TO
E. S. P. HAYNES
INTRODUCTION
Once, in a village that overlooked the Mediterranean, I saw a man working in an open shop, fitting together a builder’s Ornament which was to go upon the ridge-end of some roof or other. He was making the base of the Ornament so as to fit on to a certain angle of the rafters, and the Ornament itself was a Cross. It was spring time, and he was singing.
I asked him for whom he was making it. He answered, for a man who had ordered it of him over-sea in Algiers.
But another Ornament also stood by, carved in the same way, and similar in size. I asked him for whom he had finished that other, and he said, “For the same man over-sea: he puts them upon buildings.” This second Ornament, however, happened to be a Crescent.
The contrast moved me to cross the sea, to understand the land upon the further shore, and to write upon Africa some such little historical essay as follows.