Even in this dark hour I had a sweet consolation.
For I knew that except these Mohammedans repented they would go straight to perdition some day.

And they never repent--they never forsake their paganism.

This thought calmed me, cheered me, and I sank down, limp and exhausted, upon the summit, but happy, so happy and serene within.
On the one hand, a mighty sea of yellow sand stretched away toward the ends of the earth, solemn, silent, shorn of vegetation, its solitude uncheered by any forms of creature life; on the other, the Eden of Egypt was spread below us--a broad green floor, cloven by the sinuous river, dotted with villages, its vast distances measured and marked by the diminishing stature of receding clusters of palms.

It lay asleep in an enchanted atmosphere.

There was no sound, no motion.