Damascus, Sunday, 29 April

Morning, at the entrance to the grand bazaar. The light is dazzling and still new before ten o’clock. An uncovered quarter where strong trees have grown up at random. A place open to the sky where the sun beats down merrily on the oriental crowd through the young leaves of the plane trees. A venerable fountain, completely faced with antique tile work. Minarets, near and far, push up into the blue sky, where swifts and swallows swirl. All along the street, there are cafes with colourful couches lined up outside under the shady overhang of old roofs and people in long robes of all colours, sitting smoking pale-coloured cigarettes, the sweetly intoxicating smell of which spreads all around. This is the true ageless Orient, such as at the time of ‘Aladdin’ or ‘The Three Ladies of Baghdad’. We take a seat for a while among the idlers and a little Arab girl, five or six years old, all alone and looking comically serious, passes by in high-heel shoes. Suddenly, as she watches the swallows fly, she stumbles, losing one of her shoes, and falls onto the paving stone, right onto her tiny nose. Without a word and bleeding, she picks herself up, puts her shoe back on, a child of the common people, already used to coping with problems alone. No one helps her in her distress and she is not surprised at that. The blood is still running from her poor little nose and every time she puts her hand to it, her fingers are red and she shakes them onto the paving stones. A look of anguish comes over her face and the tears come. She weeps quietly and moves away quite sensibly to the exquisite fountain to wash herself in the fresh water. To distract her, we give her some small change. She puts it in her pocket as she says thank you, but she is still weeping and her heavy bleeding continues. A young Arab lad of seven or eight years passes, half a head taller than she and is visibly from a better social class. He is also serious in his fine long robe and has a religious appearance with his amber rosary. He stops to console her, then taking her resolutely by the hand, he tells us that he wants to take care of her in his own home, and she confidently goes off with him.

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