At The End Of
Four Hours And A Half We Halted For A Few Hours In Wady Seder Which
Takes Its Name Of Wady Only, From Being Overflown With Water When The
Rains Are Very Copious, Which, However, Does Not Happen Every Year.
Its
natural formation by no means entitles it to be called a valley, its
level being only a few feet lower than that of the desert on both sides.
Some thorny trees grow in it, but no herbs for pasture.
We continued our
way S. b. E. over the plain, which was alternately gravelly, stony, and
sandy. At the end of seven hours and a half we reached Wady Wardan
[Arabic], a valley or bed of a torrent, similar in nature to the former,
but broader. Near its extremity, at the sea side, it is several miles in
breadth; and here is the well of Abou Szoueyra, which I have already
mentioned. The Arabs of Tor seldom encamp in this place, but the
Terabein Arabs are sometimes attracted by the well. During the war which
happened about eight years ago between the Towara and the Maazy
Bedouins, who live in the mountains between Cairo and Cosseir, a party
of the former happened to be stationed here with their families. They
were surprised one morning by a troop of their enemies, while assembled
in the Sheikh’s tent to drink coffee. Seven or eight of them were cut
down: the Sheikh himself, an old man, seeing escape impossible, sat down
by the fire, when the leader of the Maazy came up, and cried out to him
to throw down his turban and his life should be spared. The generous
Sheikh, rather than do what, according to Bedouin notions, would have
stained his reputation ever after, exclaimed, “I shall not uncover my
head before my enemies;” and was immediately killed with the thrust of a
lance. A low chain of sand-hills begins here to the west, near the sea;
and the eastern mountains approach the road. At nine hours and a half,
HOWARA
[p.472] S.S.E. the eastern mountains form a junction with the western
hills. At ten hours we entered a hilly country; at ten hours and three
quarters we rested for the night in a barren valley among the hills,
called Wady Amara [Arabic]. We met with nobody in this route except a
party of Yembo merchants, who had landed at Tor, and were travelling to
Cairo. The hills consist of chalk and silex in very irregular strata:
the silex is sometimes quite black; at other times it takes a lustre and
transparency much resembling agate.
April 27th.—We travelled over uneven hilly ground, gravelly and flinty.
At one hour and three quarters we passed the well of Howara [Arabic],
round which a few date trees grow. Niebuhr travelled the same route, but
his guides probably did not lead him to this well, which lies among
hills about two hundred paces out of the road. He mentions a rock called
Hadj er Rakkabe, as one German mile short of Gharendel; I remember to
have halted under a large rock, close by the road side, a very short
distance before we reached Howara, but I did not learn its name. The
water of the well of Howara is so bitter, that men cannot drink it; and
even camels, if not very thirsty, refuse to taste it.
From Ayoun Mousa to the well of Howara we had travelled fifteen hours
and a quarter. Referring to this distance, it appears probable that this
is the desert of three days mentioned in the Scriptures to have been
crossed by the Israelites immediately after their passing the Red sea,
and at the end of which they arrived at Marah. In moving with a whole
nation, the march may well be supposed to have occupied three days; and
the bitter well at Marah, which was sweetened by Moses, corresponds
exactly with that of Howara. This is the usual route to Mount Sinai, and
was probably therefore that which the Israelites took on their escape
from Egypt, provided it be admitted that they crossed the sea near Suez,
as Niebuhr, with good reason, conjectures. There is
WADY GHARENDEL
[p.473] no other road of three days march in the way from Suez towards
Sinai, nor is there any other well absolutely bitter on the whole of
this coast, as far as Ras Mohammed. The complaints of the bitterness of
the water by the children of Israel, who had been accustomed to the
sweet water of the Nile, are such as may daily be heard from the
Egyptian servants and peasants who travel in Arabia. Accustomed from
their youth to the excellent water of the Nile, there is nothing which
they so much regret in countries distant from Egypt; nor is there any
eastern people who feel so keenly the want of good water as the present
natives of Egypt. With respect to the means employed by Moses to render
the waters of the well sweet, I have frequently enquired among the
Bedouins in different parts of Arabia whether they possessed any means
of effecting such a change, by throwing wood into it, or by any other
process; but I never could learn that such an art was known.
At the end of three hours we reached Wady Gharendel [Arabic] which
extends to the N.E. and is almost a mile in breadth, and full of trees.
The Arabs told me that it may be traced through the whole desert, and
that it begins at no great distance from El Arysh, on the Mediterranean,
but I had no means of ascertaining the truth of this statement. About
half an hour from the place where we halted, in a southern direction, is
a copious spring, with a small rivulet, which renders the valley the
principal station on this route. The water is disagreeable, and if kept
for a night in the water skins, it turns bitter and spoils, as I have
myself experienced, having passed this way three times.
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