So sudden was Dick's action that it had been impossible to parry his blow. Several of the natives rushed on him, and in all likelihood would have struck him down upon the spot had not Negoro arrived at that very moment. At a sign from him the natives drew back, and proceeded to raise and carry away Harris's corpse1.
Alvez and Coïmbra were urgent in their demand that Dick should forthwith be punished by death, but Negoro whispered to them that they would assuredly be the gainers by delay, and they accordingly contented2 themselves with ordering the youth to be placed under strict supervision3.
This was the first time that Dick had set eyes upon Negoro since he had left the coast; nevertheless, so heartbroken was he at the intelligence he had just received, that he did not deign4 to address a word to the man whom he knew to be the real author of all his misery5. He cared not now what became of him.
Loaded with chains, he was placed in the dungeon6 where Alvez was accustomed to confine slaves who had been condemned7 to death for mutiny or violence. That he had no communication with the outer world gave him no concern; he had avenged8 the death of those for whose safety he had felt himself responsible, and could now calmly await the fate which he could not doubt was in store for him; he did not dare to suppose that he had been temporarily spared otherwise than that he might
[Illustration: Accompanied by Coïmbra, Alvez himself was one of the first arrivals.]
suffer the cruellest tortures that native ingenuity9 could devise. That the "Pilgrim's" cook now held in his power the boy captain he so thoroughly10 hated was warrant enough that the sternest possible measure of vengeance11 would be exacted.
Two days later, the great market, the lakoni, commenced. Although many of the principal traders were there from the interior, it was by no means exclusively a slave-mart; a considerable proportion of the natives from the neighbouring provinces assembled to dispose of the various products of the country.
Quite early the great chitoka of Kazonndé was all alive with a bustling12 concourse of little under five thousand people, including the slaves of old Alvez, amongst whom were Tom and his three partners in adversity-an item by no means inconsiderable in the dealer13's stock.
Accompanied by Coïmbra, Alvez himself was one of the first arrivals. He was going to sell his slaves in lots to be conveyed in caravans14 into the interior. The dealers15 for the most part consisted of half-breeds from Ujiji, the principal market on Lake Tanganyika, whilst some of a superior class were manifestly Arabs.
The natives that were assembled were of both sexes, and of every variety of age, the women in particular displaying an aptitude16 in making bargains that is shared by their sisters elsewhere of a lighter17 hue18; and it may be said that no market of the most civilized19 region could be characterized by greater excitement or animation20, for amongst the savages21 of Africa the customer makes his offer in equally noisy terms as the vendor22.
The lakoni was always considered a kind of fète-day; consequently the natives of both sexes, though their clothing was scanty23 in extent, made a point of appearing in a most lavish24 display of ornaments25. Their head-gear was most remarkable26. The men had their hair arranged in every variety of eccentric device; some had it divided into four parts, rolled over cushions and fastened into a chignon, or mounted in front into a bunch of tails adorned28 with red feathers; others plastered it thickly with a mixture of red mud and oil similar to that used for greasing machinery29, and formed it into cones30 or lumps, into which they inserted a medley31 of iron pins and ivory skewers32; whilst the greatest dandies had a glass bead33 threaded upon every single hair, the whole being fastened together by a tattooing34-knife driven through the glittering mass.
As a general rule, the women preferred dressing35 their hair in little tufts about the size of a cherry, arranging it into the shape of a cap, with corkscrew ringlets on each side of the face. Some wore it simply hanging down their backs, others in French fashion, with a fringe across the forehead; but every coiffure, without exception, was daubed and caked either with the mixture of mud and grease, or with a bright red extract of sandal-wood called nkola.
But it was not only on their heads that they made this extraordinary display of ornaments; the lobes36 of their ears were loaded till they reached their shoulders with a profusion37 of wooden pegs38, open-work copper39 rings, grains of maize40, or little gourds41, which served the purpose of snuff-boxes; their necks, arms, wrists, legs, and ankles were a perfect mass of brass42 and copper rings, or sometimes were covered with a lot of bright buttons. Rows of red beads43, called sames-sames, or talakas, seemed also very popular. As they had no pockets, they attached their knives, pipes and other articles to various parts of their body; so that altogether, in their holiday attire44, the rich men of the district might not inappropriately be compared to walking shrines45.
With their teeth they had all played the strangest of vagaries46; the upper and lower incisors had generally been extracted, and the others had been filed to points or carved into hooks, like the fangs47 of a rattle-snake. Their fingernails were allowed to grow to such an immoderate length as to render the hands well-nigh useless, and their swarthy skins were tattooed48 with figures of trees, birds, crescents and discs, or, not unfrequently, with those zigzag49 lines which Livingstone thinks he recognizes as resembling those observed in ancient Egyptian drawings. The tattooing is effected by means of a blue substance inserted into incisions50 previously51 made in the skin. Every child is tattooed in precisely52 the same pattern as his father before him, and thus it may always be ascertained53 to what family he belongs. Instead of carrying his armorial bearings upon his plate or upon the panels of his carriage, the African magnate wears them emblazoned on his own bosom54!
The garments that were usually worn were simply aprons55 of antelope-skins descending56 to the knees, but occasionally a short petticoat might be seen made of woven grass and dyed with bright colours. The ladies not unfrequently wore girdles of beads attached to green skirts embroidered57 with silk and ornamented58 with bits of glass or cowries, or sometimes the skirts were made of the grass cloth called lambda, which, in blue, yellow, or black, is so much valued by the people of Zanzibar.
Garments of these pretensions59, however, always indicated that the wearers belonged to the upper classes; the lower orders, such as the smaller dealers, as well as the slaves, had hardly any clothes at all.
The women commonly acted as porters, and arrived at the market with huge baskets on their backs, which they secured by means of............