31.12.38

Three eggs (102 eggs since 26.10.38[1] , or nearly 12 a week).

[1]‘28’ written by mistake. Peter Davison

30.12.38

Large flight (about 200) of storks or cranes passing over. Large white birds, apparently with black edges to their wings. Flying northward, but probably merely circling around to find a place to settle, as they must be migrants from Europe.

Very fine, clear & chilly. No wind.

Two eggs.

29.12.38

Two eggs.

Clear & fine. We have got a cock-pigeon (Frs. 4.50) & put him in the cage with the hen to get acquainted. She started pecking his head gently, I think picking out lice.

26-28.12.38

Have been ill. Not certain about number of eggs, but about 9.

Weather clear & fine.

Second cylinder of Butagaz ended 27.12.38. Exactly 3 weeks (same as last time.)[1]

[1] The previous cylinder lasted five weeks; see 24.11.38. Peter Davison

25.12.38

Quite a heavy frost in the night, everything white this morning & a little cat-ice on the pools. Curious sight of oranges & lemons on the trees frosted over, & lemon blossom frozen stiff. Do not know yet whether it has done any damage.

Bourgainvillea° blossoms look all right. Should not think frosts can be common here, but at the moment there is a wave of cold all over the world. The mountains have for sometime past been covered with snow even on the lower slopes.

Four eggs.

24.12.38

Four eggs.

Both the pigeons eggs broken – do not know how, possibly a cat tried to get up to the nest & scared the bird off. Evidently fertile eggs as they were streaked with blood.

Clear & fine.

23.12.38

The pigeon has laid two eggs & is sitting on them.

Cold & fine. The Oued Tensift has shrunk to about twice its original size.

Three eggs.

22.12.38

Three eggs.

Finer in the morning, rain in the afternoon.

The surviving pigeon (presumably the hen) is sitting on a nest. Do not know whether it can survive, but possibly we may be able to get another cock for it.

The Oued Tensift has now filled up the whole of the valley it runs in, so that at the bridge it is about 300 yards wide (previously about 10 yards). Judging from the vegetation in the valley I should say this is unusual.

VILLA SIMONT, 22.12.38

After heavy rain such as that of the last few days the rivers swell enormously. The Oued Tensift, normally about 10 yards wide, has filled the whole valley it runs in, about 300 yards wide. But judging from the vegetation in the valley this does not happen most years.

The Arab funerals here are the wretchedest I have ever seen. The dead man is carried by friends and relatives on a rough wooden bier, wrapped in cloth. Don’t know whether this is due to poverty, or whether Mahomedans are supposed not to have coffins. A hole not more than two feet deep is hacked in the ground and the body dumped in it with nothing over it except a mound of earth and usually either brick or broken pot at one end, presumably the head. The burial places as a rule are not walled in in any way and except when there happens to be the tomb of some rich person there one would never know them for burial places – they merely look like a rather hummocky piece of ground. No sort of identifying marks over the graves. On one, presumably of a scribe, I found a pen and inkhorn, otherwise only the broken pots etc. On one an enamel tin mug. A few vacant graves always waiting, including little ones for children. Women apparently never attend funerals.

The other widely-read French weekly paper is Gringoire. [a] Used to be a sort of gossipy literary paper, but now as much read as Candide. I notice that these papers, though evidently prosperous and having lots of advertisements, are not above inserting pornographic advertisements. Also that in spite of their politics they publish serial stories etc. by writers who are more or less “left”. On a wall in a café lavatory, “A mort Blum”[1] in very small letters. The first political inscription I have seen in French Morocco.

[Orwell’s note]
[a] ”Gringoire” claims circulation of 1/2 million, evidently truthfully.

[1] Léon Blum (1872-1950) was the first Socialist premier of France, 1936-37, 1938, presiding over a popular front government. He was imprisoned in France and Germany from 1942 until the end of World War II, and was again premier, 1946-47. Peter Davison

21.12.38

Two eggs.

Finer, cool, a few spots of rain.

One of the pigeons is dead – cause unknown.