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Test Bank For The Real World Sixth Edition Sixth Edition
Test Bank For The Real World Sixth Edition Sixth Edition
1. What will a good researcher always do after formulating a general research question?
a. review the literature relevant to his or her topic
b. clearly define his or her variables
c. look for correlations between at least two phenomena
d. form a hypothesis
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Page 41
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Remembering
2. Survey research tends to produce quantitative data. One key advantage of this kind of data is that it
a. is easy to transmit to the public.
b. includes observations and informal interviews.
c. allows the researcher to review the literature.
d. affords easy access to the norms, values, and meanings held by members of a group.
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Page 41
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Remembering
3. What uses an inductive method that involves collecting data and then generating theory by looking
for relationships among categories?
a. grounded theory
b. chaos theory
c. conflict theory
d. scientific theory
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Page 46
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Remembering
4. A famous social scientist tells you that the most important task in her research was entering the
social world of the people she was studying. What can you say about this researcher?
a. She worries about ethical issues in her research.
b. She is a qualitative researcher.
c. She cannot use interviews as a methodology.
d. She exclusively uses quantitative methods.
ANS: B DIF: Difficult REF: Page 41
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Understanding
5. You want to conduct some sociological research on whether people on social networking sites are
less likely to meet in person as a result of their online community participation. What is the next step in the scientific
method?
a. conduct a literature review
b. form a hypothesis
c. choose a research design or method
d. collect data
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Page 41
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Understanding
6. Jai is conducting a sociological research study on differences in interactions between similar and
dissimilar co-workers. After reviewing the literature, he developed a hypothesis and has operationalized the
variables he will study. What is the next step Jai should take in the scientific method?
a. identify a problem or ask a question
b. analyze data
c. choose a research design or method
d. collect data
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Page 42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
7. Lili is conducting a sociological research study on the underground music scene. She has just
finished collecting data for the study. What is the next step Lili should take in the scientific method?
a. share findings
b. analyze data
c. provide operational definitions for variables
d. choose a research design or method
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: Page 42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
9. According to the scientific method, what are the steps in conducting research and in what order
should they be completed?
a. form a hypothesis, define variables, choose research method, collect data
b. form a hypothesis, choose research design, define variables, analyze data
c. define variables, form a hypothesis, choose research design, review the literature
d. analyze data, form a hypothesis, choose research design, define variables
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Pages 41–42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Remembering
10. You are doing a research project on the effects of contemporary media. What are your variables if
your hypothesis is “watching violence on television causes an increase in violent behavior”?
a. violence on television and violent behavior
b. watching television and violence on television
c. watching nonviolent television
d. causes of violent behavior
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: Page 42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
11. You are conducting research on violence in the media. In what part of the research process are you
engaged if you are trying to decide whether “violence” includes words as well as actions?
a. choosing a topic
b. analyzing the data
c. defining the variables
d. reviewing the literature
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Page 42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
12. What do you call broad theoretical models of the social or natural world?
a. paradigms
b. hypotheses
c. interviews
d. grounded theory
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Page 43
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Remembering
13. A paradigm shift is a major break in the assumptions that are used to understand the world. For
social scientists, what causes a paradigm shift?
a. the study of history
b. new data forcing a new way of looking at the world
c. religion and theology
d. increased awareness of the current paradigm
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: Page 43
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Understanding
14. A graduate student is almost done with his dissertation when he is informed that twenty years ago
someone did a similar project and already demonstrated what he had hoped to be the first to discover. What basic
step of the scientific method should have saved him from this problem?
a. developing an operational definition
b. selecting a research method
c. analyzing data
d. reviewing the literature
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Page 41
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
15. In the 1980s, many politicians argued that listening to heavy metal music led teenagers to die by
suicide. Though you might find this belief silly, it is a(n)
a. variable.
b. paradigm shift.
c. hypothesis.
d. operational definition.
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Page 42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
16. A social research methods class wants to study smoking. First, the professor asks how many
people in the class are smokers. Two people indicate that they are. Then she asks how many people have smoked a
cigarette in the past week and ten people indicate that they had. From this, the class decides, for the purposes of the
survey, a smoker will be anyone who has smoked a cigarette in the past week and currently owns a pack of
cigarettes. This is a(n)
a. operational definition.
b. hypothesis.
c. spurious correlation.
d. ethical challenge.
