The Arab servant, moreover, for a consideration, taught Joseph his maternal tongue, and the new pupil, studious to excess, practised the language unremittingly, and was all day long, even whilst in attendance on his master, giving utterance to the most extraordinary sounds. When spoken to on the subject by M. de Morin, he replied emphatically— "You should not object, sir, seeing that I am preparing to open the gates of the desert for you." These philological studies, these struttings in the bûrnus, and the lengthened investigation into the manners and customs of camels, rather disturbed the brain of Mohammed-Abd-el-Gazal, and made him at times somewhat absent. If M. de Morin asked for a glass of water, Joseph, his mind ever occupied with the expedition, would bring him a compass or a patent pedometer. One day, at breakfast time, instead of laying on the table the time-honoured white cloth, he spread out a huge map of Africa, and on it placed the plates and dishes, and other paraphernalia. When his mistake was pointed out to him, he said very plainly that he did not regret it, because, as he told his master, it was an advantage, instead of having before him a simple piece of linen, which expressed nothing, to feast his eyes on a splendid bird's-eye view of mountains, lakes, seas, rivers, and so to exercise, at one and the same time, his gastronomic and intellectual abilities. "_Utile dulci_," added Joseph, who was a classic on occasion. Sometimes, too, Mohammed would leave the windows open, and light all the candles, so that, as he said, the insects in the neighbourhood might be attracted, and that thus he might accustom himself to the bites of the mosquitoes so prevalent in Africa. In short, he neglected nothing, and, ever on the look-out for something oriental, he struck up, during his last days in Paris, a friendship with a negress of the purest ebony. Hoping to enlist her sympathies, and recall to her some recollections of her childhood, he expatiated, without cessation, on the horrors of slavery. Unfortunately for him, the negress, born at Martinique years after the emancipation of the slaves, did not understand one word of his conversation. M. de Morin was at length obliged to beg Joseph to attend a little more to his legitimate duties, and a little less to Arabs and negresses, but Mohammed shut him up at once by saying— "Reassure yourself, sir; I shall be strictly correct in the desert." CHAPTER XIII. The 10th of October arrived, and everything was in readiness for a start. The day of departure was fixed, and berths engaged for Egypt on board one of those magnificent steamers belonging to the Messageries Company, leaving Marseilles at 9 a.m. on each alternate Sunday.