To describe our dreary journey through the barren unknown desert at
greater detail would serve no purpose. The way lay mainly over a
gigantic plain interspersed by small sand-hills and naked ledges of
rock, speckled with ethel bushes half overwhelmed by sand. For days
there seemed not a breath of air, and the desolate monotony was terribly
exhausting. Now and then we came upon wells with herbage and a few
sebot and talha trees, but the long stretches of sand within sight of
Mount Azben were frightfully fatiguing for man and beast, the ground at
all times being either gravelly, rocky, or strewn with loose pebbles.
Arriving at length at Assiou, a small town in an oasis on that great
arid plateau called the Tahassaza, the centre of an important caravan
trade, my male companions and myself were very soon led into the
market-place, a square open space, and under the arches of the low
whitewashed colonnade we were allowed to lounge and wait. At last we
knew the worst. We were to be sold into slavery!
The place was agog with caravans arriving and departing, and on all
hands men and women, mostly negroes and negresses from the Soudan, were
being sold after long and loud haggling. Many, too, were the silent
bargains effected by pairs of traders standing quiet and immovable in
the middle of the noisy, bustling, pushing crowd, each with a hand under
his neighbour's burnouse, and grasping his arm as if engaged in feeling
the other's pulse. They were making use of the conventional signs,
consisting of certain pressures of the finger and knuckle joints, each
having a recognised value and significance, and by employing them they
were effecting business without attracting the notice of the gaping
onlookers, who would listen and offer their advice.
Among the human wares for disposal were many young Arabs of the
Kel-Tin-Alkoun, the Iguedhadh, and other tribes who were weaker than
their neighbours, together with some comely women, the latter creating
the keenest competition among the dealers. Those who were fat enough to
fulfil the Arab standard of beauty were being sold for large sums, while
the more slim were disposed of to the highest bidder.
Buyers and sellers were squatting together in little groups, sipping
coffee, eating melons, and smoking cigarettes while they gossiped, and
as money passed from hand to hand, husbands were torn for ever from
their wives, and children gazed for the last time upon their parents.
This market of human flesh, which the strenuous efforts of the French
and British Governments have failed to suppress, was indeed revolting,
yet the scenes were not so heartrending as might have been imagined, for
the majority of the women, when they were unveiled for inspection,
evinced pleasure at the prospect of a new lord, while the men, finding
themselves in the hands of their enemies, squatted in melancholy
silence, utterly regardless of their fate.
For me escape was hopeless. Fully a dozen well-to-do Arabs had viewed
me, each being urged by the Sheikh of the Kel-Fade, who acted as showman
and extolled my virtues, to purchase me. He described me as a Moorish
letter-writer, musician, and man of wisdom, but the price he required
appeared quite prohibitive, until a splendidly-dressed Arab, evidently
of the wealthier class, made a close examination of me. In compliance
with his request, I played a tune on the _guenibri_, and after nearly
half an hour's bargaining, I at last saw the Sheikh accept a bag of
gold; and then the man in a _helai_ burnouse and ornamented Ghadamsi
shoes coolly informed me that I must in future consider myself the
property of His Majesty the Sultan of Agadez.
For the moment my delight was unbounded. I was going, after all, to
Agadez! But courage failed me when I recollected that I was a slave,
and that the Crescent of Glorious Wonders had been filched from me and
was utterly lost.
Three weeks after I had been purchased by the agent of the potentate, I
found myself a prisoner in the great irregularly-built Fada, or palace,
of His Majesty Hamed e' Rufay, the mighty Sultan of the Ahir. I was one
of the slaves of Amagay, His Majesty's chief eunuch, my duties being to
burnish the arms of the ever-vigilant guardians of the Sultan's harem,
and, when required, to discourse music for the delectation of the Grand
Vizier Mukhtar, President of the Divan, and his suite. The great
palace, situated on the outskirts of the town though within the walls,
covered an enormous area, and was a kingdom within itself. Like a
fortress enclosed by grim massive walls were beautiful gardens, spacious
courtyards with fountains and cool arcades, and in these sumptuous
buildings there dwelt the officers of state; while, in the inner court,
to which none had access save the eunuchs and the Sultan himself, was
situated the royal harem. Outside the one entrance to this, the most
private portion of the luxurious Fada, was a smaller court devoted to
the eunuchs and their slaves, while the single passage communicating was
closed by three iron doors, at which gigantic negroes fully armed stood
on guard night and day. To obtain admission to the Court of the Eunuchs
no fewer than five gates had to be passed, each with three doors,
whereat stood janissaries--whose lawless and powerful prototypes beside
the Bosphorus are historical--barring with gleaming scimitars the
passage of the would-be adventurer. Each court, with its massive,
frowning walls, was a colony in itself, preserving its own
individuality, its inhabitants never mixing or passing into the
forbidden domains of its neighbours. Thus the great gilded palace was a
prison to its inmates, except the royal princes and the officials of His
Majesty; and the janissaries had no dealings with the eunuchs, nor did
the officials of the Sultan's Great Court of Audience fraternise with
those of His Majesty's private apartments.
