Those days of burning heat were full of horrors. Treated with scant
humanity, we were half starved, allowed only sufficient water to slake
our thirst once a day, and beaten mercilessly with thongs of rhinoceros
hide whenever one, more faint and weary than the rest, lagged behind.
Eastward we travelled for six days, until, at the well of Lassera Dar
Abd-er-Rahman, we were sold for two small bags of gold to some nomad
Dasas encamped there. The Tuaregs dare not enter a town in the Eastern
Soudan, although, in the West, they are universally dreaded on account
of their depredations; therefore they always sell their captives to
other slavers, who dispose of their human wares at the nearest trade
centre. Hence, by our new masters we were conveyed to Dara, a town one
day's journey south of El Fasher, placed in the slave market, and, after
considerable haggling, disposed of.
My new master was a well-dressed, keen-eyed, wizen-faced old Arab of the
tribe known as Jalin, who, after inspecting me and looking into my mouth
as he would a horse, handed payment with ill grace to the black-faced
scoundrel who sold me, and ordered me to follow him. Together we passed
out of the busy, bustling crowd, when he addressed me, asking my name.
"Art thou an Arab from the North?" he exclaimed in surprise, when I had
told him who I was, and the place of my birth. "How earnest thou
hither?"
"I fell into the hands of the Tuaregs, upon whom may the curse of Eblis
rest!" I answered, hesitating to inform him at present that I was a
Dervish.
As we walked to the city gate, where he said his camels were tethered,
he told me his name was Shazan, and, judge my extreme satisfaction when
he added that he was about to return to Omdurman, where he lived
opposite the Beit-el-Amana. Hence, my stroke of ill-fortune turned out
advantageous, for within a week I found myself once again within the
great walls of the Khalifa's stronghold. Then my new master having
treated me harshly, I resolved at last that he should suffer, therefore
I applied to the Kaid for release from slavery, on the ground that I was
a member of the Ansar of the Khalifa. Old Shazan, amazed that his
latest purchase should turn out to be one of his great ruler's
bodyguard, rated me soundly for not informing him at first, but I
laughed, telling him that I had desired to get to Omdurman, and kept my
own counsel, until such time as it suited me. Knowing that he would
lose the money he had paid for me, the close-fisted old merchant refused
to comply with the order made by the Kaid for my release, but the rumour
of my escape from Kano, coming to the ears of the great Abdullah, the
latter one day sent six of his personal attendants with orders to
release me, and to bring me before him.
The shadows were lengthening in the marble courts of the "Bab," or great
palace of the Mahdi's tyrannical successor, when I was conducted across
the outer square, where brightly-dressed guards were lounging on their
rifles, or playing _damma_ beneath the cool, vine-veiled arches. Never
before had I been permitted to set foot inside the court, although many
times had I passed under the shadow of the Iron Mosque near by, and
gazed with curiosity at the high walls, smeared with red sand, which
encircled the marble courts, gilded pavilions and cool gardens of the
ruler of the Soudan--the ruler whose only idea was self-aggrandisement.
The extent of the palace amazed me, for, even if it was scarcely as
luxurious as the wonderful Fada at Kano, it was assuredly quite as
large. Through one open, sun-lit court after another we passed, until
we were challenged by four of the royal bodyguard with drawn swords, but
a word propitiated them, and a few seconds later I found myself in the
great, marble-built Hall of Audience, in the presence of the stout,
sinister-faced man of middle age and kingly bearing, with black, scraggy
beard, whose name was a power throughout the Soudan. He wore a robe of
bright purple, embroidered with gold, a turban of white silk, and his
fat, brown hands were loaded with rings of enormous value.
Beneath a great baldachin of bright yellow silk, with tassels and
fringes of gold, surmounted by the standard of the Mahdi, the powerful
Abdullah, the ruler before whom all trembled, reclined upon his
luxurious silken divan, fanned by black slaves on either side, while a
negro lad sat at his feet, ready to hand him a pipe, the mouth-piece of
which was studded with diamonds. Around him were grouped his
body-servants, the _mulazimin_, and officers, while near him was Abdel
Gayum, the chief eunuch, his hand resting upon his sword, and Ali Wad
Helu, chief of the Baggara, who had led the ill-fated expedition of
which I had been a member.