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: Page 42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
17. A sociologist wants to study popular attitudes and perceptions about astrology among college
students in California. She believes that people who have astrological signs associated with fire will have a greater
knowledge of astrology because fire signs tend to have more interesting and attractive symbolism. What are the
variables in this study?
a. astrological signs and knowledge of astrology
b. college students and symbolism
c. popular attitudes and perceptions
d. California and college students
ANS: A DIF: Difficult REF: Page 42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
18. In recent years, sociologists who study deviance have learned that they can measure the quantities
of narcotics consumed by a community by testing its sewage before treatment. What part of the research process
would the sociologists be carrying out when they visit the sewage treatment plant to test its sewage?
a. analyzing data
b. forming a hypothesis
c. collecting data
d. developing an operational definition
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Page 42
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
19. A study found a strong correlation between parental bonding and adolescent drug use. Children
with stronger bonds to their parents were far less likely to try drugs or alcohol. However, the researchers, after
examining their data more closely, discovered that parental bonding was really a predictor for teen religiosity.
Consequently, high levels of religiosity prevent drug use rather than parental bonding. This means that religiosity
was a(n)
a. spurious variable.
b. issue of reflexivity.
c. paradigm shift.
d. intervening variable.
ANS: D DIF: Moderate REF: Page 43
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
20. Charles Darwin suggested that, rather than being superior to the rest of the animal kingdom,
human beings are simply one part of a larger system governed by natural laws. This radically changed how people
thought about almost everything. What would we call this?
a. a paradigm shift
b. an ethical issue
c. an example of reactivity
d. a research proposal
ANS: A DIF: Moderate REF: Page 43
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Applying
21. If changing one variable seems to lead to a change in another variable, this shows ________ but
does not necessarily prove ________.
a. a paradigm shift; causation
b. correlation; causation
c. causation; correlation
d. applied research; a paradigm shift
ANS: B DIF: Moderate REF: Page 43
OBJ: 2.1 An Overview of Research Methods MSC: Understanding
23. What kind of research are you doing if you observe a group in order to determine its norms,
values, rules, and meanings?
a. comparative historical
b. quantitative
c. qualitative
d. applied
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: Page 41
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Remembering
25. Which method of social research might involve shifting between participating in a social situation
and being an observer?
a. interviews
b. surveys
c. comparative-historical research
d. ethnography
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Page 45
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Understanding
26. What does it mean if ethnographers are overt about their roles?
a. They maintain narrow and limited definitions of appropriate research methodologies.
b. They spend a great deal of time reflecting on their roles in the research process.
c. They observe and record data without letting anyone know they are doing research.
d. They openly admit that they are doing sociological research.
ANS: D DIF: Easy REF: Page 46
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Understanding
27. When engaging in participant observation, researchers can study others as well as themselves.
Research that focuses on one’s own thoughts, feelings, and experiences is known as
a. life history.
b. autoethnography.
c. internal investigation.
d. content analysis.
ANS: B DIF: Easy REF: Page 45
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Remembering
28. Frances is assigned a research project in which she is to attend a celebratory family meal and
analyze her experiences as she participates in the meal. She is asked to make a detailed account of the meal that
includes her thoughts and feelings about the event. What type of research is Frances assigned?
a. comparative-historical
b. survey
c. autoethnography
d. experiment
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: Page 45
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Applying
29. Ethnographers using participant observation must always be aware of reflexivity, which occurs
because
a. participants may not consider their own motivations and act out of reflex.
b. ethnographers’ conclusions may not be applicable to any larger group.
c. the presence of ethnographers may alter the behavior of the people they are observing.
d. ethnographers intervene in the lives of the people they are studying.
ANS: C DIF: Easy REF: Page 46
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Understanding
30. Which of the following is an advantage of using ethnography to study social life?
a. Ethnography is a quick and easy form of social science research.
b. Ethnography requires the researcher to spend little time gaining familiarity with research subjects.
c. Ethnography allows the researcher to gather abundant data on a small population.
d. Ethnography requires no training since it is something we all do as human beings.
