The Tebna Cultivators Are Very Poor; They Possess Little Or No Landed
Property, And Are Continually Annoyed By Visits From The Bedouins, Whom
They Are Under The Necessity Of Receiving With Hospitality.
Their only
profitable branch of culture is tobacco, of which they raise
considerable quantities; it is of the same species as that grown in the
mountains of Arabia Petraea, about Wady Mousa and Kerek, which retains
its green colour even when dry.
It is very strong, and esteemed for this
quality by the Towara Bedouins, who are all great consumers of tobacco,
and who are chiefly supplied with it from Wady Feiran; they either smoke
it, or chew it mixed with natron or with salt. Tobacco has acquired here
such a currency in trade, that the Tebna buy and sell minor articles
among themselves by the Mud or measure of tobacco. The other vegetable
productions of the valley are cucumbers, gourds, melons, hemp for
smoking, onions, a few Badendjans, and a few carob trees. As for apple,
pear, or apricot trees, &c. they grow only in the elevated regions of
the upper Sinai, where in different spots are about thirty or forty
plantations of fruit trees; in a very few places wheat and barley are
sown, but the crops are so thin that they hardly repay the labour of
cultivation, although the cultivator has the full produce without any
deduction. The soil is every where so stony, that it is impossible to
make it produce corn sufficient for even the smallest Arab tribe.
WADY ERTAMA
[p.604] The narrowness of the valley of Feiran, which is not more than
an hundred paces across, the high mountains on each side, and the thick
woods of date-trees, render the heat extremely oppressive, and the
unhealthiness of the situation is increased by the badness of the water.
The Tebna are far from being as robust and healthy as their neighbours,
and in spring and summer dangerous fevers reign here. The few among them
who have cattle, live during those seasons under tents in the mountains,
leaving a few persons in care of the trees.
As Mount Serbal forms a very prominent feature in the topography of the
peninsula, I was determined if possible to visit it, and Hamd having
never been at the top of it, I was under the necessity of inquiring for
a guide. None of the Tebna present knew the road, but I found a young
man who guided us to the tent of a Djebalye, which was pitched in the
lower heights of Serbal, and who being a great sportsman, was known to
have often ascended the mountain. Leaving the servant with the camels, I
set out in the evening on foot with Hamd and the guide, carrying nothing
with us but some butter-milk in a small skin, together with some meal,
and ground Nebek, enough to last us for two days. We ascended Wady el
Sheikh for about three quarters of an hour, and then turned to the
right, up a narrow valley called Wady Ertama [Arabic] in the higher part
of which a few date-trees grow. In crossing over a steep ascent at its
upper extremity, I met with several inscriptions on insulated blocks,
consisting only of one line in the usual ancient character; but I did
not copy them, being desirous to conceal from my new guide that I was a
writing man, as it might have induced him to dissuade the Arabs in the
mountains from accompanying me farther up. On the other side of this
ascent we fell in with Wady Rymm, which I have already mentioned, and
found here
MOUNT SERBAL
[p.605] the ruins of a small village, the houses of which were built
entirely with hewn stone, in a very solid manner. Some remains of the
foundations of a large edifice are traceable; a little lower down in the
valley are some date trees, with a well, which probably was the first
cause of building a village in this deserted spot, for the whole country
round is a wilderness of rocks, and the valley itself is not like those
below, flat and sandy, but covered with large stones which have been
washed down by torrents. From hence an ascent of half an hour brought us
to the Djebalye Arab, who was of the Sattala tribe: he had pitched here
two tents, in one of which lived his own, and in the other his son’s
family; he spent the whole day in hunting, while the women and younger
children took care of the cattle, which found good pasturage among the
rocks. It was near sunset when we arrived, and the man was rather
startled at our visit, though he received us kindly, and soon brought us
a plentiful supper. When I asked him if he would show me the way to the
summit of the Serbal, which was now directly before us, he expressed
great astonishment, and no doubt immediately conceived the notion that I
had come to search for treasures, which appears the more probable to
these Bedouins, as they know that the country was formerly inhabited by
rich monks. Prepossessed with this idea, and knowing that nobody then
present was acquainted with the road, except himself, he thought he
might demand a most exorbitant sum from me. He declined making any
immediate bargain, and said that he would settle it the next morning.
June 1st.—We rose before daylight, when the Djebalye made coffee, and
then told me, that he could not think of accompanying me for less than
sixty piastres. As the whole journey was to last only till the evening,
and I knew that for one piastre any of these Bedouins will run about the
mountains on messages for a
[p.606] whole day, I offered him three piastres, but he was inflexible,
and replied, that were it not for his friendship for Hamd, he would not
take less than a hundred piastres.
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