Note 1 — Chapter XVI · AKHLAT

We are encamped in an orchard by the side of the lake. The water plashes against rocks, at the foot of a well-defined bank, some twenty yards from our tent. We look across a floor of green, dappled with shade and sunshine, through the varied intervals of the grove of fruit trees, beneath the perfect foliage, to a field of light, with changing colour and ever-changing appearance, whence a freshness is wafted towards us across the flowering grass. Such oases are not, indeed, infrequent in Asia, where they derive enhancement not only from the contrast which they offer to the general treelessness of the land, but also from their special climate—the soil cooled by irrigation, and the leaves developed to a perfection with which we are unfamiliar in the West. Luscious clover, white and red, purple vetch with a delicate perfume, the long, trailing stalks and pale mauve flowers of chicory, luxuriate on the damp soil. The cherries were small and yellow when we arrived; now they hang in bright red clusters before our tent. An old walnut tree protrudes its gnarled branches and thick foliage over the water on the margin of the grove; and two rollers, which have built their nest in an inaccessible crevice of the trunk, flit to and fro, in search of food for their young. The hues of the lake are repeated on their breasts; while on their backs and in their wings this azure blue is subdued and softened by rich browns, resembling the branches where they repose.1