"from SUEZ TO SINAI." 



251 



sunset, as the stars came out ; and later still by the full moon — the 

 white sandy desert on which I stood, the deep black river-like sea, 

 and the dim silvery mountains of Ataka on the other side." 



The next day (March 8th) we mounted our camels — not with- 

 out some apprehension, but happily all went well. I^othing 

 could well exceed the monotony of the ride for the first day and 

 a-half, except that on our left was the magnificent tableland 

 of the Tih desert, and on our right — to the west — were the 

 mountains of Egypt (Ataka) across the Gulf of Suez. The 

 "road" was simply a series of about a dozen parallel camel 

 tracks stretching away into apparent infinity on an absolutely 

 flat desert of firm sand, quite smooth except for stones strewn 

 everywhere, more or less. Occasionally we passed the skeleton 

 of a camel by the wayside, and sometimes a heap of stones 

 indicating the spot where a Bedouin had died and been buried. 

 But for occasionally meeting Bedouins going to Suez, there was 

 no sign of life, either human, animal, or plant life. 



A delic^htful breeze from the north followed us in our march. 

 If, on the other hand, as Dean Stanley and many other 

 travellers have found, there had been a Khamseen, blowing 

 with oven-like heat and a dust-storm of blinding fury, then 

 words would fail to describe the situation. All day long Stanley 

 tramped on against a dust-storm, and he wrote — 



" The clearing up of the sand the next morning revealed a low 

 range of hills on the eastern horizon, the first step to the vast plain 

 of Northern Arabia. The day after leaving Aylin Miisa was at 

 first within sight of the blue channel of the Eed Sea. But soon 

 Ked Sea and all were lost in a sand-storm, which lasted the whole 

 day. Imagine all distant objects entirely lost to view — the sheets 

 of sand fleeting along the surface of the Desert like streams of 

 water ; the whole air filled, though invisibly, with a tempest of sand, 

 driving in j^our face like sleet. Imagine the caravan toiling against 

 this — the Bedouins each with his shawl thrown completely over his 

 head, half of the riders sitting backwards — the camels, meantime, 

 thus virtually left without guidance, though, from time to time, 

 throwing their long necks sideways to avoid the blast, yet moving 

 straight onwards with a painful sense of duty truly edifying to 

 behold. I had thought that with the Nile our troubles of wind were 

 over ; but (another analogy for the ships of the Desert) the great saddle- 

 bags act like sails to the camels, and therefore, with a contrary wind, are 

 serious impediments to their progress. And accordingly Mohammed 

 opened our tents this morning just as he used to open our cabin 

 doors, with the joyful inteUigence that the wind was changed — 

 'good wind, master.' Through the tempest, this roaring and 



