Jill had finished the first of many evening meals she was to partake of
in the desert, and was lying on a heap of cushions listening to the
clink of brass coffee utensils and porcelain cups, whilst sniffing
appreciatively the aroma of Eastern coffee Easternly made, which is
totally different to that which permeates the dim recesses draped with
tinselled dusty hangings, and cluttered with Eastern stools and tables
inlaid with mother o' pearl made in Birmingham, in the ubiquitous
Oriental Cafe at which we meet the rest of us at eleven o'clock on
Saturday morning at the seaside; nor does it resemble in the slightest
that which is oilily poured forth in London town by the fat, oily,
so-called "Son of the Crescent" who, wearing fez and baggy trousers, in
some caravanserai West, Sou'-west or Nor'-west, has unfailingly been
chief coffee-maker to the late Sultan, _vide_ anyway the hotel
advertisements.
She was smiling as she lay stretched full length with her chin in her
palms, thinking of the meal just eaten. Whilst waiting for it she had
imagined a mess of pottage perhaps, or stewed kid as _pièce de
résistance_, with honey or manna as sweets, and a savoury of fried
locusts, which she, with many others, imagined to be the all-devouring
insect. She knew by now, and returned thanks, that the man neither ate
with his mouth open nor gave precedence to his fingers and teeth over
knives and forks, but in her wildest dreams she had never imagined that
such exquisite things, served in such an exquisite way, could be laid
before her in a desert.
When the light had suddenly closed down upon the two adventurers on the
Road of Life, she had been led to the tent adjoining hers, a sudden
shyness preventing her from asking where the Arab slept, which she
found alight with the soft glow of many candles, and spread with a
carpet upon which were many cushions. The table had certainly been the
ground, but everything upon it had been of the daintiest, and all that
she had eaten, although she had had no notion of what it had consisted,
might have been the outcome of some _cordon bleu's_ genius.
"Our life is one long picnic," had replied the Arab to her question
anent the cooking facilities in waste places. "So why should we not
all, high and low born, learn to make the picnic pleasant, for behold,
we know not what a day may bring forth, nor in what place the night
shall find us."
And Jill came quite suddenly out of her reverie when asked if she would
like to go outside for coffee and cigarettes. "For though the moon in
her youth has gone early to bed, the stars are shining like your eyes."
"Oh," said she, as she got into a half-sitting position, "I thought we
should have to pack up; it's late already, isn't it?"
"You are tired from unaccustomed travelling, and your limbs must ache,
therefore if it pleases you we will wait until to-morrow night, so that
with many baths and much refreshing sleep you will feel glad to mount
your camel, who is not the begotten daughter of sin, Taffadaln, and
come still further into the desert."
So Jill went outside the tent and looked up to the blazing stars, and
the soft wind blew her hair so that a burnished red-gold perfumed
strand fell across the man's mouth, and behold he trembled, for great
was his desire, but greater still his love for this woman.
And when she sat down upon the cushions he stood apart and watched her,
until a little hand, like a white moth fluttering in the dark, beckoned
him, and he moved towards her and sat at her feet; and the wind,
whispered to the palms and the hours fled as the English girl lay on
the cushions and listened, and she had learnt of many things before she
rose and passed into her tent to sleep again.
Hahmed was of Southern Arabia, and therefore with truth could claim
direct descent from Kahtan. He was the first-born of the great Sheik
el Has'ad, his father, and his favourite wife who, on her marriage,
besides much wealth, had brought a dowry of purest blood, and wonderful
beauty, to her lord and master, so that the man who sat at the English
girl's feet under the stars, and who trembled at her nearness was _pur
sang_, and further than that you cannot go.
Worshipped by his father, idolised by his mother, at the age of ten he
bad been betrothed to the daughter, aged seven, of the Sheik el Banjad.
She was also _pur sang_, and already of looks promising great beauty.
And so he had grown in the warmth of his parents' love, trained in what
we call outdoor sports, but which are life itself to the Arab, until at
fourteen no one could surpass him in running or horsemanship or
spear-throwing, whilst with rifle or revolver he could clip the hair
off the top of a man's head, the which strenuous accomplishments he
balanced in passing his leisure moments in the gentle arts of
verse-making and even music, in spite of the latter being condemned by
religion; also did he learn to converse in foreign tongues. Do not
think that these qualifications were enumerated with the zest and
glorification which usually precede the distribution of dull books at a
prize-giving, for the man might have been talking of the sunshine or
the sand or the flies or any other part of that which goes to the
making up of Egypt, rather than that which had helped to make him the
finest man in the country.
And yet another trait which he touched upon lightly, and which had
served to make him the subject of comment in the bazaars, and of gossip
in the harems.
