Ferdinand Ossendowski

“ This Spain had her abode there on the summit of Murjajo, and she died and is buried there in the lowering sarcophagus of Santa Cruz, while beside it France smiles gaily and enticingly to the sea and to the neighboring Arab hamlets, to the whole world, laughing from the whiteness and brilliance of her silvery town with its colored crowds, its green, inviting lawns and its lovely parks and squares.
France does not care for the eternal walls and towers of Santa Cruz. She seeks only to assure to the coming generations a happy life in this sunny land ”

“ When a Berber wants to offend and insult some one, he flings at him:
"Haddad ben Haddad (You smith, son of a smith) !"
Leaving behind us the black tents of the smiths, the old crones and the younger damsels of the blazing desert, we were soon out upon and across the open plain beyond which lay the olive-groves of Menar. The neglect at once evident among the olives and other greenery made it plain that the place would not have been worth a visit after the excursion to Aguedal, were it not for a nook that was filled with romance, even though it struck a melancholy note. ”

“ To my great astonishment I had just learned from a cultured Arab that here in Morocco it is the fashion to make access to the richest private 'palaces' as difficult as possible. The more splendid the residence, the more twisted, dark and narrow are the streets through which one must approach it—a real labyrinth and then, in some nook, a splendid gate, the work of centuries ago, with its mosaics, carvings and beautiful marble; within it, another labyrinth, this time of corridors, porticoes and open courts; finally a magnificent park and palace full of unimagined luxury. ”

“ 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. ”

“ IN the little Spanish port of Almeria we climbed the gang-plank to the deck of the uninviting shell of a thousand tons that flaunted the name of Balcar across the Mediterranean waves and was to carry us behind its tossing letters to French Oran over the first stage of our journey to the north of the Dark Continent Though it was still summer, the chill of an evening wind that lashed the sea beyond the breakwater kept us moving on the deck as the sailors slipped the lines that held us to the pier. With a sigh my wife remarked:
"That one tiny cable is our only link with Europe." ”

“ Under the branches of a solitary tree that lent its shadow to the tomb there sat a well-dressed native, who, we found, spoke French and answered our curiosity by telling us that we were before the tomb of the sultan, Ibn Teshufin, founder of the Almoravide dynasty in Morocco, who had sprung up like a storm from his oasis in the Sahara at the beginning of the eleventh century to sweep through the mountains and conquer their tribes, to build Marrakesh, to confirm the faith in Allah and to leave for his descendants a tradition of conquest that carried them eventually to the throne of Andalusia. ”

“ With a chauffeur who whirled us around dizzy curves at a sickening speed and with apparent disregard of all caution, we were soon at the summit of the first pass, from where we looked back upon the spot of the Tanaout villages, the range of green hills and, beyond them, the dead, reddish-gray plain that floored the valley across to the wall of the Jebilet range, glimmering on the horizon. Directly in front of these mountains lay the little dot which we knew to be the oasis of Marrakesh, and, straining my sight, I could just make out the minaret of the Kutubia mosque. ”

“ The white manes of the waves wreathed at times the after deck and streamed down the sides of the black, wet body. The wind tore through the rigging and rocked the life-boats in prophetic mockery over what it would do with them, once it were given a free hand on the open sea.
As Zofiette fell asleep for a moment, I lighted a cigarette and leaned over the rail, captivated by the wild abandon of the racing waves. Meanwhile two figures had appeared on deck. They stood apart from each other, observing the mad struggle between the sea and the ship and the swift coursings of the sky. ”

“ The moon was already far up by the time we reached Bab Mansur, and the walls of Mulay Ismail were drawn on the moon-washed background of sky as indented, black silhouettes. We knew that behind them lay ruins and crumbling stone, contrasting sadly with the proud boast of the Black Sultan:
"I erected these walls and palaces. Let others destroy them, if they can."
For two centuries men have been destroying the work of the despot, erecting with the stones, marble and mosaics of his buildings their palaces and temples all over Morocco. ”

“ That evening we spent in the hospitable home of Colonel and Madame Pariel and met there a monk of the order of The White Fathers, who had come up not long before out of the Sahara, where he was passing his life among the Tuaregs and other half-wild nomads of the desert. The black cross hanging against the white cassock combined with the serious, calm face of this man to tell of some force which the white race is opposing to the irreconcilability of Islam and to the magic cults of lesser importance which still find shelter within the confines of the Dark Continent. ”

“ They came to North Africa from the more barren plains of Asia, found here easier conditions of life and now ask nothing better than the chance to defend these possessions which they have acquired after persistent struggle and great effort. They love their country, this earth here burned by the sun, cracking and stony, there beside some well or watercourse drawing over itself a bright mantle of flowers and grass—they love it, because they bought it with their blood, because it nourishes them, because it has developed Islamic leaders, scholars and saints and is now hallowed by their ashes. ”

“ These men in their turbans, large trousers and slippers are rather uninspiring when on foot; but, when they sit astride their high, richly ornamented saddles on real Arab steeds, they show again their old blood of rider and warrior—their heads are raised, their faces become proud, their eyes flash fire and in their feet, that rest so sure and firm within the large stirrups, one feels resides the strength necessary to back up the strong cuts of the sword, when the horse is in the gallop. ”

