The Provisions Consisted Of Flour, Butter, And Dried Leben, Or
Sour Milk Mixed With Flour And Hardened In The Sun, Which Makes A Most
Refreshing Drink When Dissolved In Water.
There are several Hebron
merchants at Shobak.
August 20th.—I remained in the tent of my new guide, who delayed his
departure, in order to obtain from his friends some commissions for
Cairo, upon which he might gain a few piastres. In the afternoon of this
day we had a shower of rain, with so violent a gust of wind, that all
the tents of the encampment were thrown down at the same moment, for the
poles are fastened in the ground very carelessly during the summer
months.
August 21st.—The whole encampment broke up in the morning, some Bedouins
having brought intelligence that a strong party of Beni Szakher had been
seen in the district of Djebal. The greater part of the males of the
Howeytat together with their principal Sheikh Ibn Rashyd (Arabic), were
gone to Egypt, in order to transport the Pasha’s army across the desert
to Akaba and Yambo; we had therefore no means of defence against these
formidable enemies, and were obliged to take refuge in the neighbourhood
of Shobak, where they would not dare to attack the encampment. When the
Bedouins encamp in small numbers, they choose a spot surrounded by high
ground, to prevent their tents from being
WADY NEDJED
[p.418] seen at a distance. The camp is, however, not unfrequently
betrayed by the camels which pasture in the vicinity.
In the evening we took our final departure, crossing an uneven plain,
covered with flints and the ruins of several villages, and then
descended into the Wady Nedjed (Arabic); the rivulet, whose source is in
a large paved basin in the valley, joins that of Shobak. Upon the hills
which border this pleasant valley are the ruins of a large town of the
same name, of which nothing remains but broken walls and heaps of
stones. In one hour and a quarter from our encampment, and about as far
from Shobak, we reached the camp of another tribe of Fellahein Bedouins,
called Refaya (Arabic), where we slept. They are people of good
property, for which they are indebted to their courage in opposing the
extortions of the Howeytat. Here were about sixty tents and one hundred
firelocks. Their herds of cows, sheep, and goats are very numerous, but
they have few camels. Besides corn fields they have extensive vineyards,
and sell great quantities of dried grapes at Ghaza, and to the Syrian
pilgrims of the Hadj. They have the reputation of being very daring
thieves.
August 22nd.—I was particularly desirous of visiting Wady Mousa, of the
antiquities of which I had heard the country people speak in terms of
great admiration; and from thence I had hoped to cross the desert in a
straight line to Cairo; but my guide was afraid of the hazards of a
journey through the desert, and insisted upon my taking the road by
Akaba, the ancient Eziongeber, at the extremity of the eastern branch of
the Red sea, where he said that we might join some caravans, and
continue our route towards Egypt. I wished, on the contrary, to avoid
Akaba, as I knew that the Pasha of Egypt kept there a numerous garrison
to watch the movements of the Wahabi and of his rival the Pasha of
Damascus;
SAOUDYE
[p.419] a person therefore like myself, coming from the latter place,
without any papers to shew who I was, or why I had taken that circuitous
route, would certainly have roused the suspicions of the officer
commanding at Akaba, and the consequences might have been dangerous to
me among the savage soldiery of that garrison. The road from Shobak to
Akaba, which is tolerably good, and might easily be rendered practicable
even to artillery, lies to the E. of Wady Mousa; and to have quitted it,
out of mere curiosity to see the Wady, would have looked very suspicious
in the eyes of the Arabs; I therefore pretended to have made a vow to
slaughter a goat in honour of Haroun (Aaron), whose tomb I knew was
situated at the extremity of the valley, and by this stratagem I thought
that I should have the means of seeing the valley in my way to the tomb.
To this my guide had nothing to oppose; the dread of drawing upon
himself, by resistance, the wrath of Haroun, completely silenced him.
We left the Refaya early in the morning, and travelled over hilly
ground. At the end of two hours we reached an encampment of Arabs
Saoudye (Arabic), who are also Fellahein or cultivators, and the
strongest of the peasant tribes, though they pay tribute to the
Howeytat. Like the Refaya they dry large quantities of grapes. They lay
up the produce of their harvest in a kind of fortress called Oerak
(Arabic), not far from their camp, where are a few houses surrounded by
a stone wall. They have upwards of one hundred and twenty tents. We
breakfasted with the Saoudye, and then pursued the windings of a valley,
where I saw many vestiges of former cultivation, and here and there some
remains of walls and paved roads, all constructed of flints. The country
hereabouts is woody. In three hours and a half we passed a spring, from
whence we ascended a mountain, and travelled for some time along its
barren summit, in a S.W. direction, when we again descended, and reached
Ain
ELDJY
[p.420] Mousa, distant five hours and a half from where we had set out
in the morning. Upon the summit of the mountain near the spot where the
road to Wady Mousa diverges from the great road to Akaba, are a number
of small heaps of stones, indicating so many sacrifices to Haroun. The
Arabs who make vows to slaughter a victim to Haroun, think it sufficient
to proceed as far as this place, from whence the dome of the tomb is
visible in the distance; and after killing the animal they throw a heap
of stones over the blood which flows to the ground.
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