| OCR Text |
Show RELIANCE ONLY ON MEMORY Zulus, Having No Written Language, Have Been Compelled to Cultivate That Quality. It is said that the memory In savage or uncultivated peoples is ofren trained to a (iftrree very surprising to those civilized men and women who have grown used to depending' upon the wntteu much more than on the remembered re-membered word. The transmission of whole epics, like the "Iliad," hy word of iiinihli no longer seems so incredible incred-ible when one reads of the feats of memory of which preseut-dny Zulus are capable. These people have no writing, and are accustomed to transmit messages and record events by memory alone. This they can do because their mental tmpressions are made especially distinct dis-tinct by reason of their acquired or inherited habit of giving undivided attention at-tention to the subject in hand. Communications between the British Brit-ish authorities and the Zulu kings are almost invariably conducted by means of oral messages carried by natives. A certain ultimatum addressed by Ihe British to ('elywayo was conveyed to him, not upon paper but in the brain cells of the messengers whom he had sent 80 miles to receive it from the British commissioners. Although the docu.-ient contained some 4,000 words, and was accompanied accompa-nied by some comment on the state of things it was desired to remedy, the whole was repeated to Oetywayo with perfect accuracy. |