In regard to his womenfolk there is no man sterner the world over than
the Mohammedan, shielding them from harm, and insisting on the absolute
privacy of their lives and their bodies. Upon just this subject, from
the first day of his understanding, Hahmed the Arab was stern to
fanaticism, intolerant even to injustice. He disapproved of licence in
all things, but especially in speech, food, and religion. When forced
by circumstances, he went to the feasts to which he was invited, eating
sparingly as was his wont, taking no more interest in the more or less
clothed dancing women than in a set of performing dogs, departing
thankfully when the hour came.
Let me recount, in his own words, the happenings of his youth, which
served to change the whole tenor of his life, and was to culminate in
the high adventure of an English girl.
"At the age of fourteen I was to marry and was content, for the desires
of my own woman had come upon me, and I longed to possess the beauty of
which my mother told me, and which, save for her father, had been seen
by no man.
"My own woman I desired, I say, for bought women were not for me, and I
had refrained therefrom, therefore was I unsoiled at the time of my
wedding.
"True my marriage had naught to do with my horoscope cast at birth, for
it had been read that water would bring me joy, and water would bring
me grief, and that water again would bring me everlasting happiness, so
I thought with others that it had lied, and was amazed.
"But behold, when after great festival and feasting my bride was in the
care of her handmaidens who prepared her for my coming, one came, and
casting herself at my feet, covered her head in dust, begging a word
with me.
"It seemed she was a master in the art of tinting the fingers the pink
which we Arabs love.
"I thought she had a boon to crave so listened to her, but when she
told her news I took her by the throat to strangle her, but in choking
breath she vowed the great vow, therefore I listened again, and though
I were like to die of shame I took counsel with her, asking her the
price of her information, whereupon she merely muttered 'revenge,' and
showed her breast which was a festering sore caused by the boiling
water which her mistress had flung upon her when the scissors had
proved over sharp.
"Whereupon I withdrew the handmaidens from the beautiful Zuleikha with
the exception of one, cross-bred of French and Tunisian, who, though of
passing beauty, scorned all men, it seemed, and passed her days in
waiting upon the whims of her mistress, and tending to the beauties of
her body.
"I know not how far the women of the West are versed in the knowledge
of evil, therefore will I speak in words that are veiled. Be it that
I--I, Hahmed, the son of my great father, demeaned myself to spy
between the perfumed curtains of my bride's chamber, to witness the
passionate farewells of the two beautiful women. Allah! That such
things should be. Tears streamed down the cheeks of she who was to
share my couch, as the slave, the unclean half-caste, beat her breast
in her despair, and letting loose the strands of thick black hair which
covered her to the knees, knotted it around until it covered, as a
mantle, the body of she who had been anointed for my pleasure.
"And then I tore down the curtains and strode in upon them, bound one
to another in their disgrace, and clapping my hands brought eight women
as witnesses to my shame. And still bound with the thongs of hair I
threw the sinners naked across my horse, and made my way to the woman's
house, and before a great assembly, for behold, the guests had not yet
departed, I flung them at the feet of the woman's father, and calling
my witnesses spake my tale. And when I had finished, the wailing of
grief was heard in the land. And then they were unbound and brought
before me, and the half-caste mocked me. Me! Until I took her hair
within my hands and twisting it about her neck, stopped her speech for
ever, and when she fell dead, Zuleika my wife, Allah! hear me, my wife!
screamed in terror, for I ordered my slaves to seize her. And then the
Sheik el Banjad, her father, pronounced judgment, quoting from the
Koran as is written in the second verse of the 24th Sura.
"'Shall you scourge with a hundred stripes, and let not compassion
towards them prevent you from executing the judgment of God, if ye
believe in God, and the last day.'
"And to the scourging was added the punishment of death, for behold,
the Moslem law is less lenient than the Holy Book, also of such a case
is it not written in the Koran. And Zuleika, my wife, was bound naked
to a pillar and scourged with a hundred stripes. And the city in which
had taken place the marriage, and in which both her father and my
father had great property being built upon flat ground, there was,
therefore, no height from which to throw her, neither well in which to
fling her without fear of polluting the water, for time, alas, is
making us softer towards misdeeds, so that such places of punishment
are disappearing quickly."
Hahmed the Arab stopped short as with a little rustling sound Jill
raised herself to her knees, her hair sweeping to the satin cushion,
her hands stretched before her face as though to blind her eyes to the
word-picture which the man was painting in a perfectly indifferent
voice.
"How awful! How awful!" she whispered. "Surely, surely you never let
them _kill_ her!"
For a moment the Arab sat silent, as he forced his mind to an
understanding of the Western outlook upon what to him was so simple a
matter.
