SLAVERY. 



367 



glooms o the past. It is mentioned in the Periplus 

 (chap, iii.), as an institution of the land, and probably 

 it was the result of the ancient trade with southern 

 Arabia. At present it is almost universal : with the 

 exceptions of the Wahinda, the Watosi, and the Wagogo, 

 all the tribes from the eastern equatorial coast to Ujiji 

 and the regions lying westward of the Tanganyika 

 Lake may be called slave-races. An Arab, Msawahili, 

 and even a bondsman from Zanzibar, is everywhere 

 called Murungwana or freeman. Yet in many parts of 

 the country the tribes are rather slave-importers than 

 exporters. Although they kidnap others, they will not 

 sell their fellows, except when convicted of crime — - 

 theft, magic, murder, or cutting the upper teeth before 

 the lower. In times of necessity, however, a man will 

 part with his parents, wives, and children, and when 

 they fail he will sell himself without shame. As has 

 been observed, amongst many tribes the uncle has a 

 right to dispose of his nephews and nieces. 



Justice requires the confession that the horrors of 

 slave-driving rarely meet the eye in East Africa. 

 Some merchants chain or cord together their gangs for 

 safer transport through regions where desertion is at a 

 premium. Usually, however, they trust rather to soft 

 words and kind treatment ; the fat lazy slave is often 

 seen stretched at ease in the shade, whilst the master 

 toils in the sun and wind. The " property" is well fed 

 and little worked, whereas the porter, belonging to none 

 but himself, is left without hesitation to starve upon the 

 road-side. The relationship is rather that of patron 

 and client than of lord and bondsman; the slave is 

 addressed as Ndugu-yango, " my brother," and he is 

 seldom provoked by hard words or stripes. In fact, 

 the essence of slavery, compulsory unpaid labour, is 



