ad lived with them for two years, in their tents, the devil
knows where. He presented me to their chief, Sheik Otham, and to four
others, splendid fellows in their blue cotton draperies and their
amulets of red leather. Fortunately, they all spoke a kind of
_sabir_[13] which helped things along.

[Footnote 13: Dialect spoken in Algeria and the Levant--a mixture of
Arabian, French, Italian and Spanish.]

"I only mention in passing the lunch at the Tuileries, the visits in
the evening to the Museum, to the _Hotel de Ville_, to the Imperial
Printing Press. Each time, the Tuareg inscribed their names in the
registry of the place they were visiting. It was interminable. To give
you an idea, here is the complete name of Sheik Otham alone:
Otham-ben-el-Hadj-el-Bekri-ben-el-Hadj-el-Faqqi-ben-Mohammad-Bouya-
ben-si-Ahmed-es-Souki-ben-Mahmoud.[14]

[Footnote 14: I have succeeded in finding on the registry of the
Imperial Printing Press the names of the Tuareg chiefs and those who
accompanied them on their visit, M. Henry Duveyrier and the Count
Bielowsky. (Note by M. Leroux.)]

"And there were five of them like that!

"I maintained my good humor, however, because on the boulevards,
everywhere, our success was colossal. At the _Cafe de Paris_, at
six-thirty, it amounted to frenzy. The delegation, a little drunk,
embraced me: '_Bono, Napoleon, bono, Eugenie; bono, Casimir; bono,
Christians_.' Gramont-Caderousse and Viel-Castel were already in booth
number eight, with Anna Grimaldi, of the _Folies Dramatiques_, and
Hortense Schneider, both beautiful enough to strike terror to the
heart. But the palm was for my dear Clementine, when she entered. I
must tell you how she was dressed: a gown of white tulle, over China
blue tarletan, with pleatings, and ruffles of tulle over the
pleatings. The tulle skirt was caught up on each side by garlands of
green leaves mingled with rose clusters. Thus it formed a valence
which allowed the tarletan skirt to show in front and on the sides.
The garlands were caught up to the belt and, in the space between
their branches, were knots of rose satin with long ends. The pointed
bodice was draped with tulle, the billowy bertha of tulle was edged
with lace. By way of head-dress, she had placed upon her black locks a
diadem crown of the same flowers. Two long leafy tendrils were twined
in her hair and fell on her neck. As cloak, she had a kind of scarf of
blue cashmere embroidered in gold and lined wit