His Excuse Was That He Had Found None At Hand; But One Of Our
Young Men Had Overheard His Wife Scolding
BIAR OMSHASH
[P.447] him, and declaring that she would not permit a lamb to be
slaughtered for such miserable ill-looking strangers! The Bedouin women,
in general, are much less generous and hospitable than their husbands,
over whom they often use their influence, to curtail the allowance to
guests and strangers.
At the end of five hours we issued from the head of Wady Lahyane again
into the plain. The hill on the top of this Wady is called Ras el Kaa
(Arabic), and is the termination of a chain of hills which stretch
across the plain in a northern direction for six or eight hours: it
projects like a promontory, and serves as a land-mark to travellers; its
rock is calcareous. The plain which we now entered was a perfect flat
covered with black pebbles. The high insulated mountain behind which
Ghaza is situated, bore from hence N. by W. distant three long days
journey. At the end of seven hours, there was an insulated hill to the
left of our road two hours distant, called Szoeyka (Arabic); we here
turned off to the left of the great road, in order to find water. In
eight hours, and late at night, we reached several wells, called Biar
Omshash (Arabic), is where we found an encampment of Heywat, with whom
we wished to take our supper after having filled our water skins; but
they assured us that they had nothing except dry bread to give us. On
hearing this my companions began to reproach them with want of
hospitality, and an altercation ensued, which I was afraid would lead to
blows; I therefore mounted my camel, and was soon followed by the rest.
We continued our route during the night, but lost our road in the dark,
and were obliged to alight in a Wady full of moving sands, about half an
hour from the wells.
August 29th.—This day we passed several Wadys of Talh and tamarisk trees
intermixed with low shrubs. Direction W. by S. The plain is for the
greater part covered with flints; in some places
DESERT EL TY
[p.448] it is chalky. Wherever the rain collects in winter, vegetation
of trees and shrubs is produced. In the midst of this desert we met a
poor Bedouin woman, who begged some water of us; she was going to Akaba,
where the tents of her family were, but had neither provisions nor water
with her, relying entirely on the hospitality of the Arabs she might
meet on the road. We directed her to the Heywat at Omshash and in Wady
Lahyane. She seemed to be as unconcerned, as if she were merely taking a
walk for pleasure. After an uninterrupted march of nine hours and a
half, we reached a mountain called Dharf el Rokob (Arabic). It extends
for about eight hours in a direction from N.W. to S.E. At its foot we
crossed the Egyptian Hadj road; it passes along the mountain towards
Akaba, which is distant from hence fifteen or eighteen hours. We
ascended the northern extremity of the mountain by a broad road, and
after a march of eleven hours reached, on the other side, a well called
El Themmed (Arabic), whose waters are impregnated with sulphur. The
pilgrim caravan passes to the N. of the mountain and well, but the Arabs
who have the conduct of the caravan repair to the well to fill the water
skins for the supply of the Hadjis. The well is in a sandy soil,
surrounded by calcareous rocks, and notwithstanding its importance,
nothing has been done to secure it from being choaked up by the sand and
gravel which every gust of wind drives into it. Its sides are not lined,
and the Arabs take so little care in descending into it, that every
caravan which arrives renders it immediately turbid.
The level plain over which we had travelled from Ras el Kaa terminates
at Dharf el Rokob. Westward of it the ground is more intersected by
hills and Wadys, and here begins the Desert El Ty (Arabic), in which,
according to tradition, both Jewish and Mohammedan, the Israelites
wandered for several years, and from which
ODJME
[p.449] belief the desert takes its name. We went this evening two hours
farther than the Themmed, and alighted in the Wady Ghoreyr (Arabic),
after a day’s march of thirteen hours and a half. The Bedouins, when
travelling in small numbers, seldom alight at a well or spring, in the
evening, for the purpose of there passing the night; they only fill
their water-skins as quickly as possible, and then proceed on their way,
for the neighbourhood of watering places is dangerous to travellers,
especially in deserts where there are few of them, because they then
become the rendezvous of all strolling parties.
August 30th.—On issuing from the Wady Ghoreyr we passed a chain of hills
called Odjme (Arabic), running almost parallel with the Dharf el Rokob.
We had now re-entered the Hadj route, a broad well trodden road, strewn
with the whitened bones of animals that have died by the way. The soil
is chalky, and overspread with black pebbles. At the end of five hours
and a half we reached Wady Rouak (Arabic); here the term Wady is applied
to a narrow strip of ground, the bed of a winter torrent, not more than
one foot lower than the level of the plain, where the rain water from
the inequalities of the surface collects, and produces a vegetation of
low shrubs, and a few Talh trees. The greater part of the Wadys from
hence to Egypt are of this description. The coloquintida grows in great
abundance in all of them, it is used by the Arabs to make tinder, by the
following process: after roasting the root in the ashes, they wrap it in
a wetted rag of cotton cloth, they then beat it between two stones, by
which means the juice of the fruit is expressed and absorbed by the rag,
which is dyed by it of a dirty blue; the rag is then dried in the sun,
and ignites with the slightest spark of fire.
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