The Boy Slaves Part 18

The women and children of both hordes were seen flitting like shadows among the tents. Some squatted under camels, or kneeling by the sides of the goats, drew from these animals that lacteal fluid that may be said to form the staple of their food. Others might be observed emptying the precious liquid into skin bottles and sacks, and securing it against spilling in its transport through the deserts.

The matrons of the tribes, hags they looked, were preparing the true _dejeuner_, consisting of _sangleh_, a sort of gruel, made with millet-meal, boiled over a dull fire of camels' dung.

The _sangleh_ was to be eaten, by such of them as could afford it, mixed with goats' or camels' milk, unstrained and hairy, half curdled into a crab-like acidity, the moment it entered its stinking receptacle.

Here and there men were seen milking their mares or maherries, not a few indulging in the universal beverage by a direct application of their lips to the teats of the animal; while others, appointed to the task, were preparing the paraphernalia of the _douar_ for transportation to some distant oasis.

Watching these various movements were the three mids, still stripped to their shirts, and the old man-o'-war's-man, clad with like scantiness; since the only garment that clung to his sinewy frame was a pair of cotton drawers, neither very clean nor very sound at the seams.

All four shivered in the chill air of the morning: for hot as is the Saara under its noon-day sun, in the night hours its thermometer frequently falls almost to the point of freezing.

Their state of discomfort did not hinder them from observing what was pa.s.sing around them. They could have slept on; but the discordant noises of the _douar_, and a belief that they would not be permitted any longer to enjoy their interrupted slumbers, hindered them from reclosing their eyes. Still rec.u.mbent, and occasionally exchanging remarks in a low tone of voice, they noted the customs of their captors.

The young Scotchman had read many books relating to the prairies of America, and their savage denizens. He was forcibly reminded of these by what he now saw in this oasis of the sandy Saara: the women treated like dogs, or worse, doing all the work that might be termed labour, tending the cattle, cooking the meals, pitching or striking the tents, loading the animals, and themselves bearing such portions of the load as exceeded the transport strength of the tribal quadrupeds, aided only by such wretched helots as misfortune had flung in the way of their common masters. The men, mostly idle, ludicrously nonchalant, reclining on their saddle pads, or skins, inhaling the narcotic weed; apparently proud in the possession of that lordship of wretchedness that surrounded them.

Colin was constrained to compare the savage life of two continents, separated by an ocean. He came to the conclusion, that under similar circ.u.mstances mankind will ever be the same. In the Comanche of the _Llano Estacado_, or the p.a.w.nee of the Platte, he would have found an exact counterpart of the Ishmaelitish wanderer over the sandy plains of the Saara.

He was allowed but scant time to philosophise upon these ethnological phenomena. As the _douar_ became stirred into general activity, he, along with his two companions, was rudely startled from his att.i.tude of observation, and ordered to take a share in the toils of the captors.

At an earlier hour, and still more rudely, had Sailor Bill received the commands of his master; who, as the first rays of the Aurora began to dapple the horizon, had ordered the old man-o'-war's-man to his feet, at the same time administering to him a cruel kick, that came very near shivering some of his stern timbers.

Had the black sheik been acquainted with the English language, as spoken in Ratcliff Highway, he would have better understood Sailor Bill's reply to his rude matutinal salutation; which, along with several not very complimentary wishes, ended by devoting the "nayger's" eyes to eternal perdition.

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

AN OBSTINATE DROMEDARY.

The morning meal was eaten as soon as prepared. Its scantiness surprised our adventurers. Even the more distinguished individuals of the horde partook of only a very small quant.i.ty of milk, or sangleh.

The two sheiks alone got anything like what might have been deemed an ordinary breakfast; while the more common cla.s.s, as the half-breeds, _ha.s.sanes_; and the negro slaves had to content themselves with less than a pint of sour milk to each, half of which was water, the mixture denominated _cheni_.

Could this meal be meant for breakfast? Harry Blount and Terence thought not. But Colin corrected them, by alleging that it was. He had read of the wonderful abstemiousness of these children of the desert; how they can live on a single meal a day, and this scarce sufficient to sustain life in a child of six years old; that is, an English child.

Often will they go for several successive days without eating; and when they do eat regularly, a drink of milk is all they require to satisfy hunger.

Colin was right. It was their ordinary breakfast. He might have added, their dinner too; for they would not likely obtain another morsel of food before sundown.

But where was the breakfast of Colin and his fellow-captives? This was the question that interested them far more than the dietary of the Bedouins. They were all hungering like hyenas, and yet no one seemed to think of them, no one offered them either bite or sup. Filthy as was the mess made by the Arab women, and filthily as they prepared it, boiling it in pots, and serving it up in wooden dishes, that did not appear to have had a washing for weeks, the sight of it increased the hungry cravings of the captives; and they would fain have been permitted to share the scanty _dejeuner_.

They made signs of their desire; piteous appeals for food, by looks and gestures, but all in vain; not a morsel was bestowed on them. Their brutal captors only laughed at them, as though they intended that all four should go without eating.

It soon became clear that they were not to starve in idleness. As soon as they had been started to their feet each of them was set to a task; one to collect camel's dung for the cooking-fires; another to fetch water from the brackish muddy pool which had caused the oasis to become a place of encampment; while the third was called upon to a.s.sist in the loading of the tent equipage, along with the salvage of the wreck, an operation entered upon as soon as the sangleh had been swallowed.

Sailor Bill, in a different part of the _douar_, was kept equally upon the alert; and if he, or any of the other three, showed signs of disliking their respective tasks, one of the two sheiks made little ado about striking them with a leathern strap, a knotty stick, or any weapon that chanced to come readiest to hand. They soon discovered that they were under the government of taskmasters not to be trifled with, and that resistance or remonstrance would be alike futile. In short, they saw that they were slaves!

