14 
NEGRO ALLIEN 
[chap. I. 
tlie danger and confusion, are kidnapped and secured. 
The herds of cattle, still within their kraal or “ zareeba,” 
are easily disposed of, and are driven off with great 
rejoicing, as the prize of victory. The women and 
children are then fastened together, the former secured 
in an instrument called a sheba, made of a forked pole, 
the neck of the prisoner fitting into the fork, secured 
by a cross piece lashed behind, while the wrists, 
brought together in advance of the body, are tied 
to the pole. The children are then fastened by their 
necks with a rope attached to the women, and thus 
form a living chain, in which order they are marched 
to the head-quarters in company with the captured 
herds. 
This is the commencement of business : should there 
be ivory in any of the huts not destroyed by the fire, 
it is appropriated ; a general plunder takes place. The 
trader s party dig up the floors of the huts to search 
for iron hoes, which are generally thus concealed, as 
the greatest treasure of the negroes; the granaries are 
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 
