Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

per højholt

there, preserving as such the illusion that their presence in the blockhouses had a purpose, which of course it no longer possessed, excepting the few nights in which the ears invaded the area inside the rampart and, one by one, snuck across while miming blue-mussel-shells-washed- ashore-by-the-tide. Scarcely had they reached the other side before the ears ’ discomfort at the big empty sand stretch sent the small, opalescent flock scurrying for the gigantic limestone cliff, which in the moonlight shone with a mother-of-pearl luminescence similar to the moon’s own. Regarding these ears, who from the entire Iberian peninsula flocked to Gibraltar after their year in neutral territory in order to now join the winning side post festum, there is considerable

evidence, thanks mostly to the small area that played host to such a large number of ears, ensuring that perpetual confrontations with the Rock’s military presence took place. Still, these eye- witness accounts are oddly distributed, as it quickly became standard garrison practice to declare any English mi l itary personnel who brought up the subject of camp capitalizing ears to be having a “spell” and to send them home mid-sentence. Valuable knowledge is accordingly scattered all throughout Great Britain and, as it may be, swept aside by electroshock and various forms of manuduction. In 1937 a few progressives under the influence of the Spanish Civil War took it into their heads to gather and compile what they could of these firsthand accounts, though

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