114 A Visit to Banza Chisalla. 
confuses it with the use as a tooth-stick, the article 
which Asia and Africa prefer to the unclean hog’s- 
bristle brush of Europe. 
On the left of the throne sat the Nchinu, or 
“ second king,” attired in a footman’s livery of 
olive-coloured cloth, white-worn at the seams, and 
gleaming with plated buttons, upon which was the 
ex-owner’s crest—a cubit arm. 
The stranger in Africa marvels why men, who, 
as Dahome shows, can affect a tasteful simplicity, 
will make themselves such “ guys.” When look¬ 
ing at these caricatures, he is tempted to read 
(literally) learned Montesquieu, “ It is hardly to be 
believed that God, who is a wise being, should 
place a soul, especially a good soul, in such a 
black, ugly body,” and to consider the few excep¬ 
tions as mere “sporting plants.” But the negro 
combines with inordinate love of finery the true 
savage taste—an imitative nature,—and where he 
cannot copy the Asiatic he must ape the European ; 
only in the former pursuit he rises above, in the 
latter he sinks below his own proper standard. 
Similarly, as a convert, he is ennobled by El 
Islam ; in rare cases, which may be counted upon 
the fingers, he is civilized by Christianity; but, 
as a rule, the latter benefits him so far only 
as it abolishes the barbarous and murderous rites 
of Paganism. 
But there is also a sound mundane reason which 
