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 headquarters
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
remain 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