ANS: C DIF: Moderate REF: Page 47
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Understanding
33. Which of the following research techniques focuses on gaining an insider’s perspective of the
everyday lives of subjects under investigation, often dispelling stereotypes about the group being investigated?
a. participant observation
b. surveys
c. analysis of existing data
d. experiments
ANS: A DIF: Easy REF: Page 45
OBJ: 2.2 Ethnography/Participant Observation MSC: Understanding
34. The sociologist Mitch Duneier wrote his ethnography Sidewalk about street vendors in New York
City’s Greenwich Village. While writing the book, Duneier was particularly concerned that the people he was
studying would alter their behavior when he was present, especially since his background was different from theirs.
This caused him to think critically about his activities and role as a researcher. What do sociologists call this?
a. response rate
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the box is fastened at a height of some five or six feet above the
ground, or hung up (but this is not so common) like a swinging bar
on a stand made for the purpose. This last arrangement is
particularly safe, as affording no access to vermin. As the birds
multiply, the owner adds cylinder to cylinder till they form a kind of
wall. Towards sunset, he or his wife approaches the dovecote, greeted
by a friendly cooing from inside, picks up from the ground a piece of
wood cut to the right size, and closes the opening of the first bark box
with it, doing the same to all the others in turn, and then leaves them
for the night, secure that no wild cat or other marauder can reach
them.
I have found out within the last few days why so few men are to be
seen in my rounds. The settlements here scarcely deserve the name
of villages—they are too straggling for that; it is only now and then
that from one hut one can catch a distant glimpse of another. The
view is also obstructed by the fields of manioc, whose branches,
though very spreading, are not easily seen through on account of the
thickly-growing, succulent green foliage. This and the bazi pea are,
now that the maize and millet have been gathered in, the only crops
left standing in the fields. Thus it may happen that one has to trust
entirely to the trodden paths leading from one hut to another, to be
sure of missing none, or to the guidance of the sounds inseparable
from every human settlement. There is no lack of such noises at
Masasi, and in fact I follow them almost every day. Walking about
the country with Nils Knudsen, I hear what sounds like a jovial
company over their morning drink—voices becoming louder and
louder, and shouting all together regardless of parliamentary rules. A
sudden turn of the path brings us face to face with a drinking-party,
and a very merry one, indeed, to judge by the humour of the guests
and the number and dimensions of the pombe pots which have been
wholly or partially emptied. The silence which follows our
appearance is like that produced by a stone thrown into a pool where
frogs are croaking. Only when we ask, “Pombe nzuri?” (“Is the beer
good?”) a chorus of hoarse throats shouts back the answer—“Nzuri
kabisa, bwana!” (“Very good indeed, sir!”)
As to this pombe—well, we Germans fail to appreciate our
privileges till we have ungratefully turned our backs on our own
country. At Mtua, our second camp out from Lindi, a huge earthen
jar of the East African brew was brought as a respectful offering to us
three Europeans. At that time I failed to appreciate the dirty-looking
drab liquid; not so our men, who finished up the six gallons or so in a
twinkling. In Masasi, again, the wife of the Nyasa chief Masekera
Matola—an extremely nice, middle-aged woman—insisted on
sending Knudsen and me a similar gigantic jar soon after our arrival.
We felt that it was out of the question to refuse or throw away the
gift, and so prepared for the ordeal with grim determination. First I
dipped one of my two tumblers into the turbid mass, and brought it
up filled with a liquid in colour not unlike our Lichtenhain beer, but
of a very different consistency. A compact mass of meal filled the
glass almost to the top, leaving about a finger’s breadth of real, clear
“Lichtenhainer.” “This will never do!” I growled, and shouted to
Kibwana for a clean handkerchief. He produced one, after a
seemingly endless search, but my attempts to use it as a filter were
fruitless—not a drop would run through. “No use, the stuff is too
closely woven. Lete sanda, Kibwana” (“Bring a piece of the shroud!”)
