University of Houston, 4333 University Drive, Houston TX 77204-2000, (713) 743-1050.
© 2013 University of Houston. All rights reserved.
| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
|
| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
|
| Genre (AAT) |
|
| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
|
| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 247 |
| Format (IMT) |
|
| File Name | exotic_201304_015_270.jpg |
| Transcript | SINAI. 247 the creature gets up by jerks, and only half of him at a time. When once mounted the motion is not so unpleasant as it has been described, and a very few days makes you quite at home in your elevated seat." And so the first day of real desert journeying commences ! Our track keeps the sea on die right hand not very far off (see page 252), and on the left is the tableland, with the mountains which belong to it, of the southern portion of the great plateau, the " Wilderness of Tih." To this long ridge bounding a monotonous barren waste one thinks that the name Shur (meaning in Hebrew "a wall") might fitly have been given by the Israelites (see page 253). We are told that " they went three days in the wilderness and found no water" (Exodus xv. 22) : we shall not reach Elim (Wady Gharandel) before the third clay. There is not much to mark off or disentangle the days in this part of the journey. Shall we read as we ride along at this slow pace (not more than two and three-quarter miles in the hour), or meditate, or think of those at home? Despairingly one tries anything to make the time pass quickly under the burning sun, to which one has become a slave. Perhaps if there is a copy of it in the saddle-bags (for I suppose the crossbar wooden erection on the top of the camels hump may be called a saddle ; it is cunningly fashioned, and is divided in -two parts, posts and all), it may be a consolation to see what the author of " Eothen " thought of the Desert and the camel. Here is what he says (chap, xvii.):— " The earth is so samely that your eyes turn towards heaven—towards heaven I mean in sense of sky. You look to the sun, for he is your taskmaster, and by him you know the measure of the work that remains for you to do. He comes when you strike your tent in the early morning, and then for the first hour of the day as you move forward on your camel he stands at your near side and makes you know that the whole day's toil is before you ; then for a while, and a long while, you see him no more, for you are veiled and shrouded and dare not look upon the greatness of his glory, but you know where he strides overhead by the touch of his flaming sword. No words are spoken, but your Arabs moan, your camels sigh, your skin glows, your shoulders ache, and for sights you see the pattern and web of the silk " (your head is supposed to be wrapped up in a silk kefiyeh, one of the things in which the traveller feels it to be de rigueur to invest at Cairo or Suez) " that veils your eyes and the glare of the outer light. Time labours on, your skin glows, your shoulders ache, your Arabs moan, your camels sigh, and you see the same patterns in the silk and the same glare of light beyond; but conquering time marches on, and by-and-by the descending sun has compassed the heaven and now softly touches your right arm, and throws your lank shadow over the sand right along on the way for Persia. Then again you look upon his face, for his power is all veiled in his beauty, and the redness of flames has become the redness of roses ; the fair wavy cloud that fled in the morning now comes to his sight once more, comes blushing, yet still comes on, comes burning with blushes, yet comes and clings to his side. 11 Then begins your season of rest The world about you is all your own, and there, where you will, you pitch your solitary tent; there is no living thing to dispute your choice. When at |