Just as we had finished our evening meal, three
gentlemen of our acquaintance, who had scrambled across the desert
from the Pyramids, came up, weary and wayworn, and as hungry as
possible. We put the best that we had before them, and then retired
to the opposite apartment. But in this place I found it impossible to
stay; there was no free circulation of air throughout the room, and
it had all the benefit of the smell from the stable and other
abominations.
Leaving, therefore, my companions asleep, and wrapping myself up in
my shawl, I stole out into the passage, where there were several Arabs
lying about, and not without difficulty contrived to step between
them, and to unfasten the door which opened upon the desert. There
was no moon, but the stars gave sufficient light to render the scene
distinctly visible. A lamp gleamed from the window of the apartment
which I had quitted, and the camels, donkeys, and people belonging
to the united parties, formed themselves into very picturesque groups
upon the sand, constituting altogether a picture which could not fail
to excite many agreeable sensations. The whitened bones of animals
perishing from fatigue and thirst, while attempting to cross the arid
expanse, associated in our minds with privation, toil, and danger,
told too truly that these notions were not purely ideal; but here
was a scene of rest and repose which the desert had never before
presented; and mean and inconvenient as the building I contemplated
might be, its very existence in such a place seemed almost a marvel,
and the imagination, kindling at the sight, could scarcely set bounds
to its expectations for the future.
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