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 turne