“I prefer to keep all the folly to myself. Is not that a grand cocoanut?”
He pointed to a tree so tall that it seemed soaring to heaven.
“Yes, indeed. Like the one that presides over the purple dog.”
“You have seen my fetish?”
“Smain showed him to me, with reverence.”
“Oh, he is king here. The Arabs declare that on moonlight nights they have heard him joining in the chorus of the Kabyle dogs.”
“You speak almost as if you believed it.”
“Well, I believe more here than I believe anywhere else. That is partly why I come here.”
“I can understand that—I mean believing much here.”
“What! Already you feel the spell of Beni-Mora, the desert spell! Yes, there is enchantment here—and so I never stay too long.”