Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/56

40 Lamaism, place their bits of rags and other streamers on the bare branches or tree-trunks sticking out from the obo, or heaps of stones, which these travelers erect as a propitiation and plea to the evil spirits of dangerous regions to allow them to pass in safety.

"O Humanity!" thought I, "your mind, regardless of the form of the skull or the color of the skin, has ever the same characteristics, which compel you to follow the same channels of thought. Perhaps the celebrated Abu Median had some reason to think, with the wise Khel el-Konoun, that the souls of all the human tribe were born at the same time, at the moment of the great creative action of Cosmos, or Allah, and that all were encompassed in their infinite numbers within the person of the first man created, our forefather Adam."

With these thoughts I passed on through the cemetery along a beautiful avenue of dark cypresses to the right and left of which were white Moslem tombs, together with upright and recumbent marble slabs, while at different points among the graves were gathered groups of women, so shrouded in their bournouses that only a single eye gave indication of the face within.

"Today is Thursday, and consequently there are not many women in the cemetery," explained our guide; "but on Friday whole crowds of them come here. They remain among the graves from morning until evening; they eat here, drink their tea and coffee, mourn a little and talk a great deal. Here we have the fountain-source of all the gossip that overspreads western Algeria."

As we were leaving the cemetery, we met a group of women tourists, all dressed and bonneted up to the very