For privacy, Fatima dropped a flimsy curtain over the door of her room, and this barrier was as strictly respected by her household as if it were a strong door. Visitors were received in the parlor. Fatima and her guests sat on a divan covered with cushions and drank coffee. Handwoven carpets and draperies were everywhere.
The beds of the household were mattresses spread on the floor. One blanket often covers an entire family in the houses of the poor. Fatima fell sick while we were under her roof, and sent a woman friend to a holy man for a remedy. I discovered that the medicine was nothing more than a slip of paper containing the words "He will heal the breasts of the people who believe."
Fatima was ordered to chew and swallow the paper. The widow still complained of illness after swallowing this dose, and was ordered by the marabout to write a verse from the Koran on the inside of a cup; then to pour in water till the writing was washed away; then to drink this water, which was supposed to have in it the virtue expressed in the verse. I followed my master out of Fatima's house greatly amazed at this kind of medical treatment, but I did not wonder at hearing that she had complained that her aches were increasing.
THE SLAVE MARKET
Achmet had now no further use for me and decided to sell me as a slave. I was driven, chained, to the slave market. This auction place was in a large square. All around it were little booths. These were crowded with spectators. Through the center of the bazaar ran a walk. Most of the slaves that had been brought to the market for sale were women and girls. Among the Moors it was thought no evil to deal in human flesh. A black woman with children was first sold. One could tell by the way she clung to her brood that she feared she would be separated from them. We saw her face light when one of the Moors who was squatting on the edge of the walk bought the entire family.
A boy came next. He was handled by prospective buyers as if he were a horse. His eyes, mouth, teeth and nostrils were examined. The first Moslem who inspected him must have seen some defect in the lad, for he waved him away. The auctioneer then seized the boy and led him up and down the walk before the Moors in the bazaars, shouting his good points.
Most of the girls were blacks or mulattoes, brought from the interior of Africa by Arabian traders. There were a few white girls among them. Each girl or woman was handled in the same manner as the boys had been. Some of the maidens boldly returned the stare of those who inspected them. Others shrank from their inspection and, when possible, covered their faces with the woolen haicks they wore.
This slave market reflected only a small part of the slave life of the city. I saw men and women of all classes huddled together in dark, dirty prisons, praying their countrymen would send money to ransom them.
Those whose relatives were not rich enough to buy their freedom were sold to various buyers and set to work at all kinds of labor. The owners often made use of their slaves to earn them money. The old slaves were usually sent out to sell water. Many a drink have I bought from these water-carriers, as, dragging their chains, they led their donkeys through the streets and sold water from bags of skin that hung across the backs of their beasts. Some of my other acquaintances among the slaves acted as messengers or house-servants; others were employed as herders, drivers or plowmen—I have even seen a Christian slave yoked to a plow with an ox for a yoke-fellow.
Once, while inland, I saw coming out of the Soudan a score of slaves fastened together in a long wooden yoke that had many holes cut in it a few feet apart to admit the heads of the slaves. If one of these slaves fell sick or grew too weak to walk, he would hang from this yoke by his neck, with his feet dragging. As much as he suffered himself, his condition added to the sufferings of his yoke-fellows, for they had to bear his weight. I heard that if he seemed likely to die before the slave market was reached, his master would cut his head from his body with one knife stroke—it saved halting the procession to remove the sick man from the yoke.