(CHAPTER XVI)
"ESCAPE" TO THE ARABS
Soon the snorers' chorus mixed with other weird
noises in the room. The place became smelly, stuffy,
heavy with the odors of perspiring bodies and unwashed feet. I began to itch, first around the neck,
then my ankles, my legs, thighs, chest, armpits. A
sleeping Arab rolled over and blew his hot breath
against my face. . . . The heat and stench became
more and more oppressive. What did I expect? I
had forgotten the East during my sojourn in the
West.
OVER the convent wall the sky turned purple-pink, then
purple, then gray, till finally all color disappeared, and darkness became one with the landscape. The thousand and one
eyes that I imagined were watching had been swallowed by
the blackness of night. Quickly I got up, shouldered my bag,
and advanced another seventy-five yards or so, changing to the
other side of the valley split by the footpath. I listened. Deir
Aboutor was quiet with a dead silence. No light flickered from
the Arab dwellings. They rose against the ridge blacker than
the blackness around them. Every tree, every landmark was a
grim sentry, watching me in silence. The night was filled with
eyes,
From the lower end of the valley—where I would have expected the footpath to lead me—there now came the sound