402 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
hearts as cold as winter’s icy wind, and just as pitiless, 
and whose malignant oppression shows in the saddest 
form the dismal truth of man’s inhumanity to man. 
Hard, indeed, it would be to show the slave that his 
life was anything beyond that of a beast. What else is 
it ? Has he no hope ? Yes, he has ; with death his hope 
begins. What a satisfaction it must be for him to think 
that some day he must be Free, away for ever from the 
tormenting tyranny of his fellow-men ! 
The numbers of slaves in caravans vary very greatly, 
for, like every other commodity, traffic is regulated by 
the inalterable laws of supply and demand. Prices also 
vary a good deal. When there is a good demand, a strong 
young man is worth from forty to sixty fathoms of 
Zanzibar cotton. 
The time taken to equip a caravan depends upon the 
quantity of goods or trading articles of exchange which 
the nazara has with him. Sometimes a stay in the 
country of from four to six months is necessary before 
they can get all the slaves they require, so that the un¬ 
fortunates who are first purchased have to sit all the 
time with the yoke—a young tree—fixed to their necks, 
the weight of the implement depending upon the dispo¬ 
sition of the slave ; for should he be fractious, he will be 
tamed by the employment of the heaviest yoke. Those I 
saw were very heavy. 
This appliance of torture is made from the forked 
branches of a tree ; about five or six feet long—some are 
much longer—and from three to four inches in diameter 
at the thickest part. Through each prong of the fork a 
hole is bored for the reception of an iron pin. This 
ready, a soft fibrous bark is wrapped round until the 
whole forms a thick collar of bark, making a sort of pad 
much rougher than a horse’s collar. The forked branches 
vary in thickness, to suit docile or fractious subjects. 
The time occupied during the journey to Zanzibar 
depends upon circumstances ; but, generally speaking, it 
occupies from one and a half to three months. 
Other pens have powerfully described the frightful 
cruelties which are practised during this miserable 
