Chapter 7
A Woman's Hand
Fardji, Abu-Anga's Chief Eunuch, took possession of the new slave. The said Fardji was a Copt, yellow and ample in proportions, very tall and very fat. He was perfectly bald, for every morning it was his custom with orpiment to depilate minutely chin, and skull and everything. His voice was treble, like a child's, and kept always to the same note, sometimes imperious, sometimes merely shrill. He always affected an air of calm dignity and mastery tempered by moderation, that became his important office.
He now laid a hand on Grace's shoulder and bade her follow him to his master's harem. The girl looked at him without a word of reply, given up entirely to the satisfaction of eating, of appeasing at last the terrible hunger that had made her suffer such torments. She went off after Fardji, still holding fast to the cake, which she was eagerly devouring. The eunuch led her to a "zariba," an enclosure of thorny cactus, where in regular rows were ranged thirty or forty tokuls, or straw huts, clustering round the residence of Abu-Anga.
First came the presentation to the favorite wife, a huge Negress of Dongola, sharp-tempered and jovial at the same time, who without condescending to speak a word to her, looked Grace up and down for a quarter of an hour. Her examination ended, she gave a short, sharp order, which Fardji received crossing his hand over his breast and bowing deeply. Then taking Grace by the hand, he conducted her to another hut of more spacious dimensions. The floor was of fine sand and strewn with mats and sheepskins. In one corner stood a full-sized European bath, doubtless the result of some pillaging expedition. A number of women were seated on the mats or lounging on piles of cushions, chattering incessantly.I Without for a moment interrupting their talk, they were indulging all the while in various dainty morsels, dipping their hands into huge bowls containing various forms of sugary sweetmeats, rice cooked in milk, and conserves of fruit of a soft and sticky nature. Amongst them were Circassians fair as lilies, with great, limpid eyes; tall, slender Nubians, with skins of ebony, at once slim and fleshy; copper-colored Abyssin-ians, gracefully moulded as if by a sculptor's hand; Copts, yellow skinned and chubby cheeked. One and all, they went on laughing and talking and stuffing themselves with bonbons, without showing any sign of having noticed Grace's arrival. But at an order from the Eunuch, they suddenly took their departure, scared and struck dumb. In an instant the whole place was cleared.
Fardji clapped his hands together twice peremptorily. A maid appeared at the signal, a Fellah woman with a Greek profile and a graceful, undulating walk. Taking possession of the English girl, she began to undress her. Grace was surprised and asked the reason, but the other only continued her task without a word. Much annoyed, Grace escaped from her hands; but the Eunuch now interfered, warning her to be more obedient. He said she must take a bath, have her person anointed with precious essences and be dressed out in fine clothes, in order to appear before the master. Grace listened attentively, weighing every word. Then suddenly her eyes dilated, the black of the pupil encroaching on the gray iris, and her cheeks grew scarlet. Her whole nature shuddered in a spasm of supreme repulsion and revolt. "The master?" Then she was a slave!-she, the daughter of proud Albion, a free Englishwoman, slave to a Negro! The scenes of the past night passed in review before her mind's eye, rape, and murder, and the horrid punishments she had witnessed! ... Yes! indeed she was a slave, a captive, at the mercy of these accursed barbarians! Her head drooped, and big tears rolled down her cheeks.
But Fardji, his hand resting on the handle of the heavy kourbash, the pliant lash of hippopotamus hide, which was passed through his belt like a sword, Fardji was still exhorting her to be reasonable in his rasping, discordant voice. Why be silly and spoil everything, when all promised so well? The master himself had told him to look after her. She had every motive to wish to please; but the first thing was to do as she was bid, this came before everything else! If she refused, well! he, Fardji, would know how to break her spirit; he had tamed more difficult cases before now,-and it wouldn't take long, neither!
She thought the position over. A bath; well-what a luxury it would be after all, if only to remove the blood that plastered her thighs and the great clots that clogged her elsewhere. But before that man! Meantime that man was still playing with his kourbash, the tip of which hung down twisting and writhing like some slimy, supple reptile. Finally she decided to let them undress her, and stepping into the bath, sank down in the tepid water that seemed to caress her sore and wounded body. She turned this way and that submissively, just as the maid wished, who rubbed her with soap, which she afterwards lathered with a sponge. With equal docility Grace let herself be shampoo'd and anointed with oil scented with sandalwood and afterwards with attar of roses.
