The People Here Build Their Huts In Gardens On High Stages.
This Is Necessary On Account Of Danger From The Spotted Hyaena,
Which Is Said To Be Very Fierce, And Also As A Protection Against
Lions And Elephants.
The hyaena is a very cowardly animal,
but frequently approaches persons lying asleep, and makes an ugly gash
on the face.
Mozinkwa had lost his upper lip in this way,
and I have heard of men being killed by them; children, too,
are sometimes carried off; for, though he is so cowardly that the human voice
will make him run away at once, yet, when his teeth are in the flesh,
he holds on, and shows amazing power of jaw. Leg-bones of oxen,
from which the natives have extracted the marrow and every thing eatable,
are by this animal crunched 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 really very liberal.
My men never returned from a village without 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 generally 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 which cost me about 2 Pounds each, and I could return to them
at any time without having a character 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 honor 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 white man who made a present of a gun that was new
when his grandfather was sucking his great-grandmother."
When 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 travelers 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.
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