An Article Of Dress, Or Of
Equipment, Which The Poorest Townsman Would Be Ashamed To Wear, Is Still
A Covetable
Object with the Bedouins; they set no bounds to their
demands, delicacy is unknown amongst them, nor have they any
Word to
express it; if indeed one persists in refusing, they never take the
thing by force; but it is extremely
WADY EL AHSA
[p.400] difficult to resist their eternal supplications and compliments
without yielding at last. With regard to my behaviour towards the
Bedouins, I always endeavoured, by every possible means, to be upon good
terms with my companions, whoever they were, and I seldom failed in my
endeavours. I found, by experience, that putting on a grave face, and
talking wisely among them was little calculated to further the
traveller’s views. On the contrary, I aspired to the title of a merry
fellow; I joked with them whenever I could, and found that by a little
attention to their ways of thinking and reasoning, they are easily put
into good humour. This kind of behaviour, however, is to be observed
only in places where one makes a stay of several days, or towards fellow
travellers: in passing rapidly through Arab encampments, it is better
for the traveller not to be too talkative in the tents where he alights,
but to put on a stern countenance.
We left Khanzyre late in the evening, that we might enjoy the coolness
of the night air. We ascended for a short time, and then began to
descend into the valley called Wady el Ahsa. It had now become dark, and
this was, without exception, the most dangerous route I ever travelled
in my life. The descent is steep, and there is no regular road over the
smooth rocks, where the foot slips at every step. We had missed our way,
and were obliged to alight from our horses, after many of us had
suffered severe falls. Our Sheikh was the only horseman who would not
alight from his mare, whose step, he declared, was as secure as his own.
After a march of two hours and a half, we halted upon a narrow plain, on
the declivity of the Wady, called El Derredje (Arabic), where we lighted
a fire, and remained till day-break.
August 7th.—In three quarters of an hour from Derredje, we reached the
bottom of the valley. The Wady el Ahsa (Arabic), which takes its rise
near the castle El Ahsa, or El Hassa, on the
EL KERR
[p.401] Syrian Hadj road, runs here in a deep and narrow bed of rocks,
the banks of which are overgrown with Defle. There was more water in the
rivulet than in any of those I had passed south of Zerka; the water was
quite tepid, caused by a hot spring, which empties itself into the Ahsa
from a side valley higher up the Wady. This forms the third hot spring
on the east of the Dead sea, one being in the Wady Zerka Mayn, and
another in the Wady Hammad.
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