is carried on to such an extent that no improvement is possible: as
regards property, the peninsula contains the most communistic of
communities. The robbers are expert to a degree; they work naked and well
greased, and they choose early dawn or the night-hour when the tornado is
most violent. The men fight by biting, squeezing, and butting with the
head, like the Brazilian _capoeira_. The women have a truly horrible way
of putting out of the world an obnoxious lover. Ask an Aku if an Ibo is
capable of poisoning you: he will say emphatically, 'Yes.' Put the same
question to an Ibo touching an Aku, and he will not reply, 'No.'

With respect to the relative position of Japhet and Ham--perhaps I should
say Ham and Japhet--ultra-philanthropy has granted all the aspirations of
the Ethiopian melodist:--

wish de legislator would set dis darkie free;
Oh, what a happy place den de darkie world would be!
We'd have a darkie parliament,
An' darkie code of law,
An' darkie judges on de bench,
Darkie barristers and aw.

I own that darkey must be defended, and sturdily defended too, from the
injustice and cruelty of the class he calls 'poor white trash;' but the
protection should be in reason, or it becomes an injustice. Why, for
instance, did the unwise negrophile propose to protect the Jamaica negro
against the Indian coolie? Because Niger wants it? Pure ignorance and
prejudice of gentlemen who stay at home! Though physically and mentally
weaker than Europeans, the negro can hold his own, as Sá Leone proves, by
that combination which enables cattle to resist lions. Japhet Albus is by
nature aggressive; if not, he would not now be dwelling in the tents of