Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/219

 had on the desert, as they went zigzag along the breast of the mountains, coming at every turn into distinct outline against the sky. When we reached the top, we sat down on a pile of rocks, and looked back over the plain to the sacred mountains, which we knew we should never see again. From this time we could no longer get a view even on the distant horizon, but we had hoped this morning, as the sun rose, we might have vouchsafed to us one more last look. There indeed was Serbal, with its peaks clear against the sky, and farther down was Sinai, but wrapped in cloud, as when the Lord came down upon its summit; and we saw it no more. This was a real disappointment. It was with a feeling as if the face of the Lord were hidden from us, that we uncovered our heads, and bade farewell to Sinai forever.

But below us the sun shone brightly on the sand, which was of dazzling whiteness, and glistened like the sea. Clouds were flying over the sky, casting great shadows upon the plain. From scenes like this come those images, so often used in the Bible, of shifting sand and drifting clouds, as emblems of our transient human existence.

At last the camels reached us, and we launched on our new voyage. As we seated ourselves in the saddle, and cast our eyes round the horizon, the character of the country was at once apparent. It is a vast plateau, or table-land, in general outline not unlike one of the steppes of Asia. It is not however an unbroken plain, but crossed by mountain ranges, not so grand as those of the lower part of the Peninsula, but still of considerable height, between which are broad spaces of desert farrowed by water courses. Scarcely had we left the edge of the cliff before we dropped down into one of the gullies by which this vast tract is seamed and scarred, and kept moving on from one to another, as we had traversed a succession of wadies in