To Conclude This Subject, The Tawarah Still Retain Many Characteristics
Of The Badawi Race.
The most good-humoured and sociable of men, they
delight in a jest, and may readily be managed by kindness and courtesy.
Yet they are passionate, nice upon points of honour, revengeful, and
easily offended, where their peculiar prejudices are misunderstood.
I
have always found them pleasant companions, and deserving of respect,
for their hearts are good, and their courage is beyond a doubt. Those
travellers who complain of their insolence and extortion may have been
either ignorant of their language or offensive to them by assumption of
superority,-in the Desert man meets man,-or physically unfitted to
acquire their esteem.
We journeyed on till near sunset through the wilderness without ennui.
It is strange how the mind can be amused by scenery that presents so
few objects to occupy it. But in such a country every slight
modification of form or colour rivets observation: the senses are
sharpened, and the perceptive faculties, prone to sleep over a confused
mass of natural objects, act vigorously when excited by the capability
of embracing each detail. Moreover, Desert views are eminently
suggestive; they
[p.149]appeal to the Future, not to the Past: they arouse because they
are by no means memorial. To the solitary wayfarer there is an interest
in the Wilderness unknown to Cape seas and Alpine glaciers, and even to
the rolling Prairie,-the effect of continued excitement on the mind,
stimulating its powers to their pitch. Above, through a sky terrible in
its stainless beauty, and the splendours of a pitiless blinding glare,
the Samun[FN#14] caresses you like a lion with flaming breath. Around
lie drifted sand-heaps, upon which each puff of wind leaves its trace
in solid waves, flayed rocks, the very skeletons of mountains, and hard
unbroken plains, over which he who rides is spurred by the idea that
the bursting of a water-skin, or the pricking of a camel's hoof, would
be a certain death of torture,-a haggard land infested with wild
beasts, and wilder men,-a region whose very fountains murmur the
warning words "Drink and away!" What can be more exciting? what more
sublime? Man's heart bounds in his breast at the thought of measuring
his puny force with Nature's might, and of emerging triumphant from the
trial. 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. Your
morale improves; you become frank and cordial, hospitable and
single-minded: the hypocritical politeness and the slavery of
civilisation are left behind you in the city. Your senses are
quickened: they require no stimulants but air and exercise,-in the
Desert spirituous liquors excite only disgust. There is a keen
enjoyment in mere animal existence. The sharp appetite disposes of the
most indigestible food;
[p.151]the sand is softer than a bed of down, and the purity of the air
suddenly puts to flight a dire cohort of diseases. Hence it is that
both sexes, and every age, the most material as well as the most
imaginative of minds, the tamest citizen, the parson, the old maid, the
peaceful student, the spoiled child of civilisation, all feel their
hearts dilate, and their pulses beat strong, as they look down from
their dromedaries upon the glorious Desert. Where do we hear of a
traveller being disappointed by it? It is another illustration of the
ancient truth that Nature returns to man, however unworthily he has
treated her. And believe me, when once your tastes have conformed to
the tranquillity of such travel, you will suffer real pain in returning
to the turmoil of civilisation. You will anticipate the bustle and the
confusion of artificial life, its luxury and its false pleasures, with
repugnance. Depressed in spirits, you will for a time after your return
feel incapable of mental or bodily exertion. The air of cities will
suffocate you, and the care-worn and cadaverous countenances of
citizens will haunt you like a vision of judgment.[FN#16]
As the black shadow mounted in the Eastern sky,[FN#17] I turned off the
road, and was suddenly saluted by a figure rising from a little hollow
with an "As' Salamu 'alaykum" of truly Arab sound.[FN#18] I looked at
the speaker for a moment without recognising him. He then advanced with
voluble expressions of joy, invited me to sup, seized
[p.152]my camel's halter without waiting for an answer, "nakh'd[FN#19]"
it (i.e. forced it to kneel), led me hurriedly to a carpet spread in a
sandy hollow, pulled off my slippers, gave me cold water for ablution,
told me that he had mistaken me at a distance for a "Sherif" (or
Prince) of the Arabs, but was delighted to find himself in error; and
urged me to hurry over ablution, otherwise that night would come on
before we could say our prayers.
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