So in the market-place there reigns perpetual excitement,
a nameless hubbub, made up of the cries of mixed-breed
porters and carriers, the beating of drums, and the
twanging of horns, the neighing of mules, the braying of
donkeys, the singing of women, the squalling of children,
and the banging of the huge rattan, wielded by the jemadar
or leader of the caravans, who beats time to this pastoral
symphony.
There, spread forth, without regard to order--indeed,
we may say, in charming disorder--are the showy stuffs,
the glass beads, the ivory tusks, the rhinoceros'-teeth, the
shark's-teeth, the honey, the tobacco, and the cotton of
these regions, to be purchased at the strangest of bargains
by customers in whose eyes each article has a price only
in proportion to the desire it excites to possess it.
All at once this agitation, movement and noise stopped
as though by magic. The balloon had just come in sight,
far aloft in the sky, where it hovered majestically for
a few moments, and then descended slowly, without
deviating from its perpendicular. Men, women, children,
merchants and slaves, Arabs and negroes, as suddenly
disappeared within the "tembes" and the huts.
"My dear doctor," said Kennedy, "if we continue to
produce such a sensation as this, we shall find some
difficulty in establishing commercial relations with
the people hereabouts.
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