Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/284

268 easily become the wives of the jugglers of Jemaa el-Fna, of the workers from the suks, of my driver or of the black slave who led the way with his lantern into your beautiful court and house, where your ancestors have long striven and builded for their descendants."

"May Allah defend us!" exclaimed the old men, and then fell to whispered consultation between themselves and the interpreter.

Along such lines and through many diverse ways the talk ran on, until it was eleven o'clock before we rose to take our leave. Pressing my hands and afterwards touching their lips with their fingers, they said to me:

"Enta mesit ou kwalbek khallit (Leaving us, you leave behind you sorrowing hearts)."

The next morning a slave brought to the hotel two letters, conveying to me in the all-too-flattering terms of Oriental politeness an appreciation of the information I had imparted to our hosts of the previous evening, who quite evidently had some knowledge of the doctrines and propaganda of the Soviets but who possessed far from the whole truth in the matter.