THE DESERT GIRL
Attracted by the sound of a drum, beating rhythmically and unceasingly,
we strolled after sunset to the entrance of an Arab tent. Old women,
with straggling hair and wizened faces, and with eyes ablaze with
excitement, were pounding the drum. The tent was thronged with young
men and women, who watched tensely and eagerly the dancers in their
center. Only young women were dancing. The dance was in honor of a holy
man, and was called the _djdib_.
Women, urged on by the drum and by the cries of the spectators, whirled
and swayed. Their heads rocked from side to side like tree-tops in a
tempest. The spirit of the dance had taken possession of them and urged
them on until there was no more strength left in their lithe bodies.
They danced until they became exhausted, then others threw aside their
scarves and renewed the dance.
I saw a golden-haired girl of about fifteen standing among the tawny
Arab girls. The contrast between her quiet beauty and the bold charms
of her companions drew the attention of all of the members of our
party. I pointed her out to General Eaton. He began to wonder aloud
as to whether she was one of the Circassian race, brought down from
the mountains by Arabian bandits in some raid, or whether she was of
Anglo-Saxon stock.
"She _must_ be a Circassian," he concluded, "it is unbelievable that
an English or American girl should be owned by this desert tribe!"
An old woman poked her hatchet-shaped face into that of the young girl.
"Go and dance! All these years you have been under the protection of
Allah. Who is this Nazarene--that you place him above Mohammed and his
saints? Go and dance. Give your spirit to the djinn! May Allah wither
your budding beauty if you refuse to worship his saint in the dance!"
She seized the young girl by her thick sash and pulled her into the
center. The band of ribbon that had bound her golden hair became loose;
her hair poured like a flood of gold over her shoulders. She stood
trembling amidst the wild dancers, some of whom, in their frenzy, were
digging her with their sharp elbows.
The drum beat insistently, but the girl did not obey its urge to dance.
She stood trembling, and now she raised her eyes towards us with a
pleading that roused us to interfere.
General Eaton motioned to a sheik.
"We would not interrupt the dance, or offend the hospitality of this
tent in any way. But that girl seems to be of our blood, and the dance
is strange to her. Would it not offend the marabout in whose honor you
dance to have a Nazarene take part? What is worship of the hands and
feet if the heart is not submissive too? I pray you, permit the girl to
withdraw."
The young Arabs cast hostile glances at us, but the sheik was
good-natured and was expecting rich gifts from the general. He called
the girl to him. She came quickly. He spoke to her in Arabic, and she
withdrew to an alcove.
"She is an adopted daughter of our tribe," he explained.
The famine lay heavily upon this people. Perhaps it was due to the
biscuits we offered this tribe that our interference with their
ceremony was not hotly resented. Perhaps, indeed, the famine was
responsible for their next move.
An old woman came out of the alcove that had hidden the girl and came
directly to General Eaton. "The fair-haired one is a trouble to me,"
she said. "We have given her food and shelter for many years, yet when
we speak to her of marriage, she weeps. When we tell her that we will
sell her to become a dancing-girl in the bazaars and cafes if she will
not wed one of our young men, she threatens to kill herself! Lovelier
damsels than she have gone into the harem, happy to have a lord who
will keep them from want. And there are worse lives than to dance at
the _fantasias_ of rich men, and to win the approval of the cafes. The
girl is ungrateful and a burden to us. Our own children are starving.
Give us money to buy food and take the unthankful girl!"
"Let the girl be summoned," said the general. She came forth, glancing
from the Sheik Abdullah to General Eaton with fear in her eyes.
"My girl," said the general through an interpreter, "these people have
offered you for sale. My purpose in buying you would be to find you a
good home, where you will be brought up in the way of people of your
color and race. Do you consent?" She looked at him as if she could not
believe her ears, then sobbed, then nodded earnestly.
"Done!" thundered the general, "I call on Sheik Abdullah to witness
that the offer has been made and accepted. I shall be liberal, too!
Tell me what price such girls bring at the slave-market in Murzuk and
it shall be paid."
The money was poured into the old hag's outstretched palms. The members
of her family gathered round to gloat over it. The young Arabs laughed
at the prospect of food. The departure of the girl in our company did
not cause them the slightest concern. Maidens are held cheaply in the
Sahara. A swift camel is worth more than a girl. What value has a
Nazarene maiden compared with food for one's own famished children?
The general, to shield the girl as much as possible from the curious
soldiers, gave her a tent where she dwelt alone, watched over by an old
Nubian woman who had become attached to our party in Egypt and had been
taken along for her value as a cook.
