HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
39 
Their memory is undoubtedly good or they could scarcely carry in their heads 
the endless series of meaningless sounds that constitute their ceremonial chants. 
I have been informed also that they become excellent mimics, which T can readily 
believe from the facility with which they pick up the, to them, unfamiliar sounds 
of English speech and their evident recognition of, and amusement at, individual 
and personal peculiarities. I regret to say that this imitative faculty has found 
expression in the acquirement and constant use of the most odious and meaningless 
forms of English oaths and blasphemy. One day I heard one of the native guides 
apostrophising his camel, with the obstinacy of which he was having some little 
difficulty in the matter of mounting, by the expression “ You b-y liar.” 
It is also unfortunate that the abominable jargon known as “ blackfellows’ 
English,” of which a short specimen is fi(uoted in a footnote to p. 129, has been so 
universally adopted as the medium of conversation as to constitute a .sort of 
inferior “pidgin English,” but notwithstanding the limitations which it imposes it 
is understood when the Queen’s English fails absolutely of comprehension. 
Before concluding this section, in which reference is made to the faculty of 
observation, I cannot resist making allusion to the wonderful powers possessed by 
the natives of following a trail which have so often been described. These 
faculties, in which their whole life is an education, have long been made use of by 
the police depai’tments of the various colonies which have attached to them a 
certain number of black trackers. We had an opportunity one morning of 
witnessing, in a small way, a display of these powers. It was discovered that 
three young emus had escaped from their box during the night and the services of 
our “ black boy ” Harry were called into requisition. He soon picked up the 
tracks at the starting point, followed up the trail through ground well trampled 
over by the numerous men and beasts of our caravan, and finally caught the birds 
about half-a-mile away from the camp. This same Harry before he had been more 
than two or three days with us recognised not only the tracks of each member of 
our party, but also of each horse or camel. In this I have every reason to believe 
that he was correct, and I have also known them to indicate the name of a native 
acquaintance on meeting the tracks of his bare feet. Those who have seen them at 
work in the serious pursuit of a culprit who was “ wanted ” in these parts—most 
likely a cattle killer—bear witness to the patience and skill with which these men 
track their bare-footed fellows over ground so rocky or stony that it would seem 
impossible for any recognisable trail to be left. A pebble disturbed, a bent or 
broken leaf or twig, a scratch, a little dust and a hundred other trifling signs may 
be quite sufficient indication to keep them on the track of the pursued. Mr. 
