e is stopped in
the yard and has to re-tell his story. He speaks slowly, with
beautifully guttural voice. From time to time he pulls his burnous to
one side and shows his left arm, strapped to his chest and wrapped in
bloody blankets.

* * * * *

The moment I come into the street a violent storm breaks. Rain,
thunder, lightning, sirocco.... Quickly, I take shelter in the first
available doorway, and fall amongst a bunch of bohemians, crowded into
the archways of a Moorish courtyard. It adjoins the Milianah mosque,
and is a regular refuge for the Muslim destitute. They call it the
_Courtyard of the Poor_.

Large, emaciated, lousy, and threatening, greyhounds range around me.
Backed up against the gallery pillars, I try to keep control of myself
and don't talk to anyone, as I try to look unconcernedly at the rain
bouncing off the flagstones. The bohemians are lying about carelessly.
Close by me is a young woman, almost beautiful, with her breasts and
legs uncovered, and thick iron bracelets on her wrists and ankles. She
is singing a strange tune consisting of three melancholic, nasal notes,
while she is breast feeding a naked, reddish-bronze child, and fills a
mortar with barley with her free arm. The wind-blown rain sometimes
soaks the arms of the nursing woman and the body of the child. The
bohemian girl completely ignores this and keeps singing during the
gusts, while still piling up the barley and giving suck.

The storm abates and gives me a chance to leave the courtyard of
Miracles and make my way towards dinner at Sid'Omar's, now imminent....
As I cross the main square, I run into my Jew of recent memory again.
He is leaning on his consultant; his witnesses are following happily
behind him, and a bunch of naughty, little Jewish boys skip around
him.... They are all beaming. The consultant is taking charge of the
affair; he will ask for two thousand francs compensation from the
tribunal.

* * * * *

Dinner at Sid'Omar's is sumptuous. The dining room opens onto a Moorish
courtyard, where two or three fountains are playing.... It's an
excellent Turkish meal, whose highlights are _poulet aux amandes,
couscous a la vanille_, and _tortue a la viande_--a bit heavy, but a
gourmet meal nevertheless--and biscuits made with honey called
_bouchees du kadi_.... For wine--nothing but champagne. Sid'Omar
managed to drink some despite Muslim law--while the servers were
looking awa