The Man Was Therefore Sent For, And As His Own
Camels Were Not Present, He Ceded His Right To Another For Two Dollars;
And With The Latter I Departed.
These quarrels about transport are very
curious, and sometimes very intricate to decide:
In the mean while the
traveller remains completely passive, but there is not much danger of
imposition, for the amount of the hire is always publicly known, and one
dollar is the largest sum he can lose.
I left Wady on the 17th of June. Our road lay upon an elevated plain,
bounded on the east by the high summits of the Sinai mountains, and on
the west by a low ridge of calcareous hills, which separate the plain
from the sea, and run parallel with it for about five or six hours. This
plain, which is completely barren, and of a gravelly soil, is called El
Kaa, and is in bad repute with the Bedouins, from having no springs, and
being extremely hot, from the nature of its position. Thus I found it
myself. During this day we suffered much from one of the hottest winds I
ever remember to have experienced. We alighted during the mid-day hours
in the open plain, without finding any tree to afford shade. A Bedouin
cloak, fastened to four poles, was erected as a tent, barely sheltering
me from the sun, while my two guides and my slave wrapped themselves in
their mantles, and lay down and slept in the sun.
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