All four shivered in the chill air of the morning: for hot as is the Saara under its noon-day sun, in the night hours its thermometer frequently falls almost to the point of freezing. Their state of discomfort did not hinder them from observing what was passing around them. They could have slept on; but the discordant noises of the _douar_, and a belief that they would not be permitted any longer to enjoy their interrupted slumbers, hindered them from reclosing their eyes. Still recumbent, and occasionally exchanging remarks in a low tone of voice, they noted the customs of their captors. The young Scotchman had read many books relating to the prairies of America, and their savage denizens. He was forcibly reminded of these by what he now saw in this oasis of the sandy Saara: the women treated like dogs, or worse, doing all the work that might be termed labour, tending the cattle, cooking the meals, pitching or striking the tents, loading the animals, and themselves bearing such portions of the load as exceeded the transport strength of the tribal quadrupeds, aided only by such wretched helots as misfortune had flung in the way of their common masters. The men, mostly idle, ludicrously nonchalant, reclining on their saddle pads, or skins, inhaling the narcotic weed; apparently proud in the possession of that lordship of wretchedness that surrounded them. Colin was constrained to compare the savage life of two continents, separated by an ocean. He came to the conclusion, that under similar circumstances mankind will ever be the same. In the Comanche of the _Llano Estacado_, or the Pawnee of the Platte, he would have found an exact counterpart of the Ishmaelitish wanderer over the sandy plains of the Saara. He was allowed but scant time to philosophise upon these ethnological phenomena. As the _douar_ became stirred into general activity, he, along with his two companions, was rudely startled from his attitude of observation, and ordered to take a share in the toils of the captors. At an earlier hour, and still more rudely, had Sailor Bill received the commands of his master; who, as the first rays of the Aurora began to dapple the horizon, had ordered the old man-o'-war's-man to his feet, at the same time administering to him a cruel kick, that came very near shivering some of his stern timbers. Had the black sheik been acquainted with the English language, as spoken in Ratcliff Highway, he would have better understood Sailor Bill's reply to his rude matutinal salutation; which, along with several not very complimentary wishes, ended by devoting the "nayger's" eyes to eternal perdition. CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT. AN OBSTINATE DROMEDARY.