they are
carried off, and travel all the way to this country slung on mules,
being set down from time to time to be fed. But I, though born free,
was brought by my mother, who had been carried off as a slave. The
lines cut on my cheek show that, for every free-born child in our
country is marked so by its mother. That is our sultan's order. In
Mogador my mother's master sold me to a man who took me from her,
and brought me to Dar el Baida. They took away my mother first; they
dragged her off crying, and I never saw or heard of her again. When
she was gone I cried for her, and could not eat till they gave me
sugar and sweet dates. At Dar el Baida I was sold in the market
auction to a shareefa named Lalla Moina, wife of the mountain scribe
who taught the kadi's children. With her I was very happy, for she
treated me well, and when she went to Mekka on the pilgrimage she let
me go out to work on my own account, promising to make me free if God
brought her back safely. She was good to me, Bashador, but though she
returned safely she always put off making me free; but I had laid by
fifteen dollars, and had bought a boxful of clothes as well. And that
was where my trouble began. For God's sake succour me!

"One day the agent saw me in the street, and eyed me so that I was
frightened of him. He followed me home, and then sent a letter
offering to buy me, but my mistress refused. Then the agent often came
to the house, and I had to wait upon him. He told me that he wanted to
buy me, and that if he did I should be better off than if I were free,
but I refused to listen. When the agent was away his man Sarghini used
to come and try to buy me, but in vain; and when the agent returned he
threatened to bring my mistress into trouble if she refused. At last
she had to yield, and I cried when I had to go. 'Thou art sold to that
man,' she said; 'but as thou art a daughter to me, he has promised to
take care of thee and bring thee back whenever I wish.'

"Sarghini took me out by one gate with the servants of the agent, who
took care to go out with a big fat Jew by another, that the English
consul should not see him go out with a woman. We rode on mules, and I
wore a white cloak; I had not then begun to fast" (_i.e._ was not yet
twelve years of age). "After two days on the road the agent asked for
the key of my box, in which he found my fifteen dollars, tied up in
a rag, and took them, but gave me back my clothes. We were five days
tr