ificent forests in this part of
Algeria, those almost impenetrable ravines, where fallen pine trees hem
the mountain torrents, and those little valleys filled with oleanders,
which look like oriental carpets stretching along the banks of the
streams. You know that at every moment, in these woods and on these
hills, where one would think that nobody had ever penetrated, one
suddenly sees the white dome of a shrine that contains the bones of a
humble, solitary marabout, which was scarcely visited from time to time,
even by the most confirmed believers, who had come from the neighboring
villages with a wax candle in their pocket, to set up before the tomb of
the saint.

"Now one evening as I was going home, I was passing one of these
Mohammedan chapels, and, looking in through the door, which was always
open, I saw a woman praying before the altar. That Arab woman, sitting on
the ground in that dilapidated building, into which the wind entered as
it pleased, and heaped up the fine, dry pine needles in yellow heaps in
the corners. I went near to see better, and recognized Allouma. She
neither saw nor heard me, so absorbed was she with the saint, to whom she
was speaking in a low voice, as she thought that she was alone with him,
and telling this servant of God all her troubles. Sometimes she stopped
for a short time to think, to try and recollect what more she had to say,
so that she might not forget anything that she wished to confide to him;
then, again, she would grow animated, as if he had replied to her, as if
he had advised her to do something that she did not want to do, and the
reasons for which she was impugning, and I went away as I had come,
without making any noise, and returned home to dinner.

"That evening, when I sent for her, I saw that she had a thoughtful look,
which was not usual with her.

"'Sit down there,' I said, pointing to her place on the couch by my side.
As soon as she had sat down, I stooped to kiss her, but she drew her head
away quickly, and, in great astonishment, I said to her:

"'Well, what is the matter?'

"'It is the Ramadan,' she said.

"I began to laugh, and said: 'And the Marabout has forbidden you to allow
yourself to be kissed during the Ramadan?'

"Oh, yes; I am an Arab woman, and you are a Roumi!'

"'And it would be a great sin?'

"'Oh, yes!'

"'So you ate nothing all day, until sunset?'

"'No, nothing.'

"'But you had something to eat after sundown?'

"'Yes.'