INTRODUCTION xiii

Nowhere have Napoleon's maxims more truth than

in deahng with the children of Africa. One's hand is

on the pulse of raw humanity. Above all remember

this one, " If you wish to command men, pretend to

love them ; the best way to pretend is to really love

them."

Another important point. Learn the language—the

men's own language. If you have an interpreter it is

seldom satisfactory, and both in that case and when you are satisfied with a very casual colloquial know-

ledge injustice is often done unwittingly. Who

believes the missionary's tale of his thousand con-

verts with his " I did not know the language, but

I had a splendid interpreter"? The following in-

stance of " bimbashi Arabic " is often quoted— I have

heard worse : " P am the son of a dog. Why are

you still here ^ ? I will put it into a parcel,^ if he

says 'ma alaish

' (I beg your pardon) again. I am a

bad^ man," &c. &c., which being interpreted ought

to have meant, " You * are the son of a dog. Why

did you not come in time 2? I will hit^ you if you

say ' ma alaish ' (means also ' don't excite yourself ') again. I am going to change^ all this," &c.

I hope the reader will remember when dipping into

the following pages that they make no pretence to lite-

rary style. They are the outcome of odd notes, letters,

and so on, strung together for the purpose of describ-

ing life as a bimbashi. The heights given were not

Note.—Mixing up (i) ana and enta ; (2) gaya and rah; (3) durb and

turd ; (4) badl and battal.