Add To These, Two Most Grave
And Stately Arabs In White Beards, White Turbans, White Haicks And
Raiments; Sabres Curling Round Their Military Thighs, And Immense
Long Guns At Their Backs.
More venerable warriors I never saw;
they went by the side of the litter soberly prancing.
When we
emerged from the steep clattering streets of the city into the grey
plains, lighted by the moon and starlight, these militaries rode
onward, leading the way through the huge avenues of strange
diabolical-looking prickly pears (plants that look as if they had
grown in Tartarus), by which the first mile or two of route from
the city is bounded; and as the dawn arose before us, exhibiting
first a streak of grey, then of green, then of red in the sky, it
was fine to see these martial figures defined against the rising
light. The sight of that little cavalcade, and of the nature
around it, will always remain with me, I think, as one of the
freshest and most delightful sensations I have enjoyed since the
day I first saw Calais pier. It was full day when they gave their
horses a drink at a large pretty Oriental fountain, and then
presently we entered the open plain - the famous plain of Sharon - so
fruitful in roses once, now hardly cultivated, but always beautiful
and noble.
Here presently, in the distance, we saw another cavalcade pricking
over the plain. Our two white warriors spread to the right and
left, and galloped to reconnoitre.
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