Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/310

294 ridiculing pashas, caids and cadi; and finally imitating women of the harems, singing and dancing with all their mannerisms and showing how they sought to please their lords and masters—and how they betrayed them! Then he began to weep and to complain of gnawing hunger, winking at us as he did so. As the sous that fell into his bowl were welcomed with mocking raillery, I threw him a franc in anticipation of a joke that would rock the crowd with laughter. Instead of this the jester saluted me most politely and, half-closing his eyes, said in excellent French:

"I am boundlessly grateful to the noble foreigner."

Near by, sword-play was being indulged in with wooden staves as substitutes for the lethal blades. The master, after his hands had been kissed by his assistants, was demonstrating a number of passes and blows, in which he used his weapon most skilfully. Then an adversary offered himself from the crowd and enabled us to see a picturesque engagement, full of incredibly rapid twists and turns, with quick transfers of the weapon from one hand to the other and with hard-pressed attacks and most brilliant defence. It became very evident to us that the art of using the sword, which was the pride of the Andalusian Moors on many a field in Europe, had not been entirely forgotten here. The scimitar is the inseparable companion of the followers of the Prophet, who know well the use of it. Everywhere throughout the Moslem countries I have found great artists of the sword: Turkomans with their kleesh, Kurds with their long yataghan, curved at the end, Georgians and Ossetes with