This order sounds startling enough, but does not denote any
exceptional callousness on my part. Sanda is the Swahili name for
the cheap, unbleached and highly-dressed calico (also called bafta)
which, as a matter of fact, is generally used by the natives to wrap a
corpse for burial. The material is consequently much in demand, and
travellers into the interior will do well to carry a bale of it with them.
When the dressing is washed out, it is little better than a network of
threads, and might fairly be expected to serve the purpose of a filter.
I found, however, that I could not strain the pombe through it—a
few scanty drops ran down and that was all. After trying my tea and
coffee-strainers, equally in vain, I gave up in despair, and drank the
stuff as it stood. I found that it had a slight taste of flour, but was
otherwise not by any means bad, and indeed quite reminiscent of my
student days at Jena—in fact, I think I could get used to it in time.
The men of Masasi seem to have got only too well used to it. I am far
from grudging the worthy elders their social glass after the hard work
of the harvest, but it is very hard that my studies should suffer from
this perpetual conviviality. It is impossible to drum up any
considerable number of men to be cross-examined on their tribal
affinities, usages and customs. Moreover, the few who can reconcile
it with their engagements and inclinations to separate themselves for
a time from their itinerant drinking-bouts are not disposed to be very
particular about the truth. Even when, the other day, I sent for a
band of these jolly topers to show me their methods of
basketmaking, the result was very unsatisfactory—they did some
plaiting in my presence, but they were quite incapable of giving in
detail the native names of their materials and implements—the
morning drink had been too copious.
It is well known that it is the custom of most, if not all, African
tribes to make a part of their supply of cereals into beer after an
abundant harvest, and consume it wholesale in this form. This, more
than anything else, has probably given rise to the opinion that the
native always wastes his substance in time of plenty, and is nearly
starved afterwards in consequence. It is true that our black friends
cannot be pronounced free from a certain degree of “divine
carelessness”—a touch, to call it no more, of Micawberism—but it
would not be fair to condemn them on the strength of a single
indication. I have already laid stress on the difficulty which the
native cultivator has of storing his seed-corn through the winter. It
would be still more difficult to preserve the much greater quantities
of foodstuffs gathered in at the harvest in a condition fit for use
through some eight or nine months. That he tries to do so is seen by
the numerous granaries surrounding every homestead of any
importance, but that he does not invariably succeed, and therefore
prefers to dispose of that part of his crops which would otherwise be
wasted in a manner combining the useful and the agreeable, is
proved by the morning and evening beer-drinks already referred to,
which, with all their loud merriment, are harmless enough. They
differ, by the bye, from the drinking in European public-houses, in
that they are held at each man’s house in turn, so that every one is
host on one occasion and guest on another—a highly satisfactory
arrangement on the whole.
My difficulties are due to other causes besides the chronically
bemused state of the men. In the first place, there are the troubles
connected with photography. In Europe the amateur is only too
thankful for bright sunshine, and even should the light be a little
more powerful than necessary, there is plenty of shade to be had
from trees and houses. In Africa we have nothing of the sort—the
trees are neither high nor shady, the bushes are not green, and the
houses are never more than twelve feet high at the ridge-pole. To this
is added the sun’s position in the sky at a height which affects one
with a sense of uncanniness, from nine in the morning till after three
in the afternoon, and an intensity of light which is best appreciated
by trying to match the skins of the natives against the colours in Von
Luschan’s scale. No medium between glittering light and deep black
shadow—how is one, under such circumstances, to produce artistic
plates full of atmosphere and feeling?
For a dark-room I have been trying to use the Masasi boma. This is
the only stone building in the whole district and has been
constructed for storing food so as to prevent the recurrence of famine
among the natives, and, still more, to make the garrison independent
of outside supplies in the event of another rising. It has only one
story, but the walls are solidly built, with mere loopholes for
windows; and the flat roof of beaten clay is very strong. In this
marvel of architecture are already stacked uncounted bags
containing millet from the new crop, and mountains of raw cotton. I
have made use of both these products, stopping all crevices with the
cotton, and taking the bags of grain to sit on, and also as a support
for my table, hitherto the essential part of a cotton-press which
stands forsaken in the compound, mourning over the shipwreck it
has made of its existence. Finally, I have closed the door with a
combination of thick straw mats made by my carriers, and some
blankets from my bed. In this way, I can develop at a pinch even in
the daytime, but, after working a short time in this apartment, the
atmosphere becomes so stifling that I am glad to escape from it to
another form of activity.
