File:By the waters of Carthage (1906) (14781665224).jpg

Identifier: bywatersofcartha00loriuoft (find matches)
Title: By the waters of Carthage
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Lorimer, Norma Octavia, 1864-
Subjects: Tunisia -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : Hutchinson
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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beneath theirenveloping yadash a bundle of these self-same perfumerscandles, I dared not of course go inside, but in myimagination I could see the figures go through theirprescribed ceremony of walking round the tomb, alwaysfrom left to right, stooping to kiss or reverently touchthe four corners—just as a devout Catholic kisses the toeof St. Peter in Rome or puts the tips of his fingers inthe holy-water stoup in a church, reciting in a low chantsome passage from the Koran in that curious orientalmonotone which one constantly hears in the Koran schoolsin the bazaars. After a few moments the white figures returned. Theyhad made their observances and had repeated their in-vocations, and, let us hope, left their troubles in thelittle whitewashed koubba in that silent city of the dead. As they tottered back to the main avenue of thecemetery (for no upper-class Arab woman can do morethan totter), I wondered to myself what manner of mindit was that lay hidden behind their black masks, and
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Pholo Ganigites, Ticins. THE TOMB OF A MARABOUT (SAINT). Chapter VII 121 what was the nature of the trouble that filled their orientalhearts. In another moment they had stepped awkwardlyinto the carriages which were waiting for them on themain avenue of the cemetery (dull, ill-kept looking cabswith wooden shutters instead of windows), and the self-satisfied eunuch coachmen had whipped up the horsesinto a trot, and off went my mysterious visitors, back totheir harems or homes, as the case might be. As time passed, on and on they came, these whitefigures—all with black faces, all filled with the same desireto invoke the aid of some saint in their trouble. Eachone bore in her hidden arms a bundle of fine candles. Perhaps in time I shall even find out what is themeaning of the ostrich-eggs, and their use. This visit to the tombs is the weekly dissipation ofall Arab women in Tunis. If I had to be born an Arabwoman, I would certainly pray to be born a hard-workinghomeless Bedouin, for the

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