The slave in eastern countries, after he is trained to serve, attains the
condition of a favoured domestic; his adoption of the religion of his
master is usually the first step which conciliates the latter. Except at
a few seaports, he is seldom put to hard labour. In Asia these are no
fields tilled by slaves, no manufactories in which they are doomed to
toil; their occupations are all of a domestic nature, and good behaviour
is rewarded by kindness and confidence, which raises them in the community
to which they belong. The term gholam, or slave, in Mahomedan countries,
is not one of opprobrium, nor does it even convey the idea of a degraded
condition. The Georgians, Nubians, and Abyssinians, and even the Seedee,
or Caffree, as the woolly-headed Africans are called, are usually married,
and their children, who are termed house-born, become, in a manner, part
of their master's family. They are deemed the most attached of his
adherents: they often inherit a considerable portion of his wealth; and
not unfrequently (with the exception of the woolly-headed Caffree) lose,
by a marriage in his family, or by some other equally respectable
connexion, all trace of their origin.
According to the Mahomedan law, the state of slavery is divided into two
conditions--the perfect and absolute, or imperfect and privileged. Those
who belong to the first class are, with all their property, at the disposal
of their masters. The second, though they cannot, before emancipation,
inherit or acquire property, have many privileges, and cannot be sold or
transferred. A female, who has a child to her master, belongs to the
privileged class; as does a slave, to whom his master has promised his
liberty, on the payment of a certain sum, or on his death.--_Sir J.
Malcolm's Sketches of Persia._
* * * * *
The Gatherer.
"I am but a _Gatherer_ and disposer of other men's stuff."--_Wotton._