Crouched motionless in a corner, Fardji had watched the whole operation. Now he got up, and going to a coffer, drew from it a linen frock, a broad girdle of Indian silk, a necklace of pearls and sandals of green morocco embroidered with gold thread. These articles of dress were soon donned, turning the English girl into the complete-likeness of a Sudanese maiden. But the servant found herself in a difficulty, and turned to consul the Eunuch. How about j her hair? surely it would be a pity to dress and plait her I beautiful silky locks, that made a golden aureole about her head, in the native fashion, and tie it all up in little, thin, wiry curls! Fardji did not vouchsafe an immediate reply, but stood pondering in much perplexity of mind. Seeing this, Grace smiled slyly, and snatching the comb from the servant's hand, herself took down the airy structure of her hair, and winding it in one thick heavy roll, fixed it in a mass on the top of her head, leaving the neck behind and j the brow quite unencumbered. Fardji nodded his approval, and gazed at her with evident pride.
The slave was ready, the master might approach,-and this he presently did. Hamdam Abu-Anga, the bravest of the Malidi's Emirs, was forty-eight at this time. He was a Negro of the Dongola country, the same district from , which the Malidi himself came. Tall, strong and well built, he was an imposing figure, while a perpetual smile, full of gentleness and good-nature, rested on his lips, slightly parting them asunder and revealing the white teeth. Originally, like his father, he had been a slave of Abdullahi's, the Malidi's especial favorite among his three Khalifs, and whom he had publicly proclaimed as a second self. Well treated and admitted to his master's table, Abu-Anga, I adroit and fearless, was first from inimagine in every task I calling for strength and intrepidity. Brought up among the Baggaras, a tribe renowned for their bold horsemanship, he could break the most difficult horses, which the best riders had given up as a bad job, while in swordsmanship, his skill had passed into a proverb.
Abu-Anga made a sign, and the Eunuch left the room. Grace had never stirred from where she sat crouching on the sheepskin Fardji had pointed her to. On her lips was a smile, a hard, mechanical smile, that served to hide her anguish; but her eyes were fixed and excessively wide open in a terrified stare. A hundred wild thoughts hurried through her brain. She was filled with panic fear and a desire to cry and laugh at the same time,-a nervous, hysterical laugh that tore her throat and would not out, while hot, burning feverish tears scorched her eyeballs, but refused to fall. Of all the sensations she had endured in the dreadful night just ended, one only was clear and precise in her recollection-the smell of negro, the appalling, sickening stench of grease and sweat, the deadly savor, the sour, nauseating saliva that had filled her mouth so odiously, when the black Emir kissed her. Was it all to be repeated again? ... No! her shaking head, twitching in quick, emphatic spasms of negation, said: No!-never, never again! . . But now Abu-Anga was drawing near, and she smiled at him, smiled a silly, idiotic, stereotyped smile. Abu-Anga smiled back, his face radiant with good humor and the satisfaction of a strong man, in the maturity of his powers, indulgent towards a woman's weakness, though delighted at the pretty charms of his slave, the adequacy of his new instrument of pleasure.
He came and sat by her side on the sheepskin, and taking her hand, caressed the fingers softly. But the odious touch instantly roused a passion of revolt in her. She felt no more terror, finding the man so amenable; on the other hand, a sudden impulse of mad anger sent the blood racing to her heart; her face grew livid, while her clear, gray eyes became two black abysses, of depth unfathomable, stormy as a wild Northern sea under a tempestuous sky. The vile negro, the vile soft-spoken, insinuating negro! She could have beaten the creature,-have bitten, I scratched and torn the vigorous features, trampled on the I mighty form! What joy to mangle that vigorous frame, and I plunge her nails in the flesh, lacerating the muscles that I stood out in such relief, and the sturdy, massive neck.
