Chapter 35 - The Boy Slaves by Mayne Reid
OUR ADVENTURERS IN UNDRESS
Our adventurers made their approach to the douar,—for such is the title of an Arab encampment,—with as much unwillingness as Sailor Bill had done but an hour before. Equally sans cérémonie, or even with less ceremony, did they enter among the tents, and certainly in a less becoming costume,—since all three were stark naked with the exception of their shirts.
This was the only article of clothing their captors had left upon their backs; and so far as comfort was concerned, they would have been as well without it: for there was not a thread of the striped cotton that was not saturated with sea-water.
It was a wonder that even these scanty garments were not taken from them; considering the eagerness with which they had been divested of everything else.
On the instant after being laid hold of, they had been stripped with as much rapidity, as if their bodies were about to be submitted to some ignominious chastisement. But they knew it was not that—only a desire on the part of their captors to obtain possession of their clothes—every article of which became the subject of a separate contention, and more than one leading to a dispute that was near terminating in a contest between two scimitars.
In this way their jackets and dreadnought trowsers—their caps and shoes—their dirks, belts, and pocket paraphernalia—were distributed among nearly as many claimants as there were pieces.
You may suppose that modesty interfered to reserve to them their shirts? Such a supposition would be altogether erroneous. There is no such word in the Bedouin vocabulary—no such feeling in the Bedouin breast.
In the douar to which they were conducted were lads as old as they, and lasses too, without the semblance of clothing upon their nude bodies; not even a shirt,—not even the orientally famed fig-leaf!
The reason of their being allowed to retain their homely garments had nothing to do with any sentiment of delicacy. For the favor,—if such it could be called,—they were simply indebted to the avarice of the old sheik, who, having recovered from the stunning effects of his tumble, claimed all three as his captives, and their shirts along with them!
His claim as to their persons was not disputed; they were his by Saäran custom. So, too, would their clothing, had his capture been complete; but as there was a question about this, a distribution of the garments had been demanded and acceded to.
The sheik, however, would not agree to giving up the shirts; loudly declaring that they belonged to the skin; and after some discussion on this moot point, his claim was allowed; and our adventurers were spared the shame of entering the Arab encampment in puris naturalibus.
In their shirts did they once more stand face to face with Sailor Bill, not a bit better clad than they: for though the old man-o'-war's-man was still "anchored" by the marquee of the black sheik, his "toggery" had long before been distributed throughout the douar; and scarce a tent but contained some portion of his "belongings."
His youthful comrades saw, but were not permitted to approach him. They were the undisputed property of the rival chieftain,—to whose tent they were taken; but not until they had "run a muck" among the women and children, very similar to that which Bill had to submit to himself. It terminated in a similar manner: that is, by their owner taking them under his protection,—not from any motives of humanity, but simply to save his property from receiving damage at the hands of the incarnate female furies, who seemed to take delight in maltreating them!
The old sheik, after allowing his fair followers, with their juvenile neophites, for some length of time to indulge in their customary mode of saluting strange captives, withdrew the latter beyond the reach of persecution, to a place assigned them under the shadow of his tent. There, with a sinewy Arab standing over them,—though as often squatted beside them,—they were permitted to pass the remainder of the night, if not in sleep at least in a state of tranquillity.