XX NOTES ON LIFE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVE 203 
can drink beer, either the liquor brewed by his 
friends, or that made from the products of his own 
garden. I think this forms a striking contrast to the 
absolute penury and struggle for a bare existence, 
among wretched surroundings, that is the lot of the 
greater part of the working classes in civilized 
countries to-day. With reference to the cheapness 
of food, it may interest the housewife to know that 
six to eight fowls may be bought for one shilling and 
fourpence, and fifty to a hundred eggs for the same 
money. 
Considering the native as to his mental aspect, I 
should describe him as intensely natural, and when 
his mind comes into contact with European ideas of 
justice, the consequence is sometimes ludicrous in 
the extreme. Let me give an example in 
illustration. 
A year or so ago, a native came to the Boma 
at Liwale to complain that a confederate had 
swindled him out of the proceeds of a robbery, and 
begged the Bwana Mkubwa (Big Master) to see 
that justice was done. Asked to state his case, he 
said that, during the native rebellion in 1906, he and 
another man had murdered an Indian trader and 
looted his stock of goods and money, and that, up 
to date, his accomplice in the crime had not divided 
the spoil in an equitable manner. The magistrate 
managed to keep an unmoved countenance and sent 
