MOONLIGHT IN THE DESERT 31 



the instinct of Andries and his desert-bred 

 servants, that " sense of direction " possessed 

 by men whose perceptions have not been de- 

 stroyed by civilisation, which enabled them 

 to steer us, straight as an arrow, towards an 

 unseen objective we should only reach two 

 days later. 



A pallid gleam shot through the eastern sky ; 

 the stars grew faint; over the blue firmament 

 stole, as it were, a sheen of pearl. Soon the 

 rising moon touched the horizon's rim; as we 

 gazed she soared above it. By the first touch 

 of her level beam-wand, fairy-land was 

 created; the plains, sombre since daylight had 

 departed, became ivory-white to eastward; 

 across their immensity extended a broad strip 

 of silver. This was due to the sheen of the 

 new moonlight on the dew-wet plumes arising 

 from the " toa " tussocks. 



As night wore slowly on the deep sand be- 

 came a weariness. Sleep grew importunate; her 

 fingers pressed down our eyelids and the folds 

 of her trailing robe entangled our lead-shod 

 feet. The moon, after her first majestic soar 

 above the horizon, seemed to climb slower and 

 more slowly towards the zenith. It would have 

 been a luxury to fall prone on the velvet-soft 

 sand and sink at once into dreamless oblivion. 



