The Arizona sentinel., 1888-02-25


 come at moments notice the ugliest
 brute ever invented for riding
 purposes. The road to the city is a
 circuitous one, a deep gorge cut by
 English perseverance through the
 rocks which rise from sixty to one
 hundred feet on each side of the road
 way. The end of this chasm is guard
 ed by a natural gateway, in charge of
 artillery and squad of Sepoy soldiers.
 An abrupt turn to the right brings the
 city of Alden in view at our feet, look
 ing something like the inside of a
 large bowl mile in diameter. In the
 center of the town are the barracks of
 the British and Sepoy regiments; to
 the right we gaze upon those immense rock-chiselod reservoirs, destined to safely store the rain that is expected in the sweet sometime. We strolled through this sum- baked city, observing the curious experimentation of Arabs,
 HindOos, Abyssinians, etc. gazed
 upon the long trains of cOffoe-laden
 camels and interviewed a holy man, a dervish from Silhet, in British India,
 bound on pilgrimage to Mecca. He had walked from his home to Bombay, and was preparing to tramp it to Mecca in the same way.
 was attracted to this man by hear ing him use very solid Spanish ex- pression when in altercation with q native, and addressing him with the intention of aiding Linn if possible, he told me his difficulty. This was hIs second pilgrimage 10 Mecca. The native recognized him, and having great reverence for holy tramps tried 10 persuade him to accept the loan of a camel to carry him to the holy city. The pedestrian refused the offer, and in his friendly conversation dropped the information that he was sixty-two years of age. had been born in Barce- Iona, Spain, entered when a young man the Catholic priesthood, was sent as missionary to Northern India, worked in that field of human devotion for four years. and was converted to Mohamedanism. He expected to gain entrance into the paradise of Islams dcvotees, said 10 bepcopled. by houris, by marching from Silhet to Mecca and return, but it looked as if he woul be too tired to enjoy the coveted inherit ance when he shall pass the gates.
 Upon the suggestion of our guide, we rode out of town for distance of about ten miles into the sandy waste of land which incloses Alden from the northeast, and viewed with wonder ment that greatest of novelties ob- servable to human eye, the phantas- magoria of sand mirage. Far enough into the desert to prevent us seeing the city nothing but an endless waste of white sand, banked, as it were, by the fiery rays of the sovereign of day. with nothing movable or immovable to obstruct our gaze on the heavy dull horizon far beyond, all at once as with a conjuror's touch,- there arose before us grandly and majcs ically, penciled against the arc of the firma- ment resting upon the land, the out lines of minarets. temples. houses, trees and rivers. The picture of some great city could be plainly seen, with the roads leading into the gates filled with caravans of camels, dromedaries and moving bodies of men. We would have sworn to the fact that a beautiful Eastern city was near at hand if we had not come to gaze upon the deception of the visionary organs. By whatever atmospheric stratas or peculiar condition of the body this | great wonder of natures production is brought about, may be no doubt easily explained, but no pen picture can ever describe the views seen upon the deserts sand that afternoon.
 In the evening funeral cortege | passed the veranda of the hotel, pre- ceded by six ancient-looking females | uttering the most unearthly cries; they were the licensed female mourn CTS with which every funeral must be provided 10 be in style, and they were only performing the accustomed func- tions in displaying in this distressing manner their lung power The family Of the deceased ill. Arabia never try, IS in some other countries, to show heir sorrow by individual out ward demonstrations; they have these females to do the weeping, and those we saw that evening did it in such per- ection that I actually piled them un- il hearing that it, was only sham rowling and crocodile tears
 We were attracted into the bazaar y the thousand and one peculiar productions of Arab and Abyssinian landiwork and the hundreds of leop- lrd and lion skins offered at very low prices. Chief among the little re- nembrances of this furnace of heat we're a few small bottles of the far amed Ottar of R oses and few drops 't liquid called in the Arab tongue Gwatiaza," or the Elixir of Life. This elixir is by Arabs believed to lave the miraculous power of pro- onging life, or rather giving physical ustcnance 10 those whose fires of life lave burned down to such a low de- i rec that no nutriment contained in | ny thing material can aid them. A ew drops of thi, cordial will then ln- use an energy into the human frame which calls forth all those unused Drces that have been lying dormant n the body before; and would, if left lone, die along with the used articles which have been exhausted. he saintly seller of this fluid could peak g few words in French. 1