It Is
The Common Route From The Convent To Khalyl And Jerusalem.
May 6th.—We started early, and continued our way over the plain, which
is called Haydar [Arabic].
It appears to follow the mountain of Tyh as
far as its western extremity, and there to join the Seyh, of which I
have already spoken, thus forming the northern sandy boundary of the
lower Sinai chain. As we proceeded, we approached nearer to the
mountain, and at length fell in with the looked for road. The ground is
gravelly but covered with moving sands which are raised by the slightest
wind. To the east the country was open, with low hills, as far as I
could see. Our road lay N.E.1/2 N. At one hour and a half Mount St.
Catharine bore
WADY RAHAB
[p.495] S.W. by W. We now descended into a valley of deep sand covered
with blocks of chalk rock. At one hour and three quarters the valley is
contracted into a narrow pass, between low hills of sand-stone, bearing
traces of very violent torrents. At the end of two hours, route east by
north, we quitted the valley, and crossed a rough rocky plain,
intersected on every side by beds of torrents; and at two hours and
three quarters halted near a rock. One of the guides went with the
camels up a side valley, to bring water from the well Hadhra [Arabic],
(perhaps the Hazeroth [Hebrew] mentioned in Numbers xxxiii. 17), distant
about two miles from the halting place. Near the well are said to be
some date trees, and the remains of walls which formerly enclosed a few
plantations.
We here met some Towara Bedouins on their way to Cairo with charcoal.
After employing a considerable time in collecting the wood and burning
it into coal they carry it to Cairo, a journey at least of ten days, and
there sell it for three or four dollars per load: so cheap do they hold
their labour, and so limited are their means of subsistence. In return,
they bring home corn and clothes to their women and children.
We started again as soon as the camels returned from the well, but
should probably have gone astray had not the Bedouins above mentioned
pointed out the road we ought to take; for Szaleh, the uncle of Hamd,
although he pretended to be quite at home in this district, gave evident
proofs of being but very slightly acquainted with it. We made many
windings between sand-stone rocks, which presented their smooth
perpendicular sides to the road; some of them are of a red, others of a
white colour; the ground was deeply covered with sand. The traces of
torrents were observable on the rocks as high as three and four feet
above the
BOSZEYRA
[p.496] present level of the plain. Our main direction was E.N.E. At
four hours and three quarters from the time we set out in the morning,
we entered Wady Rahab [Arabic], a fine valley with many Syale trees,
where the sands terminate. Route E. At five hours and a half we entered
another valley, broader than the former, where I again found an
alternation of sand-stone and granite. The barrenness of this district
was greater than I had yet witnessed in my travels, excepting perhaps
some parts of the desert El Tyh; the Nubian valleys might be called
pleasure grounds in comparison. Not the smallest green leaf could be
discovered; and the thorny mimosa, which retains its verdure in the
tropical deserts of Nubia, with very little supply of moisture, was here
entirely withered, and so dry that it caught fire from the lighted
cinders which fell from our pipes as we passed. We continued to descend
by a gentle slope, and at six hours and a half entered Wady Samghy
[Arabic], coming from the south, in which we descended N.E. At the end
of eight hours and a half we left this valley and turned E. into a side
one, called Boszeyra [Arabic]; where we halted for the night, at eight
hours and three quarters.
We had met in Wady Samghy two old Bedouins of the Mezeine tribe, who
belong to the Towara nation: they were fishermen, on their way to the
sea to exercise their profession. One of them carried in a small sack a
measure of meal which was to serve for their food on shore, the other
had a skin of water upon his shoulder; they were both half naked, and
both approaching to seventy years of age. One of them was deaf, but so
intelligent that it was easy to talk with him by signs; he had
established a vocabulary of gestures with his companion, who had been
his fishing partner for ten years, and who was one of the shrewdest and
hardiest Bedouins I had ever seen; in his younger days he had been a
noted robber,
[p.497] and in attempting to carry off the baggage of a French officer
in the Sherkyeh province in Egypt, he was seized, laid under the stick,
and so severely beaten, that his back had from that time become bent;
but notwithstanding this misfortune and his age, he had lost none of his
spirits, and his robust constitution still enabled him to cross these
mountains on foot, and to exert his activity whenever it was required.
These two men partook this evening of my supper; they of course asked me
where I was going, and shook their heads when I told them I was bound
for Akaba. None of my guides knew what business I had there, but they
supposed that I had some verbal message to deliver to the Turkish Aga,
who was at the head of the garrison. Ayd es Szaheny [Arabic], the old
robber, soon found out that my guide Szaleh knew little of the road, and
still less of the Arab tribes before us.
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