48 
MOOSSAH, AN INDIAN TRADER. 
and threes. The matting in the houses was full of 
bugs, or ticks, which pestered one while seated at 
night, causing considerable irritation. 
It is not a country for ivory, the natives seldom if 
ever bringing any for sale. Grain was so scarce that 
slaves could be purchased for two fathoms of calico. 
One day a naked native passed us in charge of three 
Seedees armed with spears. They had found him 
stealing, and offered him for sale. No one would pur- 
chase him, and he was taken to the sultan, who would, 
as Moossah said, either spear him, keep him as a slave, 
or allow him to be sold. Slaves from the northern 
kingdoms of Uganda, &c, were considered the most 
valuable, just in the same way as many persons con- 
sider a country girl the best servant. They were held 
to be more trustworthy than men from the coast, made 
excellent servants, and were famous at killing or cap- 
turing wild animals. The most esteemed women were 
of the Wahumah tribe from Karague; they resembled 
the Abyssinians. 
Let me give the reader some idea of our life here. 
Moossah, an Indian in whose house we resided, was 
a fine benevolent old man, with an establishment of 
300 native men and women round him. His abode 
had, three years ago, taken two months to build, and 
it was surrounded by a circular wall which enclosed 
his houses, fruit and vegetable gardens, and his stock 
of cattle. The lady who presided over the whole 
was of most portly dimensions, and her word was law. 
Moossah sat from morn till night with his " foondee," 
or chief manager, and other head servants within sight, 
receiving salutes and compliments from the rich and 
poor at the front or gentlemen's side of the house, 
