s very great
when they perceived Isa sit up and fold his hands, asking for mercy.

Suspecting that others shammed death, they laid hold of Selim, and he
also sat up; then Abdullah and Mussoud, and they also sat up, looking
very sheepish, or like guilty people caught doing a mean action. Angry
at the cheat, as they imagined, to have been practised upon them, they
snatched the cloth from the face of the dead body of Amer bin Osman; but
there was no mistaking him--he was dead.

Some were for slaying the boys at once; but the majority interposed, and
said in an inquiring tone, "Why slay boys, when you can make slaves of
them?" which shortly met general approbation.

Upon agreeing to this, they began to strip Isa, who shortly found
himself as naked as when he was born; but being extremely dark of
colour, there appeared nothing remarkable about him to attract any
special attention, and he was taken at once to the other captives, where
he wae firmly bound with strips of green bark.

They then laid violent hands on the others, on Selim, Abdullah, and
Mussoud; and despite their struggles and tears, they were soon denuded
of their finery and of their rich embroidered dress. When they saw the
pale and clean colour of their bodies, the fierce Watuta gathered about
them, and wondered what strange beings these were who were all over
white, while they themselves were all black. They looked at the wound
in Selim's chest, and on pressing it saw the red blood flow, which only
increased their astonishment; for how could people with white skins have
red blood? But Selim's proud heart was rebelling against the indignity
of being stared at as a curious specimen of humanity, and he had
endeavoured to hide his blushes with his hands; but when they pulled
them down, and ordered him to show his tongue and teeth, and began to
feel the muscles of his arms and legs, then he could bear no more; and
flinging himself across the dead body of his father, he wept aloud, and
prayed to God that he might die. Abdullah and Mussoud were as yet too
terrified to do more than cry silently; and they were accordingly led
away and bound without resistance. They then took hold of Selim to tie
him, but he would not rise; and, angered at what they deemed his
stubbornness, two warriors brought the shafts of their spears full upon
his body, which had well-nigh broken the high courage of the young Arab;
for so great was the pain his pride suffered, and so indesc