ROMANCE OF THE CARAVAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 73, 16 September 1911, Page 10

ROMANCE OF THE CARAVAN.

"Through the history of countless ages the line of caravans stretches back into the silence of the past," says the Globe. "From before the time when the ' Crusaders flashed their banners through the world until the present century, when camels sway across the Sahara desert, and gipsy caravans sweep sleepily along English country lanes, the caravan has held a place in history. "Silent, inscrutable; holding a hint of color, and more than a suggestion of savagery, the fascination of the caravan remains unexplained, y unexplainable. Originally, the word was applied to a company of merchants, pilgrims, and others travelling together for the sake of security in the East of Northern Africa, especially through the desert.

"To-day there arc caravan routes stretching across miles of gleaming sand, where palm trees show a speck of precious shade, and wild dogs howl in tiie scented Nubian night. Even in the prosaic present a string of camels passes frequently overland —by caravan — from Mecca. Unwieldlv, cumbersome shapes, with their shrouded attendants; padding their clumsy feet in the burning sand; soundless, and without complaint. "In England gipsy folk now travel with an actual 'van,' horse-drawn, in which they sleep and live. Tn the Far East a caravan is, still a term applied to a company of travellers, or a licet of merchant ships, with their convoy. JJeyond the Southern cross when the day's journey is over a. tent goes up unikr the open sky. When morning dawns the caravan is up and away before the working world is stirring. Longfellow once described Kambala striding 'at the head of his dusty caravans.' Dusty and sun-baked, with the smell of burning wood, the gleam of white teeth in brown faces, the extraordinary freedom of the open road, caravans —Eastern or English—are still fascinating, still picturesque. "In the seventeenth century the word first acquired its present meaning—a covered, carriage or cart. The word caravan was then applied to public or private covered carriages carrying passengers, or to a company of people travelling together. From that is traced the shortened form 'van.' now applied to covered vehicles of various kinds. Early in the nineteenth century a caravan mean a third-class covered carriage on a railway. Nowadays, in England, the expression is principally used in connection with a 'moving house on wheels.' To most people a. caravan is associated onlv with gipsies: and. indeed, is rightly called the I ravelling home 01 gipsies and showmen. At one period it also meant a covered veriele of a travelling nienagerii—this forming a slight connection between English caravans and those of the East.

"We are apt In envv caravans as tlvov pass 11-; in country limes. We sec (lie sleepy old horse, noddiiifJC his head, mill stolidly lifting foot, it Her foot,. We watch the brown-skinned driver, pipe in moiif.ll. liis legs swinging carelessly over oik* shaft. whistling us lie cracks liis whip. The baskets. eans. brooms, and what not —the whole paraphernalia of n gipsy's stock-iii-tiwle—soehi so desirable as they swing from roof and window. Kven the cheap laee curtains tightly drawn across the tiny square of glass become something to admire, to covet. "Ami so the caravanncr draws our envy and admiration as he passes on his endless journev. There is seldom a thought for the discomforts, the deadly monotony, the ceaseless striving of such a life."