This
Happened To Us Several Times During Our Journey.
When the camel hears no
voices about it, and is not urged by the leader, it slackens its pace,
and at last stands still to rest; and if the leading camel once stops,
all the rest do the same.
I roused the Arabs, and we proceeded. The next
day, we learnt that some travellers had been plundered this night on the
road - no doubt by the horsemen
[p.315] who passed me, and who probably dispersed when they saw a large
caravan approaching.
The valley in which we were travelling is called Wady es' Shohada, or
the "Valley of Martyrs," where many followers of Mohammed are said to
have been killed in battle: their remains are covered by rude heaps of
stones in different parts of the valley. Here also are seen several
tombs of hadjys; and I observed some walls, much ruined, where a small
chapel or mosque appeared to have stood: no water is found here. This is
a station of the Hadj caravan. At the end of nine hours, we issued from
this wady, which is on a very slight ascent; and then taking a direction
E.N.E. we crossed a rocky ground, and entered a wide plain called El
Fereysh, where two small caravans from Medina bound to Yembo passed us.
At the end of eleven hours and a half we alighted.
The plain of Fereysh, according to the historian Asamy, was the scene of
a sanguinary battle, between the Sherif of Mekka and the Bedouin tribes
of Dhofyr and Aeneze, in A.H. 1063. The Dhofyr, who are now settled in
Mesopotamia, towards Baghdad, were at that time pasturing their herds in
the neighbourhood of Medina.
January 27th. The rocks here are all of red granite. A party of
Bedouins, with their women, children, and tents passed us; they belonged
to the tribe of Harb, called El Hamede, and had left the upper country,
where no rain had yet fallen, to seek better pasturage in the lower
mountains. While we were encamped, a heavy storm, with thunder and
lightning, overtook us, and the rain poured down: as it threatened to be
of long duration, and we had no tents, it was thought advisable to
proceed. We started in the afternoon; and it continued to rain during
the rest of the day and the whole night, which, joined to the cold
climate in these elevated regions, was severely felt by all of us. Our
road ascended through rocky valleys full of thorny trees; it was crossed
by several torrents that had rapidly swollen, and which we passed with
difficulty. After seven hours' march we reached the summit of this chain
of mountains, when the immense eastern plain lay stretched before us: we
passed several insulated hills. The ground is covered with black and
brown flints. In nine hours we passed at
[p.316] some distance to the west of the date-plantations, and the few
houses built round the well called Bir Aly.
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