stant longer;
and then he suddenly thought that it felt a little easier. From this
point he began to experience sensations that were slightly pleasurable,
and a profuse perspiration broke out over his whole body.

Evidently his attendant was accustomed to deal occasionally with white
men, for he watched his huge charge out of the corner of a wicked eye
for some time. Seeing, however, that he lay still, the fellow went off
into a peaceful slumber.

"'Tis an amazin' place intirely," observed Ted, who felt inclined to
talk as he began to enjoy himself. "If it wasn't so dirty that an Irish
pig of proper breedin' would object to come into it, I'd say it was
raither agreeable."

Rais Ali being in the height of enjoyment, declined to answer, but the
seaman's active mind was soon furnished with food for contemplation,
when one of the attendants entered and quietly began, to all appearance,
to put the tall thin Moor to the torture.

"Have I to go through _that_?" thought Flaggan; "well, well, niver say
die, owld boy, it's wan comfort that I'm biggish, an' _uncommon_ tough."

It would be tedious to prolong the description of the Irishman's bathe
that morning. Suffice it to say that, after he had lain on the ottoman
long enough to feel as if the greater part of him had melted away, he
awoke his attendant, who led him into a corner, laid him on the sloppy
floor, and subjected him to a series of surprises. He first laid Ted's
head on his naked thigh, and rubbed his face and neck tenderly, as
though he had been an only son; he then straightened his limbs and baked
them as though he had been trained to knead men into loaves from
infancy; after that he turned him on his back and on his face; punched
and pinched and twisted him; he drenched him with hot water, and soused
him with soap-suds from head to foot, face and all, until the stout
mariner resembled a huge mass of his native sea-foam; he stuck his hair
up on end, and scratched his head with his ten nails; and tweaked his
nose, and pulled his fingers and toes till they cracked again!

All this Ted Flaggan, being tough, bore with passing fortitude,
frequently saying to the Moor, internally, for soap forbade the opening
of his lips--

"Go ahead, me lad, an' do yer worst!"

But although his tormentor utterly failed to move him by fair means, he
knew of a foul method which proved successful. He crossed Ted's arms
over his breast, and attempted to draw them as far over as