refused by the girl for whom he has been serving can claim compensation
for the work he has done then the fathers will become more careful than
they now are and they will refuse to accept the young man's services
save where the girl is old enough to consent for herself, for no man
likes to give up what he has won and held, and in this manner our old
custom will not go against the way of the Government." This reply, which
I have Englished almost literally, is typical of the Native form of
argumentation and it shows good all-round thinking ability; it is not a
particular instance of special intelligence, but a fair example of
average Native perspicacity.

A few months ago, while discussing with some elderly Matabele Natives
the subject of miscegenation in South Africa generally one of the old
men voiced the opinion of the meeting thus:

"White people do what they like, they take what they like, and when they
like certain girls they take them, and what can we say? And, after all,
why should they not do so? Everything belongs to them, we are their
people, our girls belong to them, the white people only take what is
theirs to take."

"But," I interpolated, "white men do not take the girls away from you,
it is the girls themselves who leave their own kind and go to the white
men."

"No," he replied, "I say they take the girls because they know as well
as we do that women--all women--will always go where they can live with
ease and have plenty and be without work, and this they can do when they
go to the white man, whereas with us they must work. Therefore I say
that the white men take the girls away from us, but I do not say that