SUEZ 



figures clung desperately to a rope passed around one 

 of the snubbing posts ashore, while an old man 

 shrieked syllables at them from the dhow itself. 

 As they never by any chance thought of mooring 

 her both stem and stern, the dhow generally changed 

 ends rapidly, shipping considerable water in the proc- 

 ess. It must be very trying to get so excited in a 

 hot climate. 



The high sand banks of the early part of the day 

 soon dropped lower to afford us a wider view. In its 

 broad, general features the country was, quite simply, 

 the best desert of Arizona over again. There were 

 the same high, distant and brittle-looking mountains, 

 fragile and pearly; the same low, broken half- 

 distances; the same wide sweeps; the same wonderful 

 changing effects of light, colour, shadow, and mirage; 

 the same occasional strips of green marking the 

 water courses and oases. As to smaller detail we 

 saw many interesting divergences. In the fore- 

 ground constantly recurred the Bedouin brush 

 shelters, each with its picturesque figure or so of 

 flowing robes, and its grumpy camels. Twice we 

 saw travelling caravans, exactly like the Bible 

 pictures. At one place a single burnoused Arab, 

 leaning on his elbows, reclined full length on the sky- 

 line of a clean-cut sand hill. Glittering in the mirage, 

 half-guessed, half-seen, we made out distant little 



27 



