Part 25 (1/2)
”Not be discovered?” she echoed, and laughed withoutand blind thou art, O Marzak! We should be the first to be suspected
I have made no secret of my hate of hie thy father to do justice even were he himself averse to it, which I will not credit would be the case This Sakr-el-Bahr--may Allah wither hiiven hireeted by the like?
These victories that fortune has vouchsafed him have made them account him divinely favoured and protected I tell thee, Marzak, that did thy father die to-iers in his stead, and woe betide us then And Asad-el-Din grows old True, he does not go forth to fight He clings to life andBut if he should not, and if Sakr-el-Bahr should still walk the earth when thy father's destiny is fulfilled, I dare not think what then will be thy fate and rowled Matzak
”His grave?” said she ”The difficulty is to dig it for hi”
”May he make his bed in hell!” said Marzak
”To curse hi is to be done”
Marzak careyhound ”Listen now,”
he said ”Since I e with hiht opportunity uide ether and bade the slave girl who answered her to summon her wazeer Ayoub, and bid a litter be prepared for her ”We'll to the sok, O Marzak, and see these slaves of his Who knows but that so may be done by th against that otten son of shame”
”May his house be destroyed!” said Marzak
CHAPTER IX COMPEtitORS
The open space before the gates of the sok-el-Abeed was thronged with aswelled by the hu labyrinth of narrow, unpaved streets
There were brown-skinned Berbers in black goat-hair cloaks that were e of red or orange colour on the back, their shaven heads encased in skull-caps or simply bound in a cord of plaited camel-hair; there were black Saharoent almost naked, and stately Arabs who see robes of white with the cowls overshadowing their swarthy, finely featured faces; there were dignified and prosperous-looking Moors in brightly coloured selhams astride of sleek areenes, the banished Moors of Andalusia, most of whom followed the trade of slave-dealers; there were native Jews in sombre black djellabas, and Christian-Jews--so-called because bred in Christian countries, whose garments they still wore; there were Levantine Turks, splendid of dress and arrogant of demeanour, and there were humble Cololies, Kabyles and Biscaries Here a water-seller, laden with his goatskin vessel, tinkled his little bell; there an orange-hawker, balancing a basket of the golden fruit upon his ragged turban, bawled his wares There were men on foot and men on mules, men on donkeys andin the ardent African sunshi+ne under the blue sky where pigeons circled In the shadow of the yellow tapia wall squatted a line of whining beggars and cripples soliciting alates a little space had been cleared and an audience had gathered in a ring about a Meddah--a beggar-troubadour--who, to the accoaitah from two acolytes, chanted a doleful ballad in a thin, nasal voice
Those of the croere patrons of thetheir h which there was no admittance for ular space of bare, dry ground, enclosed by dust-coloured walls, there was un and was not due to begin for another hour, anddone by those ht to set up their booths against the walls; they were vendors of wool, of fruit, of spices, and one or two traded in jewels and trinkets for the adornment of the Faithful
A as sunk in the on with a low parapet in three steps Upon the nethered, bearded Jew in a black djellaba, his head swathed in a coloured kerchief Upon his knees reposed a broad, shallow black box, divided into coe for sale; about hi Moors and one or two Turkish officers, with several of who at once
The whole of the northern as occupied by a long penthouse, its contents completely masked by curtains of camel-hair; from behind it proceeded a subdued murmur of human voices These were the pens in which were confined the slaves to be offered for sale that day Before the curtains, on guard, stood soro slaves
Beyond and above the wall glistened the white dome of a zowia, flanked by a spear-likeleaves hung motionless in the hot air
Suddenly in the crowd beyond the gates there was a commotion From one of the streets six colossal Nubians advanced with shouts of--
”Oak! Oak! Warda! Way! Make way!”
They were arrasped in their two hands, and with these they broke a path through thata shower of curses in return
”Balak! Make way! Way for the Lord Asad-ed-Din, the exalted of Allah!
Way!”
The crowd, pressing back, went down upon its knees and grovelled as Asad-ed-Din on a milk-white mule rode forward, escorted by Tsamanni his wazeer and a cloud of black-robed janissaries with flashi+ng scireeted the violence of his negroes were suddenly silenced; instead, blessings as fervent filled the air