CHAPTER XLV.

The guide whom M. Delange had hired, before fulfilling his engagement with regard to the Almehs, suggested a visit to a slave-merchant. In obedience to the orders of the Khedive, public sales are forbidden by the Governor, and have been so for some years past, but certain houses known to, and tolerated by the police, have ever been and will always be devoted to the exchange or the sale of slaves, new and old. At the door of one of these houses, a sombre-looking building in a dismal, narrow street, the guide stopped, and, after having knocked in a peculiar way, the door was opened.

M. Delange, who was made to pass in first, was shown along a dimly-lighted passage, and emerged into a court-yard surrounded by high walls. The master of the house quickly came out to meet his fresh customers, as he thought. The animal predominated in his countenance, and his eyes were small, with red-rimmed lids, his nose hooked, his lips colourless and thin, his skin yellow, and his beard sparse and reddish. The guide took him aside and whispered a few words in his ear, explaining, doubtless, that he had not brought with him a purchaser, but merely a traveller anxious for information and ready to pay high for a cursory inspection of what was to be seen.

Accustomed to these visits, from which he derived a certain revenue, the man at once proceeded to display his wares. First of all he conducted his visitor towards some mud hovels built against the walls. He opened a door, and about a score of negresses were exposed to view, some half-naked and the remainder clothed in garments of a dirty yellow. Many of them were nursing children, and others, lying here and there, were sleeping, as negroes so well know how to sleep, so soundly that nothing disturbed them. A few laughed carelessly as they saw M. Delange, and showed their white teeth.

"I have something better than this," said the merchant.

For the fun of the thing he had first of all exposed only his inferior brands, commercially speaking. He was now about to display his choice goods.

He led the Doctor to another shed, where several purchasers were already congregated. A slave was at that moment being led up and down before them, just as a horse-dealer trots out the animal he may have for sale. She was a fine, handsome girl, a massive creature, an Abyssinian Roman Catholic, as one of the by-standers informed the Doctor.

The buyers, as soon as she was brought to a standstill, went up to her, opened her mouth to look at her teeth, undid her hair to examine its texture, and slapped her on the back and chest to see if she had any latent defects. Insensible, apparently at all events, to all this, the wretched girl was perfectly mute, and made no sign. After much parleying, further most minute examination, and biddings and counter-biddings, she fell at last to the nod of an Arab of about fifty, as ugly as she was handsome. He threw a veil over her head, and over her shoulders a covering which he had brought with him, and, after having paid over the price, he ordered his new slave to follow him. She obeyed, silent and passive as ever.

"I have something better even than that," said the merchant, trying to squeeze out a smile, which after all was nothing better than a hideous grimace.

M. Delange crossed a court-yard, and went up sundry flights of a worm-eaten staircase. A negro eunuch hastened to open a door, and the doctor found himself in a spacious, lofty apartment, without any windows, but lighted from above.

A dozen girls, draped in voluminous folds of blue, white, and rose-coloured muslin, fastened round their waists, lay reclining on an old circular divan, the only piece of furniture in the room. As soon as they saw their master they stood up altogether, like automatons, and ranged themselves against the wall, in positions which had evidently been assigned to them beforehand.

Then the merchant, followed by his visitor, passed them in review, stopping before each one, and expatiating on her merits. There were specimens there to please all tastes—slim and stout, short and tall, black, copper-coloured, yellow, bronze, and white. There were straight noses and flat, thick lips and mouths exquisitely small, round eyes, almond-shaped, and some with oblique lids, such as are met with in Jara. From an artistic point of view it was a pretty sight, and the oldest of these girls was not yet twenty. Over that age a woman is old in the East; nobody would buy her as a slave, unless indeed she happened to be a good musician, a clever sempstress, or a first-rate cook. Slaves are most valuable when from eleven to fifteen years of age. They are then called _sedassi_, before eleven _commassi_, and from fifteen to twenty _balègues_. After twenty they are, as we say of horses, "aged."

The whole establishment had now been inspected, and M. Delange, slipping a couple of piastres into the merchant's expectant hand, left the place, his heart moved to pity by the sight he had just witnessed.

