Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/220

204 in rags, sitting in the shadow of the corner of a wall. Finding them to be fortune-tellers, who for a few centimes would draw back for me the inscrutable curtain of the future, I faced the revelations and watched them throw on the ground some seeds, murmur something, look intently at me and study my hands and fingers. While they were thus occupying themselves, I in turn examined their faces and hands which were tattooed in blue or black with numerous geometric figures and signs. As I waited I sketched some of these designs which appealed to me as very interesting and later, when I studied them, proved doubly so, as I found among them the symbols of the fire-worshipers such as I have seen in Persia, mysterious signs current among Gipsies, others closely resembling the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Babylonian zodiacal forms, Assyrian characters, letters used on "Stelae Mash-had's" and in Carthaginian and Kittimite inscriptions and finally the Jewish Star of Solomon and the ritual candle. Subsequently I collected in other parts of Africa more specimens of these signs tattooed on the faces of the women and on the hands of men and found that the comparison of them with ancient hieroglyphics yielded most unexpected and interesting results.

A few days later, when I was too weak from a fever which I had contracted through exposure to the sudden chill that comes with the night to accept any offers of hospitality, we were invited through Monsieur and Madame Halmagrand to take tea and later dinner with some local dignitaries, who were friends of theirs. After much protest Zofiette finally consented to accompany them to her first independent appearance among Berbers and