The Narrow
Plain Which Rises Here From The Sea To The Mountain, Is Covered With
Sand And Loose Stones.
Ayd told me that in summer, when the wind is
strong, a hollow sound is sometimes heard here, as
If coming from the
upper country; the Arabs say that the spirit of Moses then descends from
Mount Sinai, and in flying across the sea bids a farewell to his beloved
mountains.
We rode from Noweyba round a bay, the southern point of which bore from
thence S. by W. In two hours and three quarters from Noweyba we doubled
the point, and rested for the night in a valley just behind it, called
Wady Djereimele [Arabic], thickly overgrown with the shrub Gharkad, the
berries of which are gathered in great abundance. Red coral is very
common on this part of the coast. In the evening I saw a great number of
shellfish leave the water, and crawl to one hundred or two hundred paces
inland, where they passed the night, and at sun-rise returned to the
sea.
During the last two days of our return from the northward I had found no
opportunity to take notes. I had never permitted my companions to see me
write, because I knew that if their suspicions were once raised, it
would at least render them much less open in their communications to me.
It has indeed been a constant
[p.518] maxim with me never to write before Arabs on the road; at least
I have departed from it in a very few instances only, in Syria; and on
the Nile, in my first journey into Nubia; but never in the interior of
Nubia, or in the Hedjaz. Had I visited the convent of Mount Sinai in the
character of a Frank, with the Pasha’s Firmahn, and had returned, as
travellers usually do, from thence to Cairo, I should not have hesitated
to take notes openly, because the Towara Arabs dread the Pasha, and dare
not insult or molest any one under his protection. But wishing to
penetrate into a part of the country occupied by other tribes, it became
of importance to conceal my pursuits, lest I should be thought a
necromancer, or in search of treasures. In such cases many little
stratagems must be resorted to by the traveller, not to lose entirely
the advantage of making memoranda on the spot. I had accustomed myself
to write when mounted on my camel, and proceeding at an easy walk;
throwing the wide Arab mantle over my head, as if to protect myself from
the sun, as the Arabs do, I could write under it unobserved, even if
another person rode close by me; my journal books being about four
inches long and three broad, were easily carried in a waistcoat pocket,
and when taken out could be concealed in the palm of the hand; sometimes
I descended from my camel, and walking a little in front of my
companions, wrote down a few words without stopping. When halting I lay
down as if to sleep, threw my mantle over me, and could thus write
unseen under it. At other times I feigned to go aside to answer a call
of nature, and then couched down, in the Arab manner, hidden under my
cloak. This evening I had recourse to the last method; but having many
observations to note, I remained so long absent from my companions that
Ayd’s curiosity was roused. He came to look after me, and perceiving me
immoveable on the spot, approached on tip-toe, and came close behind
[p.519] me without my perceiving him. I do not know how long he had
remained there, but suddenly lifting up my cloak, he detected me with
the book in my hand. “What is this?” he exclaimed. “What are you doing?
I shall not make you answerable for it at present, because I am your
companion; but I shall talk further to you about it when we are at the
convent.” I made no answer, till we returned to the halting-place, when
I requested him to tell me what further he had to say. “You write down
our country,” he replied, in a passionate tone, “our mountains, our
pasturing places, and the rain which falls from heaven; other people
have done this before you, but I at least will never become instrumental
to the ruin of my country.” I assured him that I had no bad intentions
towards the Bedouins, and told him he must be convinced that I liked
them too well for that; “on the contrary,” I added, “had I not
occasionally written down some prayers ever since we left Taba, we
should most certainly have been all killed; and it is very wrong in you
to accuse me of that, which if I had omitted, would have cost us our
lives.” He was startled at this reply, and seemed nearly satisfied.
“Perhaps you say the truth,” he observed; “but we all know that some
years since several men, God knows who they were, came to this country,
visited the mountains, wrote down every thing, stones, plants, animals,
even serpents and spiders, and since then little rain has fallen, and
the game has greatly decreased.” The same opinions prevail in these
mountains, which I have already mentioned to be current among the
Bedouins of Nubia; they believe that a sorcerer, by writing down certain
charms, can stop the rains and transfer them to his own country. The
travellers to whom Ayd alluded were M. Seetzen, who visited Mount Sinai
eight years since, and M. Agnelli, who ten years ago travelled for the
Emperor of Austria, collecting specimens
[p.520] of natural history, and who made some stay at Tor, from whence
he sent Arabs to hunt for all kinds of animals.
M. Seetzen traversed the peninsula in several directions, and followed a
part of the eastern gulf as far northward, I believe, as Noweyba. This
learned and indefatigable traveller made it a rule not to be intimidated
by the suspicions and prejudices of the Bedouins; beyond the Jordan, on
the shores of the Dead sea, in the desert of Tyh, in this peninsula, as
well as in Arabia, he openly followed his pursuits, never attempting to
hide his papers and pencils from the natives, but avowing his object to
be that of collecting precious herbs and curious stones, in the
character of a Christian physician in the Holy Land, and in that of a
Moslim physician in the Hedjaz.
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