Well do I remember on one occasion being the butt of at least a dozen
Kaffirs, for no other reason than because I could not tell whether a
buffalo had galloped or only walked over some hard and grassy ground,
that retained less impression than a dry turnpike-road. How amusing it
was to see them sitting down on purpose to quiz me, pointing to each
footmark, that to my dull perception was little more than the scratch of
a penknife, and then asking if I could not now see the pace at which the
animal had moved. I was compelled to acknowledge myself a dunce, and to
explain to them that my education in early youth had been in this
particular science dreadfully neglected. They would then show and
explain to me how I was to judge of these things in future, with a
kindness and simplicity that were very beautiful.

This proceeding is nearly a type of what takes place in civilisation,
where it frequently happens that a man is politely sneered at because he
is unacquainted with the slang or local joke of some particular clique,
or does not submissively follow the habits and fashions of the reigning
set. Human nature, whether black, red, or white, is very much alike all
over the world; each to the unseasoned eye has its special peculiarities
and prominent points of ridicule, and I doubt whether a Zulu chief and
_umfazi_, with their scanty attire of strips of skins and bead and
feather ornaments, would produce more ridicule were they to walk up
Regent-street, than would an English gentleman fashionably attired, or a
lady with looped and festooned dress and embroidered under-garment, at
the court of Kaffirland.

In every land and in every society, men are found who think they raise
themselves, or show that they have unlimited penetration, by trying to
cast disbelief on the statements of others, and thus endeavour to prove
that they themselves are very wise men. Now, I would sooner be what is
vulgarly called humbugged half a dozen times, by some man relating to me
a falsehood, after assuring me he was merely telling the truth, than I
would once cast disbelief on a true statement. In the first case, the
sin is on the relater; and we merely believed him to be a truth-teller
when he was in reality a bar. But in the second case we expose our
ignorance, by often thinking that impossible which really exists, or we
insult an honest man by doubting his honesty, and injure ourselves by
shutting our ears to the reception of facts.