Chapter 8: Visible Pleasures

While the audience drank coffee and ate small sweetmeats distributed by attendant eunuchs, screens were brought in to surround the contestants' dais and behind them the women stripped off their abayas.

When all was in readiness the Major Domo banged his mace on the ground and the audience resumed their seats.

"The next stage of the competition requires each candidate to parade round the room again, with the abaya removed. The woman will be adorned in anything her sponsor may choose, or nude if that is his choice," explained the Emir, "There must be no interference of any kind with any candidate."

The buzz round the audience at the prospect of seeing a succession of near naked women soon quietened and the Emir called the first contestant out of the screened enclosure, "Twenty-four."

Twenty-four was a pleasant enough woman, with prominent breasts and an unusually large mons, even when shaven, and the Emir was reminded of his earlier thought, 'Her face is not her fortune.' Her sponsor, Usman Abu al-Abbas apparently favoured the dress worn in the old Emir's harem. A sleeveless brocade waistcoat, in the style of a western bolero which did not meet across the breasts but left them visible at each swing as she walked, complemented by loose chiffon trousers of pale pink, but all sheer and with no gusset or seam between the legs. Thus the legs were encased, but the gap left the wearer's shaven cunt completely visible and accessible. This gap ran from front to back, so that the arse-crack was also totally available. A good deal of make-up had been applied and she also had rouged nipples and labia. After she had paraded round, again not very decorously, merely walking quickly, she disappeared back into the screened area.

"Fifty-one," called the Emir, adding in an aside that few understood, "I feel like a bingo caller."

Ali ibn Sa'id whose entry was fifty-one, had a taste in decorative wear for a woman which ran to a short smock, rather like a maternity tunic but which stopped at the level of the cunt-lips, and nothing else. The smock was made from thin white chiffon and showed off the body it contained very well. While nothing was hidden, the effect was much more arousing than nudity could ever have been. Her walk was made a little more of a waddle than her predecessor's by the ample curves she exhibited. It was easy to see why she had worn such a wide abaya.

"Nine," called the Emir.

Nine was entered by Ramzy El-Najjar who favoured a very traditional form with ample charms. It seemed he also liked bracelets, decorative chains and anklets, for she wore many of these on arms, legs, neck, and torso. She also had small sequins and jewels glued to various parts of her body, such as the nipples and navel, the tips of her fingers, the ends of her shoulders, and even her toes. The effect was, to the Western eyes of the Earl of Bargoed, a little like a slightly overweight walking Christmas tree and she seemed to rattle a little as she returned to the screened area.

"Thirty-nine."

Thirty-nine, the entry of Hajji Kofeh Natsheh was an elegant woman, obviously untroubled by the avid stares of the men. She wore a high-necked knee-length flowing peignoir in very fine, almost transparent, nainsook. This had a button at the throat and was open all down the front, thus allowing the audience's eyes free access to her body. The effect was so fetching that one of the audience reached out as if to touch the passing contestant. There was an immediate reaction from the guards who dragged him to the foot of the Emir's dais.

"Go home and stay there," ordered the Emir, and the man slunk away in disgrace, condemned to lifelong house arrest because of his thoughtless action. Then raising his voice, the Emir decreed, "The next man to attempt to touch one of these contestants with his hand will not be sent home, he will be forcibly removed."

None of the audience for one moment thought the man breaking the edict would be forcibly removed from the room; all understood that it was the offending hand from which he would be forcibly removed. Amputation of a hand for theft was a standard punishment and nowadays it was done surgically and while permanent and demeaning it wasn't too painful and very rarely fatal. Being forcibly removed from a hand sounded like a really painful process. Few had forgotten the man who had dared to attack the Emir's mother and had lived for seven weeks through the Death Of A Thousand Cuts at the rate of one an hour with proper medical attention and adequate food and water supplied. He had actually lived to endure over eleven hundred cuts before finally dying, though he had been driven insane about half way through the execution.