Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

252 DHOW-CHASING.
Passing the Sultan's palace, the good-looking
exteriors of the houses of the "well to do"
Arab population, and through filthy streets, we
emerge by a narrow lane into a Bmall square
large for Zanzibar. Here the first thing that
meets the eye is a number of slaves arranged in
a semicircle, with their faces towards us and
the centre of the square. Most of them are
standing up, but some are sitting on the
ground; some of them, in fact, utterly incapable
of standing upon their feet, miserable,
emaciated skeletons, on whom disease, and
perhaps starvation, has placed its fatal mark.
If those who are sitting down had evinced half
the stubbornness on the mainland that they do
here, they would have been knocked on the
head and left a prey to the^wild beasts; but
there is a limit to such treatment in Zanzibar,
on account of the presence of the Europeans.
Inside this semicircle are half-a-dozen or more
Arabs talking together, examining the slaves,
discussing their points, and estimating their
value, just as farmers examine and value cattle
at an Eno^lish fair or market. Near the middle