第32章

THE WATCHWORD OF THE MAHDI

Early the next day Israel set his face homeward, with this old word of the new prophet for his guide and motto: "Exact no more than is just;do violence to no man; accuse none falsely; part with your riches and give to the poor." That was all the answer he got out of his journey, and if any man had come to him in Tetuan with no newer story, it must have been an idle and a foolish errand; but after El Kasar, after Wazzan, after Mequinez, and now after Fez, it seemed to be the sum of all wisdom."I'll do it," he said; "at all risks and all costs, I'll do it."And, as a prelude to that change in his way of life which he meant to bring to pass he sent his men and mules ahead of him, emptied his pockets of all that he should not need on his journey, and prepared to return to his own country on foot and alone.

The men had first gaped in amazement, and then laughed in derision;and finally they had gone their ways by themselves, telling all who encountered them that the Sultan at Fez had stripped their master of everything, and that he was coming behind them penniless.

But, knowing nothing of this graceless service.Israel began his homeward journey with a happy heart.He had less than thirty dollars in his waistband of the more than three hundred with which he had set out from Tetuan; he was a hundred and fifty miles from that town, or five long days' travel; the sun was still hot, and he must walk in the daytime.Surely the Lord would see it that never before had any man done so much to wipe out God's displeasure as he was now doing and yet would do.He had said nothing of Naomi to the Mahdi even when he told him of his vision; but all his hopes had centred in the child.

The lot of the sin-offering must be gone from her now, and in the resurrection he would meet her without shame.If he had brought fruits meet to repentance, then must her debt also be wiped away.

Surely never before had any child been so smitten of God, and never had any father of an afflicted child bought God's mercy at so dear a price!

Such were the thoughts that Israel cherished secretly, though he dared not to utter them, lest he should seem to be bribing God out of his love of the child.And thus if his heart was glad as he turned towards home, it was proud also, and if it was grateful it was also vain; but vanity and pride were both smitten out of it in an hour, before he went through the gates of Fez (wherein he had slept the night preceding), by three sights which, though stern and pitiful, were of no uncommon occurrence in that town and province.

First, it chanced that as he was passing from the south-east of the new town of Fez to the gate that is at the north-west corner, going by the high walls of the Sultan's hareem, where there is room for a thousand women, and near to the Karueein mosque that is the greatest in Morocco and rests on eight hundred pillars, he came upon two slaveholders selling twelve or fourteen slaves.

The slaves were all girls, and all black, and of varying ages, ranging from ten years to about thirty.They had lately arrived in caravans from the Soudan, by way of Tafilet and the Wargha, and some of them looked worn from the desert passage.Others were fresh and cheerful, and such as had claims to negro beauty were adorned, after their doubtful fashion, or the fancy of their masters, with love-charms of silver worn about their necks, with their fingers pricked out with hennah, and their eyelids darkened with kohl.

Thus they were drawn up in a line for public auction;but before the sale of them could begin among the buyers that had gathered about them in the street, the overseers of the Sultan's hareem had to come and make a selection for their master.This the eunuchs presently did, and when two of them nicknamed Areefahs--gaunt and hairless men, with the faces of evil old women and the hoarse voices of ravens--had picked out three fat black maidens, the business of the auction began by the sale of a negro girl of seventeen who was brought out from the rest and passed around.

"Now, brothers," said the slave-master, "look see; sound of wind and limb--how much?""Eighty dollars," said a voice from the crowd.

"Eighty? Well, eighty to start with.Look at her--rosy lips, fit for the kisses of a king, eh? How much?""A hundred dollars."

"A hundred dollars offered; only a hundred.It's giving the girl away.

Look at her teeth, brothers, white and sound."The slave-master thrust his thumb into the girl's mouth and walked her round the crowd again.

"Breath like new-mown hay, brothers.Now's the chance for true believers.

How much?"

"A hundred and ten."

"A hundred and ten--thanks, Sidi! A hundred and ten for this jewel of a girl.Dirt cheap yet, brothers.Try her muscles.

Look at her flesh.Not a flaw anywhere.Pass her round, test her, try her, talk to her--she speaks good Arabic.Isn't she fit for a Sultan?

She's the best thing I'll offer to-day, and by the Prophet, if you are not quick I'll keep her for myself.Now, for the third and last time--seventeen years of age, sound, strong, plump, sweet, and intact--how much?"Israel's blood tingled to see how the bidders handled the girl, and to hear what shameless questions they asked of her, and with a long sigh he was turning away from the crowd, when another man came up to it.The man was black and old and hard-featured, and visibly poor in his torn white selham.

But when he had looked over the heads of those in front of him, he made a great shout of anguish, and, parting the people, pushed his way to the girl's side, and opened his arms to her, and she fell into them with a cry of joy and pain together.

It turned out that he was a liberated slave, who, ten years before, had been brought from the Soos through the country of Sidi Hosain ben Hashem, having been torn away from his wife, who was since dead, and from his only child, who thus strangely rejoined him.This story he told, in broken Arabic; to those that stood around, and, hard as were the faces of the bidders, and brutal as was their trade; there was not an eye among them all but was melted at his story.