Zanzibar. 
29 
most incongruous articles, such as soap, cotton, lamp- 
oil, spices, pocket-handkerchiefs, candles, flour, medi- 
cinal drugs, plantains, fish, etc.; and all are found 
strangely heaped together, as if intended to repel, 
rather than to invite customers. The market-place is 
an open space in the middle of the town, and on busi- 
ness days contains a promiscuous assemblage of almost 
all that the island and the city can supply. Every 
imaginable thing is brought for sale, and heaps on 
heaps of heterogeneous stuff is piled upon the ground. 
Representatives of all the different races crowd to- 
gether into one dense and almost immovable mass, 
each screaming out, in his own tongue, whatever he 
may have to say, as though determined to make all 
the world hear, making confusion worse confounded, 
and creating perfect babbledom. 
Would, however, that this were the only market in 
Zanzibar ! but there is another, the slave market. It 
has to be told that even in 1872, human beings were 
being publicly sold in Zanzibar, and indeed all along 
the African coast. The slave market is a hideous sight. 
See the wretched victims, well fattened, gaudily 
dressed, painted and bejewelled, everything done to 
set them off to the greatest advantage, to meet the 
tastes and take the eye of the purchaser ! The auc- 
tioneer takes his stand, and looks at his human '^lots," 
in a cold, calculating, hardened manner, almost fiend- 
like. He raises his voice; the crowd gathers round; 
and the sale commences. But each man before he 
buys must examine the goods. There is a poor 
woman : every villain in the crowd is allowed to treat 
her as a horse dealer would treat a horse he might be 
purchasing, with this disgusting addition, that he may 
