TRADE IN IVORY. 
163 
king ; and he thought if M'tessa were asked not to rule 
so cruelly, that a greater sacrifice would be the only 
consequence. " It was not from any love he had for 
destruction of life, as he was an amiable young man, 
but from its being the ancient custom of the country ; 
and were it not done, the fear was that the people 
would become rebellious. Besides which, was not the 
country swarming with people ? did it not abound 
with food ? did they not love the king's rule, and 
prefer his sentence of death to a natural one, as 
being more princely ? " Jumah had made M'tessa a 
considerable present, which will illustrate the manner 
of trading in this part of the world. A gold-embroi- 
dered silk scarf or deolee, value $50, a "mucknuff," a 
gold-embroidered vest, two men s loads of blue beads, 
half a load of brass wire, a small tiara, value $1, and 
two flint-muskets without powder, constituted his gift. 
The king, in return, gave him 700 lb. weight of ivory 
(some of the tusks weighing 90 lb.), seven women, and 
fifty cows ; besides which J umah asked for his two 
guns to be returned. In receiving these he considered 
himself well repaid, as one-third belonged to himself, 
the rest to his master in Zanzibar. He had been 
trafficking for three years in this way without ever 
visiting the coast, and meant to remain another year, 
when he would have completed collecting 500 frasila, 
equal to 17,500 lb. of ivory. This mode of fair deal- 
ing is very different to what takes place at the Nile 
trading-marts to the north of the equator. There guns 
and bullets, in the hands of Nubians employed by 
European, Turkish, and Armenian masters, assist in 
capturing the herds of cattle used in paying porters 
and purchasing ivory. If a tax is asked, all that is 
