It was very difficult to acquire words for abstract ideas, as courage, faith, love, recklessness, etc.; and it was not easy to procure words for tangible objects—things that we could point to and touch. I remember on one occasion wanting the word for table. There were five or six boys standing around, and tapping the table with my forefinger I asked: “What is this?” One boy said it was _dodela_, another that it was _etanda_, a third stated it was _bokali_, a fourth that it was _elamba_, and the fifth said it was _meza_. These various words we wrote in our notebook, and congratulated ourselves that we were working among a people who possessed so rich a language that they had five words for one article. By and by we wanted a table brought to us, and selecting a word at random from our list of five words, each one of which we supposed meant table, we said: “_Benga bokali_” = fetch the table. The boys looked at us with considerable astonishment, and, noticing their embarrassment, we checked the list of words and found that one lad had thought we wanted the word for tapping, so he told us _dodela_ = to tap; another understood we were seeking the word for the material of which the table was made, and he gave us _etanda_ = plank; another had an idea that we required the word for hardness, that which caused the noise as we tapped with our finger, and he told us _bokali_, and that is what we had told them to bring: _benga bokali_ = fetch the hardness, a feat they could not possibly accomplish; another thought we wished for a name for that which covered the table, and his contribution was _elamba_ = cloth; and the last lad, not being able, perhaps, to think of anything else, gave us the word _meza_ = table—the very word we were seeking. We had to scratch out the first four words, leave the word _meza_, and pass on, having learned a good lesson on the evil results of jumping too quickly to conclusions. If the reader knows no German, and should ever happen to be in the company of some five or six Germans who do not understand a single word of English, let him ask: “What is this?” in indifferent German, and write down their several answers.