226 A Specimen Day 
marriage tie has some significance, the women will 
not go astray except with the husband’s leave, 
which is not often granted. The men wax wroth 
if their mothers be abused. It is an insult to 
call one of them a liar or a coward; the coast- 
tribes would merely smile at the soft impeach¬ 
ment, and assure you that none but fools—yourself 
included by implication—are anything else. Their 
bravery is the bravery of the savage, whose first 
object in battle is to preserve his only good, his 
life : to the civilized man, therefore, they appear 
but moderately courageous. They are fond of 
intoxication, but are not yet broken to ardent 
spirits : I have seen a single glass of trade rum 
cause a man to roll upon the ground and convul¬ 
sively bite the yellow clay like one in the agonies 
of the death-thirst. They would do wisely to 
decline intercourse with Europeans; but this, of 
course, is impossible—there is a manifest destiny 
for them as for their predecessors. The vile 
practice of the white or West Coast is to supply 
savages with alcohol, arms, and ammunition ; to 
live upon the lives of those they serve. The 
more honourable Moslems of the eastern shores do 
not disgrace themselves by such greed of gain. 
The Fa^ are cunning workers in iron, which is 
their wealth. Their money is composed of Ikfa, 
dwarf bars shaped like horse-fleams, a coinage 
familiar to old travellers in West Africa, and of 
