And all this is in a country so desolated by centuries of war that in spite of obvious natural fertility it is a sullen treeless deserta desert of blight and thistles, as profitless to our men as their periodically deferred anticipations of a grand advance.

They were still so far away that even a camel would have looked no larger than an ant at that distance, but they were assuredly human beings, two who were strangers to the desertfor the palm knew the people of the deserta man and a woman, who had neither guide, nor beasts of burden, nor tent, nor water-bag.

About noon next day we rode out of the cedars into the open deserta rolling, level land covered with fine grass, and yellow daisies, Indian paint brush, and a golden flowering weed.

"Nunc situs informis premit et deserta vetustas.