st until closing time. Up and down tramp the people
nobody wants, burdens to themselves and their owners, the useless, or
nearly useless men and women whose lives have been slavery for so long as
they can remember. Even the water-carrier from the Sus country, who has
been jingling his bright bowls together since the market opened, is moved
to compassion, for while two old women are standing behind their dilal,
who is talking to a client about their reserve price, I see him give them
a free draught from his goat-skin water-barrel, and this kind action seems
to do something to freshen the place, just as the mint and the roses of
the gardeners freshen the alleys near the Kaisariyah in the heart of the
city. To me, this journey round and round the market seems to be the
saddest of the slaves' lives--worse than their pilgrimage across the
deserts of the Wad Nun, or the Draa, in the days when they were carried
captive from their homes, packed in panniers upon mules, forced to travel
by night, and half starved. For then at least they were valued and had
their lives before them, now they are counted as little more than the
broken-down mules and donkeys left to rot by the roadside. And yet this,
of course, is a purely Western opinion, and must be discounted
accordingly.

It is fair to say that auctioneers and buyers treat the slaves in a manner
that is not unkind. They handle them just as though they were animals
with a market value that ill-treatment will diminish, and a few of the
women are brazen, shameless creatures--obviously, and perhaps not
unwisely, determined to do the best they can for themselves in any
surroundings. These women are the first to find purchasers. The unsold
adults and little children seem painfully tired; some of the latter can
hardly keep pace with the auctioneer, until he takes them by the hand and
leads them along with him. Moors, as a people, are wonderfully kind to
children.

The procedure never varies. As a client beckons and points out a slave,
the one selected is pushed forward for inspection, the history is briefly
told, and if the bidding is raised the auctioneer, thanking Allah, who
sends good prices, hurries on his way to find one who will bid a little
more. On approaching an intending purchaser the slave seizes and kisses
his hand, then releases it and stands still, generally indifferent to the
rest of the proceedings.

[Illustration: DILALS IN THE SLAVE MARKET]

"It is well for the sla