DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5073#0421
408
NIGHT IN THE DESERT.
ridden on while we had delayed to let our camels feed
on some tamarisk bushes we had happened to find : the
stranger wished us good-bye soon after. There is no
doubt that he intended mischief, but if he belonged to a
Ghiizoo, he probably told them we were too strong a
party to attack; and so ended our last attempt at an
adventure.
We rested that afternoon at Atny, and, starting
again when the moon got up, mistook our way into
Jerood, and got into an encampment of Bedoueen tents,
setting all the dogs into a chorus of furious howls; a
great annoyance, for they run at and bite your camel's
legs, and make him wrathful. The camels stumbled
and fell a great deal, but the night work was pleasanter
than the very hot days; indeed, I always enjoyed the
night journeys, both in the Desert and in Syria (when I
was not sleepy), almost as much as those of the bright-
coloured day. The night was so clear and light, and
the sky so blue instead of black, that one can still see
something of the scenery, although the contrast of the
silver moonlight and the densely black shadows are de-
ceptive : and then one can think so quietly and uninter-
ruptedly, with one's head cool, and one's eyes unscorched,
while truly there was always food for thought around
one, above all in the full, softly-glowing, God-created
lamps of Night that shone in the sky. In the far East
it is easier than in our gloomy skies to understand how
naturally the men of old turned to them for worship ;
and how they yearned for the changeless purity and
Eternal Order they saw there and nowhere else. Often,
too, I thought of the child with his pure heart so fresh
from the Hands of God that he saw Him everywhere,
and asked if the stars were not " gimlet holes to left the
glory through," and felt how fully his innocent eyes
NIGHT IN THE DESERT.
ridden on while we had delayed to let our camels feed
on some tamarisk bushes we had happened to find : the
stranger wished us good-bye soon after. There is no
doubt that he intended mischief, but if he belonged to a
Ghiizoo, he probably told them we were too strong a
party to attack; and so ended our last attempt at an
adventure.
We rested that afternoon at Atny, and, starting
again when the moon got up, mistook our way into
Jerood, and got into an encampment of Bedoueen tents,
setting all the dogs into a chorus of furious howls; a
great annoyance, for they run at and bite your camel's
legs, and make him wrathful. The camels stumbled
and fell a great deal, but the night work was pleasanter
than the very hot days; indeed, I always enjoyed the
night journeys, both in the Desert and in Syria (when I
was not sleepy), almost as much as those of the bright-
coloured day. The night was so clear and light, and
the sky so blue instead of black, that one can still see
something of the scenery, although the contrast of the
silver moonlight and the densely black shadows are de-
ceptive : and then one can think so quietly and uninter-
ruptedly, with one's head cool, and one's eyes unscorched,
while truly there was always food for thought around
one, above all in the full, softly-glowing, God-created
lamps of Night that shone in the sky. In the far East
it is easier than in our gloomy skies to understand how
naturally the men of old turned to them for worship ;
and how they yearned for the changeless purity and
Eternal Order they saw there and nowhere else. Often,
too, I thought of the child with his pure heart so fresh
from the Hands of God that he saw Him everywhere,
and asked if the stars were not " gimlet holes to left the
glory through," and felt how fully his innocent eyes