The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09

JUN HE PEH
 It has been declared that nowhere does man feel himself so helpless and so abso- lutely at the mercy of God as upon the ocean. This is probably true. but I am sure that never does the Almighty seem so close to man as upon the trackless desert.
 There is a sigh of fear in every wind, a suspicion of divine malevolence in every dune and a sensation of utter abandon ment in each weary mile traversed, that is positively appalling.
 The deserts of Arabia and Persian are far more forbidding than the sandy sea of Egypt and fin their passage one expe- riences the sensation of stepping out into the great beyond The sand of Egypt is of a golden hue and glitters in the sun light as a burnished sheen. It is rela- lively heavy and comparatively immobile, but the tawny color of the Asiatic sand renders 1t lusterless and 1t savers of dust, both In color and consistency. It is pen etrating and Manufacturing. Many trav- elers over these wastes can only breathe after a kerohief has been placed over the nostrils and even the noses of the Asiatic camels are more compressed and assume more the semblance of a mere slit than those of the African animal. In previous paper I have spoken of the peculiar purple in the atmosphere indigin- ous alone to Brazil and Arabia, and while this characteristic glorifles the heavens at dawn and sunset, 1t but accentuates the sombreness of the hue of the desert
 In such an environment man fears for himself and pities his camel The faith full beast in eeaseless sidewise swaying of head and eek seems to battle with the pillows of heat and sand as swimmer contends with the waves of an angry sea, and each step of his, ploddng foot provokes a shower of suffocating, blind ing dust.
 He sighs like a distressed human and when at last he scents water, how he quickens his pace. Then it Is that his neck becomes rigid as the brow of a boat and he almost beats upon his launches a tattoo with his tail. No eaudle append age of a nursing lamb ever wiggled more vehemently as bneaded the mothers dug than does the tail of the Aslatie camel at his first sniff of water The spring or we'll may be hours distant. but the beast detects It's approach and is never de- ceived.
 Then again the environment engenoers uneasiness born of distrust of the Asiate dragoman He is neither a Persian or an Armenian and the former Is treach- erous and the latter decidedly too clever to permit one to impose in him that trust and confidence that is accorded the gentle, faithful guides of Egypt.
 The Persian perpetually displays cyn- ical smile as he regards his Occidental ward, which causes one to feel decidedly uncomfortable, while the patronizing ob- sequieusness of the Armenian arouses a suspicion that will not down.
 In view of all this 1t was with sigh of relief that a while ago I dismounted from my signing camel detached my dusty haveloek and shook the mulberry leaves from the crown of my tropical helmet.
 was weary of the desert and while was travel-worn and jaded, l was by no means lacking in spirit or enthusiasm, for l was approaching the fulfillment of a long cherished dream. l felt something like an attendant at an sold home week. celebration. for while had never seen the place, l was on my way to visit the cradle of the Aryan race, the home and birthplace of the Concessions. l was en route to Tihis, the whilom capital of Georgia.
 had to make long and zigzag detour, for the great track from Rostov to Vladi- caucaz had not then been constructed, and shall not weary my readers with q ros- ter of the unpronounceable names of the towns and villages through which l passed.
 For some distance my road meandered along the banks of the Rion. the Phasis in which the anoients used to dip the feeces of ewes in order to collect pepltes of gold. and as l rode onward l reflected that I was about to enter the 'uttermost limits of the earth. the country of the Scythians, the inaccessible desert.' as AeschyIus calls 1t in his Prometheus Round. and I later realized that the great Greek poet could not have selected a wilder more mysterious country for the staging of this drama of the gods than the one through which I passed.
 II appeared to me as chaos suddenly and If Strabo calculated that the cosmopolitan markets of Coichis echoed in his day the jabber of seventy languages. surely they have not decreased at the present time. for [ encountered 2 mighty experimentation Of ethnographical types all moving within the shadow of urofoundly impressive kazbek. whose rlaziers glitter forever in a sun-shot sky and tower 1000 feet above the astounded behoder
 was running over the pages of a vol une which has never been read. book flied with stories of ghosts, dragons and hobgobIins, the import of which l was unable to comprehend
 As write this am recalling a vanish ing dream and outspreaeing q map tar riahed with the mists of memory and H. lumined with images that are little more than mental wraiths.
 Isremember the interminable steppes as n vast sea of Rowery grass upon which ,,o,.od inc focks of the Cossack sneD- herds. as crawling ships of the bouadless deep. As the great mountains drew nearer and nearer I sensed in their echoes of torrent and storm the cries of passion fixed In strophies of ardent melancholr. to which Lermoatof the Poet of the Caucasus" gave utterance,
 My driver was now Cossack and as my vehicle drawn by four horses. dashed aicn', the road. the bvgle of the Je'lu sent