THE DOUAR AT DAWN.
They could have slept for hours,--twenty-four of them,--had they been
permitted such indulgence.
But they were not. As the first streaks of daylight became visible over
the eastern horizon, the whole douar was up and doing.
The women and children of both hordes were seen flitting like shadows
among the tents. Some squatted under camels, or kneeling by the sides of
the goats, drew from these animals that lacteal fluid that may be said
to form the staple of their food. Others might be observed emptying the
precious liquid into skin bottles and sacks, and securing it against
spilling in its transport through the deserts.
The matrons of the tribes--hags they looked--were preparing the true
_dejeuner_, consisting of _Sangleh_,--a sort of gruel, made with millet
meal, boiled over a dull fire of camel's dung.
The _Sangleh_ was to be eaten, by such of them as could afford it, mixed
with goats' or camels' milk,--unstrained and hairy,--half curdled into a
crab-like acidity, the moment it entered its stinking receptacle.
Here and there men were seen milking their mares or maherries,--not a
few indulging in the universal beverage by a direct application of their
lips to the teats of the animal; while others, appointed to the task,
were preparing the paraphernalia of the douar, for transportation to
some distant oasis.
Watching these various movements, were the three mids,--still stripped
to their shirts,--and the old man-o'-war's-man, clad with like
scantiness; since the only garment that clung to his sinewy frame was a
pair of cotton drawers neither very clean nor very sound at the seams.
All four shivered in the chill air of the morning; for hot as is the
Saaera under its noonday sun, in the night hours its thermometer
frequently falls almost to the point of freezing!
Their state of discomfort did not hinder them from observing what was
passing around them. They could have slept on; but the discordant noises
of the douar, and a belief that they would not be permitted any longer
to enjoy their interrupted slumbers, hindered them from reclosing their
eyes. Still recumbent, and occasionally exchanging remarks in a low tone
of voice, they noted the customs of their captors.
The young Scotchman had read many books relating to the _prairies_ of
America, and their savage denizens. He was forcibly reminded of these by
what he now saw in this oasis of the sandy Saaera; the women treated like
dogs, or worse,--doing all the work that might be termed labor,--tending
the cattle, cooking the meals, pitching or striking the tents, loading
the animals,--and themselves bearing such portions of the load as
exceeded the transport strength of the tribal quadrupeds,--aided only by
such wretched helots as misfortune had flung in the way of their common
masters. The men, mostly idle,--ludicrously nonchalant,--reclining on
their saddle-pads, or skins, inhaling the narcotic weed, apparently
proud in the possession of that lordship of wretchedness that surrounded
them.
Colin was constrained to compare the savage life of two continents,
separated by an ocean. He came to the conclusion, that under similar
circumstances, mankind will ever be the same. In the Comanche of the
_Llano Estacado_, or the Pawnee of the Platte, he would have found an
exact counterpart of the Ishmaelitish wanderer over the sandy plains of
the Saaera.
He was allowed but scant time to philosophize upon these ethnological
phenomena. As the douar became stirred into general activity, he, along
with his two companions, was rudely started from his attitude of
observation, and ordered to take a share in the toils of the captors.
At an earlier hour, and still more rudely, had Sailor Bill received the
commands of his master; who, as the first rays of the Aurora began to
dapple the horizon, had ordered the old man-o-war's-man to his feet, at
the same time administering to him a cruel kick, that came very near
shivering some of his stern timbers.
Had the black sheik been acquainted with the English language,--as
spoken in Ratcliff Highway,--he would have better understood Sailor
Bill's reply to his rude matutinal salutation; which, along with several
not very complimentary wishes, ended by devoting the "nayger's" eyes to
eternal perdition.