Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/351

 A SLAVE CARAVAN. 323 are very often put to their wits* end to know how to manage tbem ; their orders are called in question, halts are continu- ally demanded, and in order to avert désertion they are frequently obliged to yield to the obstreperous will of their undiscîplined force. Although the slaves, both maie and female, are compelled to carry burdens whilst on their march, a certain number of porters, called pagasis, is specially engaged to carry the more valuable merchandize, and principally the ivory. Tusks occasionally weigh as much as 160 Ibs., and requîre two men to carry them to the dépôts, whence they are sent to the markets of Khartoom^ Natal, and Zanzibar. On their arrivai ^e pagazis are paid by the dealers according to contract, which is generally either by about twenty yards of the cotton stuff known as merikani^ or by a little powder, by a handful or two of cowries, by some beads, or if ail thèse be scarce, they are paid by being allotted some of the slaves who are otherwise unsalable. Among the five hundred slaves in the caravan, very few were at ail advanced in years. The explanation of this drcumstance was that whenever a raid is made, and a vil- lage is set on fire, every inhabitant above the âge of forty is mercilessly massacred or hung upon the neighbouring trees ; only the children and young adults of both sexes are reserved for the markct, and as thèse constitute only a small propor- tion of the vanquished, some idea may be formed of the frightful dépopulation which thèse vast districts of Equi- noctial Africa are undergoing. Nothing could be more pitiable than the condition of thîs misérable herd. Ail alikc were destitute of clothing, having nothing on them but a few strips of the stuff known as mbuzay made from the bark of trees ; many of the women were covered with bleedîng wounds from the drivers' lashcb, and had their fect lacerated by the constant friction of the road, but in addition to other burdens were compelled to carry their own emaciated children ; young men, too, there were who had lost their voiccs from exhaustion, and who, to use Livingstone's expression, had been reduced to " ebony skeletons " by toiling under the yoke of the fork, which is Y 2