Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1926-06-05
ARAB SEES BEAUTY
IN DESERT WASTES
Luxury World Offers Has
No Attraction for Him.

The traveller In Arabia Is impressed
first with the desolation of the land
scape, says Paul w. Harrison in 1.-THE
Arab at Home" The desert, which Is
the real home of the Arab, includes
practically the whole Of the peninsula
except the two southern corners and
the western edge, where low noun
tain ranges take its place. II IL for
the most part a plateau rising to a
height Of some 125 feet above the sea
and more than that in it's western
part. IT is not a uniform expanse OF
sand, as popular Imagination pictures
II. BY far the greater part is rocky,
and there is certain amount of good
arabic soil. The feature that distin-
cuisines the desert and gives 1t its par
ticuIar characteristics is its aridity.
may he as much as three to six inches
Of rainfall. For the remainder of the
year there is none.
The rocky plains stretch from hOri-
ION to horizon. Sometimes the land
scape is dead fiat; sometimes rolling.
as in our western prairies In the VI
cinity of great river. For some
hours the traveller from the Hasa oasis
near the Persian gulf coast to Riyadh
in inland Arabia passes over a great
rocky plain which is quite black. From
a distance the Imagination pictures II
as an immense asphalt roof covering
some inferno Of heat underneath, but
once reached II is found 80 solid that
II seems rather as II the very frame
work Of the earth has been upheaved
to view. The crevices and irregulari-
ties are filed with yellow sand which
at times almost Obliterates the black
foundation underneath.
Certain parts of the desert are vast
expanses of sand. quite according to
the popular imagination. 1t is vel
lOwish, cream-cOlOred sand, and 1t
drifts into great dunes, fifty feet high
or more.
And there are people who live In
that desert, not travellers only, but
permanent residents. They live there
not merely during the spring when
there is q little rain, but the year
around. How can men live in coun-
try like that? The well Is the answer.
The little green vegetation to be seen
in the spring when the meager rains
come soon dries down, and the inexpe-
rienced eye Of the stranger would
scarcely find 1t. Nevertheless, 1t Is
sufficient for goats and camels and
perhaps sheep to Craze upon II wells
can be found in addition where they
can be watered every evening. So II
happens that the most precious things
I'm Arabia are the wells. Caravan
routes may be crooked. but the reason
is never far to seek. 1t Is the
we'll that is the essential thing. Wher-
ever water can be secured, there men
can live. It is not such a life as would
be popular in America, but men live.
and women live, and children live
there, and love their desert with an
unparalleled devotion. Transplanted
to a real garden spot of the earth.
they weep for a glimpse OF their ne
loved desert.
The love of the desert Is a very
deep and a very beautiful thing. For
political purposes one of these desert
chiefs was urged to give up his resi-
dence in the open and arid desert and
come to live in the town. The greater
comfort and luxury to be found In the
town were pointed out to him as con
trasted with the hardships and loneli-
ness Of the desert; but the old chief
did not see it that way. I'm the
town." he said, II have no doubt that
I shall find all the things which you
describe, but out here in the desert !
have my family and my goats, great
distances and God"