ted, and his lips
are turned to show the gums, which at merrier moments would have been
visible without such a performance. With a shame-faced, hang-dog air
he trudges round, wondering what will be his lot, though a sad one it
is already. At last he is knocked down for so many score of dollars,
and after a good deal of further bargaining he changes hands.

The next brought forward are three little girls--a "job lot," maybe
ten, thirteen, and sixteen years of age--two of them evidently
sisters. They are declared to be already proficient in Arabic, and
ready for anything. Their muscles are felt, their mouths examined, and
their bodies scrutinized in general, while the little one begins
to cry, and the others look as though they would like to keep her
company. Round and round again they are marched, but the bids do not
rise high enough to effect a sale, and they are locked up again for a
future occasion. It is indeed a sad, sad sight.

The sources of supply for the slave-market are various, but the chief
is direct from Guinea and the Sahara, where the raids of the traders
are too well understood to need description. Usually some inter-tribal
jealousy is fostered and fanned into a flame, and the one which loses
is plundered of men and goods. Able-bodied lads and young girls are
in most demand, and fetch high prices when brought to the north. The
unfortunate prisoners are marched with great hardship and privation
to depots over the Atlas, where they pick up Arabic and are initiated
into Mohammedanism. To a missionary who once asked one of the dealers
how they found their way across the desert, the terribly significant
reply was, "There are many bones along the way!" After a while the
survivors are either exposed for sale in the markets of Marrakesh
or Fez, or hawked round from door to door in the coast towns, where
public auctions are prohibited. Some have even found their way to
Egypt and Constantinople, having been transported in British vessels,
and landed at Gibraltar as members of the dealer's family!

Another source of supply is the constant series of quarrels between
the tribes of Morocco itself, during which many children are carried
off who are white or nearly so. In this case the victims are almost
all girls, for whom good prices are to be obtained. This opens a door
for illegal supplies, children born of slaves and others kidnapped
being thus disposed of for hareems. For this purpose the demand
for white girls