much worse, and it was obvious to every
one that the boy had it very badly, but he was not permitted to halt or
to be carried. Slaves are not carried: there are no means of carrying
sick slaves in Africa, and so he was driven along with the rest; but
about ten o'clock, after four hours' march, as they were approaching a
forest, the sick lad became delirious, and he began to reel like a
drunken man, and after a short time the load fell from his head, and as
Tifum came up raging furiously at this weakness, Isa fell across his
bale with his eyes half protruding from their sockets, and his tongue
hanging out. But Tifum had no sense of kindness in his heart; so he
began to flog the unfortunate wretch with all the force that an
unnatural cruelty alone could have impelled, until Selim, unable longer
to bear the disgusting sight, hurled the load he carried on his head
full at the head of the savage ruffian, and while he was down he
snatched the whip from his hand, and began to belabour him with all his
might until he was overthrown himself on the ground by the infuriated
Tifum, and belaboured in his turn until Tifum was obliged to desist lest
he might kill him.

Gutting the rope which joined the prostrate bodies of the boys, the one
insensible from violence, the other from a deadly sickness, he called
for a gourdful of water, and pouring it on Selim's head; soon restored
him to consciousness. Then the refined cruelty of the slave-traders,
and the utter abomination of the inhuman traffic, began to be exhibited.
Trembling with rage and merciless hate, he called for the long, heavy,
wooden yoke, which, furnished with two prongs a little apart from each
other, is used for the most refractory slaves. When green, this
yoke-tree weighs about thirty pounds, but dry it generally weighs about
twenty pounds. One of these tree-yokes had been prepared but a few days
before, so that it could not be much reduced in weight from what it
weighed originally. This was the clumsy, heavy instrument of torture
with which Tifum designed to encumber Selim's body.

After the neck of the half-unconscious lad was placed between the
prongs, the ends of the prongs were drawn together by means of a strong
cord, so that the head remained firmly imprisoned, while the huge
unwieldly tree of the yoke sloped behind him about ten feet off from his
shoulders.

In order to avoid employing a guard to carry the tree, the end was
lifted up and tied to Abdullah