"I've got to get a key-thought," he muttered to himself, as he walked swiftly on, till only faint sounds came to him from the riverside. In the letter he had written to Hylda, which was the turning-point of all for her, he had spoken of these "key-thoughts." With all the childishness he showed at times, he had wisely felt his way into spheres where life had depth and meaning. The desert had justified him to himself and before the spirits of departed peoples, who wandered over the sands, until at last they became sand also, and were blown hither and thither, to make beds for thousands of desert wayfarers, or paths for camels' feet, or a blinding storm to overwhelm the traveller and the caravan; Life giving and taking, and absorbing and destroying, and destroying and absorbing, till the circle of human existence wheel to the full, and the task of Time be accomplished. On the gorse-grown common above Hamley, David and Faith, and David's mother Mercy, had felt the same soul of things stirring--in the green things of green England, in the arid wastes of the Libyan desert, on the bosom of the Nile, where Mahommed Hassan now lay in a nugger singing a song of passion, Nature, with burning voice, murmuring down the unquiet world its message of the Final Peace through the innumerable years. GLOSSARY Aiwa----Yes. Allah hu Achbar----God is most Great. Al'mah----Female professional singers, signifying "a learned female." Ardab----A measure equivalent to five English bushels. Backsheesh----Tip, douceur. Balass----Earthen vessel for carrying water. Bdsha----Pasha. Bersim----Clover. Bismillah----In the name of God. Bowdb----A doorkeeper. Dahabieh----A Nile houseboat with large lateen sails. Darabukkeh----A drum made of a skin stretched over an earthenware funnel. Dourha----Maize. Effendina----Most noble. El Azhar----The Arab University at Cairo. Fedddn----A measure of land representing about an acre. Fellah----The Egyptian peasant. Ghiassa----Small boat. Hakim----Doctor. Hasheesh----Leaves of hemp. Inshallah----God willing. Kdnoon----A musical instrument like a dulcimer. Kavass----An orderly. Kemengeh----A cocoanut fiddle. Khamsin----A hot wind of Egypt and the Soudan. Kourbash----A whip, often made of rhinoceros hide. La ilaha illa-llah----There is no deity but God. Malaish----No matter. Malboos----Demented. Mastaba----A bench. Medjidie----A Turkish Order. Mooshrabieh----Lattice window. Moufettish----High Steward. Mudir----The Governor of a Mudirieh, or province. Muezzin----The sheikh of the mosque who calls to prayer. Narghileh----A Persian pipe. Nebool----A quarter-staff. Ramadan----The Mahommedan season of fasting. Saadat-el-bdsha----Excellency Pasha. Sdis----Groom. Sakkia----The Persian water-wheel. Salaam----Eastern salutation. Sheikh-el-beled----Head of a village. Tarboosh----A Turkish turban. Ulema----Learned men. Wakf----Mahommedan Court dealing with succession, etc. Welee----A holy man or saint.