While packing the tents, and otherwise preparing for the march, they were witnesses to many customs, curious as new to them. The odd equipages of the animals, both those of burden and those intended to be ridden; the oval panniers, placed upon the backs of the camels, to carry the women and the younger children; the square pads upon the humps of the maherries; the tawny little piccaninnies strapped upon the backs of their mothers; the kneeling of the camels to receive their loads, as if consenting to what could not be otherwise than disagreeable to them, were all sights that might have greatly interested our adventurers, had they been viewing them under different circ.u.mstances.

Out of the last mentioned of these sights, an incident arose, ill.u.s.trating the craft of their captors in the management of their domestic animals.

A refractory camel, that, according to usual habit, had voluntarily humiliated itself to receive its load, after this had been packed upon it, refused to rise to its feet. The beast either deemed the burden inequable and unjust (for the Arabian camel, like the Peruvian llama, has a very acute perception of fair play in this respect) or a fit of caprice had entered its mulish head. For one reason or another it exhibited a stern determination not to oblige its owner by rising to its feet; but continued its genuflexion in spite of every effort to get it on all-fours.

Coaxing and cajolery were tried to no purpose. Kicking by sandalled feet, scourging with whips, and beating with cudgels produced no better effect; and to all appearance the obstinate brute had made up its mind to remain in the oasis, and let the tribe depart without it.

At this crisis an ingenious method of making the camel change its mind suggested itself to its master; or perhaps he had practised it on some former occasion. Maddened by the obstinacy of the animal, he seized hold of an old burnouse, and rushing up, threw it over its head. Then drawing the rag tightly around its snout, he fastened it in such a manner as completely to stop up the nostrils.

The camel, finding its breathing thus suddenly interrupted, became terrified; and without further loss of time, scrambled to its feet; to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of the women and children who were spectators of the scene.

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.

WATERING THE CAMELS.

In an incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time the tents were down, and the _douar_ with all its belongings was no longer to be seen; or only in the shape of sundry packages balanced upon the backs of the animals.

The last operation before striking out upon the desert track, was the watering of these: the supply for the journey having been already dipped up out of the pool, and poured into goat's-skin sacks.

The watering of the camels appeared to be regarded as the most important matter of all. In this performance every precaution was taken, and every attention bestowed, to ensure to the animals a full supply of the precious fluid, perhaps from a presentiment on the part of their owners that they themselves might some day stand in need of, and make use of, the same water!

Whether this was the motive or not, every camel belonging to the horde was compelled to drink till its capacious stomach was quite full; and the quant.i.ty consumed by each would be incredible to any other than the owner of an African dromedary. Only a very large cask could have contained it.

At the watering of the animals our adventurers had an opportunity of observing another incident of the Saara, quite as curious and original as that already described.

It chanced that the pool that furnished the precious fluid, and which contained the only fresh water to be found within fifty miles, was just then on the eve of being dried up. A long season of drought, that is to say, three or four years, had reigned over this particular portion of the desert; and the lagoon, formerly somewhat extensive, had shrunk into the dimensions of a trifling tank, containing little more than two or three hundred gallons. This during the stay of the two tribes united as wreckers had been daily diminishing; and had the occupants of the _douar_ not struck tents at the time they did, in another day or so they would have been in danger of suffering from thirst. This was in reality the cause of their projected migration. But for the fear of getting short in the necessary commodity of fresh water, they would have hugged the seash.o.r.e a little longer--in hopes of picking up a few more "waifs"

from the wreck of the English ship.

At the hour of their departure from the encampment, the pool was on the eve of exhaustion. Only a few score gallons of not very pure water remained in it, about enough to fill the capacious stomachs of the camels; whose owners had gauged them too often to be ignorant of the quant.i.ty.

It would not do to play with this closely calculated supply. Every pint was precious; and to prove that it was so esteemed, the animals were constrained to swallow it in a fashion which certainly nature could never have intended.

Instead of taking it in by the mouth, the camels of these Saaran rovers were compelled to quench their thirst through the nostrils!

You will wonder in what manner this could be effected, inquiring whether the quadrupeds voluntarily performed this nasal imbibing?

Our adventurers, witnesses of the fact, wondered also--while struck with its quaint peculiarity.

There is a proverb that "one man may take a horse to the water, but twenty cannot compel him to drink." Though this proverb may hold good of an English horse, it has no significance when applied to an African dromedary. Proof: our adventurers saw the owner of each camel bring his animal to the edge of the pool; but instead of permitting the thirsty creature to step in and drink for itself, its head was held aloft; a wooden funnel was filled, the narrow end inserted into the nostril, and by the respiratory ca.n.a.l the water introduced to the throat and stomach.

You may ask, why this selection of the nostrils, instead of the mouth?

Our adventurers so interrogated one another. It was only after becoming better acquainted with the customs of the Saara, that they acquired a satisfactory explanation of one they had frequent occasion to observe.

Though ordinarily of the most docile disposition, and in most of its movements the most tranquil of creatures, the dromedary, when drinking from a vessel, has the habit of repeatedly shaking its head, and spilling large quant.i.ties of the water placed before it. Where water is scarce, and, as in the Saara, considered the most momentous matter of life, a waste of it after such fashion could not be tolerated. To prevent it, therefore, the camel-owner has contrived that this animal, so essential to his own safe existence, should drink through the orifices intended by nature for its respiration.

CHAPTER FORTY.

A SQUABBLE BETWEEN THE SHEIKS.