CHAPTER XX 
SOME NOTES ON THE LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 
To the white man who has not spent any of his 
time in Africa, the life of the average African native 
is a sealed book ; and as there are very great 
differences of opinion as to the value of that phrase, 
‘the happy savage,’ especially in relation to the 
social conditions of the masses in civilized countries, 
a brief description of the usual way in which that 
‘ savage ’ lives may be of interest and furnish 
material from which the reader can draw his own 
conclusions. 
Though customs differ in different districts, there 
is a great similarity in the home life of natives of 
most African tribes, more especially those inhabiting 
that tract of Africa between the Zambesi River and 
Khartum. The negro comes into the world without 
either much pain or much forethought on the part of 
his mother, and goes through life happy and 
careless. Till the age of eight or nine, he plays 
about his village as blithe and merry as a puppy or 
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