© 2012 Kate Griffin. All rights reserved.
After we had finished our coffee, I retired to the edge of my bed and attended to what little toilet I could while the beduin squatted in the smoke of the fire. Sa’id II sprawled in a corner, playing with … Continue reading
© 2012 Kate Griffin. All rights reserved.
When the evening came, and the sweet shrill cry of the kites, that fills the daylight, stopped, ‘Awiz appeared with three paraffin lanterns, which he dotted about the floor in various places, and, having given me my supper, departed to … Continue reading
© 2012 Kate Griffin. All rights reserved.
The camel is an ugly animal, but, like some plain women, has lovely eyes, brown and soft with long lashes–often the only gentle things to look at in its sun-hardened world : but this one beauty is little noticed, for–though … Continue reading
© 2012 Kate Griffin. All rights reserved.
The cook was an Indian, engaged by the hospitable al-Kafs to make British travellers feel at home with their own familiar dishes : he had been brought to Tarim with the news of my coming, and I realised what a … Continue reading
© 2012 Kate Griffin. All rights reserved.
There is a cheerful quality in the neat brisk sound of trotting donkey feet on hard ground. And it is pleasant too, to sit on a donkey pack, when you know how to do it, without rigidity, meeting the jolts … Continue reading
© 2012 Kate Griffin. All rights reserved.
I have often wondered why a ship appears to be on the whole a more satisfactory possession than a woman. It is probably because, being so frail an object, precariously and visibly balanced between the elements, even the most obtuse … Continue reading