He was grotesque to look upon: tall, thick, and big as a camel, and indeed there were those who called him Huten-camel. His hands were clumsy and large as a bear’s paws. When he placed his hand affectionately on his friend’s shoulder, it would feel to the friend as if a great burden had fallen on him. His face was thick and wide and its skin was hard. And in the center of this expanse was a fleshy divider in the shape of a large-capacity, big-nostrilled nose, and to the sides of the nose, in two deep sockets, were two small eyes. A stranger, encountering him on the road – would be intimidated enough to move back or step aside: his external appearance bespoke: a thug is approaching you. But those who knew him did not fear him in the slightest. Everyone knew, Huten was a good man, and inside the cumbersome body dwelled the soul of a child. For this reason everyone pushed him around, mocked him, and abused him. If Huten raised his hand, he could crush his adversary like a fly, but he never struck a man in all his days.
And Huten was miserable, all his days he was miserable.
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This giant of a man had a great weakness for women, because they were small, because they were weak and soft. And the smaller the woman, the weaker, the daintier, the more attraction Huten felt for her. And when he became a man and began to think of a wife, and the coins began to clank in his pocket, he would walk among the villages to see the women, and also to the cities did he go: to Jaffa, to Ramla. And the city girls took his heart captive: they were smaller, softer, and whiter. And so he decided in his heart to take a city girl. And when he had decided he would marry a city girl, he ceased looking for a wife, for the sum of money he had with him was a pittance. And again he began to work and put money away.
In the end, he attained his objective. When he was five and thirty years old, he bought himself a wife, a daughter of Ramla, for the price of one thousand francs. And this woman was after the desires of his heart: small, dainty, her face white and her eyes black, and her hands were soft. And when he brought his wife home with him, there was no limit or end to his happiness.
However, his happiness proved fleeting. The small wife hated her huge husband. The city girl had contempt in her heart for the rough country boy and could not perceive the goodness of his soul. She was irritable, quick-tempered, and filled his house with confrontation all the days.
And despite the fact that Huten pampered her, did not lay a hand on her, and did not make her do any difficult labor – she could not forgive him the awkwardness of his body, and she hated him and bitterly aggravated him.
And he loved her, and cared for her like the pupil of his eye, and suffered all of the torments with love. It was as if the giant’s soul had grown as coarse as his body and he could not feel the sharp stings of his little wife. His neighbors would mock him and say things to make him hate his wife, and his female neighbors too would whisper in his ear… for so did they envy the happiness of the stranger from the city. But Huten would not listen and did not heed their words or pay any mind to the slander.
Of course in his heart he suffered terribly, but he didn’t let his heart show on the outside. In particular would Huten’s suffering and the pain in his heart grow when his wife would ask him for a divorce…
Frequently would she demand one, and frequently would she yell at him: “I hate you!”
_____
Only once did Huten become angry.
His wife bore him a daughter and he named her Halima. And from the day his daughter was born, his love for his wife weakened. All the powers of his soul did he put into his love for his daughter. And since his love for his wife had weakened, so too did his patience weaken. And she continued to hate him – him and his daughter. And more than once she told him: “I hate you and that ugly daughter of yours…”
And when Huten heard such things, his face would shake.
And once, when he saw his wife pinch his daughter’s flesh – she was then about one year old – he grabbed hold of her arm… Huten did not intend to strike her, it was not his way to strike, he only grabbed hold of her, grabbed hold – and broke her arm…
Then her parents came and Huten was forced to divorce his wife. And so he lost all of his money, and only his daughter was left to him. And the girl Halima filled all of Huten’s soul and he did not remember his wife and forgot her: all his spare hours he would tend to his little girl. And sometimes he would bring her to his place of work.
His great desire was that he should be called “Abu-Halima,” but the mean village folk would call him as before: just plain Huten, or Huten-camel…
I was the only one who would give him the pleasure of calling him “Abu-Halima,” and his little eyes would look at me with a look of gratitude and happiness. For this, he loved me, and out of love he would sometimes put his hand on my shoulder… And for this I could not stand him…
_____
Huten was a watchman in my vineyard for several years.
And when he brought his daughter with him – she was three years old – to the vineyard, and when he looked after her, I sometimes saw tears glistening in his eyes. And sometimes he would say:
“Doesn’t she have the face of a city girl!”
But nonetheless he would advise me, I was a young man then, to keep clear of city girls and not look at white faces and at black eyes, because they do not give happiness…
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