Abu-Anga spoke to her, praising her beauty, and slip-I ping his hand within the bosom of her dress, began softly squeezing and caressing one of her breasts. At this the I woman's eyes grew blacker and deeper yet, and she fixed I her gaze steadily, sternly, more and more insistently, on the other's face. Without moving a muscle, she continued smiling, the same forced, rigid smile. On the contrary the smile had died away on the Negro's lips, and an ashy, earthy pallor disfigured his countenance. His eyes were now fixed, riveted on those of the white girl beside him. But they expressed submission, subjugation under another's will, and his hand had slipped down and was now feebly and timidly stroking Grace's arm.
Then she had a sudden intuition. Without any very exact idea of what she ought to do, she felt she could somehow tame and vanquish this colossus, prevent his possessing her body and polluting her mouth with his fetid kisses. Instinctively she reached out her hand, and took the initiative. Her smile changed, and grew masterful, domineering, full of ironical triumph and maliciousness. With a slow, persistent, enervating caress, she worked on the man's nerves till they were near breaking point, filling him with a treacherous, penetrating languor, a painful, feverish torpor, that stimulated desire, yet annihilated the will to satisfy it. Abu-Anga lay on his back with open mouth, sighing deeply and begging for the embrace she refused him. His mighty chest rose and fell, and his breath came in hoarse, difficult gasps, while the eyes, convulsed with inordinate passion, were obstinately fixed on Grace's. The giant positively writhed and roared under her hand, which never ceased its maddening office, till finally he fell back exhausted, lost in a dismal, sterile reverie of useless regret.
Suddenly grasping her by the wrist and dragging her to her feet, then roughly pushing her to her knees, he said in his grave, guttural voice, that had a powerful sonority like that of metal:
"Woman, who are you? Whence comes your strange power over me? Beneath your gaze, I was like to faint ... Never have I trembled before; but in your presence, I am weak as a babe. What is the spell?"
"Love!. . . You love me."
"Perhaps! But you? ... Do you not love me?"
"I am your slave!"
"You prevaricate instead of answering..."
"Why! what care you to know whether or no they love you, the women you lust after?"
"True, I have scarce thought of such a thing till now. Love is like fighting ... to win, a man must strike good knock-down blows!"
"Then strike!"
But he only gazed at her in silence, with a wonder that was not without fear. Presently she heard him mutter:
"Strange! All this is very strange ... I will return tomorrow. But I will not have them do you any hurt."
He pushed his great black face near her small white one; but Grace shrank back instantly, and he made no further effort to kiss her or constrain her in any way. Then he withdrew, slowly and as it were, regretfully. Just as he was crossing the threshold, he turned round and threw a wild, passionate look at the woman he was leaving. Soon the Eunuch reappeared, and brought the other women back again, who immediately fell into their old indolent attitudes, and began idly chattering as before, devouring their sweetmeats and laughing loudly at nothing.
Such was Grace's initiation into the life of an Eastern harem. Long she remained without a word, lost in thought, or rather haunted by one ever recurring sentiment,-one of regret at having resisted James, of having refused him those first fruits of love that had been so roughly plucked by her negro ravisher. Oh! that negro, that odious nameless savage who had disappeared in the confusion, vanishing with a hideous laugh, after his vile, his abominable kiss! For Grace, he was the representative of the whole black race, the accursed race with bestial faces and putrid odor, the ignoble race of Ham, condemned from of old to be servants and beasts of burden.
In the midst of her gloomy thoughts, she was startled by sound of firing. The butchery was not yet ended in Khartoum; the Dervishes, in search of plunder, were still ransacking the captured city, dragging out the inhabitants to the doors of their houses and torturing them. Still there were of course others who barricaded their dwellings, resolved to sell their lives dearly. These the Malidists were now engaged in besieging, rushing wildly and savagely to the assault. None except the girls and young women were spared, these being led away to the Beit-el-Maal, the Malidi's treasure hoard, where closely packed and jealously guarded, they awaited his good pleasure. Such as caught his imagine, he dispatched to his own harem; the rest he divided, first among his Khalifs, then among his Emirs. Even after the Mukkudums, or subordinate officers, and the common soldiers had had their share, there were women left over, who were sold as slaves.
