Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Tangiers
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
TANGIERS 105
tracks, crouching on the ground before me, and de-
mands whether I too have seen Granada. For now
the Spaniards hold it and they are the people who
stick out their tongues at all nations that are different
from themselves.
Hadji hates the Spaniards—did they not even try
to get Morocco too? Fortunately Allah did not per-
mit them to gain their end—Hadji clenches his fists
and waves his hands wildly—as he tells of the
bloody predatory campaign waged by Spain in 1859
and 1860. He himself as a child saw the men of his
tribe dash westward over the desert in the direction of
Tetuan, in order to drive out the great enemy; he saw
them rushing back faster than they had come—broken
and in despair.
At times, he forgets himself and me and his murder
of the English language and relapses into incompre-
hensible Maghreb, his own speech. His English is
poor in words but his narrations are rich in illustra-
tive gesture. As he tells me of the Moroccan heroes
Akhmed and Abbas and the cruel Spanish General
Prim, he leads me out over the sun-dried, sandy, deso-
Jate heights and venomous swamps, which he loves so
much.
On these hills are tall dry grasses which no animal
will eat; there are rows of aloe, whose fibers are
worked into textiles, as well as a few lone palms; and
you enjoy wide panoramas of curved roads that lead
through sand and nothing but sand. Down below in
the swamps, there are dense jungles with poisonous
snakes and acrid stagnant water that supply drink
and pestilence to the city, and herds of little short-
haired buffaloes that are served as food to the garri-
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
