Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/278

262 "We replied to all these very patiently and indulgently, Madame Ducore speaking for me and for herself. In the meantime I watched them very closely. Both the wives of Mahommed were beautiful, especially the younger, who could not have been over sixteen years old. She had lovely, dreamy eyes, a small nose, teeth like pearls, a long neck and was exceedingly graceful in spite of her outfit of heavy robes; but I remarked that she was quite wild and soon learned that she was a woman from the Sous country, whose beauties are most prized. The older one, whom I took to be around thirty-five, had the appearance of a mild, good woman, was always smiling pleasantly and seemed to me to be more cultured than the others. She was from the Caucasus—probably bought and brought here as a slave—and had blue eyes, hair almost blonde and a much fairer complexion than the other women.

"Having, after some time, become accustomed to us, she ordered a slave to bring in her children, whom we found to be of quite another appearance, unlike that of either herself or Mohammed ben Chokrun. There were three of them, girls of ten, twelve and fourteen, and all very close to the Senegal type, with their kinky hair and their almost black skins. Seeing our badly suppressed astonishment, the senior wife, slightly confused, explained at great pains and at some length that, whenever the time for the birth of a child is approaching, she eats nothing and drinks only coffee, which is the reason for all of her children being so dark!

"At this point the eldest son of our host came in, he with the heart of stone. The youth proved, however, to