"_Arraôu, arraôu_."
I roused myself vaguely from the half sleep to which I had finally
succumbed. I half opened my eyes. Immediately I flattened back.
"_Arraôu_."
Two feet from my face was the muzzle of King Hiram, yellow with a
tracery of black. The leopard was helping me to wake up; otherwise he
took little interest, for he yawned; his dark red jaws, beautiful
gleaming white fangs, opened and closed lazily.
At the same moment I heard a burst of laughter.
It was little Tanit-Zerga. She was crouching on a cushion near the
divan where I was stretched out, curiously watching my close interview
with the leopard.
"King Hiram was bored," she felt obliged to explain to me. "I brought
him."
"How nice," I growled. "Only tell me, could he not have gone somewhere
else to be amused?"
"He is all alone now," said the girl. "_They_ have sent him away. He
made too much noise when he played."
These words recalled me to the events of the previous evening.
"If you like, I will make him go away," said Tanit-Zerga.
"No, let him alone."
I looked at the leopard with sympathy. Our common misfortune brought
us together.
I even caressed his rounded forehead. King Hiram showed his
contentment by stretching out at full length and uncurling his great
amber claws. The mat on the floor had much to suffer.
"Galé is here, too," said the little girl.
"Galé! Who may he be?"
At the same time, I saw on Tanit-Zerga's knees a strange animal,
about the size of a big cat, with flat ears, and a long muzzle. Its
pale gray fur was rough.
It was watching me with queer little pink eyes.
"It is my mongoose," explained Tanit-Zerga.
"Come now," I said sharply, "is that all?"
I must have looked so crabbed and ridiculous that Tanit-Zerga began to
laugh. I laughed, too.
"Galé is my friend," she said when she was serious again. "I saved her
life. It was when she was quite little. I will tell you about it some
day. See how good-natured she is."
So saying, she dropped the mongoose on my knees.
"It is very nice of you, Tanit-Zerga," I said, "to come and pay me a
visit." I passed my hand slowly over the animal's back. "What time is
it now?"
"A little after nine. See, the sun is already high. Let me draw the
shade."
The room was in darkness. Galé's eyes grew redder. King Hiram's became
green.
"It is very nice of you," I repeated, pursuing my idea. "I see that
you are free to-day. You never came so early before."
A shade passed over the girl's forehead.
"Yes, I am free," she said, almost bitterly.
I looked at Tanit-Zerga more closely. For the first time I realized
that she was beautiful. Her hair, which she wore falling over her
shoulders, was not so much curly as it was gently waving. Her features
were of remarkable fineness: the nose very straight, a small mouth
with delicate lips, a strong chin. She was not black, but copper
colored. Her slender graceful body had nothing in common with the
disgusting thick sausages which the carefully cared for bodies of the
blacks become.
A large circle of copper made a heavy decoration around her forehead
and hair. She had four bracelets, still heavier, on her wrists and
anklets, and, for clothing, a green silk tunic, slashed in points,
braided with gold. Green, bronze, gold.
"You are a Sonrhaï, Tanit-Zerga?" I asked gently.
She replied with almost ferocious pride:
"I am a Sonrhaï."
"Strange little thing," I thought.
Evidently this was a subject on which Tanit-Zerga did not intend the
conversation to turn. I recalled how, almost painfully, she had
pronounced that "they," when she had told me how they had driven away
King Hiram.
"I am a Sonrhaï," she repeated. "I was born at Gâo, on the Niger, the
ancient Sonrhaï capital. My fathers reigned over the great Mandingue
Empire. You need not scorn me because I am here as a slave."
In a ray of sunlight, Galé, seated on his little haunches, washed his
shining mustaches with his forepaws; and King Hiram, stretched out on
the mat, groaned plaintively in his sleep.
"He is dreaming," said Tanit-Zerga, a finger on her lips.
There was a moment of silence. Then she said:
"You must be hungry. And I do not think that you will want to eat with
the others."