of Tartar origin, quantities of poultry and fish. Specimens
of pottery, very gracefully turned, attracted the eyes by their
violent colors.

Various drinks, which the little natives cried about in a squeaking
voice, enticed 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 mead, a limpid mixture of honey and water
fermented with malt.

But what made the Kazounde market still more curious was the commerce
in stuffs and ivory.

In the line of stuffs, one might count by thousands of "choukkas"
or armfuls, the "Mericani" unbleached calico, come from Salem, in
Massachusetts, the "kanaki," a blue gingham, thirty-four inches wide,
the "sohari," a stuff in blue and white squares, with a red border,
mixed with small blue stripes. It is cheaper than the "dioulis," a
silk from Surat, with a green, red or yellow ground, which is worth
from seventy to eighty dollars for a remnant of three yards when woven
with gold.

As for ivory, it was brought from all parts of Central Africa, being
destined for Khartoum, Zanzibar, or Natal. A large number of merchants
are employed solely in this branch of African commerce.

Imagine how many elephants are killed to furnish the five hundred
thousand kilograms of ivory, which are annually exported to European
markets, and principally to the English! The western coast of Africa
alone produces one hundred and forty tons of this precious substance.
The average weight is twenty-eight pounds for a pair of elephant's
tusks, which, in 1874, were valued as high as fifteen hundred francs;
but there are some that weigh one hundred and seventy-five pounds, and
at the Kazounde market, admirers would have found some admirable ones.
They were of an opaque ivory, translucid, soft under the tool, and
with a brown rind, preserving its whiteness and not growing yellow
with time like the ivories of other provinces.

And, now, how are these various business affairs regulated between
buyers and sellers? What is the current coin? As we have said, for the
African traders this money is the slave.

The native pays in glass beads of Venetian manufacture, called
"catchocolos," when they are of a lime white; "bouboulous," when
they are black; "sikounderetches," when they are red. These beads or
pearls, strung in ten rows or "khetes," going twice around the neck,
make the "foundo," which is of great value. The usual measure of