The general told a group of us briefly that the girl remembered little
of her early life. There was a vague remembrance of a mother who had
lived among these dark people. There came a day when she went out of
her life and a scolding Arab woman took her place.
The girl and her black servant traveled on donkeys. A young sheik, a
friend of the sheik, who had sold the girl to our party, joined Hamet's
forces at this village. I wondered if he had planned to add the maiden
to his circle of wives.
HAMET BASHAW LOSES HIS TEMPER
A courier from Derne met us here with news that Joseph's army was
approaching Derne. This caused a panic among our Arabs, and even Hamet
seemed to be in doubt as to whether it were wise to proceed. I was
forming a rather low opinion of his bravery, but tried to lose such
thoughts by thinking that if he were a hundred times less a man he
would be better than his brother. Some of the camel drivers fled. We
heard, too, that many of Hamet's followers were planning to turn back.
General Eaton again stopped their rations and ordered that no food be
served them until they marched forward. The general had a lion's heart
and was a born leader. Obstacles like these only served to bring out
his firm qualities.
The Sheik il Taiib was again the center of the revolt, since he had
resolved to go no farther until news arrived that our vessels were
awaiting us at Bomba. When General Eaton reproached him for his want
of courage and fidelity, he flew into a rage and put himself at the
head of such Arabs as would follow him, which was about half of our
force, and started back to Egypt. Hamet begged General Eaton to send
an officer to pacify him and persuade him to return, but the General
refused.
"We have paid him for his services," he declared, "and we have a right
to expect that he be faithful to his pledge; I will not permit him to
dictate measures to us!"
"But he may take part against us," pleaded frightened Hamet.
"Let him do it," the general answered, "I like an open enemy better
than a treacherous friend!"
We continued our march. Messengers then arrived from the rebellious
sheik, assuring us that he was really on his way back to Egypt.
The general sent word back to him: "I will take vigorous steps for the
recovery of the cash and property you have drawn from me by fraud!"
In a few hours a new messenger arrived with the information that the
Sheik il Taiib would join us if we halted to await his coming.
At last his caravan hove in sight.
"You see," he said to the general, to mask his defeat, "what influence
I have among these people!"
"Yes," returned the general, "and I see also the disgraceful use you
make of it!"
On the next day, the sheik having been quieted for a time, Hamet
himself again showed signs of turning back. Separating his Moslem party
from us, he took from our officers the horses he had loaned us for the
passage through the desert. When General Eaton reproached him for his
indecision and lack of perseverance, high words followed. We marched
on; Hamet turned back, but after two hours had passed he rejoined us,
complimented the general on his firmness, and said that he had been
forced to pretend that he was falling in with the wishes of his people,
so that he might in the end manage them.
The next day brought the same daily measure of trouble. Several sheiks
quarreled with Sheik il Taiib over the distribution of the money that
Hamet had paid them, and had quitted camp. We could not proceed without
them because they exercised a powerful influence over the Arab tribes
near Derne, whose support we were counting on. Hamet rode after them to
persuade them to be loyal to us, and in his absence Sheik il Taiib took
the stage again, demanding that the general issue more rations.
"Remember," he said threateningly, "You are in a desert, and a country
not your own! I am a greater man here than you or the Bashaw!"
The general retorted: "I have found you at the head of every commotion
which has happened since we left Alexandria. You are the cause of the
present trouble among the chiefs. Leave my tent! But mark: if I find a
mutiny in the camp I will put you to death as the man who produced it."
The sheik left the tent and rode away with other chiefs. A few hours
later, however, he returned and swore that he was devoted to the
general; that some secret enemy had told lies about him; that he would
even abandon the Bashaw to follow us; and hoped that at Derne he would
have the opportunity to show that he was a _man_.
Our next halt came when some of the Arab chiefs insisted on riding off
to an oasis called Seewauk for a supply of dates. They promised to
rejoin our party at Bomba. We halted to discuss the matter.
While this matter was being debated we visited an Arab camp nearby.
We found that the young men and women, although copper-colored, were
handsome and well-formed. The women did not veil, and were modest and
bashful in their deportment. The general complimented the wife of the
chief on her beauty. She smiled and said there were more beautiful
women in camp than herself and brought in a group of girls to prove it.
But the general gallantly held to his first opinion.
Our soldiers were fond of dates, and to secure them from the girls they
gave as payment the buttons on their uniforms, which the women strung
as ornaments about their necks.
We were fortunate enough to see a marriage in the Arab camp. Two camels
bearing canopies resembling wagon tops covered with Smyrna carpeting,
passed along, to the noise of volleys of muskets. The bride and groom
rode separately in these canopies, attended by elderly women, adult
unmarried girls, and by mounted Arabs.
