periods of time there were powerful black nations which have left the
records of their achievements and of which we are just now beginning to
learn a little. This little, however, which we have learned teaches us that
the Negroes of today should work and strive. Along their own special line
and in their own peculiar way they should endeavor to make contributions to
civilization. Their achievements can be such that once more black will be
dignified and the fame of Ethiopia again spread throughout the world.

MONROE N. WORK




THE MIND OF THE AFRICAN NEGRO AS REFLECTED IN HIS PROVERBS



As a study of folk literature of different races offers one way of
understanding their mental attitude toward life and its problems, the
folk literature of the Negro will reveal to us his inherent moral and
intellectual bias and the natural trend of his philosophy. Let us therefore
examine some phases of this subject, paying particular attention to that
part which relates especially to the proverbs. The sources of such
literature are abundant. A little research in a well-equipped library
brings one into a curious and informing mass of knowledge, ever increasing
in bulk, in the French, German and English languages, as well as in many
strange and highly inflected African tongues.

A cursory reading of this literature discloses at once that our general
knowledge of Africa has been based in the past mainly on those external