Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/79

 

OUR BEDAWEEN COMPANIONS.

In the course of our marches, we had now come to the last day of the week, and set out this morning with buoyant spirits, inspired by the hope of a day of rest on the morrow. As if to make us prize it the more, Saturday was a day of unusual fatigue. Starting at seven o'clock, we walked for an hour, when the camels came up, and we mounted and rode four hours under a blazing sun. We found the heat as great in these wadies as on the open desert. They are so wide that except where the mountains rise in abrupt cliffs, it is not easy to get under their shadow; while the sun's rays are reflected from their sides, and poured into the valley below, which glows like a furnace. However, we bore it like martyrs. Indeed we should have been ashamed to complain, mounted as we were, while our poor Arabs trudged along by our side, their naked feet sinking in the burning sand. We looked down on them with pity; but they did not seem to be in need of pity, for they were chattering like monkeys, and laughing all the way, while we were as glum as our camels. This lightness of heart is the compensation which nature sometimes gives to weaker races, to enable them to bear the hardships of their lot. If these poor creatures could but see themselves as others see them, half naked and half starved, they would lie down on the desert and die; but a happy oblivion of their miserable condition makes them take life as cheerfully as the rest of us. The