348 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



himself. Yet he will fast like a Moslem, because doing 

 something seems to raise him in the scale of creation. 

 His mind, involved in the trammels of his superstition, 

 and enchained by custom, is apparently incapable of 

 receiving the impressions of El Islam. His Fetissism, 

 un spiritualised by the philosophic Pantheism and Poly- 

 theism of Europe and Asia, has hitherto unfitted him 

 for that belief which was readily accepted by the more 

 Semitic maritime races, the Somal, the Wasawahili, and 

 the Wamrima. To a certain extent, also, it has been 

 the policy of the Arab to avoid proselytising, which 

 would lead to comparative equality: for sordid lucre 

 the Moslem has left the souls of these Kafirs to eternal 

 perdition. According to most doctors of the saving 

 faith, an ardent proselytiser might convert by the sword 

 whole tribes, though he might not succeed with indivi- 

 duals, who cannot break through the ties of society. The 

 " Mombas Mission," however, relying upon the powers 

 of persuasion, unequivocally failed, and pronounced 

 their flock to be "not behind the greatest infidels and 

 scoffers of Europe : they blaspheme, in fact, like chil- 

 dren. " With characteristic want of veneration they 

 would say, " Your Lord is a bad master, for he does 

 not cure his servants." When an early convert died, 

 the Wanyika at once decided that there is no Saviour, 

 as he" does not prevent the decease of a friend. The 

 sentiment generally elicited by a discourse upon the 

 subject of the existence of a Deity is a desire to 

 see him, in order to revenge upon him the deaths of 

 relatives, friends, and cattle.* 



* That the Western African negro resembles in this point his negroid 

 brother, the following extract from an amusing and truthful little volume, 

 entitled " Trade and Travels in the Gulf of Guinea and Western Africa " 

 (London : Simpkin and Marshall, 1851), will prove : — 