This luxurious city within a city, housing nearly seventeen hundred
persons, was magnificent in its proportions, for as one entered court
after court towards the quarters of the women, the appointments grew
richer and more costly, until, in the Hall of the Eunuchs, the ceilings
were of sky-blue with stars of gold, the floors of polished marble, the
walls adorned by delicate frescoes and arabesques, and the slender
columns of rare marble supporting the horse-shoe arches were carved with
exquisite taste and glistened with gold. Indeed, the great palace was a
maze of buildings, courts, gardens, and spacious halls, in which,
however, the autocratic ruler was rarely seen. He mostly spent his time
in his own apartments adjoining the Hall of the Eunuchs, and was only
seen to his scheming and intriguing _entourage_ when seated on the Great
White Divan. Before him every member of the household quaked with fear,
for he was a man whose displeasure meant death, whose smile bestowed
wealth and luxury, whose harsh word brought upon the hapless victim of
his displeasure the bastinado and disgrace, or whose commendation made
him chief among men. He was ruled by harem influence; indeed, the doves
of the gilded prison held in their hands men's lives and fortunes. A
whispered word in the ear of their lord would cause a courtier's head to
fall under the executioner's sword, or a soft caress secure his
appointment to high official position, with fat emoluments. Through
every court, from the fierce guardians of the outer gate to the
innermost quadrangle where beautiful houris lolled among their silken
cushions around a fountain of fragrant perfume, dark plots were
constantly being hatched and carried out. Men and women almost daily
fell victims of the jealousy, hatred, or avarice of their fellows, and
life was indeed insecure in a _menage_ where the unheeded handmaiden of
to-day might be the all-powerful Sultana of to-morrow; where the Grand
Vizier might be decapitated by the negro executioner within an hour, and
the meanest slave of the Fada appointed vizier of the Ahir in his stead;
or where the Pearl of the Harem who had displeased her cruel, fickle
master by some petty shortcoming, might have a silken cord slipped over
her white neck by the brutal Chief of the Eunuchs, die of strangulation,
and her body be given to the vultures without knowledge of her fault.
A remnant of the autocratic sway of Turkey which still holds Tripoli
under its rule, the Sultan was himself "the State." His so-called
ministers were simply the favourites of the hour. Justice was bought
and sold. Every office was directly or indirectly purchased, small
remuneration or none at all being paid, the holders recouping themselves
by plunder and oppression, tempered by the fact that at any moment they
might be forced to disgorge by the Sultan, left to rot in loathsome
dungeons, or be beaten or tortured to death.
Amid these strange surroundings I lived and toiled. By day, in the
little niche in the massive wall of the Court of the Eunuchs that was
assigned to me, I burnished the scimitars, scabbards, knives, and steel
girdles of the custodians of the harem. At night, when the stars shone
above the open court, and the breeze stirred the leaves of the trailing
vines, I would take my _guenibri_ and, in obedience to the order of my
taskmasters, pass into the hall of the Grand Vizier, and while that high
official lounged upon his divan surrounded by his officers, I, with
three other musicians, would squat at the corners of the mat spread
before him, and play accompaniments to the dancing of his female slaves.
To the monotonous thumping of the tom-tom, the mournful note of the
_guenibri_, and the clashing of cymbals, the women barefooted performed
slow Eastern dances, scarcely moving their feet, yet gracefully swaying
their bodies, and whirling scimitars above their heads in a manner that
was marvellous, or with wild abandon they would trip a kind of Spanish
dance with the tambourine.
Week after week, surrounded by the dazzling splendour of the gorgeous
palace, I led a weary life of abject slavery. Ill-treated and cuffed by
the stern black taskmaster whose duty it was to see that I performed the
work allotted to me, I felt many times inclined to regard escape as
utterly hopeless. While on my way to the palace, I caught sight of the
Mesallaje, the principal mosque with its great square minaret, and
though I had still retained Zoraida's letter to Hadj Mohammed ben Ishak,
the chief _imam_, I had no means of presenting it. Nevertheless, buoyed
constantly by expectation, I worked on, seeking as far as possible to
obtain the good graces of my fierce Soudanese slave-master, and never
ceasing in my endeavours to devise some scheme by which I might obtain
freedom.
One evening, when I had been toiling throughout the day burnishing some
accoutrements that were rusty until my arms pained me, my taskmaster
brought information that His Excellency the Grand Vizier would require
no music that night; therefore, remaining in my little den near the gate
of the harem that served as workshop and living-room, I took my ease. I
must have slept, for I was awakened by the stern voice of one of the
eunuchs saying--
"Quick! take this, clean it and return it to me. I will wait."
He handed me a long, keen scimitar, the blade of which was wet with
blood!
It was night. All was quiet. The courts, so full of colour and
animation during the day, were hushed in silence, for the huge palace
seemed asleep. Above, bright points of light shone, but there was no
moon, and the Court of the Eunuchs was in darkness, save where over the
gate of the harem a great swinging lamp of brass shed a yellow uncertain
light upon the tall statuesque guards. Without questioning the man, I
quickly washed his sword, cleaned it with cloths, and re-polished it
with my stone. Then, with muttered thanks, he replaced it in its
scabbard, and, stalking towards the harem, passed through the heavy iron
doors and disappeared.
A bloody drama had been enacted! Another secret tragedy had occurred
within those grim, massive walls that concealed the gorgeous Courts of
Love!
Even as I gazed wonderingly at the great arched doorway through which so
many hundreds of women had passed never to return alive, its iron
portals again opened, and there appeared four black eunuchs, gaily
attired in bright blue and gold, bearing upon a board some long object
covered with a black cloth, from beneath which bright silks and filmy
gauzes showed. Silently they marched onward close to where I stood, and
as they passed, I saw a woman's bare white arm hanging underneath the
sable pall. It swung limp and helpless as the men strode through the
court with their burden, and when they had gone, there remained on the
still night air a subtle breath of attar of rose.
The pretty head of one of the Pearls of the Harem had been struck off by
order of Hamed e' Rufay--the iron will of the great Sultan, Ruler of the
Ahir and Defender of the Faith, had been obeyed!