When The Supply Is Perennial, The Wady Becomes
The Site Of A Village.
The Desert is as unaptly compared to a "sandy
sea." Most of the wilds of Arabia resemble the tract between Suez and
Cairo; only the former are of primary formation, whereas the others are
of a later date.
Sand-heaps are found in every Desert, but sand-plains
are a local feature, not the general face of the country. The
Wilderness, east of the Nile, is mostly a hard dry earth, which
requires only a monsoon to become highly productive: even where
silicious sand covers the plain, the waters of a torrent, depositing
humus or vegetable mould, bind the particles together, and fit it for
the reception of seed.
[FN#16] The intelligent reader will easily understand that I am
speaking of the Desert in the temperate season, not during the summer
heats, when the whole is one vast furnace, nor in winter, when the
Sarsar wind cuts like an Italian Tramontana.
[FN#17] This, as a general rule in Al-Islam, is a sign that the Maghrib
or evening prayer must not be delayed. The Shafe'i school performs its
devotions immediately after the sun has disappeared.
[FN#18] This salutation of peace is so differently pronounced by every
Eastern nation that the observing traveller will easily make of it a
shibboleth.
[FN#19] To "nakh" in vulgar, as in classical, Arabic is to gurgle "Ikh!
ikh!" in the bottom of one's throat till the camel kneels down.
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