104 



THE DESEBT 



Clouds 0/ 



The celestial 

 tapestry. 



The desert 

 moon. 



clouds — that is nothing yery different from the 

 clouds of other countries — except in light, color, 

 and background. They appear incomparably 

 more brilliant and fiery here than elsewhere on 

 the globe. The colors, like everything else on 

 the desert, are intense in their power, fierce in 

 their glare. They vibrate, they scintillate, they 

 penetrate and tinge everything with their hue. 

 And then, as though heaping splendor upon 

 splendor, what a wonderful background they 

 are woven upon ! Great bands of orange, green, 

 and blue that all the melted and fused gems 

 in the world could not match for translucent 

 beauty. Taken as a whole, as a celestial tapes- 

 try, as a curtain of flame drawn between night 

 and day, and what land or sky can rival it ! 



After the clouds have all shifted into purples 

 and the western sky has sunk into night, then 

 up from the east the moon — the misshapen 

 orange-hued desert moon. How large it looks ! 

 And how it warms the sky, and silvers the edges 

 of the mountain peaks, and spreads its wide 

 light across the sands ! Up, up it rises, losing 

 something of its orange and gaining something 

 in symmetry. In a few hours it is high in the 

 heavens and has a great aureole of color about 

 it. Look at the ring for a moment and you will 



