470 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



major domo (Gen. xv. 2, xxiv. 2; 2 Sam. ix, 10). &quot; The 

 relative laws and usages among the Jews were, indeed, such 

 as implied mildness of treatment. In Ecdesiasticusv\\\, 21, 

 we read : 



&quot; Let thy soul love a good servant, and defraud him not of liberty.&quot; 

 This indorses the passage in Proverbs xvii, 2 : 



&quot;A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, 

 and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren.&quot; 

 But these passages refer to slaves of Hebrew blood, as is im 

 plied by the rabbinical saying that &quot; he who buys an Israeli- 

 tic slave, buys himself a master.&quot; The treatment of foreign 

 slaves was by no means thus lenient. At the present time 

 with a kindred race in the same region, similar relations 

 exist. Says Burckhardt of the Bedouins : 



&quot; Slaves, both male and female, are numerous through out the desert. 

 . . . After a certain lapse of time, they are always emancipated, and 

 married to persons of their own colour.&quot; 



Here we may observe a cause of the mildness characterizing 

 primitive slavery the ability of the slave to escape. Burck 

 hardt tells us that 



&quot; Black slaves are very common among the Arabs. . . . The slaves 

 are treated with kindness, and seldom beaten, as severity might induce 

 them to run away.&quot; 



Among the Abyssinians, too, according to Harris, the 

 slavery is mild. 



&quot;From the governor to the humblest peasant, every house in Shoa 

 possesses slaves of both sexes, in proportion to the wealth of the pro 

 prietor ; and in so far as an opinion may be formed upon appearances, 

 their condition, with occasional, but rare exceptions, is one of comfort 

 and ease.&quot; 



Sometimes, indeed, it happens among African peoples that 

 the slave rises to the condition of adopted son, as was the case 

 among the Hebrews. The tradition concerning Abraham s 

 confidential servant Elieser, is paralleled by statements con 

 cerning negroes. 



&quot;In Ashantee a slave sometimes succeeds to the stool and property 

 of his deceased master.&quot; 



