slave fork (slavfork)

A forked branch of a tree, four or five feet long, used by slave hunters in Africa to prevent the slaves they have captured or purchased from running away when on the march from the interior to the coast. The forked part is secured on the neck of the slave by lashings pa ing from the end of one prong to the end of the other, so that the heavy stick hangs down nearly to the ground, or (as is usually the case) is connected with the fork on the neck of another slave. See cut in next column. IMG:content-1264.png:[blocks in formation] Especially characteristic of existence on the borderland between Islam and heathendom is the story of our hero's capture by a band of ruthle slave hunters . The Academy, No. 903, p. 112.