Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/358

342 deep understanding of human suffering and a fine appreciation of beauty and truth. As though all nature were leagued to show us the desert garden at its best, the sun for the first time during our visit appeared from behind the clouds and bathed everything in a blazing, scintillating flood of light.

As our train drew away into Algeria, I gazed out toward the distant north and northwest and in my imagination ran again over the stretches that we had traversed during these last hurried weeks. There near the sea raged the fire of war and hate, which had been kindled by incautious hands and had spread farther and farther, covering town after town and tribe after tribe with the folds of its red mantle. Will it finally reach here, this Figig with its peaceful ksurs, its tall palms and its naked, richly colored ranges?

What then will become of those messengers who bring here another fire, a fire lodged in their hearts and kindled by the Creating Hand of a great love and understanding? The light of this fire will in time penetrate through the crumbling wall of darkness into all the distant recesses of life and will triumph as a splendid, strong Conquering Spirit among the yellow/ black and white races from one end of the world to the other.