“ Memory once more assumed her sway over me and bore me on her magic carpet to the shores of Black Lake in Siberia, which lay before me in the blaze of the sun's bright shafts of light and was also framed in a white band—of evaporated salt. Standing before the silent and motionless sheen of the surface one is afraid the specter of forgetfulness or death may be imprisoned there. A dead silence holds everything around in its grip, the silence of death or of agony, of some dumb curse or of non-existence ”

“ Rome. Involuntarily we felt a strange respect for this dead city, where, immortalized in these stones, lived the great spirit of the powerful nation that spread to the most distant corners of the world of those days rays of the civilization of all the peoples that went to make up the Empire. Today the strong lines of the triumphal arch erected to glorify Emperor Caracalla, the columns of the forum, ruins of the basilica—all places where the public life of the city once seethed—stand somber against the background of the brilliant sky. ”

“ It was in 1673 that he ascended the throne of Maghreb and moved his capital from Fez to Meknes, which attracted him not only because of its strategic position, its olive-groves, pure air and "healthy water," but also because of his own desire to quit Fez with its network of intrigue in favor of the supplanted Merinides, who had brought such glory to the city of Idris II. The shadow of Mulay Ismail is to be met everywhere in Meknes the moment one enters the gate of Bab Mansur el-Aleuj and is surrounded by the high, massive walls of lime and beaten earth. ”

“ Even though the feeling of strange contrasts and astonishment may be the first, superficial emotion, after a time that of pride gradually asserts itself, mingled with a real satisfaction that the civilization of the white race can respect and guard not only those relics of the past that are cut in stone or molded in bronze, but also those that are preserved in the customs and cults of the living, that it can calmly continue its work and its life alongside the quite different currents of thought and life of other peoples whose spirit is foreign to its own. ”

“ The story of the young Arab had laid bare for me some of the workings of the native mind in its attitude toward the primitive gods and spirits that still retained their dominion over the minds of peasant and sage alike. If the soul of the people is so guided, how dangerous would be the liberty that men seek to bring to them! What would these tribes do except indulge in a whirlpool of civil strife? ”

“ When they sprang into their saddles and their horses shot away as though their feet hardly touched the earth, these riders made a picturesque sight with their rifles resting on their hips and their bournouses flying in the wind. But the mechanical speed-king of mountain and plain soon overtook and passed the more picturesque men of the desert on their Arab steeds and then drew alongside a railway train, filled with the white forms of natives and their wives, with haiks drawn over the women's heads. ”

“ Suddenly a human voice broke this silence, so full of lesser sounds. How strange it is that the stillness of the night remains a silence, though it be replete with sounds, all of which it absorbs and takes within itself without an echo, yet that it is itself frightened and driven temporarily away by one loud note of a human voice.
We looked behind us and discovered a large garden on the other side of a hedge of Berber figs, within which a swing, that hung from a branch of one of the trees, was pulsating through its graceful arc under the rhythmic, supple movements of a young girl. ”

“ Down at the further end of Jemaa el-Fna another crowd surrounded an itinerant quack. Those who know the country say that real doctors are to be found among the Berbers and Arabs but that they are fast disappearing; yet pure medical science, as it is known in European countries, does not exist in Moslem lands today. Only traditions remain, and most of these are derived from the realm of magic, inasmuch as all the superstitions of the peoples with whom the Arabs and Berbers have come into contact have injected themselves into the questions of health as well as into the world of sorcery. ”

“ In the middle of the circle of listeners a young native of perhaps some thirty years, dressed in a long white garment girt with a cord and holding a pilgrim's staff, revealed a beautiful, inspired face, fiery eyes, a passionate mouth, a long black beard and flowing hair that raised before the mind a picture of John the Baptist, denouncing the sins and evil practices of humanity and preparing the way for the Messiah, or even of Christ Himself, when, angered by the desecrating merchants, he drove them from the temple. ”

“ They had come across the sea and scattered over the whole of North Africa, even to the farthest oases and up into the Atlas ranges, during the days when Spain with fire and sword began to persecute and torture them, finally leaving to them the single choice of immigration from the peninsula or death. On African soil they often faced a new persecution, no less terrible, perishing in thousands at the hands of warring Berbers, or from sickness and from the killing rays of the sun. ”

“ The moment we passed outside the protecting wall, the gloating waves seized the old Spanish hull and tossed It back and forth like a shuttlecock the whole night through. Zofiette was ill, tragically ill, little comforted by the thought that practically all the other passengers were no better sailors than she. After a solitary dinner I went back up on deck to join my wife and look out across the foaming sea.
Immense waves, wild steeds of a wilder wind, charged and threw themselves upon the lunging hulk, causing it to quiver and heel to port, with the groans and plaints of an old rheumatic man. ”

“ Will it finally reach here, this Figig with its peaceful ksurs, its tall palms and its naked, richly colored ranges?
What then will become of those messengers who bring here another fire, a fire lodged in their hearts and kindled by the Creating Hand of a great love and understanding? The light of this fire will in time penetrate through the crumbling wall of darkness into all the distant recesses of life and will triumph as a splendid, strong Conquering Spirit among the yellow/ black and white races from one end of the world to the other. ”