The boys of the mbonge are well attended to; for to get the name of ‘stingy’ is the first step towards the terrible rumour of witch.
The constant activities of trade tend to develop the intellectual faculties of the people. Cute, long-headed men, with wonderful memories, having no account books or invoices, they ask you sensible questions; and if you can speak their language, an hour’s chat may be as pleasant with them as with some whiter and more civilised folk. If you have a bargain to drive with them, you need all your wits and firmness; while if they are stronger than you, or have no reason to respect you, they will have their way.
Clever in pottery and metal work, making hoes and knives, casting bracelets, anklets, and even bells from the brass rods of trade, beating out brass wire, and ribbon, they strike you at once as being of a superior type.
We might draw another picture. There are districts where there seems to be no energy in the people. Take, for instance, the Majinga or the Lukunga Valley, as we knew them two years ago. Here the natives live in the midst of plenty, for the soil is not to be equalled in richness. The proceeds of a goat sold on one of the markets will find a large family in palm fibre cloth for a year; while a crate or two of fowls will provide salt, gunpowder, and an occasional hoe or plate.
A boy grows up in this rich country, and for a while his intellect expands as he learns about the little world around him. As he grows older, he may bestir himself to find means to buy a gun, and then a wife: that accomplished, he has practically nothing more to learn or live for. He sleeps or smokes all day, unless about September the grass is burnt and there is a little hunting, though a war or a palaver may sometimes break the monotony. Otherwise, his wife cultivates the land, and feeds him; he eats and sleeps. Living such an animal life, his intellect stagnates, he becomes quarrelsome and stupid to a degree almost hopeless. Dirty, he is contented to see his hut fall to pieces almost over his head.