Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

per højholt

located in the garden surrounding the citadel, which was erected by the Moorish general Tariq in the eighth century, on the Rock’s west s ide. On the s tage’s pa i ns t ak i ng l y shaped flagstones, hewn directly from the cliff side, the ears would assemble as soon as the stage lay sheltered in the moonlight from the east wind and mime for the restless macaques scenes from their Portuguese existence, from their flight (here everyone could participate), and from their periodic voyeuristic skulks about the English camp. The greatest enthusiasm among the macaques, as few and distracted as they were, resulted from tremulous and helpless parodies of their, the macaques’, existence on the Rock. Yet the macaques let every opportunity for self- understanding fly straight

over their heads, and the ears had to acknowledge that the monkeys’ interest for seat cushion directly in front of them oftentimes completely detached them from the events taking place on stage. Nonetheless, the ears were certain that it was thanks to these moonlit tableaus that the macaques allowed them to occupy the dark corners of their small caves on the Rock’s east side. In this same region, though far down by the bay, was also the small fishing village of La Caleta, though at the time of the ears’ arrival it was known as Catalanbay. This village was connected to the west-side settlement, which shared its name with the Rock, by a laborious path northward around the cliff, as well as by a tunnel bored straight through the Rock and ending at Gibraltar town’s docks. This tunnel, whose

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