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Rule -> RE: Off the beaten path (2/6/2012 5:45:16 PM)
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The almond nut trees of the Algarve. Whether they are in bloom or not.
Once, a thousand or more years ago, a fleet of Viking ships returned from the Mediterranean on their way home and thought it a good idea to attack and plunder the Algarve. It wasn't. The Algarve in those days were occupied by a Jewish - Muslim - sect, who mutilated the penises of their offspring by way of circumcision. Their circumcised king was proficient in the art of war and the Vikings were defeated and either killed or if not killed, enslaved. Now the Viking chieftain had a handsome daughter and the king was strangely attracted to her. He decided to house her in his palace and to let her wander in his gardens. And he happened to meet her there quite often. And at last she inquired why he did not enslave her or rape her and he confessed that he was in love with her and asked her to marry him. And accordingly it ensued that they did marry.
Then she got sick after a while. No local physician could cure her. The king sent for physicians from farther away. But none could cure her. The desperate king sent messengers out all over Europe and the Muslim world, but none could cure her and she languished and languished.
Then an old man came from very far away, very very far indeed. He demanded to speak with the chieftain's daughter in her rooms, alone. Of course that improper request caused quite a commotion among the peoples with circumcised penises: they might make love and the old man might infect her with a sexually transmitted disease! The king, however, was very desperate, extremely so. So against his cultural indoctrination, and perchance against his genetic programing, he yielded to the suspect demand of the old man and admitted him to the rooms of his sick wife, alone.
And lo and behold: after the old man had been inside for a long time and everyone outside was extremely worried, for they might have illegal sex, he came out and the Viking chieftain's daughter was much more lively and even smiled. So the king asked the old man, what he had done that his wife was feeling so much better and what disease she suffered from. And the old man answered: "I talked with her in her own language. She is homesick for the mountains and snows of our far away country. What you should do, is to plant almond nut trees everywhere so that when the time comes that their bloom has passed the whole earth of your land will be covered by their white flower petals".
And so it ensued that the king planted almond trees everywhere and that his wife recovered from her illness.
And that is why I would go see the almond nut trees of the Algarve if ever I visited Portugal, whether they be in bloom or not.
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