At a sign from the , the natives drew back, raised Harris's and carried it away. Alvez and Coimbra demanded Dick Sand's death, but Negoro said to them in a low voice that they would lose nothing by waiting. The order was given to take away the young , with a caution not to lose sight of him for a moment.
Dick Sand had seen Negoro for the first time since their departure from the coast. He knew that this was alone responsible for the loss of the "Pilgrim." He ought to hate him still more than his . And yet, after having struck the American, he scorned to address a word to Negoro. Harris had said that Mrs. Weldon and her child had . Nothing interested him now, not even what they would do with him. They would send him away. Where? It did not matter.
Dick Sand, heavily chained, was left on the floor of a pen without a window, a kind of where the trader, Alvez, shut up the slaves to death for rebellion or unlawful acts. There he could no longer have any communication with the ; he no longer dreamed of regretting it. He had those whom he loved, who no longer lived. Whatever fate awaited him, he was ready for it.
It will be understood that if Negoro had stopped the natives who were about to punish Harris's murderer, it was only because he wished to reserve Dick Sand for one of those terrible of which the natives hold the secret. The ship's cook held in his power the captain of fifteen years. He only wanted Hercules to make his complete.
Two days , May 28th, the sale began, the great "lakoni," during which the traders of the principal factories of the interior would meet the natives of the neighboring provinces. This market was not for the sale of slaves, but all the products of this fertile Africa would be gathered there with the producers.
From early morning all was intense on the vast "tchitoka" of Kazounde, and it is difficult to give a proper idea of the scene. It was a concourse of four or five thousand persons, including Alvez's slaves, among whom were Tom and his companions. These four men, for the reason that they belonged to a different race, are all the more valuable to the in human flesh. Alvez was there, the first among all. Attended by Coimbra, he offered the slaves in lots. These the traders from the interior would form into . Among these traders were certain half-breeds from Oujiji, the principal market of Lake Tanganyika, and some Arabs, who are far superior to the half-breeds in this kind of trade.
The natives flocked there in great numbers. There were children, men, and women, the latter being traders, who, as regards a genius for bargaining, could only be compared to their white sisters.
In the markets of large cities, even on a great day of sale, there is never much noise or confusion. Among the the need of selling exceeds the desire to buy. Among these African offers are made with as much eagerness as demands.
The "lakoni" is a festival day for the natives of both sexes, and if for good reasons they do not put on their best clothes, they at least wear their handsomest .
Some wear the hair divided in four parts, covered with cushions, and in plaits tied like a chignon or arranged in pan-handles on the front of the head with bunches of red feathers. Others have the hair in horns sticky with red earth and oil, like the red lead used to close the of machines. In these masses of real or false hair is worn a assemblage of , iron and ivory pins, often even, among elegant people, a -knife is stuck in the crisp mass, each hair of which is put through a "sofi" or glass , thus forming a of different-colored grains. Such are the most generally seen on the heads of the men.
The women prefer to divide their hair in little tufts of the size of a cherry, in wreaths, in twists the ends of which form designs in relief, and in corkscrews, worn the length of the face. A few, more simple and perhaps prettier, let their long hair hang down the back, in the English style, and others wear it cut over the forehead in a fringe, like the French. Generally they wear on these a putty, made of red clay or of "ukola," a red substance extracted from sandal-wood, so that these elegant persons look as if their heads were dressed with tiles.
It must not be supposed that this luxury of ornamentation is confined to the hair of the natives. What are ears for if not to pass pins of precious wood through, also rings, charms of plaited , which draw them forward, or little which do for snuff-boxes, and to such an extent that the of these fall sometimes to the shoulders of their owners?
After all, the African savages have no pockets, and how could they have any? This gives rise to the necessity of placing where they can their knives, pipes, and other customary objects. As for the neck, arms, wrists, legs, and ankles, these various parts of the body are to carry the copper and , the horns cut off and decorated with bright buttons, the rows of red pearls, called same-sames or "talakas," and which were very fashionable. Besides, with these jewels, worn in , the wealthy people of the place looked like traveling .
Again, if nature gave the natives teeth, was it not that they could pull out the upper and lower incisors, file them in points, and curve them in sharp like the fangs of a rattlesnake? If she has placed nails at the end of the fingers, is it not that they may grow so immoderately that the use of the hand is rendered almost impossible? If the skin, black or brown, covers the human frame, is it not so as to zebra it by "temmbos" or tattooings representing trees, birds, crescents, full moons, or waving lines, in which Livingstone thought he could trace the designs of ancient Egypt? This tattooing, done by fathers, is practised by means of a blue matter introduced into the , and is "" point by point on the bodies of the children, thus establishing to what tribe or to what family they belong. The coat-of-arms must be on the breast, when it cannot be painted on the panel of a carriage.
Such are the native fashions in . In regard to garments properly so called, they are summed up very easily; for the men, an of leather, reaching to the knees, or perhaps a petticoat of a straw material of brilliant colors; for the women, a belt of pearls, supporting at the a green petticoat, in silk, with glass or coury; sometimes they wear garments made of "lambba," a straw material, blue, black, and yellow, which is much prized by the natives of Zanzibar.
These, of course, are the negroes of the best families. The others, merchants, and slaves, are seldom clothed. The women generally act as porters, and reach the market with enormous baskets on their back, which they hold by means of a leathern passed over the forehead. Then, their places being taken, and the merchandise , they in their empty baskets.
The astonishing fertility of the country causes the choice produces to be brought to this "lakoni." There were quantities of the rice which returns a hundred per cent., of the maize, which, in three crops in eight months, produces two hundred per cent., the sesamum, the pepper of Ouroua, stronger than the Cayenne, allspice, tapioca, , nutmegs, salt, and palm-oil.
Hundreds of goats were gathered there, , sheep without wool, evidently of Tartar origin, quantities of and fish. of , very turned, attracted the eyes by their violent colors.
Various drinks, which the little natives cried about in a voice, the unwary, in the form of plantain wine, "pombe," a liquor in great demand, "malofou," sweet beer, made from the fruit of the banana-tree and , a
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CHAPTER IX. KAZOUNDE.
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CHAPTER XI THE KING OF KAZOUNDE IS OFFERED A PUNCH.
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