The
Passengers Had Each His Own Water-Skin; And Whenever We Reached A
Watering-Place, The Bedouins Came To The Beach, And Sold Us The Contents
Of Their Full Skins.
As it sometimes happens that the ships are becalmed
in a bay distant from any wells, or prevented from quitting it by
adverse winds, the crew is exposed to great sufferings from thirst, for
they have never more on board their boats than a supply for three or
four days.
For the first three days we steered along a sandy shore, here entirely
barren and uninhabited, the mountains continuing at a distance inland.
At three days' journey by land and by sea from Yembo, as it is generally
computed, lies the mountain called Djebel Hassany, reaching close to the
shore; and from thence northward the lower range of the mountains are,
in the vicinity of the beach, thinly inhabited throughout by Bedouins.
The encampments of the tribe of Djeheyne extend as far as these
mountains: to the north of it, as far as the station of the Hadj called
El Wodjeh, or as it is also pronounced, El Wosh, are the dwelling-places
of the Heteym Bedouins. In front of Djebel Hassany are several islands;
and the sea is here particularly full of shoals and coral rocks, rising
nearly to the surface; from the various colours of which, the water,
when viewed from a distance, assumes all the hues of the rainbow. In
spring, after the rains, some of these little islands are inhabited by
the Bedouins of the coast, who there pasture their cattle as long as
food is found: they have small boats, and are all active fishers. They
salt the fish, and either carry it in their own boats to Yembo and
Cosseir, or sell it to the ships which pass. One of these islands,
called El Harra, belongs to
[p.429] the Beni Abs, once a powerful Bedouin tribe, but now reduced to
a few families, who live mixed with the Beni Heteym, and, like them, are
held in great disrepute by all their neighbours. Upon another island
stands the tomb of a saint, called Sheikh Hassan el Merabet, with a few
low buildings and huts round it, where a Bedouin family of the Heteym
tribe is stationary, to whom the guardianship of the tomb belongs. The
course of the Arab ships being usually close by this island, the crews
often despatch a boat with a few measures of corn to those people, or
some butter, biscuits, and coffee-beans, because they consider Sheikh
Hassan to be the patron of these seas. When we sailed by, our Reys made
a large loaf of bread, which he baked in ashes, and distributed a morsel
of it to every person on board, who eat it in honour of the saint, after
which we were treated by him with a cup of coffee.
In general, the Arab sailors are very superstitious; they hold certain
passages in great horror; not because they are more dangerous than
others, but because they believe that evil spirits dwell among the coral
rocks, and might possibly attract the ship towards the shoal, and cause
her to founder.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 315 of 350
Words from 163894 to 164426
of 182297
