Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

 

XXXV   BETWEEN SAND AND KEVIR

night, I had seen my tent lighted up by the ruddy flames

of the watch fire

At three o'clock the rain became a light drizzle, but in

the evening one of the hardest northerly storms I have ever

experienced broke loose, and now the rain again dashed

against the tents driven by the furious blast.   Every-

thing had to be secured and firmly tied to prevent its being

carried away, and nothing could be left about. I could do

nothing better than lie down and read by a candle protected

by a glass shade and a couple of boxes. The tent canvas

was thoroughly wet on the inside, and drops filtered through

its holes. A trench was digged around the tent to protect

me from intruding rivulets. Large quantities of water must

on such a day stream down from all sides to the Kevir.

And I thought again of the plight we should have been in

if we had delayed our departure a day or two from Turut.

We should have been completely cut off from our return

route, and even a circuitous march round the eastern

margin of the Kevir would have been quite problematic,

for we might be sure that the Kal-mura was much swollen.

How dull and dark it was when I went out at nine

o'clock to take the usual meteorological observations !

It had then rained incessantly for twelve hours, and the

gale whistled like an autumn storm, moaning and piping

through the bushes. The gleams from the men's large

camp fire lighted up the tents, the baggage, the camels and

their two watchmen, who sat cowering under their sackcloth

cloaks and dozed round the blaze. They slept in the open

in all weathers.

After two hours' interval early in the morning it began

to rain again at seven o'clock, and the sky was black with

clouds. But after an hour the weather cleared a little, and

the sky's shroud of clouds presented the most fantastic

relief in bluish-purple shades, with tufts, cushions, and

bolsters, pure white heaps and dark tunnels, but the sun

strove in vain to break through. We might have been

travelling in a country where the sun in winter remained

below the horizon, and yet we were in the land of the lion

and the sun.

As usual, I walked on ahead, looking for the best