Their Women, Who All Went Unveiled, Wore Robes And
Handkerchiefs Of Striped Silk Stuff, Of Chinese Manufacture.
They
appeared to be people of very sober habits and quiet demeanour, but
avaricious in the extreme; and their want of charity was sufficiently
proved by their treatment of the destitute fugitives who had joined the
caravan at Wady Fatme.
They lived, during the whole journey, upon rice
and salted fish: they boiled the rice in water, without any butter, a
dear article in the Hedjaz, but which they did not dislike; for several
of them begged my slave to give them secretly some of mine, for
seasoning their dish. As they were people of property, avarice alone
could be the motive for this abstemious diet; but they were sufficiently
punished by the curses of the Bedouins, who had, of course, expected to
partake of their dinners, and could not be prevailed upon to swallow the
watery rice. Their copper vessels were all of Chinese manufacture, and
instead of the abrik, or pot, which the Levantines use in washing and
making their ablutions, they carried with them Chinese tea-pots.
During this journey, I had frequent opportunities of learning the
opinion entertained by these Malays of the government and manners of the
English, their present masters; they discovered a determined rancour and
hostile spirit towards them, and greatly reviled their manners, of
which, however, the worst they knew was, that they indulged too freely
in wine, and that the sexes mixed together in social intercourse; none,
however, impeached the justice of the government, which they contrasted
with the oppression of their native princes; and although they bestowed
upon the British the same opprobrious epithets with which the fanatic
Moslims every where revile Europeans, they never failed to add, "but
their government is good." I have overheard many similar conversations
among the Indians at Djidda and Mekka, and also among the Arabian
sailors who
[p.297] trade to Bombay and Surat; the spirit of all which was, that the
Moslims of India hate the English, though they love their government.
We left our resting-place at ten o'clock P.M., and proceeded over the
plain of Kara, in a direction N. 40 W. At the end of three hours we
passed a ruined building called Sebyl el Kara, where a well, now filled
up, formerly supplied the passengers with water. I saw no hills to the
west, as far as my eyes could reach. The plain is here overgrown with
some trees and thick shrubs. We continued to cross it till six hours,
where it closes; and the road begins to ascend slightly through a broad
woody valley: here is situated Bir Asfan, a large, deep well, lined with
stone, with a spring of good water in the bottom. This is a station of
the Hadj. There is another way from Wady Fatme to Asfan, four miles to
the eastward of our route. We passed the well without stopping.
Samhoudy, the historian of Medina, mentions a village at Asfan, with a
spring called Owla; there is now no village here. At seven hours begins
a very narrow ascending passage between rocks, affording room for only
one camel. The torrents which rush down through this passage in winter
have entirely destroyed the road, and filled it with large, sharp blocks
of stone; the Hadj route seemed, in several places, to be cut out of the
rock, but the night was too dark for seeing any thing distinctly. At the
end of eight hours we reached the top of this defile, where a small
building stands, perhaps the tomb of a Sheikh. From hence we rode over a
wide plain, sometimes sandy, and in other parts a mixture of sand and
clay, where trees and shrubs grow. At fourteen hours, near the break of
dawn, we passed a small Bedouin encampment, and alighted, at the end of
fifteen hours, in the neighbourhood of a village called Kholeys. We had
made several short halts during the night, and kindled fires to warm
ourselves.
Kholeys stands upon a wide plain, in several parts of which date-groves
are seen, with fields, where dhourra, bemye, and dokken are cultivated.
Several hamlets appear scattered about, which are comprised in the
general name of Kholeys; the largest is called Es-Souk, or the market-
place, near which the Hadj encamps. A small rivulet, tepid, like that in
Wady Fatme, rises near the Souk, and is collected
[p.298] on the outside of the village in a small birket, now ruined, and
then waters the plain. Near the birket there are also the ruins of a
sebyl. [A sebyl is a small, open building, often found by the side of
fountains; in these sebyls travellers pray, and take their repose.]
According to Kotobeddyn, the birket and sebyl were built by Kayd Beg,
Sultan of Egypt, about A.H. 885. At that time, Kholeys had its own Emir,
who was a very powerful person in the Hedjaz. I saw plenty of cattle,
cows, and sheep; but the Arabs complained that their plantations
suffered from drought, no rain having yet fallen, though the season was
far advanced. The water from the rivulet did not appear sufficient to
irrigate all the cultivated grounds, and the supply was even less than
it might have been, as half of the water was suffered, through
negligence, to escape from the narrow channels.
The village Es-Souk contains about fifty houses, all built of mud, and
very low: its main street is lined with shops, kept by the people of
Kholeys, and frequented by all the neighbouring Bedouins. The principal
article for sale was dates, with which most of the shops were filled; in
the others were sold dhourra, barley, lentils and onions, (both from
Egypt,) rice, and some other articles of provision; but no wheat, that
grain being little used by the Bedouins of this country: there were also
spices, a few drugs, the bark of a tree for tanning the water-skins, and
some butter.
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