Had he allowed them to turn back to the coast, whence they had started, or even to repose for a few hours on the way, they could not have done so. They were irresistibly compelled to move on, by a power that could not be resisted.
That power was hope, the hope of obtaining some sangleh and a little dirty water.
To turn back, or to linger behind, would bring them nothing but more suffering, perhaps death itself.
A man intent on dying may throw himself into the water to get drowned, and then find himself involuntarily struggling to escape from the death he has courted.
The same irresistible antipathy to death compelled his white captives to follow the black sheik.
They were unwilling to die, not for the sole reason that they had homes and friends they wished to see again, not solely for that innate love of life, implanted by nature in the breasts of all; but there was a pleasure which they desired to experience once more, ay, yearned to indulge in it: the pleasure of quenching their terrible thirst. To gratify this pleasure they must follow Golah.
One of Golah’s wives had three children; and as each wife was obliged to look after her own offspring, this woman could not pursue her journey without a little more trouble than her less favoured companions.
The eldest of her children was too young to walk a long distance; and, most of the time, was carried under her care upon the maherry. Having her three restless imps to keep balanced upon the back of the camel, requiring her constant vigilance to prevent them from falling off, she found her hands full enough. It was a sort of travelling that did not at all suit her; and she had been casting about for some way of being relieved from at least a portion of her trouble.
The plan she devised was to compel someone of the slaves to carry her eldest child, a boy about four years of age.
Colin was the victim selected for this duty. All the attempts made by the young Scotchman to avoid the responsibilities thus imposed upon him, proved vain. The woman was resolute, and Colin had to yield; although he resisted until she threatened to call Golah to her assistance.