Andthe plain is treeless like the
Campagna.
The great wooden rafters of the ceiling and the
walls arewhitewashed; the wooden floors unpainted.
The landscape around Bel-Abbès is rather fine. Of
course cigars and cigarettes were includedin the treat.
Iwalked up the main street and finally asked some
one.
I had beenwalking in the opposite direction. Only
the five and ten-francbills were really safe; they were Algerian Government notes. I
wasbeginning to get a bit tired of the repetition of the same story.
The roomwas dismal and dreary, not a ray of
sunlight shone into it. The orderly who brought me gaveinstructions and
left.
Only the five and ten-francbills were really safe;
they were Algerian Government notes.
Very likely I would be putinto uniform during the
afternoon. He hadentered the Foreign Legion to save his fortune from being
sequestered.
No soldier can sleepout of barracks, only when away
on permission. Since he had beenso kind I insisted upon paying the modest little
bill. No such collection is to be found anywhere else in the world, not evenin
prisons.
I had placed a lot of packagesof cigarettes on the
table and invited each one to help himself. He washimself interested in archaeology,
and had written some things.
It was an antagonism which they cultivated, and
which wasnot to be forgotten for an instant.
Müller warned me that I had never drunk suchstuff
before.
No questionswere supposed to be asked, and, if
asked, the answers were notexpected to be truthful. A man is not punished for
stealing, but the man who has his thingsstolen is punished.
I donot know how to read and write and so I shall
never get on.
Most of the time we received badpotatoes instead of
the greens. The orderly who brought me gaveinstructions and left.
As this was the only photographer in thetown there
was nothing to do about it. My namewas mentioned as having been transferred from one
room to the other. It was sufficient towear a Legions uniform to be insulted. I
hurried through thepretence of eating and rushed to the canteen.
Only the five and ten-francbills were really safe;
they were Algerian Government notes.
I had no reading matter with me, so all I could do
was to stare intothe air.
There was a bath house, which was open once a week
for a shower bath.
And yet thesepeople were indescribably rude to the
soldiers.
Here the code was: do as you would not want to be
done by, but dontbe found out. After he had been in the Legion sometime he fell ill,
was taken to the hospital, and died.
He kept on smoking his cigarettes one after
another. He looked me all over and seemed amused, andasked me some questions as to
my profession which.
Theywere all heavy drinkers, and it did not take
them long to get enough;a glass was one swallow.