Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/51

 the difficulties of the journey, thousands of these Tukrurs undertake the pilgrimage every year.

In West Africa the propagators of Islam, although using the language of the Prophet, are not Arabs, but Negroes of various tribes. As traders or artisans, they visit the populations along the banks of the Gambia, and penetrate even as far as Ashantland Dahomey, on the Gold Coast and Bight of Benin. In East Africa the propaganda is also very active on the shores of the Indian Ocean, although here the Arab or Swahili dealers take no interest in the conversion of their wretched victims. On the contrary, they prefer to keep them pagan, in order to retain the right of persecuting and plundering them. Once converted, even by the mere initial rite of circumcision, the natives, of whatever race and colour, acquire the privilege of common fellowship with the rest of the faithful. Nor is there lack of honest Mohammedans, who zealously labour in the spirit of the precepts of the Koran for the emancipation of their slaves. In the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal Felkin met the son of a slave-dealer, who finding himself by his father's death the owner of several hundred Negroes, immediately liberated all of them. But like their Christian rivals, the Arab traders dealt till recently for the most part in human flesh rather than in elephants' tusks, cotton, ground-nuts, or palm oil. Unfortunately for themselves, the Negroes are the most docile and devoted of servants. Anthropologists have remarked on their essentially feminine type as compared with that of the whites. They are generally noted for their soft voice, scant beard, delicate articulation, pink nails, velvety skin, and rounded muscles. However physically strong, in manners and demeanour they also approach the general type of woman. They are timid and inquisitive, jealous and coquettish, great gossips and scandal-mongers, quick to love, as quick to fall out and make up their quarrels again. Like so many women, they also delight in abject submission, even sacrificing themselves for those who despise and oppress them. Hence from the remotest times the blacks were most highly esteemed as slaves, and of the tributes or presents forwarded to the Asiatic and European sovereigns, those were most acceptable which were accompanied by African captives. In Africa itself almost every community has its slaves, and amongst many tribes one half of the population is enslaved to the other. Prisoners of war, considered as so much merchandise, are bartered or sold to the highest bidder, destined either to till the lands of their owner or to increase the number of retainers attached to some powerful chief; or else, in some districts, to be immolated in honour of the gods or ancestors of some obscure potentate; or lastly, as amongst the Monbuttu, to be roasted and served up at the great feasts. Nevertheless, the position of the slave is not generally one of great hardship. He often himself accepts this lot to escape from starvation in times of distress, and if badly treated by his owner be enjoys the prescriptive right of transferring his services elsewhere. By renouncing his