Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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The
European And The African Master Of The Horse, However, In Some
Respects Bore A Great Similarity To Each Other, Although Contrary To
The Opinion Of The Metaphysicians, The Same Cause Produced A
Different Effect.
The European master of the horse has a great number
of useless horses under his nominal care, and yet
Has nothing to do;
the African master of the horse has also nothing to do, for the very
best of all reasons, that he has no horses to take care of, the whole
African stud consisting of one or two half-starved, ragged ponies,
which would disgrace a costermonger's cart in the streets of London.
Katunga, however, is not the only place in which the sun shines,
where the office is made for the man, and not the man for the office;
but as they have no pension list in Katunga, nor any retired
allowances, nor any Chiltern Hundreds, to enable them to vacate their
offices, they are immediately sent about their business when age,
sickness, or other infirmity disables them from performing the duties
of their office. The age of the master of the horse of the king of
Katunga was about seventy, but he contrived, similar to the plan
adopted in some other countries, of keeping to himself all the
emoluments of his office, and getting a deputy to perform the labour;
thus for a mess of Indian corn, the stud of the king of Katunga could
be very ably looked after by some half-starved native, whilst the
holder of the office was comfortably reposing himself amongst his
twenty or thirty wives.
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