TCD MS 10515 folio 60v
[April 29th 1916]
high spirits lessened; the sun shone fiercer in the heavens and the glare grew more and more intense. The light, springing step then gave way to the heavy plodding gait. I soon took to my pony as stragglers needed assistance to the Field Hospital following in our rear.
Tramping along in the hot sun, mile after mile, with scarce a sign of life but our own lengthy column, led more to the inward contemplation of things than to the observation of Natural ugliness. I fell at one time to discussing with my syce on the religious aspects of the followers of Islam. He is a good Sunni and holds the Arabs in contempt whom, I think wrongly, he condemns as all Shiahs. But his principles, ignorant as they were, shone with a broad tolerance and some philosophy.