ok at the slaves. The auctioneer at once marshalled the women
or woman slave (there were many more women than men) up to the Moor who
wished to examine her. She squatted in front of him, while he looked at
her teeth, felt her arms, neck, and legs, and in a low voice asked her a
string of private questions. After a time the woman was allowed to get
up, the auctioneer called out the latest bid for her, and walked her on.
Probably some one else would examine her "points," and another and
another; and her price would go up till the auctioneer should have got
what he wanted, and the woman would be handed over to her new master.

Some of the slaves walked round with a profoundly indifferent air--none
of them looked in wild spirits; but, on the other hand, it was "Kismet"
rather than misery which was written on their faces. It is a rare thing
for any slave to object violently or to make any scene: as a rule they
knelt down obediently enough in front of the fat Mohammedans, who thrust
their fingers into their mouths, took them by the chin, and treated them
with great familiarity. But, oddly enough, on one of the nights we
attended the market a scene did occur. A middle-aged woman, absolutely
refused to walk round--we were told probably because she had been parted
from her child, and could not bear to be sold. The poor creature wept
wildly, and hid her face in the red cloth round her head. She was,
however, in the end forced along like a recalcitrant mule, her cloth
torn off, herself made to kneel down at the bidding of a group of
traders, and undergo the usual examination. Some of the young girls
looked shame-faced, shuffling along behind or in front of the auctioneers
with bent heads. The sad middle-aged woman fetched in the end seven
pounds ten shillings. A little child was going for three pounds ten. A
girl of thirteen--that is, at her very best--was selling for fifteen
pounds: she was of course unusually attractive.

The slave trade of Africa receives an apparent stamp of legality from the
fact that religious warfare and the taking of prisoners in war and making
them slaves are looked upon as Divine institutions. There is no
obligation on the Mussulman to release slaves, and as long as wars and
raids last, the mass of slaves in Mohammedan countries tends rather to
increase than otherwise, their progeny ever adding to the original
number. There is no restriction as to the number of slaves or concubines
which a Moor may have: