nably, both as to length and
breadth. A country of low rounded hills, the surface of which is
composed entirely of gravel, dust, and stones, will give a good idea of
the general aspect of a desert. Yet, although parched and dreary in the
extreme from their vastness and openness, there is something grand and
sublime in the silence and loneliness of these burning plains; and the
wandering tribes of Bedouins who inhabit them are seldom content to
remain long in the narrow inclosed confines of cultivated land. There is
always a fresh breeze in the desert, except when the terrible hot wind
blows; and the air is more elastic and pure than where vegetation
produces exhalations which in all hot climates are more or less heavy
and deleterious. The air of the desert is always healthy, and no race of
men enjoy a greater exemption from weakness, sickness, and disease than
the children of the desert, who pass their lives in wandering to and fro
in search of the scanty herbage on which their flocks are fed, far from
the cares and troubles of busy cities, and free from the oppression
which grinds down the half-starved cultivators of the fertile soil of
Egypt.

Whilst from my elevated position I looked out on my left upon the mighty
desert, on my right how different was the scene! There below my feet lay
the convent garden in all the fresh luxuriance of tropical vegetation.
Tufts upon tufts of waving palms overshadowed the immense succulent
leaves of the banana, which in their turn rose out of thickets of the
pomegranate rich with its bright green leaves and its blossoms of that
beautiful and vivid red which is excelled by few even of the most
brilliant flowers of the East. These were contrasted with the deep dark
green of the caroub or locust-tree; and the yellow apples of the lotus
vied with the clusters of green limes with their sweet white flowers
which luxuriated in a climate too hot and sultry for the golden fruit of
the orange, which is not to be met with in the valley of the Nile.
Flowers and fair branches exhaling rich perfume and bearing freshness in
their very aspect became more beautiful from their contrast to the
dreary arid plains outside the convent walls, and this great difference
was owing solely to there being a well of water in this spot from which
a horse or mule was constantly employed to draw the fertilizing streams
which nourished the teeming vegetation of this monastic garden.

I stood gazing and moralizing at