438 A WOMAN RESCUED. 



my son ? " He grew up and had many fine sons and daughters, 

 but none deformed like himself. 



After leaving the village of Chirikaloma, while passing along 

 in the bright morning, they were loudly accosted by a well- 

 dressed woman who had just had a very heavy slave-taming 

 stick put on her neck ; she called in such an authoritative tone 

 to them to witness the flagrant injustice of which she was the 

 victim that all the men stood still and went to hear the case. 

 She was a near relative of Chirikaloma, and was going up the 

 river to her husband, when the old man (at whose house she was 

 now a prisoner) caught her, took her servant away from her, and 

 kept her in the degraded state they saw. The withes with 

 which she was bound were green and sappy. The old man said, 

 in justification, that she was running away from Chirikaloma, 

 and he would be offended with him if he did not secure her. 



Livingstone asked the officious old gentleman in a friendly 

 tone what he expected to receive from Chirikaloma, and he said, 

 "Nothing." Several slaver-looking fellows came about, and he 

 felt sure that the woman had been seized in order to sell her to 

 them, so he gave the captor a cloth to pay to Chirikaloma if he 

 were offended, and told him to say that he, feeling ashamed to 

 see one of his relatives in a slave-stick, had released her, and 

 would take her on to her husband. 



This woman was evidently a lady among them ; her supe- 

 riority not only consisted in the rank which a wealth of fine 

 beads indicated, but she was manifestly a woman of uncommon 

 spirits. She proved herself well worthy of the kindness she had 

 received. During the few days in which she was with Living- 

 stone's party, her deportment was that of a lady, kind and help- 

 ful, but modest and retiring enough to satisfy even the fastidious 

 prudence of the most refined. And she was not ungrateful. She 

 had been rescued from a dreadful fate indeed ; a few moments 

 earlier or later she might have reached no friendly, pitying 

 ears with her cries. Yes, there are ears always open to the cry 

 of the oppressed ; there are eyes that always bend pityingly on 

 the suffering. Sometimes the Lord allows the yoke to cut 

 deeply into the neck that bears it, but does he ever forget to be 

 gracious? Will he disregard the cry of Ethiopia when she 

 stretches out her hands unto him ? and when the time of his de- 



