Читать книгу The Court of the King, and Other Studies онлайн

7 страница из 13

When at last I saw an Oasis it was unlike my vision—my Vision of Delight. There was no grass, but there were more palm-trees; there were no crystal fountains, but trickles of brown water in sandy channels. It came up to my ideal in one point only—there was none of that indefiniteness of outline which is so repulsive to the simple mind. Even as you can stand on the bridge above Mentone, and see a milestone with France on one side and a milestone with Italy on the other, so here you could take your stand and say “That on my right hand is Desert, and that on my left is Oasis.”

We had been travelling all day over the sandy, dusty plains of North Africa; we had found little to eat at the shed-like stations except blue cheese and musty bread; and towards evening we entered a rocky defile. At the end of this defile they said were the Gates of Gold. There was not much to see and the train loitered on.

Suddenly we saw at the end of the valley two great escarpments of reddish rock; at their foot leaned one palm-tree, behind was a glimpse of blue hills. The evening sunlight fell golden on the Golden Gates as we passed through and suddenly cried out, for everywhere below us spread a sea of waving palm-trees. This was the Oasis.