been a habit of mine all my life. I have always tried to exaggerate a
bit. It makes me feel, for the time being, that I'm above the other
negroes, that's all. I know I always try to make an honest living, and
this habit of mine never interfered with me."

A good deal more could be furnished from the records of this man's case
in illustration of his pathologic disposition to lying. An ordinary
negro soldier, he succeeds in projecting himself, by means of his ready
and very fertile fantasy, into the most wonderful situations and in
rubbing shoulders with royalty. If we inquire into the causes operative
here we first of all see in the fabrications of this individual an
unbounded craving for compensation for a natural deficiency--in this
instance a racial deficiency. What this man lacks in reality he
endeavors to substitute in his fantasy. There can be no doubt that the
tendency to lie has reached such dimensions and intensity in this man's
mental make-up as to make him absolutely believe in his own impossible
fabrications, to render him absolutely helpless in the mazes of his
fantastic creations. He is assisted in this by his craving for
self-esteem, by his extreme need of compensation for a real deficiency,
by his ready and fertile fantasy, one absolutely devoid of _critique_,
by his extreme suggestibility, and, lastly, what is of great importance,
by his extremely defective apperceptive faculties and consequent
falsifications of memory.

The latter defect was particularly well illustrated in the following
note from my records of the case. He was asked, in the course of my
examination, to repeat a simple story known as the "Shark Story", which
I shall reproduce here in full for the sake of making clear my point:--

"The son of a Governor of Indiana was first officer of an Oriental
steamer. When in the Indian Ocean the boat was overtaken by a typhoon
and was violently tossed about. The officer was suddenly thrown
overboard. A life preserver was thrown to him, but on account of the
heavy sea difficulty was encountered in launching a boat. The crew,
however, rushed to the side of the vessel to keep him in sight, but
before their shuddering eyes the unlucky young man was grasped by one
of the sharks encircling the steamer and was drawn under the water,
leaving only a dark streak of blood."

In reproducing it he said:--

"The son of a Governor of an Oriental steamer was the captain. Now,
doct