THE RED SEA 



occasional patches of stringy green in a gully; and 

 uninhabited except for a lighthouse on one, and a 

 fishing shanty near the shores of another. The 

 high, mournful mountains with their dark shadows 

 seemed to brood over hot desolation. The rusted 

 and battered stern of a wrecked steamer stuck up 

 at an acute angle from the surges. Shortly after we 

 picked up the shores of Arabia. 



Note the advantages of a half ignorance. From 

 early childhood we had thought of Arabia as the 

 "burning desert" — flat, of course — and of the 

 Red Sea as bordered by "shifting sands" alone. 

 If we had known the truth — if we had not been 

 half ignorant — we would have missed the profound 

 surprise of discovering that in reality the Red Sea 

 is bordered by high and rugged mountains, leaving 

 just space enough between themselves and the shore 

 for a sloping plain on which our glasses could make 

 out occasional palms. Perhaps the "shifting sands 

 of the burning desert" lie somewhere beyond; but 

 somebody might have mentioned these great moun- 

 tains! After examining them attentively we had 

 to confess that if this sort of thing continued 

 farther north, the children of Israel must have had 

 a very hard time of it. Mocha shone white, glitter- 

 ing and low, with the red and white spire of a mosque 

 rising brilliantly above it. 



41 



