The desert had justified him to himself and before the spirits of departed peoples, who wandered over the sands, until at last they became sand also, and were blown hither and thither, to make beds for thousands of desert wayfarers, or paths for camels' feet, or a blinding storm to overwhelm the traveller and the caravan; Life giving and taking, and absorbing and destroying, and destroying and absorbing, till the circle of human existence wheel to the full, and the task of Time be accomplished.
On the gorse-grown common above Hamley, David and Faith, and David's mother Mercy, had felt the same soul of things stirring--in the green things of green England, in the arid wastes of the Libyan desert, on the bosom of the Nile, where Mahommed Hassan now lay in a nugger singing a song of passion, Nature, with burning voice, murmuring down the unquiet world its message of the Final Peace through the innumerable years.
GLOSSARY Aiwa----Yes.
Allah hu Achbar----God is most Great.
Al'mah----Female professional singers, signifying "a learned female." Ardab----A measure equivalent to five English bushels.
Backsheesh----Tip, douceur.
Balass----Earthen vessel for carrying water.
Bdsha----Pasha.
Bersim----Clover.
Bismillah----In the name of God.
Bowdb----A doorkeeper.
Dahabieh----A Nile houseboat with large lateen sails.
Darabukkeh----A drum made of a skin stretched over an earthenware funnel.
Dourha----Maize.
Effendina----Most noble.
El Azhar----The Arab University at Cairo.
Fedddn----A measure of land representing about an acre.
Fellah----The Egyptian peasant.
Ghiassa----Small boat.
Hakim----Doctor.
Hasheesh----Leaves of hemp.
Inshallah----God willing.
Kdnoon----A musical instrument like a dulcimer.
Kavass----An orderly.
Kemengeh----A cocoanut fiddle.
Khamsin----A hot wind of Egypt and the Soudan.
Kourbash----A whip, often made of rhinoceros hide.
La ilaha illa-llah----There is no deity but God.
Malaish----No matter.
Malboos----Demented.
Mastaba----A bench.
Medjidie----A Turkish Order.
Mooshrabieh----Lattice window.
Moufettish----High Steward.
Mudir----The Governor of a Mudirieh, or province.
Muezzin----The sheikh of the mosque who calls to prayer.
Narghileh----A Persian pipe.
Nebool----A quarter-staff.
Ramadan----The Mahommedan season of fasting.
Saadat-el-bdsha----Excellency Pasha.
Sdis----Groom.
Sakkia----The Persian water-wheel.
Salaam----Eastern salutation.
Sheikh-el-beled----Head of a village.
Tarboosh----A Turkish turban.
Ulema----Learned men.
Wakf----Mahommedan Court dealing with succession, etc.
Welee----A holy man or saint.
Yashmak----A veil for the lower part of the face.
Yelek----A long vest or smock.
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: A cloak of words to cover up the real thought behind Antipathy of the man in the wrong to the man in the right Antipathy of the lesser to the greater nature Begin to see how near good is to evil But the years go on, and friends have an end Cherish any alleviating lie Does any human being know what he can bear of temptation Friendship means a giving and a getting He's a barber-shop philosopher Heaven where wives without number awaited him Honesty was a thing he greatly desired--in others How little we can know to-day what we shall feel tomorrow How many conquests have been made in the name of God Monotonously intelligent No virtue in not falling, when you're not tempted Of course I've hated, or I wouldn't be worth a button One does the work and another gets paid Only the supremely wise or the deeply ignorant who never alter Passion to forget themselves Political virtue goes unrewarded She knew what to say and what to leave unsaid Smiling was part of his equipment Sometimes the longest way round is the shortest way home Soul tortured through different degrees of misunderstanding The vague pain of suffered indifference There is no habit so powerful as the habit of care of others There's no credit in not doing what you don't want to do To-morrow is no man's gift Tricks played by Fact to discredit the imagination Triumph of Oriental duplicity over Western civilisation We want every land to do as we do; and we want to make 'em do it We must live our dark hours alone When God permits, shall man despair?
Woman's deepest right and joy and pain in one--to comfort.