On one of my first strolls here, I came upon
a neat structure which was explained to me as
“tego ya ngunda”—a trap for pigeons. This is
a system of sticks and thin strings, one of
which is fastened to a strong branch bent over
into a half-circle. I have been, from my youth
up, interested in all mechanical contrivances,
and am still more so in a case like this, where
we have an opportunity of gaining an insight
into the earlier evolutional stages of the
RAT TRAP human intellect. I therefore, on my return to
camp, called together all my men and as many
local natives as possible, and addressed the assembly to the effect
that the mzungu was exceedingly anxious to possess all kinds of
traps for all kinds of animals. Then followed the promise of good
prices for good and authentic specimens, and the oration wound up
with “Nendeni na tengenezeni sasa!” (“Now go away and make up
your contraptions!”).
How they hurried off that day, and how eagerly all my men have
been at work ever since! I had hitherto believed all my carriers to be
Wanyamwezi—now I find, through the commentaries which each of
them has to supply with his work, that my thirty men represent a
number of different tribes. Most of them, to be sure, are
Wanyamwezi, but along with them there are some Wasukuma and
Manyema, and even a genuine Mngoni from Runsewe, a
representative of that gallant Zulu tribe who, some decades ago,
penetrated from distant South Africa to the present German
territory, and pushed forward one of its groups—these very Runsewe
Wangoni—as far as the south-western corner of the Victoria Nyanza.
As for the askari, though numbering only thirteen, they belong to no
fewer than twelve different tribes, from those of far Darfur in the
Egyptian Sudan to the Yao in Portuguese East Africa. All these
“faithfuls” have been racking their brains to recall and practise once
more in wood and field the arts of their boyhood, and now they come
and set up, in the open, sunny space beside my palatial abode, the
results of their unwonted intellectual exertions.
The typical cultivator is not credited in literature with much skill
as a hunter and trapper; his modicum of intellect is supposed to be
entirely absorbed by the care of his fields, and none but tribes of the
stamp of the Bushmen, the Pygmies and the Australian aborigines
are assumed by our theoretic wisdom to be capable of dexterously
killing game in forest or steppe, or taking it by skilful stratagem in a
cunningly devised trap. And yet how wide of the mark is this opinion
of the schools! Among the tribes of the district I am studying, the
Makua are counted as good hunters, while at the same time they are
like the rest, in the main, typical hoe-cultivators—i.e., people who,
year after year, keep on tilling, with the primitive hoe, the ground
painfully brought under cultivation. In spite of their agricultural
habits their traps are constructed with wonderful ingenuity. The
form and action of these traps is sufficiently evident from the
accompanying sketches; but in case any reader should be entirely
without the faculty of “technical sight,” I may add for his benefit that
all these murderous implements depend on the same principle.
Those intended for quadrupeds are so arranged that the animal in
walking or running forward strikes against a fine net with his muzzle,
or a thin cord with his foot. The net or the string is thereby pressed
forward, the upper edge of the former glides downwards, but the end
of the string moves a little to one side. In either case this movement
sets free the end of a lever—a small stick which has hitherto, in a way
sufficiently clear from the sketch—kept the trap set. It slips
instantaneously round its support, and in so doing releases the
tension of the tree or bent stick acting as a spring, which in its
upward recoil draws a skilfully fixed noose tight round the neck of
the animal, which is then strangled to death. Traps of similar
construction, but still more cruel, are set for rats and the like, and,
unfortunately, equal cunning and skill are applied to the pursuit of
birds. Perhaps I shall find another opportunity of discussing this side
of native life; it certainly deserves attention, for there is scarcely any
department where the faculty of invention to be found in even the
primitive mind is so clearly shown as in this aspect of the struggle for
existence.
