Current Literature
DESERT WINDS. By Hafsa. (Century Company, New York and London. :3.50)-This is a distinctly original book. The style is exotic, diffuse, rather irritating ; the writer, who is an American of Arabic and Spanish descent, coins words to suit her meaning. She is apt to become lyrical in describing things seen and people encountered in her travels ; and yet she has the charm of sincerity and the knack of getting to the heart of things. Take, for example, this pen portrait
of a young man : slight, sinewy of frame, bronzed skin, aquiline nose, sparkling. eyes beneath dark, straight brows- scarce was he grown to manhood "; or this picture of old Algiers up by the Qasba, in which she describes the " color- lurking gloom of tunneled byways " in which the " pageant- peoples " moved about in life-infested Streets." Contrast these rather hectic .passages with her intimate descriptions of the inner life of the people and it will be seen how much her recital gains by simplicity. Unlike many writers of travel books who have to rely on the accuracy of an interpreter, " Hafsa " speaks Arabic fluently, and we find her chatting with all those whom she meets in her travels. Without making any effort. to cover unexplored ground, she visits the haunts of the Berbers in the Kabyle mountains, lingers long in the various oases of the Sahara, and penetrates to Al Aghuat and the M'zab. Accompanied only by her Spanish-Arab chauffeur, she makes a leisurely progress and has time to observe quietly as she goes ; her pictures of native life are always convincing, whether she describes a falcon chase with a native potentate or the friend- ship that she set up with Fatima and Shwa'wish, two little dancing girls of Bu Saada. There is a map of the principal caravan mutes through the Sahara, and the book is illustrated by photographs which, with a few exceptions, are admirable.
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