MARKET-DAY.
So sudden was Dick's action that it had been impossible to parry his
blow. Several of the natives rushed on him, and in all likelihood would
have struck him down upon the spot had not Negoro arrived at that very
moment. At a sign from him the natives drew back, and proceeded to
raise and carry away Harris's corpse.
Alvez and Coïmbra were urgent in their demand that Dick should
forthwith be punished by death, but Negoro whispered to them that they
would assuredly be the gainers by delay, and they accordingly contented
themselves with ordering the youth to be placed under strict
supervision.
This was the first time that Dick had set eyes upon Negoro since he had
left the coast; nevertheless, so heartbroken was he at the intelligence
he had just received, that he did not deign to address a word to the
man whom he knew to be the real author of all his misery. He cared not
now what became of him.
Loaded with chains, he was placed in the dungeon where Alvez was
accustomed to confine slaves who had been condemned to death for mutiny
or violence. That he had no communication with the outer world gave him
no concern; he had avenged the death of those for whose safety he had
felt himself responsible, and could now calmly await the fate which he
could not doubt was in store for him; he did not dare to suppose that
he had been temporarily spared otherwise than that he might suffer the
cruellest tortures that native ingenuity could devise. That the
"Pilgrim's" cook now held in his power the boy captain he so thoroughly
hated was warrant enough that the sternest possible measure of
vengeance would be exacted.
[Illustration: Accompanied by Coïmbra, Alvez himself was one of the
first arrivals.]
Two days later, the great market, the _lakoni_, commenced. Although
many of the principal traders were there from the interior, it was by
no means exclusively a slave-mart; a considerable proportion of the
natives from the neighbouring provinces assembled to dispose of the
various products of the country.
Quite early the great _chitoka_ of Kazonndé was all alive with a
bustling concourse of little under five thousand people, including the
slaves of old Alvez, amongst whom were Tom and his three partners in
adversity--an item by no means inconsiderable in the dealer's stock.
Accompanied by Coïmbra, Alvez himself was one of the first arrivals. He
was going to sell his slaves in lots to be conveyed in caravans into
the interior. The dealers for the most part consisted of half-breeds
from Ujiji, the principal market on Lake Tanganyika, whilst some of a
superior class were manifestly Arabs.
The natives that were assembled were of both sexes, and of every
variety of age, the women in particular displaying an aptitude in
making bargains that is shared by their sisters elsewhere of a lighter
hue; and it may be said that no market of the most civilized region
could be characterized by greater excitement or animation, for amongst
the savages of Africa the customer makes his offer in equally noisy
terms as the vendor.
The _lakoni_ was always considered a kind of fète-day; consequently the
natives of both sexes, though their clothing was scanty in extent, made
a point of appearing in a most lavish display of ornaments. Their
head-gear was most remarkable. The men had their hair arranged in every
variety of eccentric device; some had it divided into four parts,
rolled over cushions and fastened into a chignon, or mounted in front
into a bunch of tails adorned with red feathers; others plastered it
thickly with a mixture of red mud and oil similar to that used for
greasing machinery, and formed it into cones or lumps, into which they
inserted a medley of iron pins and ivory skewers; whilst the greatest
dandies had a glass bead threaded upon every single hair, the whole
being fastened together by a tattooing-knife driven through the
glittering mass.
As a general rule, the women preferred dressing their hair in little
tufts about the size of a cherry, arranging it into the shape of a cap,
with corkscrew ringlets on each side of the face. Some wore it simply
hanging down their backs, others in French fashion, with a fringe
across the forehead; but every _coiffure_, without exception, was
daubed and caked either with the mixture of mud and grease, or with a
bright red extract of sandal-wood called _nkola_.
But it was not only on their heads that they made this extraordinary
display of ornaments; the lobes of their ears were loaded till they
reached their shoulders with a profusion of wooden pegs, open-work
copper rings, grains of maize, or little gourds, which served the
purpose of snuff-boxes; their necks, arms, wrists, legs, and ankles
were a perfect mass of brass and copper rings, or sometimes were
covered with a lot of bright buttons. Rows of red beads, called
_sames-sames_, or _talakas_, seemed also very popular. As they had no
pockets, they attached their knives, pipes and other articles to
various parts of their body; so that altogether, in their holiday
attire, the rich men of the district might not inappropriately be
compared to walking shrines.
