SLAVERY. 25 



the difficulties of the journey, thousands of these Takrurs undertake the pilo-rimao-e 

 every year. 



In "West Africa the propagators of Islam, although using the lano-uao-e of the 

 Prophet, are not Arabs, but Negroes of various tribes. As traders or artisans, they 

 visit the populations along the banks of the Gambia, and penetrate even as far as 

 Ashanti and Dahomey, on the Gold Coast and Bight of Benin. In East Africa the 

 propaganda is also very active on the shores of the Indian Ocean, although here 

 the Arab or Swahili dealers take no interest in the conversion of their wretched 

 victims. On the contrary', they prefer to keep them pagan, in order to retain the 

 ri-ght of persecuting and plundering them. Once converted, even by the mere 

 initial rite of circumcision, the natives, of whatever race and colour, acquire the 

 privilege of common fellowship with the rest of the faithfid. Nor is there lack of 

 honest Mohammedans, who zealously labour in the spirit of the precepts of the 

 Koran for the emancipation of their slaves. In the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal 

 Felkin met the son of a slave-dealer, who finding himself by his father's death the 

 owner of several himdred Negroes, immediately liberated all of them. 



Slavery. 



But like their Christian rivals, the Arab traders dealt till recently for the most 

 part in human flesh rather than in elephants' tusks, cotton, ground-nuts, or palm 

 oil. Unfortunately for themselves, the Negroes are the most docile and devoted 

 of servants. Anthropologists have remarked on their essentially feminine type as 

 compared with that of the whites. They are generally noted for their soft voice, 

 scant beard, delicate articulation, pink nails, velvety skin, and rounded muscles.* 

 However physically strong, in manners and demeanour they also approach the 

 general type of woman. They are timid and inquisitive, jealous and coquettish, 

 great gossips and scandal-mongers, quick to love, as quick to fall out and make up 

 their quarrels again. Like so many women, they also delight in abject submission, 

 even sacrificing themselves for those who despise and oppress them. 



Hence from the remotest times the blacks were most highly esteemed as slaves, 

 and of the tributes or presents forwarded to the Asiatic and European sovereigns, 

 those were most acceptable which were accompanied by African captives. In 

 Africa itself almost every commvmity has its slaves, and amongst many tribes one 

 half of the population is enslaved to the other. Prisoners of war, considered as so 

 much merchandise, are bartered or sold to the highest bidder, destined either to till 

 the lands of their owner or to increase the number of retainers attached to some 

 powerful chief ; or else, in some districts, to be immolated in honour of the gods or 

 ancestors of some obscure potentate ; or lastly, as amongst the Monbuttu, to be 

 roasted and served up at the great feasts. Nevertheless, the position of the slave is 

 not generally one of great hardship. He often himself accepts this lot to escape 

 from starvation in times of distress, and if badly treated by his owner he enjoys 

 the prescriptive right of transferring his services elsewhere. By renouncing his 



* Winwood Reade ; G. d'Eichthal. 



