Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/89

Rh of the curse djinns swarmed in from everywhere and began to pursue, persecute and kill the Moslems with such maladies and madness that none of the Arabs could remain in the place, which is even now never passed by the children of Allah without a prayer or a magic incantation on their lips.

It was, however, quite evident that the family of the French colonist living there among the ruins of the ancient mosque knew nothing of bad spirits. Or, perhaps, these were gracious and favorably inclined toward the two young daughters who served us excellent milk and paid us pretty compliments, as they blushed under the unmistakable favor of Mahomet's eyes.

From Mansura the road climbed higher and higher, pushing the horizon farther and farther back and giving to the eye an ever-increasing landscape. We could see the mosque of Abu Median in El-Eubbad, the emerald oasis of Tlemsen, the towering wall of the mountains, the broken line of the old enceinte of Mansura and the mysterious minaret, where the djinns are so numerous and the pretty women of the French colonists arrange their luscious grapes in the attractive baskets made by the hands of the Arab women from Hennaya. Showing in the distance appeared the scarlet and green plain of Terni and the precipitous slopes of the Safsaf ravine, there where the river forces its way through the rocks like a powerful, blue-scaled snake, pushes them back and finally slips away into the plain, to aid the French colonists and rich Arabs in turning the dreaming forces of this soil into bread, fruit, and wine.

Soon, on the other side of the hills which the road was