We halted for the night a little before sunset, and while some of the Hausas erected huts for the night and others attended to the cooking, Maháma and his gang prepared the slaves for their bivouac. The preparations were of the simplest. Each slave, having been relieved of his burden, if he carried one, was fitted with a pair of handcuffs or fetters, and his ankles were hobbled either with iron fetters, similar to the “bilboes” used on board ship, or with a grass rope substitute, and he was then allowed to scratch a hollow in the ground to receive his hip bone and go to sleep. In my own case, both the wrist fetters and those on the ankles were of grass rope, for the reason, as I supposed, that the iron fetters were all in use. In spite of the fatigues of the day and the disturbed night that had preceded it, I did not go to sleep for some time. I was free from the galling annoyance of the iron collar that the other slaves wore, for the halter was still on my neck; but even this was an unaccustomed discomfort, and helped to keep me awake, and I lay for a couple of hours dreamily looking on at the slave dealers as they sat round the fire, eating, talking, and laughing over one another’s jests and stories, until one by one they disappeared. There seemed to be little, if any, watch kept; but, as the slaves had not been released from the rope, and as this was securely pegged down at intervals, the captives were pretty secure. At length, when the camp was quiet except for the droning hum of the sleeping multitude, I huddled myself up in as comfortable an attitude as was possible, and very soon followed the example of my companions in misfortune. CHAPTER XVIII. I AGAIN BECOME A FUGITIVE. The next few days presented little to chronicle. Life under the new conditions was monotonously uncomfortable, but not distressing to me, whatever it may have been to the less robust slaves. We walked, with but few halts, from a little after sunrise to a little before sunset; we slept as much as our discomforts would let us, and we ate all that we could get--which was mighty little. Day after day we tramped on through what appeared to be an interminable orchard, which was so bare and shadeless that I was thankful for the burden that protected me from the sun. For at this season of the year, all the trees were leafless, and every blade of grass had been devoured by animals, so that the country had a most desolate aspect, and it was quite a relief to enter the narrow band of green forest that fringed the banks of the rivers.