With their teeth they had all played the strangest of vagaries; the
upper and lower incisors had generally been extracted, and the others
had been filed to points or carved into hooks, like the fangs of a
rattle-snake. Their fingernails were allowed to grow to such an
immoderate length as to render the hands well-nigh useless, and their
swarthy skins were tattooed with figures of trees, birds, crescents and
discs, or, not unfrequently, with those zigzag lines which Livingstone
thinks he recognizes as resembling those observed in ancient Egyptian
drawings. The tattooing is effected by means of a blue substance
inserted into incisions previously made in the skin. Every child is
tattooed in precisely the same pattern as his father before him, and
thus it may always be ascertained to what family he belongs. Instead of
carrying his armorial bearings upon his plate or upon the panels of his
carriage, the African magnate wears them emblazoned on his own bosom!
The garments that were usually worn were simply aprons of
antelope-skins descending to the knees, but occasionally a short
petticoat might be seen made of woven grass and dyed with bright
colours. The ladies not unfrequently wore girdles of beads attached to
green skirts embroidered with silk and ornamented with bits of glass or
cowries, or sometimes the skirts were made of the grass cloth called
_lambda_, which, in blue, yellow, or black, is so much valued by the
people of Zanzibar.
Garments of these pretensions, however, always indicated that the
wearers belonged to the upper classes; the lower orders, such as the
smaller dealers, as well as the slaves, had hardly any clothes at all.
The women commonly acted as porters, and arrived at the market with
huge baskets on their backs, which they secured by means of straps
passed across the forehead. Having deposited their loads upon the
chitoka, they turned out their goods, and then seated themselves inside
the empty baskets.
As the result of the extreme fertility of the country all the articles
offered for sale were of a first-rate quality. There were large stores
of rice, which had been grown at a profit a hundred times as great as
the cost, and maize which, producing three crops in eight months,
yielded a profit as large again as the rice. There were also sesame,
Urua pepper stronger than Cayenne, manioc, nutmegs, salt, and palm-oil.
In the market, too, were hundreds of goats, pigs and sheep, evidently
of a Tartar breed, with hair instead of wool; and there was a good
supply of fish and poultry. Besides all these there was an attractive
display of bright-coloured pottery, the designs of which were very
symmetrical.
In shrill, squeaky voices, children were crying several varieties of
native drinks; banana-wine, _pombé_, which, whatever it was, seemed to
be in great demand; _malofoo_, a kind of beer compounded of bananas,
and mead, a mixture of honey and water, fermented with malt.
But the most prominent feature in the whole market was the traffic in
stuffs and ivory. The pieces could be counted by thousands of the
unbleached _mcrikani_ from Salem in Massachusetts, of the blue cotton,
_kaniki_, thirty-four inches wide, and of the checked _sohari_, blue
and black with its scarlet border. More expensive than these were lots
of silk _diulis_, with red, green, or yellow grounds, which are sold in
lengths of three yards, at prices varying from seven dollars to eighty,
when they are interwoven with gold.
The ivory had come from well-nigh every part of Central Africa, and was
destined for Khartoom, Zanzibar, and Natal, many of the merchants
dealing in this commodity exclusively.
How vast a number of elephants must be slaughtered to supply this ivory
may be imagined when it is remembered that over 200 tons, that is,
1,125,000 lbs., are exported annually to Europe. Of this, much the
larger share goes to England, where the Sheffield cutlery consumes
about 382,500 lbs. From the West Coast of Africa alone the produce is
nearly 140 tons.
The average weight of a pair of tusks is 28 lbs., and the ordinary
value of these in 1874 would be about 60_l_.; but here in Kazonndé were
some weighing no less than 165 lbs., of that soft, translucent quality
which retains its whiteness far better than the ivory from other
sources.
As already mentioned, slaves are not unfrequently used as current money
amongst the African traders, but the natives themselves usually pay for
their goods with Venetian glass beads, of which the chalk-white are
called _catchokolos_, the black _bubulus_, and the red
_sikunderetches_. Strung in ten rows, or _khetés_, these beads are
twisted twice round the neck, forming what is called a _foondo_, which
is always reckoned of considerable value.
The usual measure by which they are sold is the _frasilah_, containing
a weight of about 70 lbs. Livingstone, Cameron and Stanley always took
care to be well provided with this kind of currency. In default of
beads, the picé, a Zanzibar coin worth something more than a farthing,
and _vioon-gooas,_ shells peculiar to the East Coast, are recognized as
a medium of exchange in the market. Amongst the cannibal tribes a
certain value is attached to human teeth, and at the lakoni some
natives might be seen wearing strings of teeth, the owners of which
they had probably, at some previous time, devoured. This species of
currency, however, was falling rapidly into disuse.
