 

 people, exchanged pleasantries, and suffered slights, till 

 the Africans found themselves on an equality with their 

 visitors. The evil has become inveterate, and no greater 

 contrast can be imagined than that between the man- 

 ners of an Indian Ryot and an East African Mshenzi. 



In intellect the East African is sterile and incult, ap- 

 parently un progressive and unfit for change. Like the 

 uncivilised generally, he observes well, but he can 

 deduce nothing profitable from his perceptions. His 

 intelligence is surprising when compared with that of 

 an uneducated English peasant; but it has a narrow 

 bound, beyond which apparently no man may pass. Like 

 the Asiatic, in fact, he is stationary, but at a much 

 lower level. Devotedly fond of music, his love of tune 

 has invented nothing but whistling and the whistle : his 



VOL. II. Z 



