ABSTRACT
WE were awakened shortly after dawn by the roaring of the surf and, after a wash down with ice-cold well water in the courtyard, I strolled through the village to get a glimpse of the mountains. Pink in the first flush of morning light, Jebel Kawa, the highest peak in the range, rose in fluted folds from a turquoise sea. A brisk westerly wind blew across the desert, and the palm fronds nodded violently, like feathers in the bonnets of agitated old ladies. Streaks of butterfly blue glinted between the leaves-the bright underwings of the jays. Behind the low plaster wall of a merchant's summer house the plum trees were sprouting into baby green, and tortoiseshell butterflies hovered lazily in the increasing radiance of sunlight.
