alf way around the plantation of his
master, Amer. He had often taken one of the large white donkeys of
Muscat by the ears and by a sudden movement of his right foot, had
prostrated the animal on his back; and once, upon an extraordinary
occasion, had actually carried twelve men on his back and shoulders and
chest around his master's house, to the intense wonder of a large crowd
of spectators. He could toss an ordinary man ten feet high into the
air, and catch him as easily as an ordinary man would catch a small
child. But manifold were the stories related with awe of the feats of
strength performed by the brave lion-hearted Simba, chief overseer of
Amer bin Osman's caravan. By measurement he stood six feet and five
inches in his bare feet, and from shoulder to shoulder he measured
thirty-two inches.

Moto, or "fire," could not have been better designated. His name, which
his master had given him, had been bestowed upon him for his peppery,
irascible temper. He was from Urori, as almost any one acquainted with
the peculiarities of the various tribes in Central Africa would have
sworn. A small wiry frame, indicating cat-like activity, strength,
indomitability, capable of enduring great fatigue, characterised the
form of Moto. He had also been brought to Zanzibar when a child by a
slave-trader, and from a mere caprice had been purchased for twenty
dollars by Amer. But his master had never regretted the purchase, for
next to Simba, Amer bin Osman preferred Moto. To serve his master Moto
would have thrown himself into the fire or leaped into the sea. He was
a great hunter, he could track the soft velvet foot of the leopard upon
a rock, could tell what animal had broken a blade of grass if a single
hair but adhered to it, could stalk an elephant and tickle his belly
with a straw without letting the enormous brute know what deadly foe
intruded on his presence; and a man slightly inclined to exaggeration,
and not at all noted for his veracity, declared by this and by that,
that Moto had at one time dragged himself into a jungle after a lion,
and, finding the lion asleep, had from sheer bravado walked noiselessly
up to him and stepped over his body before he shot him through the head.

If you knew Moto as well as his own best friends knew him, you would
describe him as being as brave as a lion, active as a cat, keen-eyed as
the fish-eagle, hot as pepper, as hardy as an ass, and faithful as a
dog. If you will add th