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Updated: June 24, 2025
After him came another figure in mail that clanked faintly and glimmered as he moved. "Peace and the Prophet's blessings upon thee, O mighty Asad!" was the wazeer's greeting. "And peace upon thee, Tsamanni," was the answer. "Art the bearer of news?" "Of great and glorious tidings, O exalted one! Sakr-el-Bahr is returned."
But the dalal would part with no slave until the money was forthcoming, and Tsamanni had no considerable sum upon his person. Therefore in the wake of his master he set out forthwith to the Kasbah. It wanted still an hour before the sale would be held and he had time and to spare in which to go and return.
In the courtyard Marzak found his father in the act of mounting a white mule that had been brought him. He was attended by his wazeer Tsamanni, Biskaine, and some other of his captains. Marzak begged leave to go with him. It was carelessly granted, and they set out, Marzak walking by his father's stirrup, a little in advance of the others.
Suddenly he looked about him, and wheeled upon Tsamanni, his manner swiftly becoming charged with anger. "Her face has been bared to a thousand eyes and more," he cried. "Even that has been so before," replied Tsamanni. And then quite suddenly at their elbow a voice that was naturally soft and musical of accent but now rendered harsh, cut in to ask: "What woman may this be?"
"Six hundred," replied Tsamanni, still unmoved. And now such was the general hubbub provoked by these unprecedented prices that the dalal was forced to raise his voice and cry for silence. When this was restored Ayoub at once raised the price to seven hundred. "Eight hundred," snapped Tsamanni, showing at last a little heat. "Nine hundred," replied Ayoub.
Abruptly then he turned away, and by a gesture he ordered Ali to return the slave to her place among the others. Leaning on the arm of Tsamanni he took some steps towards the entrance, then halted, and turned again to Fenzileh: "To thy litter," he bade her peremptorily, rebuking her thus before all, "and get thee to the house as becomes a seemly Muslim woman.
Has not the Prophet said, 'He who behaveth ill to his slave shall not enter into Paradise'? Does that not suffice believing people? Clearly it was written, that my little Mohammed, my first born, my only one, shall have no playmate this day. No, Tsamanni: I will bid no more. Have I such store of dollars that I can buy a child for its weight in silver?" The crowd is thinning now.
"There is my sponsor," he made answer, grinning in the very best of humours, savouring to the full his enemy's rage and discomfiture, and savouring it at no cost to himself. "Shall I count out one thousand and one hundred philips, O dalal." "If the wazeer Tsamanni is content." "Dost thou know for whom I buy?" roared Tsamanni.
"In truth none that will gladden thy mistress." "Merciful Allah! What now? Doth it concern that Frankish slave-girl?" Tsamanni smiled, a thing that angered Ayoub, who felt that the ground he trod was becoming insecure; it followed that if his mistress fell from influence he fell with her, and became as the dust upon Tsamanni's slippers. "By the Koran thou tremblest, Ayoub!" Tsamanni mocked him.
And there would be profit in it, clearly ay, and it would be sweet to outbid that dog Tsamanni and send him empty-handed home to face the wrath of his frustrated master. He spread his hands and salaamed in token of complete acquiescence. At the sok-el-Abeed it was the hour of the outcry, announced by a blast of trumpets and the thudding of tom-toms.
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