by such of them as could afford it, mixed
with goats' or camels' milk, unstrained and hairy, half curdled into a
crab-like acidity, the moment it entered its stinking receptacle.

Here and there men were seen milking their mares or maherries, not a few
indulging in the universal beverage by a direct application of their
lips to the teats of the animal; while others, appointed to the task,
were preparing the paraphernalia of the _douar_ for transportation to
some distant oasis.

Watching these various movements were the three mids, still stripped to
their shirts, and the old man-o'-war's-man, clad with like scantiness;
since the only garment that clung to his sinewy frame was a pair of
cotton drawers, neither very clean nor very sound at the seams.

All four shivered in the chill air of the morning: for hot as is the
Saara under its noon-day sun, in the night hours its thermometer
frequently falls almost to the point of freezing.

Their state of discomfort did not hinder them from observing what was
passing around them. They could have slept on; but the discordant
noises of the _douar_, and a belief that they would not be permitted any
longer to enjoy their interrupted slumbers, hindered them from reclosing
their eyes. Still recumbent, and occasionally exchanging remarks in a
low tone of voice, they noted the customs of their captors.

The young Scotchman had read many books relating to the prairies of
America, and their savage denizens. He was forcibly reminded of these
by what he now saw in this oasis of the sandy Saara: the women treated
like dogs, or worse, doing all the work that might be termed labour,
tending the cattle, cooking the meals, pitching or striking the tents,
loading the animals, and themselves bearing such portions of the load as
exceeded the transport strength of the tribal quadrupeds, aided only by
such wretched helots as misfortune had flung in the way of their common
masters. The men, mostly idle, ludicrously nonchalant, reclining on
their saddle pads, or skins, inhaling the narcotic weed; apparently
proud in the possession of that lordship of wretchedness that surrounded
them.

Colin was constrained to compare the savage life of two continents,
separated by an ocean. He came to the conclusion, that under similar
circumstances mankind will ever be the same. In the Comanche of the
_Llano Estacado_, or the Pawnee of the Platte, he would have found an
exact counterpart of the Ishmaelitis