Chap. LXIX. CHANTING IN THE DESERT. 
511 
and to make myself acquainted with all its charac- 
teristics, as I should have liked. 
Part of the day the Sheikh read and recited to his 
pupils chapters from the hadith of Bokhari, while his 
young son repeated his lesson aloud from the Kuran, 
and in the evening several surat, or chapters, of the 
holy book were beautifully chanted by the pdpils, till 
a late hour of the night. There was nothing more 
charming to me than to hear these beautiful verses 
chanted by sonorous voices in this open desert coun- 
try, round the evening fire, with nothing to disturb 
the sound, which softly reverberated from the slope 
of the sandy downs opposite. A Christian must have 
been a witness to such scenes in order to treat with 
justice the Mohammedans and their creed. Let us 
not forget that, but for the worship of images and 
the quarrels about the most absurdly superstitious no- 
tions which distracted the Christian Church during the 
seventh century, there would have been no possibility 
of the establishment of a new creed based on the 
principles of Monotheism, and opposed in open hos- 
tility to Christianity. Let us also take into account 
that the most disgusting feature attaching to the 
morals of Mohammedans has been introduced by the 
Mongolish tribes from Central Asia, and excited the 
most unqualified horror in the founder of the religion. 
Peace and security seemed to prevail in this 
little encampment. In general the whole of this 
region to the north of the river is entirely free from 
beasts of prey, with the exception of jackals ; but 
