Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/347

Rh saw many native men squatting or lying about, but only two women, and these wrapped from head to foot in dirty bournouses that brushed the ground and hid the feet of these Helens of the desert.

We learned from our French official associates that the inhabitants of all the villages are Berbers and monogamists, while the neighboring nomads from the plains are Arabs from the east and polygamists. The stationary and more stable people of the ksurs have often suffered at the hands of the nomads on account of their women, so that now the men of the oasis keep their wives and daughters well guarded under lock and key.

At one point we passed through the suk where the major portion of the merchants were Jews, some of whom belonged to very ancient families that traced their lineage back to ancestors who arrived before the tide of Islam swept over the country. Colonel Pariel pointed out to us, as we were passing a small place, a mosque with a tall, new minaret and explained that the old one had fallen some years before just at the time when the muezzin was calling the people to prayer. The fact that he escaped with his life and without even a serious bruise, when several Berbers were killed and some houses badly damaged by the falling tower, could only be accepted as a miracle and at once marked the muezzin as a saint and Marabout—a title which he well deserved after his unusual feat.

I was interested, in the course of a visit to a well under one of the houses, to note the structure of the building. The different stories and the galleries were supported by transversals made of palm-wood. As this