Personal narrative of a year's journey through central and eastern Arabia (1862-63) . after about three hours of night travelling, or ratherwading, among the sand-waves, till men and beasts alike wereready to sink for weariness, a sharp altercation arose betweenAboo-Eysa and El-Ghannam, each proposing a different direc-tion of march. We all halted a moment, and raised our eyesheavy with drowsiness and fatigue, as if to see which of thecontending parties was in the right. It will be long before Iforget the impression of that moment. Above us was the deepblack sky, spangled with huge stars of a
Personal narrative of a year's journey through central and eastern Arabia (1862-63) . after about three hours of night travelling, or ratherwading, among the sand-waves, till men and beasts alike wereready to sink for weariness, a sharp altercation arose betweenAboo-Eysa and El-Ghannam, each proposing a different direc-tion of march. We all halted a moment, and raised our eyesheavy with drowsiness and fatigue, as if to see which of thecontending parties was in the right. It will be long before Iforget the impression of that moment. Above us was the deepblack sky, spangled with huge stars of a brilliancy denied to allbut an Arab gaze, while what is elsewhere a ray of the thirdmagnitude becomes here of the first amid the pure vacuum ofa mistless, vapourless air; around us loomed high ridges, shut-ting us in before and behind with their white ghost-like outlines;below our feet the lifeless sand, and everywhere a silence thatseemed to belong to some strange and dreamy world whereman might not venture. Aboo-Eysa stretched his arm to point f 342 Journey to Hof ho of [Chap. X. out one way, El-Ghannam another, and either direction appearedequally devoid of pass or gutlet. After awhile, however, Aboo-Eysa cut the matter short by raising his voice, shouting to allto follow him, and, spite of the resistance which Ghannam per-sisted in making, kd us all off at a sharp angle on the left, tillat last we floundered down into a sort of valley where a fewbushes diversified the sand, and dismounted for a few hours ofrepose; warjaier at any rate than that of the preceding night. Next morning we fesumed our course, but now under thesole guidance of Abof-Eysa, to whom our band, confiding inhis superior conversance with this wild region, had unanimouslyagreed to entrust thejbselves till we should reach the oppositebank. How our leafier contrived to direct his steps would behard to tell; the f|culty of keeping ones nose in the rightdirection when neither eyes nor ears can afford any assis
Size: 943px × 2651px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1871
