IN THE DESERT.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 32, 9 February 1929, Page 21

IN THE DESERT.

"Desert Winds," by Hafsa (Werner Laurie) is not-a travel book in the strict sense, but it tells us much of the peoples of the East, and both by its competent style and illustrations conveys something of the mystery of the desert places:—

"The desert is the same huge primal force it was at the dawn of its creation, awesome in its vastness, terrible in its storms and creeping inundations. But there is a veil of loveliness, a, spirit, not only of the Sahara but of overy groat desert which has mapped its tawny ciphered form upon the earth. Sometimes, it seems, this spirit is the mirage—the desert's dream.' Somelimes it is the wind—a voice, a night of thought-winged beings. . - • "The desert is an emptiness which magnifies each thought, each feeling, each emotion. It is subjective, never obvious, never definite, and endlessly suggestive. It is like a crystal, or a lire, or a cloud of sraoko, receptive, mystic; where men pcrcoivo the unknown, and read the past, the present^ and the future."