No
Strong Tribes Frequent The Eastern Borders Of Egypt, And A Weak
Insulated Encampment Would Soon Be Stripped Of Its Property By Nightly
Robbers.
The ground itself is the patrimony of no tribe, but is common
to all, which is contrary to the general practice of the desert, where
every district has its acknowledged owners, with its limits of
separation from those of the neighbouring tribes, although it is not
always occupied by them.
In the afternoon we proceeded over the plain, and in eight hours and
three quarters arrived opposite to the station of the Hadj, called Dar
el Hamra which we left about three miles to the north of us, and which
is distinguished by a large acacia tree, the only one in this plain. At
the end of nine hours and a half, and about half an hour from the road,
we saw a mound of earth, which,
WADY EMSHASH
[p.463] the Arabs told me, was thrown up about fifty years ago, by
workmen employed by Ali Beg, then governor of Egypt, in digging a well
there. The ground was dug to the depth of about eighty feet, when no
water appearing the work was abandoned. At eleven hours and a quarter,
our road joined the great Hadj route, which passes in a more northerly
direction from Dar el Hamra to the Birket el Hadj, or inundation to the
eastward of Heliopolis, four hours distant from Cairo, upon the banks of
which the pilgrims encamp, previous to their setting out for Mekka.
Between this road, and that by which we had travelled, lies another,
also terminating at Kayt Beg. The southernmost route, which, as I have
already mentioned, is frequented only by the Arabs Terabein, branches
off from this common route at about six hours distant from Suez, and is
called Harb bela ma (the road without water); it is very seldom
frequented by regular caravans, being hilly and longer than the others,
but I was told that notwithstanding its name, water is frequently met
with in the low grounds, even in summer. Just beyond where we fell in
with the Hadj route, we rested in the bed of a torrent called Wady
Hafeiry [Arabic], at the foot of a chain of hills which begin there,
and extend to the N. of the route, and parallel with it towards
Adjeroud. Our camels found abundance of pasture on the odoriferous herb
Obeitheran [Arabic], Santolina fragrantissima of Forskal, which grew
here in great plenty.
April 23d.—Our road lay between the southern mountain and the
abovementioned chain of hills to the north, called Djebel Uweybe
[Arabic], direction E.S.E. In three hours we passed the bed of a torrent
called Seil Abou Zeid [Arabic], where some acacia trees grow. The road
is here encompassed on every side by hills. In four hours and a half we
reached, in the direction E. by S. Wady Emshash [Arabic], a torrent like
the former, which in winter is filled by a stream of several feet in
depth.
BIR SUEZ
[p.464] Rains are much more frequent in this desert than in the valley
of Egypt, and the same remark may be made in regard to all the mountains
to the southward, where a regular, though not uninterrupted rainy season
sets in, while in the valley of the Nile, as is well known, rain seldom
falls even in winter. The soil and hills are here entirely calcareous.
We had been for the whole morning somewhat alarmed by the appearance of
some suspicious looking men on camels at a distance in our rear, and our
Bedouins had, in consequence, prepared their matchlocks. When we halted
during the mid-day hours, they also alighted upon a hill at a little
distance; but seeing us in good order, and with no heavy loads to excite
their cupidity, they did not approach us. They, however, this evening,
fell upon a small party of unarmed Egyptian peasants who were carrying
corn to Suez, stripped them, took away their camels and loads, and the
poor owners fled naked into Suez. It was afterwards learnt that they
belonged to the tribe of Omran, who live on the eastern shore of the
gulf of Akaba. Without establishing regular patrols of the Bedouins
themselves on this road, it will never be possible to keep it free from
robbers.
At six hours and a half begins a hilly country, with a slight descent
through a narrow pass between hills, called El Montala [Arabic], a
favourite spot for robbers. At seven hours and a half we passed Adjeroud
[Arabic], about half an hour to our left; about two miles west of it is
a well in the Wady Emshash, called Bir Emshash, which yields a copious
supply of water in the winter, but dries up in the middle of summer if
rains have not been abundant; the garrison of Adjeroud, where is a well
so bitter that even camels will not drink the water, draws its supply of
drinking water from the Bir Emshash. From hence the road turns S.E. over
a slightly descending plain. At ten hours and a half is the well called
Bir Suez, a
SUEZ
[p.465] copious spring enclosed by a massive building, from whence the
water is drawn up by wheels turned by oxen, and emptied into a large
stone tank on the outside of the building. The men who take care of the
wheels and the oxen remain constantly shut up in the building for fear
of the Bedouins. The water is brackish, but it serves for drinking, and
the Arabs and Egyptian peasants travelling between Cairo and Suez, who
do not choose to pay a higher price for the sweet water of the latter
place, are in the habit of filling their water skins here, as do the
people of Suez for their cooking provision. From an inscription on the
building, it appears that it was erected in the year of the Hedjra 1018.
We reached Suez about sunset, at the end of eleven hours and a half.
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