The women chanted a savage kind of song; the men performed daring feats
of horsemanship, and young men and girls danced between the camels. In
this manner they circled their tents and our encampment. Then the camel
carrying the bride was driven seven times around a tent that had been
assigned to her. The animal was then made to kneel, the door of the
canopy was opened, and the bride was pitched headfirst into the tent,
where her women companions were reciting a benediction.
We were told that presents were expected. We gave a little money to
an old Arab woman who had taken the leading part in the celebration,
supposing her to be the mother of the bride. The general also invited
an Arab of about fifty-five years to his tent to receive an extra
present of provisions. Upon questioning the Arab as to the ages of the
bride and groom, we learned that he himself was the groom; that the
bride was a girl of thirteen years; and that the woman we had supposed
to be her mother was another wife of the groom.
THE ALLIES QUARREL
Now arose a crisis that threatened more than any of the previous ones
the success of our movement. Indeed, even the lives of all of the
Christian members of the expedition were at stake. When we had reached
a spot about ninety miles from Bomba, we found ourselves facing a
famine. We had only six days' rations of rice, no bread nor meat, nor
other ration. General Eaton was therefore anxious that we move forward
to Bomba as swiftly as possible, but Hamet, while the general was out
of camp, ordered the expedition to halt and announced that the troops
needed a day's rest. The reason for his act, we learned, was that he
might send a courier to see if our ships were indeed awaiting us at
Bomba.
The general stopped the rations when he found that his army had halted,
and Hamet, influenced by his Arab hosts, prepared again to march in a
direction away from Derne. The Arabs tried to seize the weapons of the
Christians, and General Eaton promptly called us to arms. We stood in
a row before the magazine tent, guarding our guns from those who would
use them to slaughter us. When the crowd had fallen back, the general
ordered us to proceed with our daily drill. Seeing this, an Arab chief
shouted:
"The Christians are preparing to fire on us!"
Hamet put himself at their head, with drawn sword, as if he feared that
such was our intention.
General Eaton stood firmly facing the threatening host of Turks and
Arabs. Around him clustered a little group: O'Bannon, Peck, Farquhar,
Leitensdorfer, Selem Aga, the Greek officers, and myself. I tried my
best to keep the gun in my hand from shivering, but the more I tried
the more my hand trembled. Two hundred mounted Turks and Arabs advanced
in full charge against us. The end was in sight. We leveled our
muskets. I thought of Alexander and the Rector and said a prayer.
"Do not shoot until all hope of peace is gone--then sell your lives
dearly!" General Eaton said.
The charging Arabs swerved and withdrew, but when we began to
breathe more freely, they came closer, and this time we could see
them selecting us as their targets. It did not seem that any of us
Christians could survive five minutes longer. An Arab youth snapped a
pistol at my breast. Providentially it missed fire. If one bullet had
been fired, war to the death between the two sides would have resulted.
A moment later we heard the command of "fire!" ring out from among the
Arabs.
"At the first shot, give them a volley!" General Eaton ordered.
At this critical instant, one of Hamet's officers ran out towards the
mutineers and cried: "For God's sake, do not fire! The Christians are
our friends!"
Then the general, although a column of muskets was aimed at his
breast, approached Hamet and demanded of him how he could support such
desperate acts. The Bashaw wavered. A chorus of furious whoops from the
Arabs drowned the general's voice. He waved his hand as a signal for
attention. In response, some of the more kindly disposed chiefs rode
before the Arabs with drawn sabres and ordered the infuriated tribesmen
to fall back.
The general again reproached Hamet for his weakness, and even Hamet's
chief officer asked the Bashaw if he had lost his senses. The latter,
in a fury, struck his officer with his drawn sabre. The fracas began
again and had nearly reached its former heat when General Eaton seized
Hamet by the arm and drew him away from his people.
"Can it be," the general exclaimed, "that you have forgotten who your
true friends are, and where your interests lie?"
Hamet melted. He called the general his protector and friend; lamented
that he lost his temper so easily, and ordered the Arabs to disperse.
General Eaton agreed to issue a ration of rice if the Bashaw promised
march would be resumed early the next morning. This pledge was made and
peace returned. Then we saw a sorry sight. At least two of the white
men had acted like cowards and had hidden themselves among the tents.
They now came slinking forth to stammer excuses that, you may be sure,
were received stonily by us. We again went forward, but after we had
marched twenty-five miles our rice became exhausted, and we were now
without rations.
With starvation threatening us, Hamet killed a camel, and also gave
one in exchange for sheep, that were also slaughtered. The meat,
however, had to be eaten without bread or salt. As we went on the
hunger increased, and we saw the Arabs searching the plain for roots
and vegetable substances on which they might subsist. A water famine
was almost always with us. At one time we were obliged to drink from a
cistern in which we had found the bodies of two murdered Arabs.
