A slave boy is not permitted to use either camwood powder or oil on his body; but should he please his master one day by bringing him a present of a fine fish, or a large piece of meat, or some cloth and brass rods worthy of his master’s acceptance, his owner on receiving the offering will rub his hands over his slave’s face, and say, “Your skin is very bad. Why don’t you rub it with camwood powder and oil?” and from that time he is allowed to use the cosmetic so prized by all the natives. As a rule the best dressed men in a town are the slaves, and the worst dressed men the masters. They are afraid to parade their wealth for fear of charges of witchcraft on account of deflecting other folk’s goods to their own store; and also a man can more consistently and more easily refuse a loan on the plea of poverty, in old clothes, than he can if he is gorgeously arrayed. Of course, on special occasions, the masters will wear plenty of good cloth, and decorate their bodies with powdered camwood and oil. A slave can dress his hair like a free man; but if he has a beard he must leave it loose, for only free men are permitted to plait their beards. The master is responsible for the actions of his slaves. I remember a case in 1892 when a slave attempted the life of the head-man of his master’s town. His attempt failed, and he escaped to a distant town; but the master was tied up, killed, and eaten. It is not at all improbable that if the master had been a more influential man some other way would have been found to meet the case—a heavy fine—as the attempt was unsuccessful. While theoretically a master is liable for his slave’s debts, yet he will repudiate them on the ground that the lender had no right to advance goods to a slave without first ascertaining whether the master will be responsible for the payment for them or not. A slave badly treated by his master breaks the _eboko_, or fetish saucepan, belonging to a witch-doctor. Then the witch-doctor demands such a heavy price from the master, as he is responsible for his slave’s action, that he prefers to leave the slave as compensation in the witch-doctor’s hands to paying such heavy redemption money. The sum demanded is usually more than the price of a slave; but public opinion is very pronounced against a slave who breaks the _eboko_ for insufficient reasons. The fear of this has a strong deterrent effect on bad, passionate-tempered masters in restraining them from ill-treating their slaves.