All the married members of the
reigning family have their own chambers; and there are many rooms for
guests, with whom the house is constantly filled; for all the chiefs of
tribes who come to Derayeh on business are invited to the mansion or
palace of the great Sheikh. There are not any khans or public inns, so
that every stranger quarters himself upon some inhabitant; and the
people of Derayeh are proverbially hospitable. The immediate
neighbourhood is barren, yielding only some date-trees. Derayeh is
supplied with provisions chiefly from Dhoroma, a large and populous
village, one day's journey towards the E. or N.E., which has gardens and
orchards well watered from copious wells.
From Derayeh to Mekka is a distance of eleven or twelve long caravan
days' journies. For three days beyond Derayeh are found cultivated spots
and small settlements of Arabs; the rest of the road is through a desert
country, as far as Wady Zeyme, two days from Mekka. The distance from
Rass (in Kasym) to Mekka is also computed at twelve days' journey. This
latter road abounds more with water than the former, and likewise passes
by Wady Zeyme.
A straight road from Nedjed to the mountains of Hedjaz (I use this word
here in the Bedouin sense, meaning the mountains south of Tayf), and to
the country of Beishe and Yemen, passes by the village of Derye, on the
southern extremity of Nedjed, on the great road from Kasym to Mekka.
