low citizens who murder and steal."

"Do you mean that you sometimes kill each other and steal from each
other, your own tribe?"

"Yes," said Sam. "Of course people who do so are bad men, but there are
some such among us."

A great discussion arose among the natives after hearing this.

"What do they say?" asked Colonel James in Castalian.

"They say," said the chief, "that they can not believe this, as they
have never heard of members of the same tribe hurting each other."

"We do all we can to prevent it," said Sam. "In our cities we have
policemen to keep order; that is, we have soldiers stationed in the
streets to frighten the bad men."

"Do you have soldiers in the streets of your towns to keep you from
killing each other!" exclaimed the chief, in astonishment. "Who ever
heard of such a thing? I do not understand it," and, altho Sam repeated
the information in every conceivable way permitted by his limited
vocabulary, he was unable successfully to convey the idea.

"It is strange how uncivilized they are," he said to his friends.

"Do you live on bananas in your country?" asked Carlos.

"No; we eat them sometimes, but we live on grain and meat," said Sam.

"You must have to work very hard to get it."

"Yes, we do, sometimes twelve hours a day."

"How frightful! And is there enough for all to eat?"

"Not always."

"And are your people happy when they work so hard and are sometimes
hungry?"

"Not always," said Sam. "Sometimes people are so unhappy that they
commit suicide."

"What?"

"I mean they kill themselves."

There was now another heated discussion.

"What do they say?" asked Colonel James.

"They say that they did not know it was possible for people to kill
themselves. I did not know it either. It is very strange."

"What limited intelligences they have!" exclaimed Sam.

"They say," continued Carlos, in a somewhat embarrassed manner, "that
if you are condemned to death, they wish one of you would kill himself,
so that they can see how it is done."

"There's a chance for you, Sam," said Cleary, but Sam did not seem to
see the joke.

"I am very sorry," said Carlos, seating himself nearer to Sam, "I am
very sorry that we may have to kill you, for I like you; but what can
we do? It is a rule of our tribe to kill prisoners of war."

"I really don't see what they can do, if that is the case," said Sam in
English. "If that is their law, and