(edit title) My GrandFather, The Murderer Options

[Faithless]

Just been down to visit my mother in Malmö for a few days, and while I was there I began reading an old book from the 1920's, written by my Morfar.
As a Swedish major, he dreamt of the mystical Sahara and applied to join the French army there.
He wrote a couple of books about his adventures. He even discovered a flower in the desert which is named after him.
He found a small kid, a black girl, left to die in the desert, and adopted her - sent her to university in Paris later.
Quite extraordinary stuff.

But imagine my horror when he suddenly starts recalling slaughtering tribes, man against man, bleeding to death in the dunes.

He travelled with one tribe, I forget their name, when they pursued another tribe for several days and nights through the desert, following their trail and finally catching up with them and attacking them.
I didn't quite work out why.
They even had slaves.

At one point, they had prisoners from one tribe, and prisoners from their other rivalling tribe, tied up in each corner of the camp.

The prisoners of the one tribe were probably going to be executed in the morning, so the prisoners of the rivalling tribe offered them their food that night, even though they otherwise were mortal enemies. It was the "code of the desert".

But generally, I was rather freaked out, lol

[Faithless]

Thats him on his camel "Pelle":

http://img177.imageshack.us/my.php?image=moffaoz7.jpg

He had to grow his beard long because you weren't considered a man if you had a smooth face and thus wouldn't command respect.

[Gustav- Fælbönnran]

Ah, the Imperial years. People who claim that the French are a bunch of sissies forget the piles of corpses that they left rotting in the sun throughout their empire. Got to wonder if your grandfather bought into the French value system, or if he just liked to fight.

And about his footwear?

[Faithless]

He served in the French Army, but from all accounts he seems to be a perfectly decent soldier. He comes off as a sort of UN guy, but the conditions are absolutely horrendous sometimes, friends of his going out into the desert and never coming back was commonplace. It was life brought down to its absolute basics.
The sand could get to 75C at times.

He was in one battle where the other side where simply cornered under the sun with no shadow, so they chose to stand up and get shot rather than take the heat.

But he also did things like this:

Denna klassiska tur finns redan beskriven i STF:s årsbok 1930, skriven av grundaren till Hindås KFK Torsten Orre. Han var en pionjär inom kanot och friluftsliv i Sverige och bildade HKFK 1930.

And about his footwear?

Flip flops, I would imagine.

[Ezpen The Caveman]

Thats him on his camel "Pelle":

http://img177.imageshack.us/my.php?image=moffaoz7.jpg

He had to grow his beard long because you weren't considered a man if you had a smooth face and thus wouldn't command respect.

Wow...
Lots of facial hair there, so I can't see if you look like him. An interesting story, Faithless.
Was he swedish/french or?

[007]

wow, faithless, those are pretty heavy-duty discoveries. nothing about your granddaddy as it was the times he lived in, but it reminds me of how brutal and vicious we humans truly are.

on a positive note, it also demonstrates how we can educate and reprogram ourselves out of it too.

[Faithless]

Yeah, quite a shock really. It wasn't that long ago, during my lifetime.
I had to ask my mother several times if it was all seriously true, and she was all: "Oh yes, it's all true". Her apartment is littered with old ornamented arab weapons and decorations.

Espen, interestingly, they liked to be hairless on the rest of their bodies.
Theres a Papillon/Biggles/Lawrence of Arabia feel to the book.
A good read if you ever come across it in some old second hand book store or something:

"Ingen Mans Land" - Thorsten Orre

[Streja]

Aren't you the posh one...ppffffff!!

Well, MY ancestors are related to Olav Tryggvasson. They were all Vikings. :roll:

[007]

Aren't you the posh one...ppffffff!!

you're not serious, right?

[Mzungu]

A distant ancestor went by the name of, Richard (Dick) Turpin.

*Black Bess, many a time saved his neck* 8)

[High Priestess Kang - Slu...]

Faithless...

This is truly fascinating stuff. Are you thinking of cobbling together some sort of story?

[Gustav- Fælbönnran]

A distant ancestor went by the name of, Richard (Dick) Turpin.

*Black Bess, many a time saved his neck* 8)

I thought that one could detect a whiff of the highwayman about you from time to time.

I don't have any horses anymore, but I will keep an eye on the black sheep when you are in Jamtland.

[Streja]

you're not serious, right?

Just jealous at his amazing history!

[007]

Just jealous at his amazing history!

no kiddin'

[Streja]

no kiddin'

We were just vikings and sea captains, although my late late late something grandfather rescued a lot of people near Marstrand in like 1909 or something.