The St. Paul echo., 1926-02-27
ARAB SEES BEAUTY
IN DESERT WASTES
Luxury World Offers Has
No Attraction for Him.

4uc lIdNcicT III ATdDld 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. 1t Is for
the most part a plateau rising to q
height of some 125 feet above the sea
and, more than that In its western
part. 1t is not uniform expanse of
sand, as popular Imagination pictures
1t. BY far the greater part is rocky,
and there is certain amount of good
arabic soil. The feature that distin-
guishes the desert and gives 1t its par
ticular characteristics is its aridity.
During the winter and spring there
may be as much as three to six inches
Of rainfall. For the remainder Of the
year there Is none.
The rocky plains stretch from hori-
con 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
q distance the imagination pictures 1t
as an immense asphalt roof covering
some inferno of heat underneath, but
once reached it Is found so solid that
1t seems rather as If the very frame
work of the earth has been upheaved
to view. The crevices and irregulari-
ties are filled 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 yell
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 a little rain, but the year
around. How can men live in coun-
try like that?. The we'll Is the answer.
The little green vegetation to be seen
in the spring when the meager rains
come soon dries down, and the fnexpe-
rienced eye of the stranger would
scarcely find It. Nevertheless, 1t Is
sufficient for goats and camels and
perhaps sheep to Craze upon if wells
can be found In addition where they
can be watered every evening. So 1t
happens that the most precious things
in Arabia are the wells. Caravan
routes may be crooked, but the reason
Is never far to seek. 1t Is the
well that is the essential thing. Wher-
ever water can be secured, there men
can live. 1t is not such 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. glimpse of their be-
loved desert.
The love of the desert is 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 lonel-
ness of the desert; but the old chief
did not see it that way. I'm the
town." he said, 81 have no doubt that
7 shall find all the things which you
describe, but out here in the desert
have my family and my goats, great
distances and God"