Part 7 (2/2)
But it seemed that all the fuss came about through the Queen of the Desert's objection to the unknown lady on her hack, an objection which was causing her to twist her long neck backwards in the diabolical hope that the loose-lipped mouth in the spite-contorted face might reach something to bite, be it foot or saddle, cloth or skirt.
”O! hateful, impatient descendant of a dissatisfied mother!” suddenly e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the man. ”More foolish than an ostrich, and as poisonous as a scorpion, yet have I to put up with thy whims and fancies because of thy specially formed stomach. I, who long to strike thy repellent face again and again, and dare not, for the fear that thy evil, dwarfed brain, twisted with jealousy, might make thy beautiful rider the object of thy revenge, tearing her limb from limb, and rolling upon her;[1]
but behold! in as much as Allah made thee, yet shalt thou, through thy disobedience and ill-manners of to-day, be put to stud with thy elder brother, who, for a camel, rejoiceth in seeming good manners. Then shalt thou be chastened, and thy milk given to the feeding of horses.”
This harangue might have been a paean of praise for all the change it made in the beautiful Eastern voice, and the girl's low laughter rang out like bells on the night air, as the man explained that the animal was inordinately jealous of all and sundry who, in her sin-laden brain, she feared might do her out of a handful of sugar or bucket of water.
From all time women have revelled in a novel sensation, but never surely so much, or in such a one, as did Jill in hers, as, with peace restored, she pa.s.sed through the gates with her companion, on her way to a life about which she had not allowed herself the slightest a.n.a.lysis.
And a great silence fell on the girl as they left the town, padding noiselessly through the outskirts where no one met them, and no sound was to be heard save for the barking of dogs, and the occasional wail of an infant; for the strangeness of everything had suddenly made her realise that of her own will she was standing on the threshold of a new life, laden--though this the usual narrow outlook and education of the West prevented her from understanding--with a love and pa.s.sion and womanhood which cannot, and never will be, realised in countries where the dominant colour is grey.
Gone was her laughter, and vanished the merry exclamations and remarks, as she began to glean some idea of the width and breadth of the desert which was slowly engulfing her.
Once or twice she had looked behind at the ever-receding town, with the sheen of the fresh water ca.n.a.l becoming fainter and fainter at each step, until it at last vanished into nothingness. And the living silence of the desert seemed to close in upon her, and the canopy of heaven, weighty with stars, to press down upon her, and the snapping and breaking of generations-rooted conventions to deafen her, until like a lost child she suddenly sobbed, and dropping the rein, held out her hands to the man who, although she knew it not, had been watching and waiting for just such an outburst.
For he wors.h.i.+pped the sand and pebbles and rocks and dunes and hills of his adored desert, and knew the effect it sometimes made, even at the paltry distance of a mile or two from some teeming city, upon both male and female denizens of the West, who bloom palely in the heat of a coal-fire, and lift their faces thankfully to the red lozenge which, for eight months of an English year, represents the sun s.h.i.+ning through fog or cloud.
Also must it be confessed that Jill's head was beginning already to swim a little with the sway of the camel, though of nausea she suffered not at all, and it was with a feeling of joy that she felt the animals come to a halt, saw the black one, upon a word of command, get docilely to its knees, heard Howesha grumbling fiercely to the moon as she went through the same gymnastic performance, and felt her own rocking and pitching until it came to the ground. Whereupon she dismounted lightly, and reeled against the man as the entire desert, herself and camels included, turned a complete somersault, after which she meekly sat down on Taffadaln's back and watched proceedings.
The pack-camel lay supinely as its master with strong deft fingers unbound and unknotted the various ropes until everything desired was found.
A rug of many colours was laid at Jill's feet, and cus.h.i.+ons thrown thereon, upon which, with a great sigh of relief, she laid herself down, until something softly crawling round her neck brought her to her feet shaking with disgust.
”It is doubtlessly a sand-spider,” explained the man. ”They are perfectly harmless and to be found everywhere, and are even welcomed in some houses as they help to reduce the plague of flies from which we have suffered, with other things, since the time of Pharaoh. I am so sorry, but insects are a nuisance we have totally failed to conquer, though in your house, believe me, there will be none, not even the smallest.”
Upon which a.s.surance Jill sat down, took off her hat, arranged her hair in a pocket mirror, flicked a shadow of powder upon her nose, and settled down to watch and wait.
The man's agile fingers arranged some charcoal, which he lighted quickly in some desert fas.h.i.+on inside a square of four bricks, over which he placed a bra.s.s tripod.
There was a gurgling sound as water ran from a skin into a bra.s.s pot which hung from a hook on the tripod, and in a few minutes the water began to bubble furiously, as the fire, leaping and falling, cast giant shadows on the Arab's flowing robes.
Small boxes were opened, and the contents laid on plates: sandwiches, cakes, sweetmeats, fruit, and wine, red and white, in skins, poured into empty earthen-ware jugs in which to cool it. Small cups of Egyptian coffee, a ”Cona Machine” for the Western idea of coffee, and a box of cigarettes.
”If I had known you would be a-hungered, I would have brought the wherewithal to make a repast of substance!”
”Oh, but it is all so topping!” cried the girl, and then stopped.
The slang words had suddenly struck her as foolish and silly, and out of place in a country where the syllables of words sound sonorously, and time pa.s.ses like a slow moving river with its banks unchoked with ”hustle weeds.” And from that day, or rather night, Jill gave up slang, and one by one all the little dreary habits which rub the bloom off the Western maid.
[1]To revenge the lash or whip camels have been known even after a lapse of months to seize their victim, tearing and trampling him to pieces, and then with infinite relish proceed to roll time and again upon the remains.
CHAPTER XV
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