East African Slavery, 499 
places, when bidding in the market grows dull, the 
slaves were led in gangs and hawked round town, 
every passenger being invited to examine and pur- 
chase, and the goods offered for sale at every hut 
door ! I have met such processions in the streets ; 
I have seen them stopped ; I have witnessed the 
examinations, and heard the conversations which 
have taken place ; but I will not particularize ; it 
outrages all decency — it is monstrous. 
We now come to the mill. The majority of slaves 
are put to the cultivation of the soil ; those imported 
full-grown are scarcely fit for anything else. But the 
youthful portion of the imports are turned to account 
in a variety of ways. After all the coarser of both 
sexes have been sent to the plantations : of the males, 
some are put to the various trades, some to household 
occupations, others become porters, and some petty 
traders : of the females, all the better-looking become 
masuria (concubines), others are made market-women 
of, and others household servants, cooks, hewers of 
wood, drawers of water, etc. 
The life of the agricultural slave is one of great 
hardship. With short-handled hoe, backs bent from 
early morn to dewy eve," beneath a vertical sun, the 
women often with a child slung at their hips, their 
allowance of food a small measure (about a pint) of 
Turkish maize, and a small piece of salt-fish as a 
relish, they continue their weary toil, though, it must 
be admitted, without much complaint. Feeling a 
sheer inability to struggle against their fate, they 
submit as a sheep does to the slaughter ; and when 
asked how they like their lot, they reply, " What can 
we do } we are slaves ; not unfrequently adding. 
