MEHEMED ALl's SLAVE-HUNTS. 321 their prisoners far worse than tjiey would beasts. As soon as they have collected from three to six hundred, or perhaps a thousand slaves, the convoy is sent with an escort of native troops, and of about fifty men, regulars, under the command of an officer to Lobeid.

To prevent flight, a Sheba is hung round the neck of the full-grown slaves ; it consists of a young tree about six or eight feet in length, and two inches in thickness, forming a fork in front ; this is bound round the neck of the victim so that the stem of the tree presents anteriorly, the fork is closed at the back of the neck by a cross-bar, and fastened in situ by straps cut from a raw hide ; thus the slave, in order to be able to walk, is forced to take the tree in his hands, and carry it before him. No individual could, however, bear this position for any length of time ; to relieve each other, therefore, the man in front takes the log of his successor on his shoulder, and this measure is repeated in succession. It amounts to an impossibility to withdraw the head, but the whole neck is always excoriated, an injury leading often to inflammatory action, which occasionally terminates in death. Boys from ten to fifteen years of age, who could not carry the sheba, are hand-cuffed together by wooden manacles. The instruments are applied to the right hand of the one and the left of the other, above the wrists, where they are fastened by straps ; they are somewhat excavated to admit the hand, but genc-Y