Large-breeched French troopers lounge
about and are most civil; and the whole party sit down to breakfast
in a little white-washed room, from the door of which the long,
mountain coastline and the sparkling sea show of an impossible blue
through the openings of a white-washed rampart. I try a sea-egg,
one of those prickly fellows - sea-urchins, they are called
sometimes; the shell is of a lovely purple, and when opened, there
are rays of yellow adhering to the inside; these I eat, but they
are very fishy.
'We are silent and shy of one another, and soon go out to watch
while turbaned, blue-breeched, barelegged Arabs dig holes for the
land telegraph posts on the following principle: one man takes a
pick and bangs lazily at the hard earth; when a little is loosened,
his mate with a small spade lifts it on one side; and DA CAPO.
They have regular features and look quite in place among the palms.
Our English workmen screw the earthenware insulators on the posts,
strain the wire, and order Arabs about by the generic term of
Johnny.
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