He was to return to his work
there in a week or so. The proposal was too tempting to be refused.
We spoke of the spirit of irritation and discontent that seemed rife among
the Europeans in Gafsa.
"Yes, the wind," he said; "or perhaps Africa generally. I've often noticed
that men, and women too, put on new faces and characters hereabouts. This
contact with an inferior race upsets their nervous equilibrium. The lack
of comfort and the need of abrupt action makes them discard gentleness and
other external husks of civilization. The mildest of us are liable to
become brusque; and harsh ones, brutal. Only the native remains resigned."
Thereupon I propounded my hypothesis of the _Mektoub_ or resignation
doctrine: the intellectual burnous of the Arabs.
The theory, he thought, was so good that there must be something wrong
with it. His work brought him into daily contact with the natives, and, so
far as he could judge, _Mektoub_ was only one aspect of their general way
of looking at things. It was bound up, for instance, with that idea of
impenitence. Unlike ourselves, who approve of self-abasement, the Arab
regards repentance as only fit for slaves.
Pages:
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84