560 
MEMORY. —POSSIBILITY OF CIVILIZATION. 
nate any greater number by the term intzi-intzi or intsintsi ; or an 
unusually great number, by the expression intsintsi lisum (a great 
many tens). In reckoning the number of a large herd of cattle, they 
separate them into tens, and thus gain a more distinct notion : but in 
ascertaining whether any be missing from a herd with which they 
are acquainted, they depend, as they say, solely on their knowledge 
of the colors, particular spots, size and countenance, of each animal. 
This last method proves their great strength of memory as well as 
some mental perception, when necessity forces them to use it : and al- 
though this latter faculty may not be found equally strong when applied 
to other purposes more unusual in their mode of life, yet the fact 
plainly shows that it needs only a different education to bring it into 
action on many other occasions where at present it appears lament- 
ably feeble. 
There is little doubt that, small as this power may at present 
appear, it will admit of an extension much beyond its present 
bounds, although it be an experiment which hitherto has never been 
tried. With this view it would be highly interesting to make the 
trial, by bringing half a dozen, or more, boys of this nation, to 
England, to be educated in useful learning and instructed in those 
arts which, might be most likely to contribute to the civilization or 
improvement of their countrymen at their return. In this manner 
they would* by mutual conversation with each other while in Europe, 
preserve the knowledge of their own language while they were acquir- 
ing ours, and at the same time would give us a favorable opportunity 
of examining theirs, and of reducing it to a regular written form by 
which they might be enabled to record useful information and, under 
the care and assistance of some liberal-minded and sensible European, 
communicate to the youth of their own country the civilizing in- 
fluence of letters. 
When I speak of civilizing the native tribes of Southern Africa, 
I mean not to be understood as asserting that their minds are suscep- 
tible of a very high polish, or as being very confident that they are 
See page 373 of the present volume. 
