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BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
negro able to excel the better type of white man, but it is conceivable that with 
a few generations of careful physical training he may be able to perform some 
physical feats better than the European. 
Their sight is excellent. In this respect they are much superior to the 
average European. Cases of myopia are very rare, if indeed they exist at all. 
Their sense of hearing is probably better than ours, but on the other hand I 
should think that we had an acuter sense of smell, certainly of taste and 
probably also of touch. 
As regards the postures and movements of the body, the native is able to 
put himself into positions almost impossible to a European or, at any rate, very 
uncomfortable. Thus, when he is tired of standing on both legs, he will rest 
himself by bending one leg and placing the foot against the inside of the knee 
of the other leg. This is a position often assumed by the natives of all Tropical 
Africa, and is very well illustrated in Dr. Schweinfurth’s celebrated book. 1 
Sitting down, the native will squat on his heels and rump, exactly like a baboon. 
It is almost impossible for a European to do this. They can also sit with 
crossed legs as is done by Asiatics, but this is not a posture much affected 
except by the Muhammadanised, or by those who are mixed with Arab blood. 
The favourite position in sleeping is to lie flat on the stomach with the forehead 
resting on the folded arms. They will also occasionally lie on the back or on 
the side, and if they are suffering from cold and endeavouring to cover their 
bodies with a small piece of cloth they can curl themselves up with the knees 
almost touching the chin. 
In micturition the position is a standing one except where Muhammadanism 
has introduced a squatting posture, which is of course that assumed by the 
women. In parturition it is said that the women ordinarily stand upright, 
often holding on to a beam or supported under the arm-pits by other women. 
The body is well balanced and upright in walking, and in fact their carriage 
is singularly erect and often very graceful. This applies to both sexes and 
arises to some extent from the custom of balancing loads on the head. It 
is rare to see a negro in ordinary good health with bowed shoulders and a 
convex curve to the back. Perhaps, on the whole, the tendency as regards the 
position of the toes in walking is slightly inwards and in some tribes of a 
lower physical type the weight of the body is often borne on the outer edge 
of the foot and heel giving an inward twist to the lines of the toes. 
Undoubtedly the favourite mode of carrying things of any weight is on 
the head where they are kept in position by the left hand. They seem to 
object to carrying loads on the shoulders or back even if the load itself is 
fixed to a pole and the other end of the pole is borne by another porter. This 
dislike, however, is lessening now by the necessity for transporting loads which 
are beyond one man’s endurance, and still more by the increasing use of the 
“ machilla ” or hammock, a travelling conveyance slung on a long bamboo 
pole which pole is borne on the shoulders of two or four men, as the case may 
be, walking in single file. The use of the machilla, however, is a quite recent 
institution except in those lands bordering the Zambezi. When Europeans 
first came to British Central Africa the natives disliked carrying them in this 
way, though they were willing on occasions to deal with them as they would 
with their own chiefs, by bearing them for short distances on their shoulders, 
in the position in which the unfortunate Sindbad had to carry the “ Old Man 
of the Sea.” Even now, in the northern part of British Central Africa it is 
1 Heart of Africa. 