It is not very easy to locate my present abode on the map. Masasi and
its exact latitude and longitude have been known to me for years, but
of this strangely named place,[17] where I drove in my tent-pegs a few
days ago, I never even heard before I had entered the area of the
inland tribes.
One trait is common to all Oriental towns, their beauty at a
distance and the disillusionment in store for those who set foot
within their walls. Knudsen has done nothing but rave about
Chingulungulu ever since we reached Masasi. He declared that its
baraza was the highest achievement of East African architecture,
that it had a plentiful supply of delicious water, abundance of all
kinds of meat, and unequalled fruit and vegetables. He extolled its
population, exclusively composed, according to him, of high-bred
gentlemen and good-looking women, and its well-built, spacious
houses. Finally, its situation, he said, made it a convenient centre for
excursions in all directions over the plain. I have been here too short
a time to bring all the details of this highly coloured picture to the
test of actual fact, but this much I have already ascertained, that
neither place nor people are quite so paradisaical as the enthusiastic
Nils would have me believe.
YAO HOMESTEAD AT CHINGULUNGULU
His name, Kofia tule, was at first a puzzle to me. I knew that kofia
means a cap, but, curiously enough it never occurred to me to look
up tule (which, moreover, I assumed to be a Nyamwezi word) in the
dictionary. That it was supposed to involve a joke of some sort, I
gathered from the general laughter, whenever I asked its meaning. At
last we arrived at the fact that kofia tule means a small, flat cap—in
itself a ridiculous name for a man, but doubly so applied to this black
super-man with the incredibly vacant face.
Kofia tule, then, comes slowly forward, followed by six more
Wanyamwezi, and some local men whom I have engaged as extra
carriers. With him as their mnyampara they are to take my
collections down to the Coast, and get them stored till my return in
the cellars of the District Commissioner’s office at Lindi. The final
instructions are delivered, and then comes the order, “You here, go
to the left,—we are going to the right. March!” Our company takes
some time to get into proper marching order, but at last everything
goes smoothly. A glance northward over the plain assures us that
Kofia tule and his followers have got up the correct safari speed; and
we plunge into the uninhabited virgin pori.
There is something very monotonous and fatiguing about the
march through these open woods. It is already getting on for noon,
and I am half-asleep on my mule, when I catch sight of two black
figures, gun in hand, peeping cautiously round a clump of bushes in
front. Can they be Wangoni?
For some days past we have heard flying rumours that Shabruma,
the notorious leader of the Wangoni in the late rebellion, and the last
of our opponents remaining unsubdued, is planning an attack on
Nakaam, and therefore threatening this very neighbourhood. Just as
I look round for my gun-bearer, a dozen throats raise the joyful shout
of “Mail-carrier!” This is my first experience of the working of the
German Imperial Post in East Africa; I learnt in due course that,
though by no means remunerative to the department, it is as nearly
perfect as any human institution can be. It sounds like an
exaggeration, but it is absolutely true, to say that all mail matter,
even should it be only a single picture post-card, is delivered to the
addressee without delay, wherever he may be within the postal area.
The native runners, of course, have a very different sort of duty to
perform from the few miles daily required of our home functionaries.
With letters and papers packed in a water-tight envelope of oiled
paper and American cloth, and gun on shoulder, the messenger trots
along, full of the importance of his errand, and covers enormous
distances, sometimes, it is said, double the day’s march of an
ordinary caravan. If the road lies through a district rendered unsafe
by lions, leopards, or human enemies, two men are always sent
together. The black figures rapidly approach us, ground arms with
soldierly precision and report in proper form:—Letters from Lindi
for the Bwana mkubwa and the Bwana mdogo—the great and the
little master. As long as Mr. Ewerbeck was with us, it was not easy for
the natives to establish the correct precedence between us. Since they
ranked me as the new captain, they could not possibly call me
Bwana mdogo. Now, however, there is not the slightest difficulty,—
there are only two Europeans, and I being, not only the elder, but
also the leader of the expedition, there is nothing to complicate the
usual gradation of ranks.
CAMP AT MWITI
YAO HUT