Evening star., 1919-12-07
TALES OF SECRET EGYPT
N THOSE days. of course tsaid the
French agent. looking out across
the sea Of russuf Effendis. which
biilowed up against the balcony

buAOWeO Up against inc oAlCouy
to where. in the moonlight. the
Shinarets Of Cairo pointed the way to
0ea). did not occupy the position
which I occupy today. No, 1 WAS
yeuhger, and more ambitious; I
tAought to carve in the annals of
that of De Lesseps
I had a scheme--and there were
Those who believed in it--for extend
ing the borders Of Egypt. All! my
I. friends Egypt, after all. is but
double belt Of mud following the Nile
! and terminated east and west by the
desert. The desert. 1t was the dream
sOt my life to exterminate that desert,
that hungry, gray desert: 1t was my
.plan--a foolish plan, as know now
10 link the fertile Fayum to the
Oases! How was this to be done? All,
why should 1 dig up those buried
skeletons? 1t was not done. it never
could be done, therefore. let me not
bore you with how / proposed to do
1t. Suffice 1t that my ambitions took
me far of the beaten tracks, far, even,
from the caravan roads--far into the
gray. heart of the desert.
But was ambitious. and only nine
teen---or scarcely twenty. At nineteen,
] man who comes from ST. Remy fears
no obstacle which fate can place in his
way, and looks upon the world as
j grapefruit to be sweetened with en-
I. deavor and sucked empty.
1t was in those days, then, that 1
Learned. as your Rudyard Kipling has
also learned. that East Is East; 1t
was in those days that ! came face to
| face with that mystery of Egypt"
about which 30 much is written, has
always been written. and always will
be written, but concerning which so
few people, SO very few people, know
L ything whatever.
Yes, I. Rene de Flassans. saw with
s my own eyes a thing that I knew to
/ be magic, thing whereat my reason
rebelled--a thing which my poor Eu-
ropean intelligence could not grapple.
could not begin to explain.
It was this which you asked me to
tell you. was it not? / will do so with
pleasure, because I know that 1 speak
to mon of honor, and because it is
good for me, now that I cannot count
the gray hairs in my beard, to confess
how poor thing I was when I could
count every hair upon my chin--and
how grand a thing I thought myself.
y One evening, ut the end of a dread
sful day in the saddlc-beneath a sky
which seemed to reflect all the fires
Of he'll, q day passed upon sands
-simply smoking in that merciless sun
FL and my native companions came
ITO an encampment Of Arabs.
/. They were Bedouins (this incorrect
hut familiar spelling is retained
.fhroughout)-the tribe does not mat
ter at the moment-and. as you may
know. the Bedouin is the most hos
pitable creature whom God has yet
created. The tent of the sheikh is
open to any traveller who cares to
rest his weary limbs therein. Freely
he may partake Of all that the tribe
has TO ofter-food and drink and en-
\ atertainment: and to sock to press
4pAyment upon the host would be to
Insult gentleman.
That IL desert hospitality. spear
4 that stands thrust upright in the sand
before the tent door signifies that
Il whosoever would raise his hand
against the guest has first to reckon
with the sheikh. Equally it would be
n an insult to erect ones own tent in
the neighborhoOd of Bedouin en-
scampment.
Well. my friends, i knew this well,
for I was no stranger to the nomadic
life. and accordingly, without fear of
the fierce-eyed throng who came forth
to meet us. / made my respects to
sthe Sheikh said Mohammed and was
teckoned by him as a friend and a
brother. His tent was placed at my
.disposal and provisions were made for
: 4Atthse suitable entertainment of those
who were with me.
III You know how the dusk falls in
.Egypt? At one moment the sky is
u brilliant canvas, glorious with every
color known to art, at the next the
curtain-the wonderful veil of deep
{ lest violet-has fallen; the stars break
Through it like diamonds through the
finest gauze; it is night; velvet, vio-
alet night. You see it here in this
noisy Cairo. In the lonely desert 1t
10 tan thnuc,nA tivnau pr,~1,r co.,