Conducted by my guides up to the scarlet mat spread before the
potentate, who thought himself master of the whole world, I fell upon my
knees in obeisance, expressing thanks for my rescue from bondage.
"Let him be seated," the Khalifa ordered, turning to his slaves, and in
an instant cushions were brought, and I sat myself, cross-legged,
awaiting questions to fall from his lips. "What, I wondered, had I done
that I was allowed to sit in the royal presence?"
"So thou art the Arab Zafar-Ben-A'Ziz, the horseman who alone escaped
death at the well of Sabo-n-Gari?" exclaimed the vain, cruel,
quick-tempered man who ruled the Soudan under the guise of Mahdiism.
"I am, O King," I answered, bowing until my forehead touched the carpet.
"Of a verity will I punish those enemies who attacked my Jehadieh," he
cried suddenly, in fiercest rage. "Where be those owls, those oxen of
the oxen, those beggars, those cut-off ones, those aliens, those Sons of
Flight? Withered be their hands! palsied be their fingers! the foul
moustachioed fellows! basest of the Arabs who ever hammered tent-peg!
sneaking cats! goats of Al-Akhfash! Truly will I torture them with the
torture of oil, the mines of infamy, the cold of countenance! By Allah,
and by Allah, and by Allah, we will crush those sons of Ach Chaitan like
snakes, and throw their bodies to the dogs!" Then, turning to me in
calmer mood, the autocrat of the Soudan exclaimed, "Some of thine
adventures have already reached mine ear, and I would hear from thine
own lips how thou didst escape and how farest thou in the Fada of
'Othman of Sokoto. Let not thy tongue hurry, but relate carefully in
thine own words what things occurred to thee."
"Thy servant is honoured, O Ruler of our Empire," I answered. "Under
thy Raya Zerga did I go forth, but returned hither as the slave of the
merchant Shazan--"
"Already have we full knowledge of that," the tyrannical monarch
interrupted, and turning to one of his officers he added, with an
imperious wave of his fat hand, "Let the merchant Shazan, the dog of a
Jalin, receive fifty strokes with the bastinado and be fined two bags of
gold for purchasing a slave belonging to his Sultan."
Then, as the official hastened out lo do his capricious master's
bidding, the Khalifa turned towards me, his thick red lips parted in a
smile, lolling back lazily on his divan as he exclaimed,--
"Continue thy story. Our ears are open for information regarding the
city of 'Othman, therefore describe in detail all that thou knowest."
Briefly I related how we had been attacked at night by the Tuaregs, how
my comrades had been slaughtered fighting till the last, and how I awoke
to find myself within the palace of the Sultan 'Othman, when suddenly
the injunction contained in the anonymous letter recurred to me: "Keep
the seal of silence ever upon thy lips." Therefore I deemed it
expedient to omit from my narrative all reference to Azala, making it
appear that I had been rescued by a kind-hearted soldier of the palace
guard. I knew that Abdullah delighted in listening to calumnies and
hearing evil spoken of other people, and for half-an-hour entertained
him by describing the situation and aspect of Kano, the dimensions of
the Fada, the horrors of my dungeon, and the personal appearance and
character of the Sultan 'Othman, to which all listened with breathless
attention.
When I had finished he remained silent a moment, as if reflecting, then
raising his head he bestowed a few words of commendation upon me,
concluding by the declaration,--
"Of a verity thou art a faithful and valiant servant. Henceforward thou
shalt be chief of my _mulazimin_, and honoured among men."
I was expressing thanks in flowery speech to the autocrat for this
appointment, which, as chief of his Majesty's body-servants, was a
position of great honour, with substantial emoluments, when suddenly the
silk-robed heralds posted at the entrance to the Hall of Audience
sounded three loud blasts upon their shining _onbeias_. Then, as every
one's attention was directed towards the great horse-shoe arch from
which the curtains of blue silk were ceremoniously drawn aside by black
guards, there entered a tall, commanding figure in gorgeous robe,
attended by a dozen followers less showily dressed, but all armed,
making great show of ostentation. With swaggering gait the stranger
strode up the spacious hall, and as the Khalifa motioned me to rise and
step aside to allow the new-comer to make obeisance in the royal
presence, I was amazed and alarmed to suddenly recognise in him the man
I least desired to meet.
It was Khazneh, the brutal Aga of the Eunuchs at the court of 'Othman,
Sultan of Sokoto.