The morning meal was eaten as soon as prepared. Its scantiness
surprised our adventurers. Even the more distinguished individuals of
the horde partook of only a very small quantity of milk, or sangleh.
The two sheiks alone got anything like what might have been deemed an
ordinary breakfast; while the more common class, as the half-breeds,
_hassanes_; and the negro slaves had to content themselves with less
than a pint of sour milk to each, half of which was water, the mixture
denominated _cheni_.
Could this meal be meant for breakfast? Harry Blount and Terence
thought not. But Colin corrected them, by alleging that it was. He had
read of the wonderful abstemiousness of these children of the desert;
how they can live on a single meal a day, and this scarce sufficient to
sustain life in a child of six years old; that is, an English child.
Often will they go for several successive days without eating; and when
they do eat regularly, a drink of milk is all they require to satisfy
hunger.
Colin was right. It was their ordinary breakfast. He might have added,
their dinner too; for they would not likely obtain another morsel of
food before sundown.
But where was the breakfast of Colin and his fellow-captives? This was
the question that interested them far more than the dietary of the
Bedouins. They were all hungering like hyenas, and yet no one seemed to
think of them, no one offered them either bite or sup. Filthy as was
the mess made by the Arab women, and filthily as they prepared it,
boiling it in pots, and serving it up in wooden dishes, that did not
appear to have had a washing for weeks, the sight of it increased the
hungry cravings of the captives; and they would fain have been permitted
to share the scanty _dejeuner_.
They made signs of their desire; piteous appeals for food, by looks and
gestures, but all in vain; not a morsel was bestowed on them. Their
brutal captors only laughed at them, as though they intended that all
four should go without eating.
It soon became clear that they were not to starve in idleness. As soon
as they had been started to their feet each of them was set to a task;
one to collect camel's dung for the cooking-fires; another to fetch
water from the brackish muddy pool which had caused the oasis to become
a place of encampment; while the third was called upon to assist in the
loading of the tent equipage, along with the salvage of the wreck, an
operation entered upon as soon as the sangleh had been swallowed.
Sailor Bill, in a different part of the _douar_, was kept equally upon
the alert; and if he, or any of the other three, showed signs of
disliking their respective tasks, one of the two sheiks made little ado
about striking them with a leathern strap, a knotty stick, or any weapon
that chanced to come readiest to hand. They soon discovered that they
were under the government of taskmasters not to be trifled with, and
that resistance or remonstrance would be alike futile. In short, they
saw that they were slaves!
While packing the tents, and otherwise preparing for the march, they
were witnesses to many customs, curious as new to them. The odd
equipages of the animals, both those of burden and those intended to be
ridden; the oval panniers, placed upon the backs of the camels, to carry
the women and the younger children; the square pads upon the humps of
the maherries; the tawny little piccaninnies strapped upon the backs of
their mothers; the kneeling of the camels to receive their loads, as if
consenting to what could not be otherwise than disagreeable to them,
were all sights that might have greatly interested our adventurers, had
they been viewing them under different circumstances.
Out of the last mentioned of these sights, an incident arose,
illustrating the craft of their captors in the management of their
domestic animals.
A refractory camel, that, according to usual habit, had voluntarily
humiliated itself to receive its load, after this had been packed upon
it, refused to rise to its feet. The beast either deemed the burden
inequable and unjust (for the Arabian camel, like the Peruvian llama,
has a very acute perception of fair play in this respect) or a fit of
caprice had entered its mulish head. For one reason or another it
exhibited a stern determination not to oblige its owner by rising to its
feet; but continued its genuflexion in spite of every effort to get it
on all-fours.
Coaxing and cajolery were tried to no purpose. Kicking by sandalled
feet, scourging with whips, and beating with cudgels produced no better
effect; and to all appearance the obstinate brute had made up its mind
to remain in the oasis, and let the tribe depart without it.
At this crisis an ingenious method of making the camel change its mind
suggested itself to its master; or perhaps he had practised it on some
former occasion. Maddened by the obstinacy of the animal, he seized
hold of an old burnouse, and rushing up, threw it over its head. Then
drawing the rag tightly around its snout, he fastened it in such a
manner as completely to stop up the nostrils.
The camel, finding its breathing thus suddenly interrupted, became
terrified; and without further loss of time, scrambled to its feet; to
the great amusement of the women and children who were spectators of the
scene.