If Discovered, They Draw Their Daggers And Cut Their Way
Through; For, If Taken, They Can Expect No Mercy.
The usual mode of
punishment on such occasions, is to impale them at the moment the
caravan starts from the next station, leaving them to perish on the
stake, or be devoured by wild beasts.
The horrors of such a punishment,
however, do not deter others from committing the same crimes; and
individuals among the Bedouins pride themselves in being reckoned expert
Hadj-robbers, because great courage and dexterity are necessary to such
a character. From hence our road lay N. 20 E. A barren valley about
three hundred yards across begins here, which, at the end of six hours
and a half, conducted us with many windings to Djedeyde, situated in a
spot where the road becomes straight and has a steep ascent. I saw a
great many date-trees on both sides of the valley, which takes the
general name of Djedeyde, and is divided into several villages. Near the
southern entrance is the market-place, or Es'-Souk Djedeyde, which
appeared to be of greater extent than that of Szafra; but it is now
almost in ruins. From thence the valley becomes still narrower, running
between steep rocks for about one hour. It was in this spot that
Mohammed Aly's first expedition against the Wahabys, under the command
of his son Tousoun Beg, was defeated in autumn 1811. They had possession
of both mountains, and the discharges of musketry from each side
[p.313] reached across the valley, where the Turkish army attempted in
vain to pass. Most of the Sheikhs of the tribe of Harb, and the two
great southern Wahaby chiefs, Othman el Medheyfe and Tamy, were present,
with two of the sons of Saoud.
At seven hours and a half, we passed El Kheyf, the last village in the
valley of Djedeyde; several insulated groups of houses are also
scattered along the valley. About eighty tents of Turkish soldiers were
pitched here, to guard this pass; one of the most important positions in
the Hedjaz, because it is the only way by which caravans can proceed
from Mekka or Yembo to Medina. The Harb tribe are well fitted, by their
warlike temper, to defend this post. Even before the Wahaby conquest,
they had repeatedly been at war with the Syrian caravan, and Djezzar
Pasha himself had been several times repulsed here, and obliged to take
the eastern Hadj route, at the back of the great chain, rather than
submit to the exorbitant demands of the Beni Harb for permitting the
Hadj to pass through their territories. Abdullah Pasha of Damascus, who
conducted the Hadj eighteen times in person to Mekka, was compelled to
do the same. Whenever the Harb are in amity with the caravan, they have
a right to a considerable passage duty, which is paid at Djedeyde.
Szafra appeared to me better peopled, and to contain more houses, than
are now in Djedeyde.
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