There was a remarkable difference between the two men thus claiming
ownership in the body of Old Bill. One was a little weazen-faced
individual, whose yellow complexion and sharp angular features
proclaimed him of the Arab stock; while his competitor showed a skin of
almost ebon blackness, a frame of herculean development, a broad face,
with flat nose and thick lubberly lips, a head of enormous
circumference, surmounted by a mop of woolly hair, standing erect
several inches above his occiput.
Had the sailor been addicted to ethnological speculations, he might have
derived an interesting lesson from that contest, of which he was the
cause. It might have helped him to a knowledge of the geography of the
country in which he had been cast, for he was now upon that neutral
territory where the true Ethiopian, the son of Ham, occasionally
contests possession, both of the soil and the slave, with the wandering
children of Japhet.
The two men who were thus quarrelling about the possession of the
English tar, though both of African origin, could scarce have been more
unlike had their native countries been the antipodes of each other.
Their object was not so different, though even in this there was a
certain dissimilation. Both designed making the shipwrecked sailor a
slave. But the sheik of Arabs aspects wished to possess him, with a
view to his ultimate ransom. He knew that by carrying him northwards
there would be a chance to dispose of him at a good price, either to the
Jew merchants at Wedinoin, or the European consuls at Mogador. It would
not be the first Saaran castaway he had in this manner restored to his
friends and his country, not from any motives of humanity, but simply
for the profit it produced.
On the other hand, the black competitor had a different, though somewhat
similar, purpose in view. His thoughts extended towards the south.
There lay the emporium of his commerce, the great mud-built town of
Timbuctoo. Little as a white man was esteemed among the Arab merchants
when considered as a mere slave, the sable sheik knew that in the south
of the Saara he would command a price, if only as a curiosity to figure
among the followers of the sultan of some grand interior city. For this
reason, therefore, was the black determined upon the possession of Bill,
and showed as much eagerness to become his owner as did his tawny
competitor.
After several minutes spent in words and gestures of mutual menace,
which, from the wild shouts and flourishing of scimitars, seemed as if
it could only end in a general lopping off of heads, somewhat to the
astonishment of the sailor tranquillity became restored without any one
receiving scratch or cut.
The scimitars were returned to their scabbards; and although the affair
did not appear to be decided, the contest was now carried on in a more
pacific fashion by words. A long argument ensued, in which both sheik
displayed their oratorial powers. Though the sailor could not
understand a word of what was said, he could tell that the little Arab
was urging his ownership, on the plea that the camel which had carried
the captive into the encampment was his property, and on this account
was he entitled to the "waif."
The black seemed altogether to dissent from this doctrine; on his side
pointing to the two heaps of plunder; as much as to say that his share
of the spoils, already obtained, was the smaller one.
At this crisis a third party stepped between the two disputants, a young
fellow, who appeared to have some authority with both. His behaviour
told Bill that he was acting as mediator. Whatever was the proposal
made by him, it appeared to satisfy both parties, as both at once
desisted from their wordy warfare, at the same time that they seemed
preparing to settle the dispute in some other way.
The mode was soon made apparent. A spot of smooth even sand was
selected by the side of the encampment, to which the two sheiks,
followed by their respective parties, repaired.
A square figure was traced out, inside of which several rows of little
round holes were scooped in the sand, and then the rival sheiks sat
down, one on each side of the figure. Each had already provided himself
with a number of pellets of camels' dung, which were now placed in the
holes, and the play of "helga" was now commenced.
Whoever won the game was to become possessed of the single stake, which
was neither more nor less than Sailor Bill.
The game proceeded by the shifting of the dung pellets in a particular
fashion, from hole to hole, somewhat similar to the moving of draughts
upon the squares of a chequer-board.
During the play not a word was spoken by either party, the two sheiks
squatting opposite each other, and making their moves with as much
gravity as a pair of chess-players engaged in some grand tournament of
this intellectual game.
It was only when the affair ended that the noise broke forth again,
which it did in loud triumphant shouts from the conquering party, with
expressions of chagrin on the side of the conquered.
By interpreting these shouts Bill could tell that he had fallen to the
black; and this was soon after placed beyond doubt by the latter coming
up and taking possession of him.
It appeared, however, that there had been certain subsiding conditions
to the play; and that the sailor had been in some way or another staked
against his own clothes, for before being fully appropriated by his
owner he was stripped to his shirt, and his habiliments, shoes and
sou'wester included, were handed over to the sheik who had played
second-best in the game of "helga". In this forlorn condition was the
old sailor conducted to the tent of his sable master, and placed like an
additional piece upon the pile of plunder already apportioned.