midday
Shortly after this , Tancred , attended by Baroni , passed the gate of Sion . Not a human being was visible , except the Turkish sentries . It was midsummer , but no words and no experience of other places can convey an idea of the canicular heat of Jerusalem . Bengal , Egypt , even Nubia , are nothing to it ; in these countries there are rivers , trees , shade , and breezes ; but Jerusalem at midday in midsummer is a city of stone in a land of iron with a sky of brass . The wild glare and savage lustre of the landscape are themselves awful . We have all read of the man who had lost his shadow ; this is a shadowless world . Everything is so flaming and so clear , that it would remind one of a Chinese painting , but that the scene is one too bold and wild for the imagination of the Mongol race .