or three baths daily, their
tables supplied with the dainties of all lands and seas, all their
dishes of gold, nothing but Median garments, spectacles, games in the
Circus, the chase,--but with the least possible exertion,--dancers,
mimes, musicians, outdoor pleasures in beautifully kept groves of the
finest fruit-trees, daily revels, daily drinking bouts, and the most
unbridled enjoyment of every description. As the Vandals led the most
luxurious, the Moors led the most simple lives of all peoples. Winter
and summer, they are half clad in a short gray garment, and live in the
same low felt hut or leather tents, where one can scarcely breathe;
neither the snow of the high mountains nor the scorching heat of the
desert affects them; they sleep on the bare ground, only the richest
spread a camel-skin under them; they have neither bread, wine, nor any
of the better foods. Like the animals, they chew unground, even
unroasted barley, spelt, and corn.

Yet now the Vandals endure starvation without yielding, while the Moors
succumb.

It is incomprehensible! Sons of the same nation from whom, in two short
battles, we wrested Africa. To our wondering question how this can be,
all the deserters make one reply: "The holy King." He constrains them
by his eyes, his voice, by magic. But Fara says his magic cannot hold
out long against hunger and thirst. And since, as these strong Moors,
emaciated to skeletons, say that the King and his followers do not
utter a word of complaint while enduring these sufferings, Fara
thought, from genuine kindness of heart, that he would try to end this
misery. He dictated to me the following epistle: "Forgive me, O King of
the Vandals, if this letter seems to you somewhat foolish. My head was
always more fit to bear sword-strokes than to compose sentences. And
since you and my head met a short time ago, thinking has been still
more difficult than usual. I write, or rather I have these words
written, plainly, according to the Barbarian fashion. Dear Gelimer, why
do you plunge yourself and all your followers into the deepest abyss of
misery? Merely to avoid serving the Emperor? For this word, 'liberty,'
is probably your delusion. Do you not see that, for the sake of this
liberty, you are becoming under obligations of gratitude and service to
miserable Moors, that you are dependent upon these savages? Is it not
better to serve the great Emperor at Constantinople, than to rule over
a little band of sta