Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1894-05-02
CHAPTER XVII
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The details of the march need not be mar
rated at length. Our journey lay over
SCARED and blighted ground and across
sandy plains and in and out among circu-
lar sand hills-loose, impermanent heaps,
curve and fling about In their wanton,
lonely sport; desolate heaps that hide the
bones of the perished traveller and are for
ever moving their formless lips with q
silent, stealthy motion to suck In and over
whelm the living. No man knows the deep
treachery of mother earth till he has wres-
tied with the noiseless forces of the desert.
The pace, however, was brisk, for man
and beast were fresh and eager. Indeed it
was perpetual surprise to me how the ami
mails made such progress over the elusive
path. The camels, swinging at steady
trot, had much the best of it, for when the
hard hoof of the horse sinks and slips the
elastic spongy foot of the camel spreads
like web, and he passes as easily and safe
ly over drifting sands as snowshoer over
smothering wreaths. 1t was then T. first
understood how truly the camel deserves
it's title of the ship of the desert, for as
ships pass along their liquid way SO the
camel treads his unstable course over the
sandy wastes. Yet the horses, too, had un-
common lightness and skill in making way
where every step forward was half step
backward.
To the horsemen the first sensation of a
desert ride is as if he were poised on sprin rs
of ineffable delicacy, which swayed gently
on the slightest pressure. Much of this
luxurious ease is due to the yielding track,
but something also to the springy motion
of the Arab horse. To the saddle nothing
whatever is due, since it is merely pieces Of
the hardest wood roughly nailed and bound
with thongs of rawhide. On an English
horse and Il macadamized road it would re-
duce trooper to helplessness in an hour;
and indeed with all the suppleness and
softness of the true Kohlan Arab saddlery
is apt to pain theineXperienced. The Arabs
themselves are aware of no discomfort be-
cause they are as hard as the wood they
bestride
On the first night we marched steadily
till set Of moon, then halted for food and
rest. could not half admire the quick
ness with which the fires were lighted with
withered grasses and shrubs, and the good
humored alacrity of the cooks in preparing
the meal. TO be sure it did not call for any
elaborate exercise of art, for the rations
consisted of nothing daintier THAI coarse
flour, salt and dried dates with some pack
ages of coffee The cooks took two or three
handfuls of -four apiece, poured water on it
from skin and kneaded it into dirty
dough with dirty hands. 1t would be pro-
fame in an Arab cook to have clean hands,
and so he keeps them religiously filthy,
thus giving those who eat his preparations
the benefit of many unsuspccted ingredi,
entS.
The dough, which was wet perhaps half
way to the center, was beaten out into thick
cakes, which were laid on the glowing en-
bers and covered with hot ashes. They were
left thus till converted into sodden, soapy
paste, then taken out and eaten as hot as
they could be swallowed. nibbled the
edge of one, but finding my teeth stick in
it ate handful Of dates, took drink OF
water, and then wrapping my burnoose closs