Towards the middle of the day the excitement of the market reached its
highest pitch, and the uproar became perfectly deafening. The voices of
the eager sellers mingled with those of indignant and overcharged
customers; fights were numerous, and as there was an utter absence of
any kind of police, no effort was made to restore peace or order
amongst the unruly crowd.
It was just noon when Alvez gave orders that the slaves he wished to
dispose of should be placed on view. Thereupon nearly two thousand
unfortunates were brought forward, many of whom had been confined in
the dealer's barracks for several months. Most of the stock, however,
had been so carefully attended to that they were in good condition, and
it was only the last batch that looked as if they would be improved by
another month's rest; but as the demand upon the East Coast was now
very large, Alvez hoped to get a good price for all, and determined to
part with even the last arrivals for whatever sum he could obtain.
Amongst these latter, whom the havildars drove like a herd of cattle
into the middle of the chitoka, were Tom and his three friends. They
were closely chained, and rage and shame were depicted in their
countenances.
Bat passed a quick and scrutinizing gaze around him, and said to the
others,--
"I do not see Mr. Dick."
Tom answered mournfully,--
"Mr. Dick will be killed, if he is not dead already. Our only hope is
that we may now all be bought in one lot; it will be a consolation to
us if we can be all together."
Tears rose to Bat's eyes as he thought of how his poor old father was
likely to be sold, and carried away to wear out his days as a common
slave.
The sale now commenced. The agents of Alvez proceeded to divide the
slaves, men, women and children, into lots, treating them in no respect
better than beasts in a cattle-market. Tom and the others were paraded
about from customer to customer, an agent accompanying them to proclaim
the price demanded. Strong, intelligent-looking Americans, quite
different to the miserable creatures brought from the banks of the
Zambesi and Lualaba, they at once attracted the observation of the Arab
and half-breed dealers. Just as though they were examining a horse, the
buyers felt their limbs, turned them round and round, looked at their
teeth, and finally tested their paces by throwing a stick to a distance
and making them run to fetch it.
All the slaves were subjected to similar humiliations; and ail alike,
except the very young children, seemed deeply sensible of their
degradation. The cruelty exhibited towards them was very vile. Coïmbra,
who was half drunk, treated them with the utmost brutality; not that
they had any reason to expect any gentler dealings at the hands of the
new masters who might purchase them for ivory or any other commodity.
Children were torn away from their parents, husbands from their wives,
brothers from sisters, and without even the indulgence of a parting
word, were separated never to meet again.
The scenes that occur at such markets as this at Kazonndé are too
heartrending to be described in detail.
It is one of the peculiar requirements of the slave-trade that the two
sexes should have an entirely different destination. In fact, the
dealers who purchase men never purchase women. The women, who are
required to supply the Mussulman harems, are sent principally to Arab
districts to be exchanged for ivory; whilst the men, who are to be put
to hard labour, are despatched to the coast, East and West, whence they
are exported to the Spanish colonies, or to the markets of Muscat or
Madagascar.
To Tom and his friends the prospect of being transported to a slave
colony was far better than that of being retained in some Central
African province, where they could have no chance of regaining their
liberty; and the moment, to them, was accordingly one of great suspense.
Altogether, things turned out for them better than they dared
anticipate. They had at least the satisfaction of finding that as yet
they were not to be separated. Alvez, of course, had taken good care to
conceal the origin of this exceptional lot, and their own ignorance of
the language thoroughly prevented them from communicating it; but the
anxiety to secure so valuable a property rendered the competition for
it very keen; the bidding rose higher and higher, until at length the
four men were knocked down to a rich Arab dealer, who purposed in the
course of a few days to take them to Lake Tanganyika, and thence to one
of the deptôs of Zanzibar.
This journey, it is true, would be for 1500 miles across the most
unhealthy parts of Central Africa, through districts harassed by
internal wars; and it seemed improbable that Tom could survive the
hardships he must meet; like poor old Nan, he would succumb to fatigue;
but the brave fellows did not suffer themselves to fear the future,
they were only too happy to be still together; and the chain that bound
them one to another was felt to be easier and lighter to bear.
Their new master knew that it was for his own interest that his
purchase should be well taken care of; he looked to make a substantial
profit at Zanzibar, and sent them off at once to his own private
barracks; consequently they saw no more of what transpired at Kazonndé.