RELIGION AND CHARACTER 7 What if these peoples had not been the subjects of faiUngs as great as their inherent powers ? What if principles of humanity, progress, and development, had gained sway in place of the cramping influences of a religion, or perhaps, to be strictly just, the interpretation of it, which warps while it yet binds together, permits a fatalism which enervates in one direction while it gives force in another, and an egotism which runs riot between an extreme of literal observance of religious formulae on one hand and the slavery and destruction of fellow-man for selfish ends on the other ? Had enlightened ideals found a favourable ground on the basis of strength and of intellect, a rule of great power over vast areas of Africa would have been created, almost unassailable in its position.

It is the "kismet" on the part of the vast majority, the lack of inherent as distinguished from prescribed morality on the part of vast numbers, the inappreciation of the value of time, and, except under extraordinary stimulus, the lack of cohesion, which limit the expansive power of this remarkable race.

The people of the Sudan, mixed in blood as many are, nevertheless are sharply divided into three classes—the Arabs or pseudo-Arabs of the north (for these show many divergencies from the original Asiatic type) ; the negroids of the south, many of whom were doubtless pushed up-river by the invading ancient Egyptians and subsequent Arab irruptions ; and certain tribes, including the