Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/336

320 from service in the war, answered a query as to what had astonished him most by saying:

"Three things seemed strange to me. In our village iron, when thrown into water, will sink at once; yet on the great sea I sailed in a ship made all of iron. I am sure of this, because I tapped her sides with my hands; yet she went not under. This I do not understand. Also, the French horses astonished me, those that they used in the ports to haul great loads. Their hind legs are so thick that one of them would be equal to four or five of those of our animals. And what completely amazed me was a man standing on a high bridge and lifting with a chain loads that thirty men of our village could not have raised from the ground." This last referred to an electric crane.

Monsieur de Vitasse also recalled an amusing case of an Arab's experience in Paris. During one of the ceremonies in the Place de l'Etoile, at which many of the generals who had taken part in the war were present, the wave of emotion following some of the speeches was so strong that many of those present wept. A caid invited to the function was found weeping also. When asked why he wept, the caid for a long time did not regain sufficient composure to answer but finally replied:

"I cried from enthusiasm, as I could not look at the horse of General Pershing without shedding tears; it was so moving, so splendid!" and he had no more than answered before he wept again, this lover and connoisseur of beautiful horses.

The following morning we left Berguent. Our first stage, to the small civil administration outpost at Tendrara, carried us through a plain that was also covered