se I cannot hear the Englishman's words." I then told him that I
had known Kaffirs scarcely twenty moons, that I could speak my own
language as well as he spoke his, and, in addition, I could speak his
sufficiently well to converse. Therefore he ought to laugh at himself
for knowing nothing of my language, not at me for knowing so little of
his; besides which, as his hair was grey, he ought to possess more
wisdom. He was much struck by the argument, and repeated it to several
other Kaffir men, all of whom appeared equally to appreciate it. I
doubt whether a civilised man would have been as much affected by this
reasoning as were the Kaffirs; for how often do we find that foreigners
are ridiculed by the ignorant Englishman because they cannot speak
English correctly, the quiz forgetting at the same time that he cannot
utter two words correctly in any other, language than his own, and that
he very frequently fails even in that.

But it is the vulgar error to laugh at people as ignorant because we may
discover that they know less on some one subject than we do. Some of
our most scientific men would be sad "pigeons" and regular dunces, were
they to show in the ring at Epsom, and few of our celebrated statesmen
would be equal to the savage in the crafts necessary in an African
forest. The savages rarely make the blunder of choosing the wrong man;
they are very excellent judges of character, and consequently would not
choose a man to fire a long shot or fight a battle because he was a good
hand at stringing beads together, or talking at their council-fires.
They select the man on account of his fitness for the post. Here
savages have a great advantage over civilised men. Amongst the latter,
individuals are frequently chosen in the most fantastic way;--mere
theorists are used for practical purposes; and men placed in positions
where quick decision and energy of character are all-important, and
where trifles should not be allowed to interfere, because perhaps these
men have excelled in the minute details of some office, or are famous
for increasing a correspondence already too large. We might as
reasonably select a man to ride our racers simply because he had studied
and understood the anatomy of the horse. While the learned theorist was
arguing about or reasoning on which muscle or nerve ought to be excited,
the practical jock would be busy at the "pull and hustle," and would win
as he pleased. The Kaffirs, from whom