Mr. Harris
denied this on the spot with the vehemence of injured innocence.
The chief shook his head and spat profusely and sorrowfully.
"You no sabe him clock you done sell me?" said he. "When I look him
clock it no be to-day, it be to morrow." Mr. Harris took the clock
back, to see what was the cause of this strange state of affairs.
Of course it arose from his having been too liberal in the amount of
spoon in the weight, and this being altered, the chief was not
hurried onward to his grave at such a rattling pace; "but," said Mr.
Harris, "that clock was a flyer to the last."
But I will not go into the subject of African languages here, but
only remark of them that although they are elaborate enough to
produce, for their users, nearly every shade of erroneous statement,
they are not, save perhaps M'pongwe, elaborate enough to enable a
native to state his exact thought. Some of them are very dependent
on gesture. When I was with the Fans they frequently said, "We will
go to the fire so that we can see what they say," when any question
had to be decided after dark, and the inhabitants of Fernando Po,
the Bubis, are quite unable to converse with each other unless they
have sufficient light to see the accompanying gestures of the
conversation. In all cases I feel sure the African's intelligence
is far ahead of his language.
