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.

Seeing this, Israel cried from the back of the crowd, “I will give twenty dollars to buy him the girl’s liberty,” and straightway another and another offered like sums for the same purpose until the amount of the last bid had been reached, and the slave-master took it, and the girl was free.