Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/21

Rh He pronounced this with force and conviction, was silent for a moment and then, with a "good night," turned and went to his cabin, for at dawn he was to land at Melilla, where his ship was lying.

Left alone and finding my wife was still asleep, I lighted another cigarette and sat down on a bench near the entrance to the saloon. In a few moments the second of the passengers I had seen came and took a place beside me. He was obviously an Arab, a fact which European dress could not disguise and which was soon confirmed by the Arab inscriptions tattooed on his forearm, that were revealed as he raised his hand to light a cigarette.

"Where are you bound?" I asked.

"To Oran," he answered, politely raising his hat. The greeting over, he began to laugh softly and, seeing the question in my eyes, observed significantly:

"I can well surmise what the officer who just left you has been saying." Following this, he duplicated the Spaniard's ideas with extraordinary accuracy and continued:

"We men from Maghreb think in another wise and we are all of the same mind. We gave the Spaniards civilization; we infused new and vigorous blood into their race; we were worthy adversaries on the sea and on land. Later they penetrated to the heart of our country and took a great part of it. With an iron hand, much harder and more merciless than had been the hands of the Moorish kings of Granada, Cordova and Seville, they gripped our throats, throttled and persecuted us and now despise us as dogs, as slaves from the most