He led the Doctor to another shed, where several purchasers were already congregated. A slave was at that moment being led up and down before them, just as a horse-dealer trots out the animal he may have for sale. She was a fine, handsome girl, a massive creature, an Abyssinian Roman Catholic, as one of the by-standers informed the Doctor.
The buyers, as soon as she was brought to a standstill, went up to her, opened her mouth to look at her teeth, undid her hair to examine its texture, and slapped her on the back and chest to see if she had any latent defects. Insensible, apparently at all events, to all this, the wretched girl was perfectly mute, and made no sign. After much parleying, further most minute examination, and biddings and counter-biddings, she fell at last to the nod of an Arab of about fifty, as ugly as she was handsome. He threw a veil over her head, and over her shoulders a covering which he had brought with him, and, after having paid over the price, he ordered his new slave to follow him. She obeyed, silent and passive as ever.
"I have something better even than that," said the merchant, trying to squeeze out a smile, which after all was nothing better than a hideous grimace.
M. Delange crossed a court-yard, and went up sundry flights of a worm-eaten staircase. A negro eunuch hastened to open a door, and the doctor found himself in a spacious, lofty apartment, without any windows, but lighted from above.
A dozen girls, draped in voluminous folds of blue, white, and rose-coloured muslin, fastened round their waists, lay reclining on an old circular divan, the only piece of furniture in the room. As soon as they saw their master they stood up altogether, like automatons, and ranged themselves against the wall, in positions which had evidently been assigned to them beforehand.
Then the merchant, followed by his visitor, passed them in review, stopping before each one, and expatiating on her merits. There were specimens there to please all tastes—slim and stout, short and tall, black, copper-coloured, yellow, bronze, and white. There were straight noses and flat, thick lips and mouths exquisitely small, round eyes, almond-shaped, and some with oblique lids, such as are met with in Jara. From an artistic point of view it was a pretty sight, and the oldest of these girls was not yet twenty. Over that age a woman is old in the East; nobody would buy her as a slave, unless indeed she happened to be a good musician, a clever sempstress, or a first-rate cook. Slaves are most valuable when from eleven to fifteen years of age. They are then called sedassi, before eleven commassi, and from fifteen to twenty balègues. After twenty they are, as we say of horses, "aged."
The whole establishment had now been inspected, and M. Delange, slipping a couple of piastres into the merchant's expectant hand, left the place, his heart moved to pity by the sight he had just witnessed.
A company of Almehs, to whom his guide, adhering to his programme, next took him, were destined to modify his impressions considerably. Now-a-days if you wish to see the genuine Almehs, you must visit Khartoum, for they have for some time past been driven out from Upper Egypt. Those whom travellers see at Cairo are simply courtesans, who call themselves Almehs, just as their counterparts in India call themselves bayaderes. The real Almeh or a'ouâlem, dates from the times of the Pharaohs, and forms a distinct class. She has been educated to a certain extent, and is frequently a good musician. She never marries, at all events so long as she follows her profession, and is noticeable for her independent bearing. Apart from her profession she forms a part of the demi-monde of her country, and, when very talented, or very lovely, frequently and rapidly becomes rich.
The house to which the faki conducted M. Delange was in a court-yard not far from the slave-merchant's place of business, in a street as narrow and gloomy as his, but more remote from the centre of the town, and opening on to one of the quays of the Blue River.
After some preliminary overtures, for access to an Oriental interior, of whatever kind it may be, is always difficult, M. Delange was allowed to enter a large room where a troupe of Almehs were going through the customary exercises in the presence of about twenty spectators, Arabs mostly, seated on roomy angarebs, drinking coffee and smoking chibouks.