, we could see a dark wedge of
rock, almost on the sky-line beyond the Anjera and other hills of
Morocco: _the_ Rock--Gibraltar.
At this point we lunched. Mohammed was provided, and dropped behind a
rock: the donkey grazed. A little boy, minding goats, came up with a
fascinating pocket-knife, but would not let it go out of his hand. A
clear stream gave us drink--it was warm; bees hummed in the balmy air;
there was an aromatic scent; clouds hung round the hills; the panorama
below was essentially peaceful and "Christian."
And then we went on in search of the far-famed Blue Pool. But though we
reached where the river lay in still pools, blue beyond all known blues,
we found no more--only traces of a great flood and landslips, which, I
suspect, had washed away the lake people had talked of. We found enough
to bring us back on other days, and to understand why the missionaries
take up their tents and camp in the mountains in the summer.
We returned by a path farther west, and passed a great olive wood full of
black shadows. The scrub on the hillsides holds pig--there are plenty of
them; and the boars become more or less antagonistic at certain times in
the year. We were told tales of people who had met with terrifying
adventures, but personally our expeditions had no such thrilling
incidents connected with them.
It would have been unwise to stay out after sunset, and that time always
saw us back at Jinan Dolero. It is said to be the most unsafe hour; for
men are coming into Tetuan, and if they can waylay and rob or murder a
traveller, and make their way into the city before the gates shut, half
an hour after sunset, and sleep there, who shall suspect them of dark
deeds done outside in the evening? Besides, Mohammed would never have
consented to be out late, on account of the firm belief which Moors have
in evil spirits. There is a special race of beings, they hold, in many
respects like men, in others like spirits, called _ginns_. Their
principal abode is the under-world, but they come up on to the earth, and
are fond of lurking in wells and in dark corners, even in houses. Rooms
are often haunted by ginns: men are surrounded by ginns. Some of the
more enlightened Moors are inclined to represent ginns as merely
superstitious imaginations and hallucinations on the part of the
ignorant; but probably in his heart of hearts, no Moor but has a secret
desire to propitiate ginns, and a secret dread of falling in with them.
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