As The Wolf's Tail[FN#22] Showed In The Heavens We Arose.

Grey mists floating over the hills northwards gave the Dar al-Bayda,[FN#23] the Pasha's Palace, the look of some old feudal castle.

There was a haze in the atmosphere, which beautified even the face of Desolation. The swift flying Kata[FN#24] sprang in noisy coveys from the road, and a stray gazelle paced daintily over the stony plain. As we passed by the Pilgrims' tree, I

[p.155]added another rag to its coat of tatters.[FN#25] We then invoked the aid of the holy saint Al-Dakruri[FN#26] from his cream-coloured abode, mounted our camels, and resumed the march in real earnest. The dawn passed away in its delicious coolness, and sultry morning came on. Then day glared in its fierceness, and the noontide sun made the plain glow with terrible heat. Still we pressed onwards.

At 3 P.M. we turned off the road into a dry water-course, which is not far from No. 13 Station. The sand was dotted with the dried-up leaves of the Datura, and strongly perfumed by "Shih," a kind of Absinthe (Artemisia),[FN#27] the sweetest herb of the Desert. A Mimosa was there, and although its shade at this season is little better than

[p.156]a cocoa tree's,[FN#28] the Badawin would not neglect it. We lay down upon the sand, to rest among a party of Maghrabi pilgrims travelling to Suez.

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