GLIMPSES OF NEGRO LIFE. 533 



The style of saltation usual in these parts is remarkable 

 only for the excessive gravity which it induces, for at no other 

 time does the East African look so serious, so full of earnest 

 purpose, as when about to practise the art of Terpsichore. At 

 lirst the dancers tramping to the measure with alternate feet, 

 and simultaneously performing a kind of treadmill exercise, with 

 a heavier stamp at the end of every period, sway their bodies 

 slowly from side to side ; but as excitement increases, 



* The mirth and fun grows fast and furious,' 



till the assembly, with arms waving like windmills, assumes the 

 semblance of a set of maniacs. The performance often closes 

 with a grand promenade, all the dancers being jammed in a 

 rushing mass, with the features of satyrs and fiendish gestures. 

 The performance having reached this highest pitch, the song 

 dies, and the dancers with loud shouts of laughter, throw them- 

 selves on the ground to recover strength and breath. 



What a contrast to this life of easy indolence when the 

 Negro villager, violently torn from home, is led away into hopeless 

 slavery ! This, however, is but too often his lot, for throughout 

 the whole length and breadth of torrid Africa, from the coast 

 of Gruinea to the borders of the Nile, we almost universally 

 find man armed against man and the stronger tribes ever ready 

 to kidnap and capture the weaker wretches within their reach. 

 Every year sees new gangs of slaves driven to the great mart of 

 Zanzibar, or on their melancholy way across the desert to Char- 

 tum ; every year witnesses the renewal of atrocities, which, 

 to the disgrace of man, date back as far as the time of the 

 Phoenicians, and may possibly outlast the nineteenth century.* 



An Egyptian Razzai, or slave-hm:iting expedition, after long- 

 toilsome marches aeross the desert or through the primeval 

 forest, at length succeeds in surprising a Negro village. The 

 soldiers, in whom their own sufferings have long since extin- 

 guished every spark of humanity, rush with tiger-like ferocity 

 uyjon their prey; their fury spares neither age nor infancy; 

 all who are deemed unfit for a life of bondage are mercilessly 

 butchered. The Scheba, a heavy wooden collar, shaped like a 

 fork, rests upon the neck of the adult captives, and prevents 

 their escape or their desperate attempts at suicide. Being 



* Sir Bartle Frere's mission giA'es us reason to hope that better days are in 

 store for the unfortunate East Africans. 



