Chap. XXIX. 
A STINGY WHITE TEADER. 
601 
up with the greatest ease, which he apparently effects by turning 
them round in his teeth till they are in a suitable position for 
being split. 
We had now come among people who had plenty, and were 
reaUy very liberal. My men never returned from a village with¬ 
out some corn or maize in their hands. The real politeness with 
which food is given by nearly all the interior tribes, who have not 
had much intercourse with Europeans, makes it a pleasure to 
accept. Again and again I have heard an apology made for the 
smallness of the present, or regret expressed that they had not 
received notice of my approach in time to grind more, and gene¬ 
rally they readily accepted our excuse at having nothing to give 
in return, by saying that they were quite aware, that there are 
no white men’s goods in the interior. When I had it in my 
power, I always gave something really useful. To Katema, 
Shinte, and others I gave presents wliich cost me about 2?. each, 
and I could return to them at any time vdthout having a cha¬ 
racter for stinginess. How some men can offer three buttons, or 
some other equally contemptible gift, while they have abundance 
in their possession, is to me unaccountable. They surely do not 
know, when they write it in their books, that they are declaring 
they have compromised the honour of Englishmen. The people 
receive the offering with a degree of shame, and ladies may 
be seen to hand it quickly to the attendants, and, when they 
retire, laugh until the tears stand in their eyes, saying to those 
about them, “Is that a white man? then there are niggards 
among them too. Some of them are born without hearts! ” One 
white trader, having presented an old gun to a chief, became a 
standing joke in the tribe: “ The wliite man who made a present 
of a gun that was new, when his grandfather was sucking his 
great-grandmother.” Wlien these tricks are repeated, the natives 
come to the conclusion that people who show such a want of 
sense must be told their duty; they therefore let them know 
what they ought to give, and travellers then complain of being 
pestered with their “ shameless begging.” I was troubled by 
importunity on the confines of civilization only, and when I first 
came to Africa. 
February ^th .—We were much detained by rains, a heavy 
shower without wind falling every morning about daybreak; it 
