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