Our adventurers made their approach to the _douar_, for such is the
title of an Arab encampment, with as much unwillingness as Sailor Bill
had done. Equally _sans ceremonie_, or even with less ceremony, did
they enter among the tents, and certainly in a less becoming costume:
since all three were stark naked, with the exception of their shirts.
This was the only article of clothing their captors had left upon their
backs; and so far as comfort was concerned, they would have been as well
without it: for there was not a thread of the striped cotton that was
not saturated with sea water.
It was a wonder that even these scanty garments were not taken from
them; considering the eagerness with which they had been divested of
everything else.
On the instant after being laid hold of, they had been stripped with as
much rapidity as if their bodies were about to be submitted to some
ignominious chastisement. But they knew it was not that, only a desire
on the part of their captors to obtain possession of their clothes,
every article of which became the subject of a separate contention, and
more than one leading to a dispute that was near terminating in a
contest between two scimitars.
In this way their jackets and dreadnought trousers, their caps and
shoes, their dirks, belts, and pocket paraphernalia, were distributed
among nearly as many claimants as there were pieces.
You may suppose that modesty interfered to reserve to them their shirts?
Such a supposition would be altogether erroneous. There is no such
word in the Bedouin vocabulary, no such feeling in the Bedouin breast.
In the _douar_ to which they were conducted were lads as old as they,
and lasses too, without the semblance of clothing upon their nude
bodies; not even a shirt, not even the orientally famed fig-leaf!
The reason of their being allowed to retain their homely garments had
nothing to do with any sentiment of delicacy. For the favour, if such
it could be called, they were simply indebted to the avarice of the old
sheik, who, having recovered from the stunning effects of his tumble,
claimed all three as his captives, and their shirts along with them.
His claim as to their persons was not disputed; they were his by Saaran
custom. So, too, would their clothing, had his capture been complete;
but as there was a question about this, a distribution of the garments
had been demanded and acceded to.
The sheik, however, would not agree to giving up the shirts; loudly
declaring that they belonged to the skin; and after some discussion on
this moot point, his claim was allowed; and our adventurers were spared
the shame of entering the Arab encampment in _puris naturalibus_.
In their shirts did they once more stand face to face with Sailor Bill,
not a bit better clad than they; for though the old man-o'-war's-man was
still "anchored" by the marquee of the black sheik, his "toggery" had
long before been distributed throughout the _douar_; and scarce a tent
but contained some portion of his belongings.
His youthful comrades saw, but were not permitted to approach him. They
were the undisputed property of the rival chieftain, to whose tent they
were taken; but not until they had "run a muck" among the women and
children, very similar to that which Bill had to submit to himself. It
terminated in a similar manner: that is, by their owner taking them
under his protection, not from any motives of humanity, but simply to
save his property from receiving damage at the hands of the incarnate
female furies, who seemed to take delight in maltreating them.
The old sheik, after allowing his fair followers, with their juvenile
neophytes, for some length of time to indulge in their customary mode of
saluting strange captives, withdrew the latter beyond the reach of
persecution, to a place assigned them under the shadow of his tent.
There, with a sinewy Arab standing over them, though as often squatted
beside them, they were permitted to pass the remainder of the night, if
not in sleep, at least in a state of tranquillity.