Among the Moors (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...greybeard, and turning nimbly on his heels joins us at the opening of the douar. All this gives rise to a very amusing mimic scene of desperate flirtation, played between us and the pretty girl, of whom we catch a glimpse in the shade of the tent. In the meantime, two old women, about to wash linen, have got into a quarrel. They heap abuse on each other with ear-splitting voices, and are just on the point of seizing one another by the hair, when the old man, still armed with his cudgel, and happy at finding an opportunity of venting his wrath on someone, comes and puts a stop to their brawl by clutching them rudely by the neck and stationing them at opposite SIDI CASSIM. points of the douar, after stroking their ribs with one or two smart applications of his matrack. On the road some women pass by, carrying great bundles of sticks. Our men arrive, and, after sending farewell kisses to the amiable damsel in the douar, we set off and soon reach the Sebou again. We proceed for some time along its steep banks. Its turbid waters flow at the foot of a clay slope nearly fifty feet high. On the opposite side, which rises with a gentle ascent, there are clusters of trees in bushy thickets, and you perceive one or two huts, and sparse tents of camel's skin, almost hidden by the vegetation. We wind our way along a path on the extreme ridge of the river bank. On our right, fields of barley, wheat, clover follow in succession, and bands of plovers noisily fly out on all sides. A handsome old man, clad in multitudinous muslin folds, advances from the opposite direction, mounted on a tall grey mule with a sleek coat and nice small hoofs, caparisoned in skyblue velvet embroidered with yellow silk. Soldiers accompany him, the long barrels of their muskets...