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The boy couldn't believe what he was seeing:
男孩簡直無法相信他看到的景象：
the oasis, rather than being just a well surrounded by a few palm trees—as he had seen once in a geography book—was much larger than many towns back in Spain.
綠洲根本不像他在一本故事書上讀到的那樣，只有幾棵棕櫚樹圍著一眼水井，而是比好幾個西班牙村莊加在一起還要大得多。
There were three hundred wells, fifty thousand date trees, and innumerable colored tents spread among them.
這里有三百口水井，五萬株椰棗樹，其間散布著許多五顏六色的帳篷。
"It looks like The Thousand and One Nights," said the Englishman, impatient to meet with the alchemist.
“很像《一千零一夜》里的情景?！庇苏f。他正迫不及待地要找到那位煉金術士。
They were surrounded by children, curious to look at the animals and people that were arriving.
他們很快便被一群孩子包圍了，孩子們好奇地看著牲口和陌生人。
The men of the oasis wanted to know if they had seen any fighting, and the women competed with one another for access to the cloth and precious stones brought by the merchants.
男人們想知道商隊是否遇上了戰亂，女人們則爭著購買商人們帶來的布匹和寶石。
The silence of the desert was a distant dream; the travelers in the caravan were talking incessantly, laughing and shouting,
沙漠的寂靜完全被打破。人們不停地說啊，笑啊，喊啊，
as if they had emerged from the spiritual world and found themselves once again in the world of people. They were relieved and happy.
仿佛剛剛走出一個幽靈世界，重新回到人間，那么幸福和快樂。
They had been taking careful precautions in the desert, but the camel driver explained to the boy that oases were always considered to be neutral territories,
那位前一天晚上還小心謹慎的趕駝人對男孩解釋說，沙漠中的綠洲向來被視為中立地區，
because the majority of the inhabitants were women and children.
因為綠洲的大部分居民是婦女和兒童。
There were oases throughout the desert, but the tribesmen fought in the desert, leaving the oases as places of refuge.
戰爭的雙方都有綠洲，士兵在沙漠中打仗，留下綠洲作為避難所。
With some difficulty, the leader of the caravan brought all his people together and gave them his instructions.
商隊首領頗費了一番氣力才把所有人召集在一起，隨后便開始發布指令。
The group was to remain there at the oasis until the conflict between the tribes was over.
他們將在綠洲駐扎下來，直到部落間的戰爭結束。
Since they were visitors, they would have to share living space with those who lived there, and would be given the best accommodations.
由于是客人，所以要與綠洲的居民分享帳篷，居民們將把最好的位置留給他們。
That was the law of hospitality.
這是沙漠里的好客原則。
Then he asked that everyone, including his own sentinels, hand over their arms to the men appointed by the tribal chieftains.
接下來頭領要求所有人，包括他的貼身衛士，都把武器交給各部落頭領指定的人。
