else we must evolve a new attitude toward this new phenomena. It

is human nature to do the latter. Therefore the native has not
abandoned his old gods; nor has he adopted a new. He still

believes firmly that his way is the best way of doing things, but
he acknowledges the Superman.

To the Superman, with all races, anything is possible. Only our
Superman is an idea, and ideal. The native has his Superman

before him in the actual flesh.
We will suppose that our own Superman has appeared among us,

accomplishing things that apparantly contravene all our
established tenets of skill, of intellect, of possibility. It

will be readily acknowledged that such an individual would at
first create some astonishment. He wanders into a crowded hotel

lobby, let us say, evidently with the desire of going to the bar.
Instead of pushing laboriously through the crowd, he floats just

above their heads, gets his drink, and floats out again! That is
levitation, and is probably just as simple to him as striking a

match is to you and me. After we get thoroughly accustomed to him
and his life, we are no longer vastly astonished, though always

interested, at the various manifestations of his extraordinary
powers. We go right along using the marvellous wireless,

aeroplanes, motor cars, constructive machinery, and the like that
make us confident-justly, of course-in that we are about the

smartest lot of people on earth. And if we see red, white, and
blue streamers of light crossing the zenith at noon, we do not

manifest any very profoundamazement. "There's that confounded
Superman again," we mutter, if we happen to be busy. "I wonder

what stunt he's going to do now!"
A consideration of the above beautiful fable may go a little way

toward explaining the supposed native stolidity in the face of
the white man's wonders. A few years ago some misguided person

brought a balloon to Nairobi. The balloon interested the white
people a lot, but everybody was chiefly occupied wondering what

the natives would do when they saw THAT! The natives did not do
anything. They gathered in large numbers, and most interestedly

watched it go up, and then went home again. But they were not
stricken with wonder to any great extent. So also with

locomotives, motor cars, telephones, phonographs-any of our
modern ingenuities. The native is pleased and entertained, but

not astonished. "Stupid creature, no imagination," say we,
because our pride in showing off is a wee bit hurt.

Why should he be astonished? His mental revolution took place
when he saw the first match struck. It is manifestly impossible

for any one to make fire instantaneously by rubbing one small
stick. When for the first time he saw it done, he was indeed

vastly astounded. The immutable had been changed. The law had
been transcended. The impossible had been accomplished. And then,

as logicalsequence, his mind completed the syllogism. If the
white man can do this impossibility, why not all the rest? To

defy the laws of nature by flying in the air or forcing great
masses of iron to transport one, is no more wonderful than to

defy them by striking a light. Since the white man can provedly
do one, what earthly reason exists why he should not do anything

else that hits his fancy? There is nothing to get astonished at.
This does not necessarily mean that the native looks on the white

man as a god. On the contrary, your African is very shrewd in the
reading of character. But indubitably white men possess great

magic, uncertain in its extent.
That is as far as I should care to go, without much deeper

acquaintance, into the attitude of the native mind toward the
whites. A superficial study of it, beyond the general principals

I have enunciated, discloses many strange contradictions. The
native respects the white man's warlike skill, he respects his

physicalprowess, he certainly acknowledges tacitly his moral
superiority in the right to command. In case of dispute he likes

the white man's adjudication; in case of illness the man's
medicine; in case of trouble the white man's sustaining hand. Yet

he almost never attempts to copy the white man's appearance or
ways of doing things. His own savage customs and habits he

fulfils with as much pride as ever in their eternalfitness. Once
I was badgering Memba Sasa, asking him whether he thought the

white skin or the black skin the more ornamental. "You are not
white," he retorted at last. "That," pointing to a leaf of my

notebook, "is white. You are red. I do not like the looks of red
people."

They call our speech the "snake language," because of its hissing
sound. Once this is brought to your attention, indeed, you cannot

help noticing the superabundance of the sibilants.
A queer melange the pigeonholes of an African's brain must

contain-fear and respect, strongly mingled with clear estimate
of intrinsic character of individuals and a satisfaction with his

own standards.
Nor, I think, do we realize sufficiently the actual fundamental

differences between the African and our peoples. Physically they
must be in many ways as different from our selves as though they

actually belonged to a different species. The Masai are a fine
big race, enduring, well developed and efficient. They live

exclusively on cow's milk mixed with blood; no meat, no fruit, no
vegetables, no grain; just that and nothing more. Obviously they

must differ from us most radically, or else all our dietetic
theories are wrong. It is a well-known fact that any native

requires a triple dose of white man's medicine. Furthermore a
native's sensitiveness to pain is very much less than the white

man's. This is indubitable. For example, the Wakamba file-or,
rather, chip, by means of a small chisel-all their front teeth

down to needle points, When these happen to fall out, the warrior
substitutes an artificial tooth which he drives down into the

socket. If the savage got the same effects from such a
performance that a white man's dentalsystem would arouse, even

"savage stoicism" would hardly do him much good. There is nothing
to be gained by multiplying examples. Every African traveller can

recall a thousand.
Incidentally, and by the way, I want to add to the milk-and-blood

joke on dietetics another on the physical culturists. We are all
familiar with the wails over the loss of our toe nails. You know

what I mean; they run somewhat like this: shoes are the curse of
civilization; if we wear them much longer we shall not only lose

the intended use of our feet, but we shall lose our toe nails as
well; the savage man, etc. , etc. , etc. Now I saw a great many of

said savage men in Africa, and I got much interested in their toe
nails, because I soon found that our own civilized "imprisoned"

toe nails were very much better developed. In fact, a large
number of the free and untramelled savages have hardly any toe

nails at all! Whether this upsets a theory, nullifies a
sentimental protest, or merely stands as an exception, I should

not dare guess. But the fact is indubitable.
XVIII. IN THE JUNGLE (a) THE MARCH TO MERU

Now, one day we left the Isiola River and cut across on a long
upward slant to the left. In a very short time we had left the

plains, and were adrift in an ocean of brown grass that concealed
all but the bobbing loads atop the safari, and over which we

could only see when mounted. It was glorious feed, apparently,
but it contained very few animals for all that. An animal could

without doubt wax fat and sleek therein: but only to furnish
light and salutary meals to beasts of prey. Long grass makes easy

stalking. We saw a few ostriches, some giraffe, and three or four
singly adventurous oryx. The ripening grasses were softer than a

rippling field grain; and even more beautiful in their umber and
browns. Although apparently we travelled a level, nevertheless in

the extreme distance the plains of our hunting were dropping
below, and the far off mountains were slowly rising above the

horizon. On the other side were two very green hills, looking
nearly straight up and down, and through a cleft the splintered

snow-clad summit of Mt. Kenia.
At length this gentle foothill slope broke over into rougher