THE DESERT.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 97, 22 October 1908, Page 6

THE DESERT.

.-;.;■--•• ■ • •• ; ♦ ITS ASCE&bMtfCY OVER A RACE AND A FAITH. i •;, " The atinospMfe' »£ cities -is' fatal ;:to' the Arab. Not Baghdad, not Cordova, but the desert has been the ■v- seat of his real influence and powbr. He retains his- characteristic,; virtues only as long as he is in contact with' . the conditions" "which called thfem ,C. forth. In. .the same, way it -is. the' ':. desert that ( , has.' always maintained the standard of Moslem orthodoxy and efficiency^- that keeps watch and ward over the faith it propagated, thai", thrbugTr'the' Wnstanfc siteam of .pilgrims.?, drawn £0 its-- \shrinos, exhales thV^spii-it^that >Kiyines -all Is■•3am . . . .■ . „ „'V • t?r Does if "seemsiri'ahge to fee "reader that wastes of sand and barren rock >^slil^Jd. possess such ascendancy over a a race and a faith ? It. would not; seefii ; strange to liini if he had experienced., the desert and desert life. The fierce heat, the pure, thin air ihai vibrates on th© senses, the desolation that imposes on all who inhabit here , the need of stern, ance, the prevailing lawlessness that .delegates to. every individual the cus-> ; : tody of his owri life ; aid property and honour, these, causes, acting on the same race for lmndreds of generations, have stamped their mark not only on character and temperament but on ideas, and ethics. They have generated men, selfreliant, indomitable, arrogant, proud, fierce, and courageous men endued in- j a high degree with those virile virtues which at a certain stage of de-

velopihe'nt" have" satisfied all ' races, but which the.. Arab race, has remained Satisfied with permanently ; and they have generated a creed in which tbese virtues and this view of life are consecrated and embodied; a creed which, thin-thbugn'tetl as it is, and totally wanting in richness and in 'depth*, is of all creeds that which Stands by a man best in the assertion of his OAvn individuality;. Mohammedanism is the Arab life, as it has been lived, in the desert for centuries, turned into a , precept and a gospel. .-; It is the exaltation of the virtues: which are taught. ,by the desert itself, and the necessities in life "smd'religion and the necessities o.f the desert;. In life and religion . the : standard, thus upheld is .a consistent one, and it appeals irresistibly to all who have not reached, or passed, the stage of the simply virile ideal. Thus then the desert act®. It maintains and renews the Arab and Moslem influences by bringing to bear upon them constantly, from day to • :day, the very same,! conditions and cimimstances out of which they originally arose. Nothing changes in this stricken land, >where;.man and man's ideals share the immobility of nature .-^Saturday Review: