CHAP. I.] 
NEGRO ALLIES. 
21 
overturned and wantonly destroyed, and the hands are 
cut off the bodies of the slain, the more easily to detach 
the copper or iron bracelets that are usually worn. 
With this booty the traders return to their negro ally: 
they have thrashed and discomfited his enemy, which 
delights him; they present him with thirty or forty 
head of cattle, which intoxicates him with joy, and a 
present of a pretty little captive girl of about fourteen 
completes his happiness. 
But business only commenced. The negro covets 
cattle, and the trader has now captured perhaps 2,000 
head. They are to be had for ivory, and shortly the 
tusks appear. Ivory is daily brought into camp in 
exchange for cattle, a tusk for a cow, according to 
size—a profitable business, as the cows have cost 
nothing. The trade proves brisk; but still there re¬ 
main some little customs to be observed—some slight 
formalities, well understood by the White Nile trade. 
The slaves and two-thirds of the captured cattle belong 
to the trader, but his men claim as their perquisite 
one-third of the stolen animals. These having been 
divided, the slaves are put up to public auction among 
the men, who purchase such as they require ; the 
amount being entered on the papers (*serki) of the 
purchasers, to be reckoned against their wages. To 
avoid the exposure, should the document fall into the 
