This explains the Arab's proverb, "Voyaging is victory." In the
Desert, even more than upon the ocean, there is present death: hardship
is there, and piracies, and shipwreck, solitary, not in crowds, where,
as the Persians say, "Death is a Festival";-and this sense of danger,
never absent, invests the scene of travel with an interest not its own.
Let the traveller who suspects exaggeration leave the Suez road for an
hour or two, and gallop northwards over the sands: in the drear
silence, the solitude, and the fantastic desolation of the place, he
will feel what the Desert may be.
And then the Oases,[FN#15] and little lines of fertility-
[p.150]how soft and how beautiful!-even though the Wady al-Ward (the
Vale of Flowers) be the name of some stern flat upon which a handful of
wild shrubs blossom while struggling through a cold season's ephemeral
existence. In such circumstances the mind is influenced through the
body. Though your mouth glows, and your skin is parched, yet you feel
no languor, the effect of humid heat; your lungs are lightened, your
sight brightens, your memory recovers its tone, and your spirits become
exuberant; your fancy and imagination are powerfully aroused, and the
wildness and sublimity of the scenes around you stir up all the
energies of your soul-whether for exertion, danger, or strife.
