94 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOUENALS. [Chap. IV. 



in answer to questions put to them about this dreadful 

 history. The sufferings endured by these unfortunate cap- 

 tives, whilst they Avere hawked about in different directions, 

 must have been shocking indeed ; many died because it 

 was impossible for them to carry a burden on the head 

 whilst marching in the heavy yoke or "taming stick," 

 which weighs from 30 lbs. to 40 lbs. as a rule, and the 

 Arabs knew that if once the stick were taken off, the 

 captive would escape on the first opportunity. Children 

 for a time would keep up with wonderful endurance, but 

 it happened sometimes that the sound of dancing and the 

 merry tinkle of the small drums would fall on their ears in 

 passing near to a village ; then the memory of home and 

 happy days proved too much for them ; they cried and 

 sobbed, the " broken-heart " came on, and they rapidly sank. 

 The adults as a rule came into the slave-sticks from 

 treachery, and had never been slaves before. Very often the 

 Arabs would promise a present of dried fish to villagers if 

 they would act as guides to some distant point, and as soon 

 as they were far enough away from their friends they were 

 seized and pinned into the yoke from which there is no 

 escape. These poor fellows would expire in the way the 

 Doctor mentions, talking to the last of their wives and 

 children who would never know what had become of them. 

 On one occasion twenty captives succeeded in escaping as 

 follows. Chained together by the neck, and in the custody 

 of an Arab armed with a gun, they were sent off to collect 

 wood; at a given signal, one of them called the guard 

 to look at something which he pretended he had found : 

 when he stooped down they threw themselves upon him 

 and overpowered him, and after he was dead managed to 

 break the chain and make off in all directions.] 



Kice sown on 19th October was in ear in seventy days. A 

 leopard killed my goat, and a gun set for him went off at 



