.A. correspondent, datins. 2d February 1882, from the Straits, writes ofe'debt slavery in Perak being then in existence. lie says, 'Numbers of grey-haired men and women could be found still in debt slavery in Perak.' In the Netherland Possessions in India, slavery IVIIS abolished about the middle of the 19th cen tury. Slavery still exists in China, and the sale of female children, usnally front poverty, is of frequent occurrence.
All along the littoral, from the Red Sea through Sind to the Peninsula of India, are descendant of slaves front Africa and .Arabia. They are known as Bashi, and in the plural Habush, and at 3fuliammadan courts they were the household troops.
The slaves of the Brahui are of two classes, Negroes brought from Muscat, and the descend ants of captives made in the wars with the people of the western provinces of the country, as Kej, Turbat, etc. ; some have, at various times, been brought from Kashmir and the eastern provinces of Persia. These in colour and features in no respect vary frotn their masters, and some of the females are remarkably handsome. They are better treated than their Negro associates in bond age, and less onerous duties are assigned to them. Few of the Negroes, and those only who are really useful, are even decently clad; and it is common for them so to Multiply, that their masters, from inability to clothe and feed them, dismiss them to provide for themselves in other lands.
The Afghans have supplied themselves with captives from the Siah Posh Kafir tribes of the mountain race in Kafiristan. But Arabia, Egypt, Southern Persia, Baluchistan, Sind, and Penin sular India have been chiefly supplied from East Africa, from the Soudan southwards to Madagascar, most of the eunuchs in S. Asia being from that region. The slave traffic of this region seems to have gone on from pre-historic times, and it was chiefly from the western coast of Africa that European and American nations obtained the slaves whom they employed in agyieulture and as domestic servants.
The Turkomau races in High Asia, as also the Hazara races, continuously at present (1883) make raids on the Persians and on their own tribes, and seize on men, women, and children for sale. The border Persians are more than others harassed in this way, and they are admitted into the slave markets of Central Asia, because bigoted Sunni Mullah have declared the Shiah sect not to belong to Islam. Shams-ud-Din Herati, a celebrated
lawyer, is said to have been the chief promoter of this legal decision (fatwa). Slave-dealing, from immemorial times, has been practised in the northern provinces of Persia. It is conducted by the Turkomans as a regularly organized traffic, which diminishes as the distance from the Turko man frontier is increased. They were carried on chiefly by the Tekke and Yomut tribes, the victims of the Tekke being, the settled inhabitants of the frontier regions of Khorasan, Herat, Seistan, up to West Afghanistan, while the Yomut infest chiefly the southern shores of the Caspian. The Ali-Ali and the Kara occasionally capture caravans on their way to I3okhara. As the Chandor tribe live between the Lower Amu (Oxus) and the Caspian, they can only occasionally capture a few Kirghiz or Khivans. They treat the captives with such great cruelty as even to shock their neighbours. The great proportion of the slaves taken by the Turkoman and Uzbak are Shiah Persians, but they capture also Sunni of Khaf and IIerat, also a few Jamshidi, and some Hazara and Western Afghans. The captives are handed over to the slave mer chants in exchange for needed supplies. The slave-traders of Central Asia are seldom Dzbaks, but usually Tajaks or Sarts, with a few Persians ; and their principal marts are at Karakol, Karshi, Charjui, and Bokhara. There are, however, other dealers who are employed by friends to ransom the slaves. 13y the custom of Muhammadan countries, a servant marrying a slave becomes also a slave.
Owing to the Russian advances and the inter ference of Britain in the affaits of Afghanistan, the slave area in Central Asia has been gradually diminished, until it is only composed of the country lying between Herat and Merv, and between Herat along the slopes of the Hindu Kush to Badakhshan. In Sher Ali's time the khanates of Afghan-Turkestan used to supply the Amir with a periodical consignment of wornen and boy-slaves as tribute. Mr. Schuyler also, during his journey through Bolchara in 1873, dis covered evidence of secret dealings in women and boys in defiance of Russia's prohibition to the contrary.