"But she was unchaste, woman, therefore there was nothing else to do!"
And at the tone of finality in the gentle voice, Jill sat back on her
heels and said, "And then?" and listened without interrupting until the
tale was done.
"So," continued Hahmed, "she was taken screaming to a public spot and
there buried to her waist, and after that her mother had thrown the
first stone, was put to death by men and women who, following the
edicts of the Moslem law, meted out death by stoning to the unchaste.
And from that day I fled my country and my home. East and West I
travelled, passing many moons in England, hence it is that I can
converse with you in your own language.
"There are many good things in your country and there are some bad, the
greatest of the latter, to an Eastern mind, being the freedom of the
women, who, even in their youth, go half-naked to the festival, so that
all men, yea, even to the slaves who serve at table, may cast their eye
of desire upon wife, or wife to be, taking from the husband the
privilege of possessing all the beauty of the woman for himself. Also
did I see the women of the West go down to the salt waters to bathe.
Naked were they save for a covering which clung as closely as the skin
to a peach, so that if I had had a mind I could have discoursed upon
the comeliness of the wife of el Jones, or the poor land belonging to
el Smith. Allah! I remember well a bride-to-be of seventeen summers,
comely in her outer raiment, displaying to her future husband, without
hesitation, the poor harvest of which he would shortly be the reaper,
for I think that the majority of the women of the West strive not to
render themselves beautiful, develop not the portion of the body which
maybe lacks contour from birth, bathes not her body in perfumed waters,
feeds not her skin with delicious unguents, cares not if her hair
reaches in wisps to her shoulders, or falls below her waist as a
natural covering under which she may hide at the approach of her
master, neither does she daily perfume it, nor her hands, nor her feet,
nor any part of her."
Once again Jill snapped the story thread, but this time with laughter,
for her mind's eye, aided by her companion's scathing comments, had
called up picture after picture of friends and acquaintances who, at
balls, theatres, or by the sea, had draped themselves or not according
to what they imagined to be their menfolk's outlook upon life.
"How funny!" she laughed, "how too funny!" And added: "And then?" as
she lit another cigarette which she did not smoke.
"For many years," continued Hahmed, "I wandered, even unto Asia and to
America. In truth whilst there the desert suddenly called me. My body
craved for the sun, my eyes for the great distances of the sand, my
ears for the familiar sounds of the East.
"But I could not return to the place of my shame, likewise were my
parents dead, leaving me an equal part of their great wealth.
"So I went to other parts and bought 'the flat oasis' as it is called,
on account of the many miles of perfectly flat sand surrounding it,
absolutely unbroken by rock or bush or sand-dune. And perforce because
I needed it not I acquired wealth, and yet more wealth, buying villages
and great tracts of ground, breeding and selling camels and horses,
diverting myself with my hawks, hunting with my cheetahs, or
greyhounds, to occupy my time, heaping up the jewels in my bank at
Cairo, keeping the best of everything for my wife, the woman predicted
in my horoscope, for there can be no real happiness without a perfect
helpmate, and real happiness has been promised me.
"And all these things I have done for her, yet am I looked upon as mad
by many in that at twenty-eight years I have not begotten me a son, for
they could not understand the disgust which had taken root in my whole
being, so that in love or passion or desire I laid not hands upon women.
"You cannot understand, woman of the West, what it means when I say
this to you, for in the East a man's greatest desire is to propagate
his race, to have sons, many sons, with a daughter or two, or more as
Allah wills, and to satisfy this longing in the shadow of the law,
Allah, who is God, in His all-powerful goodness and bounty has allowed
us as many as four wives, and as many women slaves or concubines as a
man can properly and with decency provide for, the children of the
latter, if recognised by the father, sharing equally with the offspring
of the former. Though why a man who has found his love should wish to
cumber his house with other women, seething with jealousy and peevish
from want of occupation, is beyond my power of comprehension.
"So I have none, because it is within me to love one woman only, and to
find the light of my life in her and the children of her loins, and if
Allah in his wisdom sees not good to grant me this woman, who must come
to me of her own free-will and love, then will I go to my grave in
Allah's time without wife, without child, although the Koran sayeth
that he who fails in his duty towards his race is accursed among men."
And behold, a great trembling fell upon the English girl, as rising to
her feet she stood to look out upon the desert, and drawing the glory
of her hair about her so that she was covered from the gaze of the man
who stood apart, passed into her tent.
And the hour of prayer being at hand the man purified himself, and
turning towards Mecca praised his God, and divesting himself of his
outer raiment laid himself across the entrance of the woman's tent so
as to guard her through her sleep, until such time that Allah, who is
God, should open the entrance of her chamber unto him, and place the
delights thereof into his hands for ever.