A company of Almehs, to whom his guide, adhering to his programme, next took him, were destined to modify his impressions considerably. Now-a-days if you wish to see the genuine Almehs, you must visit Khartoum, for they have for some time past been driven out from Upper Egypt. Those whom travellers see at Cairo are simply courtesans, who call themselves Almehs, just as their counterparts in India call themselves bayaderes. The real Almeh or _a'ouâlem_, dates from the times of the Pharaohs, and forms a distinct class. She has been educated to a certain extent, and is frequently a good musician. She never marries, at all events so long as she follows her profession, and is noticeable for her independent bearing. Apart from her profession she forms a part of the _demi-monde_ of her country, and, when very talented, or very lovely, frequently and rapidly becomes rich.

The house to which the faki conducted M. Delange was in a court-yard not far from the slave-merchant's place of business, in a street as narrow and gloomy as his, but more remote from the centre of the town, and opening on to one of the quays of the Blue River.

After some preliminary overtures, for access to an Oriental interior, of whatever kind it may be, is always difficult, M. Delange was allowed to enter a large room where a troupe of Almehs were going through the customary exercises in the presence of about twenty spectators, Arabs mostly, seated on roomy _angarebs_, drinking coffee and smoking chibouks.

In large censers, on copper plates covered in with arabesques, Eastern perfumes were burning, the smoke from which ascended in spiral columns, and mingling with that from the chibouks, created a tolerably dense cloud. In spite of the vapour surrounding him, M. Delange, as he took his seat, thought he could recognize, amongst the spectators, a well-known face or two. He thought for some time, called on his memory to aid him, and soon hit the right nail on the head. The man who had particularly attracted his attention was none other than the chief of the caravan which he and his friends had attacked in the desert of Bahiouda. Three of his men were with him.

These fellows, despoiled of their slaves, and without any object in continuing their journey towards northern Nubia, had thought fit to wend their way to Khartoum, only a few miles distant from the spot where they were released. Unfortunately, if the Doctor had picked them out from amongst their co-religionists and friends, they had, in their turn, with far greater facility recognized the European who had, alone and unexpectedly, made his appearance amongst them. They might, no doubt, have already met in the streets of Khartoum the man who had helped to ruin them and take from them the goodly caravan on which they had built such extravagant expectations, but it would have been imprudent in that case to attack him. Now he was at their mercy; fate, to which all Orientals attribute such unlimited power, had delivered him into their hands. They addressed a silent thanksgiving to the Prophet, and, under their breath, whilst smoking their chibouks, they plotted a terrible revenge.

The Almehs went on with their dancing, accompanying themselves with the _tar_, a species of tambourine, and copper castanets, called in Arabic _saganet_ or _sadjar_. Their plaintive, monotonous chant lulled the senses, and produced a feeling of languor, possessing an indescribable charm. Their dance is varied; the feet play their part, and do not appear rivetted to the floor, as was the case with the bayaderes and the black slaves. It is more active, and has more movement in it, but without in the least degree resembling our European ballets. Certain movements, certain poses, rather recall the Spanish fandango, or would do so if the Almeh had a _vis-à-vis_ of the masculine gender, but they invariably dance with others of their own sex.

When M. Delange entered this sanctuary, they were finishing the sword dance, the sword at times being brandished above their heads and flashing in the light, and sometimes being brought down as if to despatch a fallen foe. After a short interval, they commenced the bee-dance, very celebrated amongst the Turks. To understand this pantomime, somewhat difficult to describe, a too inquisitive bee must be supposed to have lighted on the Almeh, and to defy all her efforts to drive it away. The insect settles at first amongst the gold-entwined locks of the dancer, and on the scarlet velvet _tarbouck_, but, driven from this refuge, it descends, little by little to the neck, arms, and shoulders. The dancer, to get rid of her importunate visitor, divests herself of her veil, her necklace, her bracelets and her rings.

The bee, thus pursued, becomes bolder and more enraged, and hides beneath the richly embroidered bodice. Determined to get rid of her enemy, the Almeh sacrifices this garment also, and it is thrown down on the floor to keep company with the veil and the other ornaments.

And so the pursuit was going on, but M. Delange thought it had gone far enough and retired, considering, and rightly, too, that this species of manifestation in public is entirely devoid of attraction.

He left, therefore, before the end, and without noticing that the gentlemen of the caravan rose at the same time and glided behind him along the wall. When he gained the door of the house, he called out for his guide, looked about for some time in vain, and at last set out alone on his return to his domicile. But, scarcely had he gone a dozen yards along the street, when five or six individuals, starting at once from different hiding-places, sprang out from beneath the shadow of the wall, threw themselves upon him before he had time to defend himself, stopped his mouth with a gag, bound him hand and foot, and carried him off in the direction of the Nile.