For instance, a person that had never been out of England would see nothing amiss in asking a Makua or a Machinga, “If a dog were to tear your trousers and your housemaid were to mend them, how much would you give her in addition to her ordinary wages?” Now the native will not say “We wear no trousers,” “Women in our country never sew,” “No one receives wages in our country for domestic service,” “Special services are not defined, and if they were, the duties of a housemaid would not be anything like what they are in England”. Instead of making statements of this kind, which would all be interesting to his questioner, the African will take up the question as it stands, he will consider that it is quite worthy of the genius of a European, and will probably answer that the housemaid would get “two fowls, one hoe, and a string of beads!” And he may reply without the least hesitation; for if he be a professional oracle-man, remember he has been trained all his lifetime to answer hypothetical questions. He would reason that if a man possessed trousers, and servants, yea, a female that obtained wages and had been taught to sew, he ought to give her some handsome present for what she did beyond her ordinary duties, and then our oracle would state what was his idea of a handsome present. His answer is utterly misleading, but he deserves credit for his polite attempt to humour the European, who forthwith translates the answer into pounds, shillings, and pence! Another cause of error is found in NATIVE POLITENESS. One evening I questioned a professional judge on a point of native law; he replied by stating what was entirely untrue; when I pointed this out he merely laughed at the circumstance; he thought he had invented something that would appear better to a foreigner. He reminded me of a Scotch guide who kept telling what was false, because the Southerns all liked to hear that some “old king was killed beside the great big stane”. Bishop Steere says—“In Africa they never say _no_, they always say _yes, certainly_; but possibly you are no nearer your object”. One must be careful never to _suggest_ an answer to a native; if the native and his questioner are strangers to each other the former will make it a point of etiquette to find out what answer the stranger would like, and may by and by take occasion to compliment him on his cleverness and the accuracy of his knowledge! Statements made in answer to direct questions are not to be relied on unless the questioner has had years of experience in conversation with natives, and knows the subject he converses about. What is arrived at in an indirect manner is almost always more valuable. I lay down these principles as to native evidence with some confidence, as I have tried them in hundreds of cases, especially in endeavours to fix the exact meaning of native words. One statement where the word occurred spontaneously was worth ten statements contrived for the purpose of eliminating the meaning.