there is
an unlimited quantity of this precious stuff in Rua, and that we can
make ourselves richer than Prince Majid, our Sultan, if we go in time,
before the report is common among the Arabs. What money I have made
this time on my last trip is so small, compared to what I might have
realised, that I mean to try my fortune again in Africa shortly,
Inshallah!--please God! I intend going to Rua, and if thou, Amer bin
Osman, hast a mind to accompany me, I promise thee that thou wilt not
repent it."

"Amer bin Osman," replied Amer, "goes not back on his word. By my
beard, I have said I shall go, and, if it be God's will, I shall be
ready for thee when thou goest. But tell us, son of Abdullah, what of
the Pagans of Rua, and those lands near the Great Lakes? Do they make
good slaves, and do they sell well in our market? Yet I need hardly ask
thee, for I have two men whom I purchased when young, about twenty years
ago, who I believe are more faithful than any slave born in my house."

"Good slaves!" echoed Khamis. "Thou hast said it. Finer people are not
to be found, from Masr to Kilwa, than those of Rua and the lands
adjoining. And clever slaves, too! Those Pagans make the best spears,
and swords, and daggers found in Africa. Indeed, some of their work
would shame that of our best Zanzibar artificers. Near a place called
Kitanga--where that is I don't know, but Sayd, the son of Habib, can
tell--there is a hill almost entirely of pure copper, and from this hill
the people get vast quantities of copper, which they work into beautiful
bracelets, armlets, anklets, and such things. Nothing to be seen in
Muscat even can equal the work the son of Habib has witnessed."

"Mashallah!" cried Amer, delighted; "thou makest me more and more
anxious to go to the strange land. A hill of copper!--pure copper! The
Pagans must really be a fine people, and rich, too. If it were only
possible to catch two or three hundred slaves of the kind thou speakest
of, I might be able to laugh in the face of that dog of a Banyan Bamji,
and old Ludha Damha himself could not hold his head higher than I could
then. I owe the dogs a turn, for the heavy usury they exacted of me
when I needed much ready money to make my courtyard and fountains. But
the women, noble Khamis, thou hast said nothing of them. Tell us what
kind of women are seen in those rich lands."

"Ah, yes, do tell us of the women," chimed in two or three others, who
had no