THE SIROCCO.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 545, 26 February 1913, Page 2

THE SIROCCO.

A MIRAGE : THE FOUNTAIN OB THE GAZELLES. I have set out in the morning from Metloni, on the borders of the Tunisian desert. in company with a youthful Sheikh and a party of his tribesmen, for the oasis of Tozeur. As the day crept on the heat grew ever greater and greater. A diaphanous haze trembled in the limpid air; and 'in the distance appeared a line of blackish blue. Surely this was ac oasis ! Gradually it became more and more distinct ; tufts of palmtrees stood out, then a lake displayed its shining surface, wherein were mirrored reflections of all kinds o' vegetation, and little white houses with rounded roofs, like cupolas. How fresh it looked, how del'icately blue and green ! I could even distinguish people, like tiny dots, passing to and fro beside the water. "How far are we yet from that oasis ?" I asked, with a forward gesture of my arm.

"From that mirage, you mean !" replied the Sheikh, with a shout oi laughter which rang out upon the great silence. The sound shattered the enchantment. The illusive watei and verdure were nc longer there. Then the weather changed abruptly. A grey cloud obscured the horizon, and, coming up with lightning rapidity, enveloped us in a fiery mist. Th2 sky was shrouded, leaving the srn a mere pailid disc ; the mountains vanished, and our.escort were transformed into ghosts. It was the Sirocco, the fierce wind of the desert raising clouds of blinding, burning sand. In a moment the storm hac become so violent that we could w'itb difficulty keep our saddles ; and oui horses, whinnying with terror, refused to advance except under the bite of the spur. We pushed hurriedly on, trusting to the instinct of our beasts. We knew we were close to one ol those fortified caravanseries. sentinel guardians of the solitudes, erected by the French for tha pr«tectio» ol travellers.

But the howling storm increased it fury ; and our horses threw themselves on their haunches to keej from falling. Wc were obliged tc dismount. Enveloped in a burnous I crouched on the ground, half suffocated by the heat and by the sand, which was so fins that it penetrated everywhere, like water. Unhappj castaways on a sea of fire we had n« alternative but to endure the interminable agony of waiting. The tempest abated at last, anc we took refuge in the caravansery, which seemed to us a perfect paradise of coolness. Two hours latei the howling of the wind had givei place to utter silence—indefinable heavy, more impressive than anj noise. The burning air was motionless ; and the atmosphere remained charged with impalpable sand, obscured by a dry haze that scorched the skin. And everything was a uniform ashen grey.

At the, base of a rock crowned b: a cluster of palm-trees, a spring is sued from a stony cell. A group o Bedouin women, their facas framed ii heavy trusses twisted into the likeness of rams' horns, were drawint water i'rom it in earthern vessels. A few paces further on, in front of th( low black tents of their encamp ment, the men squatted, smokim their pipes. Some ass-colts wen rolling in the sand, and a whiti camel was suckling her foal: white too, all over, and woolly and engag ,ing as a lamb. "This is the Fountain of the Gazelles," said the Shc'ikh. In silence we advanced towards tht oasis.—Eustaehe Lorey, in thf London "Leader."

In the lifetime of men now old w< have had between the Great Power; a series of conflicts the like of whict would have saemed incredible in anj other similar short period of history We have had the social movements for '4B, the Crimean War, the German Civil Wars, the French Wars foi the liberation of Italy, the final conquest of North Africa, tha enormous conflict between North Germany anc Fran':e, the Russo-Turkish War, th< Indian Mutiny, the murderous struggle between North and South of the United States, which killed more mer than anything of which antiquity car tell us,' the Spanish-American Wal Street business —which was a mere sliamb'es, luckily unprofitable to its jron-o'cers—'the South African War the upshot of which was that Eng land paid, roughly speaking, £10,00( for each- Dutch family (now and ii future the masters oi South Africa, which could be got to call itsclE not "British subjects" but "Soith Afri can Nationals." Finally- we ha>'< had the most costly, the murderous, and the most gigantic oi al conflicts in history—so far as casual ties and expense are can er :ed—thi Russo-Japanese Vv'a'i, which is bu> the first act of the dramatic strug gle between East and West on tht plain* of Manchuria.— "Eye-Witness.'