But the married women and mothers received more summary treatment from the Dervishes. After forcing them to strip and tearing away the last fragment of clothing, they would make mock of their fat stomachs and distorted limbs. Taking aim with their lances at the belly, they pierced and mangled the loose, flabby flesh, disfigured by age and motherhood.
As for the men, surrender or no surrender made small difference in their fate. Greeks appeared at the windows of their houses crying out, "Aman," that is "Quarter!"-but the Dervishes shot them down from the street. In this way was killed the son-in-law of George Bey, one of the best known merchants of the city. Another prominent Greek was massacred with pike-thrusts, after the Malidists had burst in the door of his residence. They split open the skull of a lad of twelve with a hatchet, and the brains spurting out, actually bespattered his mother, where she lay half fainting in a chair. She sprang up, crying that the child she held in her arms was a girl, by this means saving the life on her youngest boy, a child of six months old. The streets broken by the hurried movements of the Dervish troops were swimming with blood, while red, stagnant pool collected wherever the surface was of harder and more stony character. Dead bodies, often headless, encumbered the thoroughfares in all directions. Tortures everywhere,but comparatively few cases of rape. Orders were peremptory; every woman was first to pass through the Beit-el-Maal, the Malidi's treasury.
I But flagellation was practised with savage cruelty. Slaves were whipped along with their masters, to force them to reveal the places where the money was hidden. The bastinado was always methodically administered. With the obstinate fatalism of Orientals, they bore up under the first blows without a murmur. It was not long however before they began to speak, but without telling the whole truth. Then the blows began again, till they revealed something more. In this fashion their fortune would disappear shred by shred, as their tortured flesh did. The executioner never finally left off, till everything had been disgorged. Often the torture lasted several days. The victim was bound to a date-palm, his hands fastened above his head, and the tormentor proceeded to apply twenty lashes, duly and rhythmically laid on. Directly the victim began to speak, he left off, but beyond this he remained stone deaf to all his groans and supplications; the man was bound to declare something definitive and positive, something that could be verified. On his revealing the actual locality of a hoard, he was granted a respite and food was given him; but no sooner was the money secured, than the torture recommenced, and was continued systematically till he vouchsafed another piece of information.
Moreover they had many ways of varying the torment, to induce the possessors of hidden treasure to speak out. Sometimes they roasted their victims, a brazier of lighted, charcoal being set nearer or further from the spies of the men's feet, according as he showed himself willing to speak or persisted in a contumacious silence. Others were hung up by the thumbs. Round these was passed a strong but slender cord, and attached by means of a slip-knot; this done, they hauled their man aloft, kicking frantically all the while. Instantly the two thumbs were purple and bursting with blood, horribly swollen and the nails ready to fly off. Then they would start laying on heavy strokes of the lash, the swinging body following each impulse of the kourbash. Still this particular torture was seldom of much avail, for almost invariably, after the first few seconds the victim suspended in this agonizing manner fainted away and felt no more.
A more refined torture, and one better adapted for the speedy discovery of treasure, was the reed crown. In this case two pieces of reed, cut into thin longitudinal slices, were laid on the two temples; then over the forehead in front and behind at the back of the head, the two ends were brought together and firmly tied. Then using a flexible and elastic cane as if it were the bow of a violin, they set the reeds vibrating, drawing it backwards and forwards and tapping lightly. The agony was indescribable. The whole skull quivered and vibrated; and the ears were filled with a loud buzzing like that of a whole swarm of bees, and the patient seemed to feel a thousand wasps flying about inside his head and feeding on his brains. Every membrane of the head shook and shuddered. The majority of those subjected to this torment suffered serious lesions in the brain, and were mad or imbecile for the rest of their lives.
Death was busy everywhere. Aser, the Austrian consul, died of terror on seeing his brother beheaded. Leontides, the Greek consul, was stabbed by his "kavass," or official attendant. The American consul fared no better, being betrayed by his own servants, who hurried to meet the Malidists to tell them where the money was hidden and get their share of the booty. Treachery was the willing handmaid of murder.
