The
Arabs Have Established Here The Same Custom Which I Remarked In My
Journey From Tor To Cairo.
Every one who is present at the departure of
a stranger or of a loaded camel from the convent is entitled to a fee,
provided the traveller has not passed
WADY SAL
[p.492] a line, which is about one mile from the convent. To avoid this
unnecessary company and expense, I stole out of the convent by night, as
secretly as possible; but we were overtaken within the limits by a
Bedouin, and my guides were obliged to give him six piastres, to make
him desist from farther claims. I left my servant and unnecessary
baggage at the convent, and mounted a camel, for the hire of which I
gave five dollars, and I paid as much to each of my guides, who were
also mounted, and were to conduct me to Akaba and back again.
May 4th.—I left the convent before day light, but travelled no farther
to day than to the well of Abou Szoueyr, where we had rested on the
first of May, and where a large company of Arabs assembled when they
heard of our arrival. They quarrelled long with my guides for having
taken me clandestinely from the convent, but were at last pacified by a
lamb which I bought, and partook of with them. In the evening we heard
from afar the songs of an encampment, to which my guides went, to join
in the dance. I remained with the baggage, in conversation with an Arab
who had lately come from Khalyl or Hebron, and who much dissuaded me
from going to Akaba. He assured me that the uncle of Hamd my guide knew
nothing of the Arabs of those parts, nor even the paths through the
country; but I slighted his advice, because I believed that it was
dictated by envy, and that he wished himself to be one of the party. The
result shewed, however, that he was right.
May 5th.—At sunrise we left Abou Szoueyr, and ascended a hilly country
for half an hour. After a short descent, which on this side terminates
the district of Sinai, properly so called, we continued over a wide open
plain, with low hills, called Szoueyry [Arabic], direction N.E. b. E. In
an hour and a half we entered a narrow valley called Wady Sal [Arabic],
formed by the
[p.493] lower ridges of the primitive mountains, in the windings of
which we descended slightly E. b. N. and E.N.E. On the top I found the
rock to be granite; somewhat lower down grünstein, and porphyry began to
appear; farther on granite and porphyry cease entirely, and the rock
consists solely of grünstein, which in many places takes the nature of
slate. Some of the layers of porphyry are very striking; they run
perpendicularly from the very summit of the mountain to the base, in a
band of about twelve feet in width, and projecting somewhat from the
other rocks on the mountain’s side. I had observed similar strata in
Wady Genne, but running horizontally along the whole chain of mountains,
and dividing it, as it were, into two equal parts. The porphyry I have
met with in Sinai is usually a red indurated argillaceous substance; in
some specimens it had the appearance of red feldspath. In the argil are
imbedded small crystals of hornblende, or of mica, and thin pieces of
quartz at most two lines square. I never saw any large fragments of
quartz in it. Its universal colour is red. The lower mountains of Sinai
are much more regularly shaped than the upper ones: they are less
rugged, have no insulated peaks, and their summits fall off in smooth
curves.
The Wady Sal is extremely barren: we found no pasture for our camels, as
no rain had fallen during the two last years, in the whole of this
eastern part of the peninsula. A few acacia trees grew in different
places; we rested at noon under one of them while a cup of coffee was
prepared, and then pursued the Wady downwards until, at the end of seven
hours, we issued from it into a small plain, which we soon crossed, and
at seven hours and a half entered another valley, similar to the former,
where I again saw some granite, of the gray, small-grained species[.]
Our descent was here very rapid, and at the end of nine hours and a half
we reached a lower level, in a broad valley running southwards.
HAYDAR
[p.494] From hence the summit of Mount St. Catherine, behind the
convent, bore S.W. by W. Calcareous and sand rocks begin here, and the
bottom of the valley is deep sand. We rode in it in the direction N.E.
by N. and after a march of eleven hours alighted in a plain, at a spot
which afforded some shrubs for our camels to feed upon. The elder of my
two guides, by name Szaleh, soon proved himself to be ignorant of the
road. He might have passed this way in his youth, and have had a
recollection of the general direction of the valleys; but when we
arrived in the plain, he proceeded in various directions, in search of a
road from the east. We had now, about six or eight miles to our left, a
long and straight chain of mountains, the continuation, I believe, of
that of Tyh or Dhelel, mentioned above, and running almost parallel with
our route. The northern side of these mountains is inhabited by the
tribe of Tyaha. Here passes the road which leads straight from the
convent to Akaba, while the one we took descended to the sea, and had
been chosen by my guides for greater security. The upper road passes by
the watering places Zelka, El Ain (the Well), a place much frequented by
Bedouins, and where many date-trees grow, and lastly by El Hossey.
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