“Now merely to get up—didn’t that require an enormous effort? In itself a perfectly simple decision, so it seemed. As a matter of fact it was hard; for getting up and working were one and the same thing, at least to the whites.... Life is short. Work is for those who will never understand life. Doing nothing does not degrade a man. In the eyes of one who sees things truly, it differs from laziness. As for him, Batouala, until it was proved to the contrary, he would believe that to do nothing was simply to profit by everything that surrounds us. To live from day to day without thought of yesterday or care for the morrow, without looking ahead—that was perfect.”[407] What a perfect picture of the Negro without “the power of a stronger hand,” which William Pickens saw so clearly the need of in 1903. And the philosophy of it! Moved to visit Africa in 1924, Dr. DuBois makes a discovery: “I began to notice it as I entered Southern France. I formulated it in Portugal. I knew it as a great truth one Sunday in Liberia. And the great truth was this: Efficiency and happiness do not go together in modern culture.... And laziness; divine, eternal languor is right and good and true.”[408] The Doctor praises the “manners” of the Africans. “Their manners were better than those of Park Lane or Park Avenue, Rittenhouse Square or the North Shore.... The primitive black man is courteous and dignified.... Wherefore shall we all take to the Big Bush? No I prefer New York.”[409] As to the great truth, happiness depends upon what is in the soul of the man, not upon his surroundings. But Batouala while he disliked work could exert himself to hunt or fight. His grievance was that which has moved men more than any other thro’ all the ages. He and his people were too heavily taxed. He gathered the people together and harangued them. “A drunken crowd pressed up behind the group of which Batouala was the centre. They reviled the whites. Batouala was right, a thousand times right. Of old before the coming of the whites, they had lived happily. They had worked a little for themselves, they had eaten and drunk and slept. From time to time they had had bloody palavers and had plucked the livers from the dead to eat their courage and incorporate it in themselves. Such had been the happy days of old, before the coming of the whites.”[410] Then follows a description of the great dance. “Bissibingui was the handsomest of all. The strongest too. His muscles stood out. His eyes glowed like the brush on fire.... What had gone before was nothing. All the preceding noises and outcries, the confused dancing had only been a preparation for what was to come—the dance of love, scarcely ever danced but on this evening, when they were permitted to indulge in debauchery and crime.... Couples formed.... It was the immense joy of brutes loosed from all control.... A couple dancing fell to the ground.