Even animals were not spared, dogs in particular being hunted down and killed, as being impure. In one instance a carpenter was soaked with alcohol together with his dog and his parrot. The three bodies were tied together, an
Arab set fire to the group, which after whirling round and round for an instant in the street in a frantic dance, staggered and fell, a blazing heap that gave out a thick heavy smoke. At the sight an Austrian, Klein, a tailor, made the sign of the cross. Immediately a Derivish standing by brandished a huge cutlass, the great knife Mussulmans use to slaughter beast intended for food according to the rite of their religion, and with one blow cut the poor fellow's throat from ear to ear. Then the horde of fanatics broke into the tailor's house. First seizing the man's eldest son, a lad of seventeen, they drove their spike through his breast and tossed the bleeding corpse at his mother's feet. This done, they held a council of war to determine in what more diverting fashion they could kill the next, a boy of fifteen.
But these tragedies were not unrelieved by comic incidents. The protection of the Catholic Mission had been intrusted to a lay brother, Domenico Polinari; but at the first alarm he bolted and hid himself in a haystack. A band of Arabs happened to pass that, and in fun they pricked the haystack with their long lances. Feeling the cold steel, poor Domenico was for calling out and begging mercy; but terror had paralyzed his tongue and not a sound came from his throat. Presently the Dervishes went on their way. After long and anxious waiting and listening, and only when every noise had ceased, with a host of cautions, now putting out his head, now drawing it in again precipitately at the smallest suspicion of danger, he made up his mind at last to sally forth. He proceeded to the house of a woman living in the neighborhood, a pious person and a former protegee of the good Fathers, to claim hospitality. She agreed to receive him; but the moment Domenico was asleep, ran off to denounce him. Imagine his awakeningl A good bang over the buttocks, and poor Domenico was up and on his feet. In two twos he had all his wits about him, and did not wait for a second blow to make him tell where the worthy Monks had buried their treasure!
According to orders all loot was to be brought in to Beit-el-Maal. Nevertheless there were not a few among the Dervishes ready to run the risk of eternal damnation; in spite of all the master had taught them, in spite of the curses he had threatened and the promises he had made of the joys of Paradise, a man's sexual vigor for ever renewed under the ineffable caresses of the houris, in spite of everything, they preferred to keep the money they both once laid their hands on! Some stuck to the pockets both of Emirs and Mukkudums, and even of common soldiers. The feel of gold made the most credulous disciples of the Prophet wily and circumspect.
The sack of Khartoum was complete. Of the Copts, nearly all the males had been massacred, as well as most of the Europeans. The women, among whom were the Nuns of the Catholic Mission, were all confined in the enclosure, the sacred zariba of the Beit-el-Maal feebly defended by a simple fence of thorny cactus, but which superstition surrounded with an impassible barrier. When at length the Malidi ordered the butchery to cease, the streets were blocked with dismembered coipses, rotting in the blazing sun, a myriad of flies circling and swarming round them. The dead were pitched into the river, which bore along from cataract to cataract this poor human offal to mingle with the Nile mud and fertilize the plains of Egypt.
The Emirs partitioned Khartoum between them, each planting his flag in the middle of the particular district conquered by his own men. Next the Malidi ordered an enumeration to be made of the survivors, in the course of which many more women were discovered, who had cut off their long hair and dressed up as men, but who were now denounced by some of the chief inhabitants as a means of currying favor with the Dervishes. One and all they were sent off to the Beit-el-Maal, and divided amongst the men of the Ansar, the Malidi's host. The soldiers were not slow to take possession of their prisoners, and in a rough and ready way to try what they were good for. Their cries were pitiful, especially those of the white women; but the negroes went on quite unconcerned, forcing them to become instruments of their brutal pleasure. The older women and matrons were given a few rags to cover themselves with, and massed in an assigned place in the camp, where they suffered sadly from hunger and thirst, and were left exposed without any shelter to the hot sun by day and the bitter cold at night. Some weeks later, such as had contrived to survive these hardships were driven off with whips,-a half-naked, emaciated crew, to prowl about the markets and beg for such scraps of food as they could get to keep Dody and soul together.