'THIM DAYS IS GONE' [‎4r] (7/248)

CHAPTER 1
Eastward Ho!
THe port-hole made a circle of brilliant light in the cabin wall
and outside a figure in a white skull r^n * Lr, e c ,f ?; n wa 1 1
was ipaHinn a d i wn 11 e skull cap and a long white robe
was leading a slowly-pacing camel seemingly only a few yards
away. The background was an endless expanse of golden sancf and
Skv 0 s r un 9 i r i°t U H Ve 7 narrow strl 'P of brilliant blue water : the
sky, sunlit and clear, the colours brighter than the most
imaginative seaside picture postcard. We were in the Suez Canal
and he was in the desert. The scene could not have made a more
explicit contrast to the grey figures huddling in the rain on the
Southampton quay-side barely two weeks before
I had arrived in the East, and I liked it.
An uncomfortably hard lump under my pillow made itself felt and I
pu led out a viciously lead-loaded rubber truncheon * tangible
evidence that the events of the night before had not been just a
llcitiln* kV st ; an 9 e . countr y and a strange continent is always
t-hp ca 9 * U l 1105 1 exc 1 1 1 n 9 of all by sea. There is nothing of
offiMaU^^nH t m •’ nternat ’’° na1 air P° rts a "<l hotels, customs
officials and taxi-drivers. After four stormy days in the
? h e 1 r: anean ’ when . 11 had ne eded a strong stomach to carry out
e routine inspections of the crowded troop-decks, where the men
swung close together in hammocks and the throes of seasickness
he ights of Port Said looked like an Eastern fairy land Ind
the impression was strengthened when the multi-story emporium of
to make the^sT 9 V 110 and life, f ul ly-manned y at'midn igh[
to make the most out of our arrival . y
Not thTt make . the strongest impression was the smell.
Not that it was an unpleasant one - quite the contrary - but it
was entirely new heady, intoxicating, and mysterious, never to
be experienced ,n Northern climes. It was given off by the
a th, for it had rained, and the dust, dessicated by weeks or
even months of unbroken sunshine, seemed to be giving up the
sence of accumulated spices and mysterious perfumes of utter
sale an ?h? ess w a 7 h unfathomabl e age. The dust of India does the
same thing, but here in Egypt it was new and magical.
Strange and new it was, too, to be set upon by a crowd of
shuffling figures in long gelabiehs selling, with dauntina
persistence, everything from ” r feel thy pictures" to their
he r rS 'l K 0t - t0 be Shaken 0ff> they Allowed us everywhere, !nd
their lubricious descriptions of their ’sisters' carnal
accomplishments and the -exhibitions' they were prepared to stage
live cVe ? 1th the /o-oPeHat’O” apparently of donkeys and other
he allevs’ n e f nS p7 e f ^7 at ’ east °"e subaltern walked through
eys of Port Said suffused by blushes and with his scalp