About Moors

Mr. Fiddle is absolutely right to point out that the "Moor" referred to in Emily Dickinson's poem is not a "Moor", a dark- skinned inhabitant of Northwest Africa, but an area of land covered with heather.

However, he is absolutely wrong in describing the Moors as the "butt of Crusades". The Crusaders never went near Northwest Africa, but went in quite opposite direction to "The Holy Land" or what is now Israel. Their aim was to capture Jerusalem from the "infidels", who were not Moors but Saracens.

RB SAWREY-COOKSON

Jakarta