The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-04-15
ARAB SEES BEAUTY
IN DESERT WASTES
Laxmry World Offers Has
No Attraction for Him.

The traveller In Arabia Is impressed
0rst with the desolation Of the land
scape, says Paul w Harrison ip '"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. It is for
the most part a plateau rising to
height Of some 125 feet above the sea
and mere than that Ia its western
part It Is not uniform expanSe OF
send, as popular Imagination pictures
It. BY far the greater part is rocky,
and there Is a certain amount Of good
arabic soil. The feature that distin-
guishea the desert and gives it its par
sfcular characteEa sttcs 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-
ron 10 horizon. Sometimes the land
scape Is dead fat; sometimes rolling.
AZ In oar western prairies in the VI
clnity Of a great river. For some
hours the traveller from the Hasa oasis
near the Persian gulf coast to Riyadh
10 inland Arabia passes over great
rocky plain which is Qulte black. From
q distance the Imagination pictures It
as an immense asphalt roof covering
aOme inferno OF heat underneath, but
once reached 1t Is fownd so solid that
q seems rather az II the very frame
work of the earth has been upheaved
to view. The crevices and irreguiari-
tlsa are filled with yellow sand which
at times almost obIiterates the black
Foundation underneath.
Certain parts OF the desert are vast
uxDansss of sand, quite according to
the popular imagination. 1t Is a yell
IOwIah. cream colored sand, and 1t
axaeam into great dunes, fifty feet high
ee more.
And there ara people who live In
that desert, not travellers only, but
permanent residents. They live there
net naeraIy during the spring when
sAera r. a little rain, but the year
AROUND. How can men live in a ccun-
try Ike that? The well is the answer
xAe little sresn vegetation to be seen
tn the spring when the meager rains
come sodn dries down, and the inexpe-
Eaenced eye Of the stranger would
suareely And It. Nevertheless, it is
susacient for goats and cameis and
perhaps sheep TO Craze upon II wells
can bp found In addition where they
can be watered every evening. SO II
happens that the most precious things
On Arabia are the wells. Caravan
ROuEes may be crooked, but the reason
a. never 1ar to seek. II u the
we'll that Ia the essential thing. Wher-
ever water can be secured, there men
can live. II is not such a lie as would
b. popular Ia America, but men live,
and wemen live, and children live
there. and love their desert with an
unparalleled devotion. TranspIanted
e. real garden spot OF the earth,
they weep for glimpse Of their be-
loved desert.
The love Of the desert Is very
deep and very beautiful thing. For
political purposes one of these desert
2hlefs was urged to give up his resi-
Nance in the open and arid desert and
come 10 live In the town. The greater
comfort and luxury to be found i'R the
epwn were pointed out to him as con-
txeskad with the hardships and loneli-
ness az the desert; but the old chief
ala not see 1t that way. 'In the
town." he said, II have no doubt that
I shall and all the things which you
describe, but out here In the desert !
have my family and my goats. great
distances and God"