Page:Among the Women of the Sahara.djvu/82

70 out into the street they wrapped themselves up in one huge veil, with such pretty graceful motions of their supple little figures towards each other that I could not help being charmed, and thus disguised they passed beneath the very beard of the dreaded Argus, who happened to be there at the moment. He looked at them without the slightest suspicion who they were. They breathed heavily beneath the white covering, and when they laughed there was much fluttering of the maliffa. With the one eye left visible and the one little finger holding the drapery against the swelling young bosoms, each girl made me some mischievous little signs, rogues that they were! But for all their temerity they were really very frightened, and an hour later, when they were laughing over their adventures at the house of the bridegroom, with veils thrown aside, they were still trembling. Their cheeks glowed with delight beneath the dye put on for the ceremony.

"The Sidi never recognized us!" they cried, "he did not know us in the least!"

It was a victory, and I seemed to them an accomplice in their success, as they began again the endless refrain: "Thou art our friend, our sister!"

It was on this occasion, too, that I first remember hearing the typical Oriental expression of cajoling endearment.