The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-31

dated by the rising tide.
A few moments more and the Khartoum
houses, the fort, the flats, the island, Will
have faded from view, and silent darkness
will rest over town and desert.
From the shadow of the mud wall sur
rounding a house in the northern quarter
of Omdurman came the low and liquid
sounds of a girls voice, grooming a Sudan
love song to the gentle drumming upon
noggara. The song, which seemed to nave
but little rhyme. was marked by the Sc
ductive beauty of a deep contralto voice,
strongly characteristic of the Western Su-
dan Though the tune, If it may be so
called, was little more than a monotone,
there was much dramatic expression and
fervour infused into the words:
1.-THE west wind whispers meath the nabak
tree;
1t tells me of my love, my life.
My hege my king;
Whose arm is strong to victory,
Whose eyes are jewels rare,
Whose feet are as the kinds
Exceeding swift;
He seemeth as the sun
Unto the morning,
And at night no star compareth with him.
The west wind whispers meath the nabak
tree;
1t tells me this; it tells me this"
Inside the house, stretched upon an an
CARA, young Englishman, the girls mas
ter, lay and listened Jack Sterner and his
friend Forrest We're the only Britishers in
the Sudan, and for eight years had been
held captive, at first by the Mahdi, then
by the Khalifa. Capt Jack, as he was
Forty-second, in which he had
formerly served. and held by the post
of Mudir of one of the southwestern
provinces under Gordon, and Lieut. Forrest
had Travelled in the south, administering
the troubled affairs of finance.
In the great revolt of the Mahdi, both
had been brought prisoners to Omdurman
and there detained For a time their lot
was an unenviable one but when the pha-
risac Mahdi was stricken to death in the
midst of his Righteousness, and the Khali-
ia, from the holy prophets pulpit, had pro-
claimed himself the HeaVen-sent success
sor, lord of all the faithful, and sovereign
of the Sudan, the position of the two Eng
hshmen was suddenly improved. They
were honored by attachment to the Kha-
hsa's household, and, though still regard
ed as prisoners, were allowed considerable
freedom, and treated more as guests than
captives.
When the song was finished Sterner fill
ed and lighted his short briar pipe, the
wonder and disgust of the natives, who
failed to understand this trifling with to-
glow of the sunlight
The girl ceased her song and made obei-
sance. She was the daughter. of the muir
dered king of a bold and warlike tribe, the
Nina, long since wiped out, and from
her race she had taken or, rather, been
given her name The beauty of the girl
was Of a refined voluptuousness, and there
was grace in the action of every limb. Her
eyes, large and languid in repose, were
full of fire and intelligence when she was
addressed, or speaking; her lips, though
partaking somewhat of negro fullness in
herited from the maternal side of her an
cestry, did not protrude unduly; her bust,
partly revealed, partly hidden by the light
gauze-like Darfur cloth which fell from
her shoulders as she salaamed, was per-
feet in form and fulness. She would have
been envied by any sculptor as a model of
symmetry and womanly beauty.
Nina had seen her people foully butch
cred, and had watched her own mpther,
falling and bounding from crag to crag
until at length, amidst a cry of delight
from her murderers, she fell with a sick
ening splash into the river. Years later,
when the girl had become of marketable
value, she found herself in the Sur er Ke-
Xix in the Belt el Nal at Omdurman, the
central object of the lascivious gaze and
ruthless jest of a group of slave traders,
who were examining her, making their es-
innate of her physical value, and Offering
bids, as though the trade were in cattle
instead of human flesh and spirit.
1t was there that Steiner first saw her.
He came upon the scene in time to hear
a ribaldry from the owner more coarse
and suggestive than usual 1t was a daily
spectacle, this trade in humanity, and he
had long become accustomed to it's vile
ness, but the dropping head, the downcast
eyes, the absolute innocence and simple
ity of the girl, contrasting with the lewd
remark of the man. stirred the English
mans blood, and in a moment he had
struck the Arab dealer blow from the
shoulder, and leveled him with the earth.
The next instant he saw his error. This
action would arouse the whole city against
him, and even if personal retaliation were
not made by the populace the Khalifa
would be forced to intiict some barbarous
punishment. vision of the dreaded Safer
which for a prison horrors only permits
the Black Hole of Calcutta to take pre-
mier position by a narrow margin ~
points doomed before him. 1t was motley
60 propltiate. After all, the girls case
would only be the worse for this outburst
of indignation.
Considering this, he resolved to buy her
Money has an all-powerful effect upon Tho
Arab mind The scene was a stormy, on
but in the end the Englishmen had anoIo-
gized, paid down 800 for the girl-a good
hundred more than her market value
and the girl, picking up her cotton COW
ering, which had been torn from her dur
ing the process Of inspection, placed il
over her shoulders, gave II a twist arohpd
her waist, and trotted off behind her new
master like the servile animal she recoe.
nlzed herself to be.
But three years of practically free SER
vice in his household had changed her
from a chattel into human being. Win
her liberty had returned much of the olJ
spirit that had characterized her father.
She remembered With pride that she wa
a princess of race once free and bore
herself with suited dignity toward the
olh't menials of the esta blishment. Manv
oheis Tor her purchase had been made
ny men, who, not approaching Steiner !
strong sense of respect and honor for ali
women, regarded such slaves as the mere
Paythlngs Of a few days, to be Dartered
eHu sod at mere within ana caprice But
.hese offers were ia vain, as also was the
NOoihs OF one Of the Khalifa's chief Mul-