Consequently the sex has become
vicious as in Egypt--worse than the men, bad as these are. Petty larceny
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.
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