[p.212] Dangers of Temptation and Doubt, and the secret Designs of our Hearts.  Subject unto us this Sea, even as Thou didst subject the Deep to Musa” (Moses), “and as Thou didst subject the Fire to Ibrahim[FN#6]” (Abraham), “and as Thou didst subject the Iron to Daud[FN#7]” (David), “and as Thou didst subject the Wind and the Devils and Jinnis and Mankind to Sulayman[FN#8]” (Solomon), “and as Thou didst subject the Moon and Al-Burak to Mohammed, upon whom be Allah’s Mercy and His Blessing!  And subject unto us all the Seas in Earth and Heaven, in Thy visible and in Thine invisible Worlds, the Sea of this Life, and the Sea of Futurity.  O Thou who reignest over everything, and unto whom all Things return, Khyas!  Khyas!  Khyas[FN#9]!”

And lastly, we lie down upon our cribs, wrapped up in thickly padded cotton coverlets; we forget the troubles of the past day, and we care nought for the discomforts of that to come.

Late on the evening of the 11th July we passed in sight of the narrow mouth of Al-’Akabah, whose famosi rupes are a terror to the voyagers of these latitudes.  Like the Gulf of Cambay, here a tempest is said to be always brewing, and men raise their hands to pray as they cross it.  We had no storm that day from without, but a fierce one was about to burst within our ship.  The essence of Oriental discipline is personal respect based upon fear.  Therefore it often happens that the commanding officer,

[p.213] if a mild old gentleman, is the last person whose command is obeyed,-his only privilege being that of sitting apart from his inferiors.  And such was the case with our Rais.  On the present occasion, irritated by the refusal of the Maghrabis to stand out of the steerman’s way, and excited by the prospect of losing sight of shore for a whole day, he threatened one of the fellows with his slipper.  It required all our exertions, even to a display of the dreaded quarter-staves, to calm the consequent excitement.  After passing Al-’Akabah, we saw nothing but sea and sky, and we spent a weary night and day tossing upon the waters, our only exercise; every face brightened as, about sunset on the 12th July, we suddenly glided into the mooring-place.

Marsa (anchorage) Damghah,[FN#10] or rather Dumayghah, is scarcely visible from the sea.  An islet of limestone rock defends the entrance, leaving a narrow passage to the south.  It is not before he enters that the mariner discovers the extent and the depth of this creek, which indents far into the land, and offers 15 to 20 feet of fine clear anchorage which no swell can reach.  Inside it looks more like a lake, and at night its colour is gloriously blue as Geneva itself.  I could not help calling to mind, after dinner, the old school lines

“Est in secessu longo locus; insula portum
Efficit objectu laterum; quibus omnis ab alto
Frangitur, inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos.”

Nothing was wanted but the “atrum nemus.”  Where however, shall we find such luxuries in arid Arabia?