For the first time in my life I realized the meaning of such passages
of Scripture as:
"The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters."
While facing yet another insurrection, this time of the gunners, a
courier arrived from Bomba with the news that our ships were off both
that place and Derne. This gave us new strength and courage and ended
the mutiny, and so at last we came to Bomba.
There, however, we found that the vessel that had been seen had
departed. The fat was in the fire again, with the Arabs abusing us as
impostors and infidels and threatening to leave us, if they did nothing
worse.
But oh, the resourcefulness of our general! Withdrawing with the
Christians to a high hill nearby, he ordered that a huge fire be
kept burning on its crest all night; the next morning as the Turks
and Arabs were scattering, to go to their homes, when the end of the
expedition seemed indeed to be in sight, we saw from the top of the
hill a sail. The United States' ship _Argus_, with Captain Hull in
command was approaching. The next day the sloop _Hornet_ arrived, laden
with provisions. We then refreshed ourselves and our famished army, and
unloaded from the _Hornet_ the provisions necessary to feed us on the
march to Derne.
The worst of the journey was over. We were approaching cultivated land.
To keep the inhabitants from becoming hostile to us the Bashaw sent a
herald through the camp to cry:
"He who fears God and feels attachment to Hamet Bashaw will be careful
to destroy nothing. Let no one touch the growing harvest. He who
transgresses shall lose his right hand!"
I now heard shrieks from the tent that sheltered the girl we had
rescued by purchase from the Arabs. I saw two camels standing beside
the tent, held by a young Arab who looked towards us furtively. It
flashed across my mind that the young sheik whom I had suspected of an
intention to add the girl to his household had seized upon the moment
when we were engaged in putting down a rebellion to kidnap the girl.
I rushed to the tent, followed by an Arab lad Mustapha, who also came
from the girl's village, and who had shown an humble devotion to her
by daily giving to the negress for the maiden a share of his ration of
dates.
As we reached the door of the tent the sheik emerged with the girl in
his arms. I jabbed the point of my pistol into his face while Mustapha
plunged earthward in an effort to stay his strides toward the camels.
The lad's attack was so vigorous that the sheik sprawled face downward
into the sand, while the girl, released by his stumble, fell into my
arms for support.
She was pale with terror and leaned against me like a broken lily.
General Eaton, having pacified Hamet and his supporters, came dashing
between me and the kidnapper, who had seized his knife and risen to his
feet. I still menaced him with my pistol, but the general forbade me to
fire.
"He richly deserves death," he whispered, taking in at a glance the
situation, "but to fire a shot would cause a general battle and the
defeat of our plans." He then turned to the scowling chief.
"Mount your camel and go," he said. "Hamet Bashaw wants no one in his
ranks who, under pretense of loyalty to a cause, comes to steal a girl
who despises him."
The Arab, without replying, mounted his camel and rode away with his
attendant. We saw a small group detach themselves from the main body
and follow him.
"A good riddance!" the general muttered. Then, seeing Mustapha, he
delighted the youth by saying, "You, my boy, are worth a hundred such
fellows!"
The Nubian woman, who had been choked into insensibility, now staggered
out of the tent and relieved me of my burden--one that I was none too
glad to surrender.
The girl murmured something to me in Arabic as she re-entered the tent,
including Mustapha in her glance. I looked at him questioningly.
"She said," the lad explained, "that her heart is overflowing with
gratitude to you and myself for rescuing her."
General Eaton ordered that the maiden's tent be continually guarded
after that. I managed to be selected for sentinel duty more often than
anyone else. Mustapha also stood guard with me. The girl sat in the
door of her tent looking up to the stars. With Mustapha interpreting,
we chatted. I told her about America and Baltimore and assured her that
once she was out of the desert, a happy life would open for her. She
asked shy questions about the girls of the United States--what they
wore; how they occupied themselves. I heard her and the Nubian woman
laughing when I said, rather abruptly, that I had not paid attention
to the looks and habits of girls at home. I taught her a few words of
English--"America," "ship," "friend," "good morning," and "good night."
When we reached Derne, a few days after the encounter I have described
took place, the girl went aboard one of the American warships. The last
I saw of her was when she stepped timidly into a cutter, assisted by
General Eaton. I stood on the shore watching. I saw her glancing back
at the shore and I am sure I saw a motion of her hand in response to my
furious waving. From that hour I began thinking of home more than I had
ever thought of it before. And Mustapha and I, when we walked back to
our tents, never spoke a word to each other the whole way.