I Had Still About Eighty
Piastres In Gold, But Kept Them Carefully Concealed In Case Of Some
Great Emergency; For
I knew that if I were to shew a single sequin, the
Arabs would suppose that I possessed several hundreds,
And would either
have robbed me of them, or prevented me from proceeding on my journey by
the most exorbitant demands.
August 13th.—I remained two days at Beszeyra, and then set out with the
family of my guide, consisting of his wife, two children, and a servant
girl. We were on foot, and drove before us the loaded camel and a few
sheep and goats. Our road ascended; at three quarters of an hour, we
came to a spring in the mountain. The rock is here calcareous, with
basalt. At two hours and a half was Ain Djedolat (Arabic), a spring of
excellent water; here the mountain is overgrown with short Balout trees.
At the end of two hours and three quarters, direction S. we reached the
top of the mountain, which is covered with large blocks of basalt. Here
a fine view opened upon us; to our right we had the deep valley of Wady
Dhana, with the village of the
EL GHOEYR
[p.409] same name on its S. side; farther west, about four hours from
Dhana, we saw the great valley of the Ghor, and towards the E. and S.
extended the wide Arabian desert, which the Syrian pilgrims cross in
their way to Medina. In three hours and a quarter, after a slight
descent, we reached the plain, here consisting of arable ground covered
with flints. We passed the ruins of an ancient town or large village,
called El Dhahel (Arabic). The castle of Aaneiza (Arabic), with an
insulated hillock near it, a station of the pilgrims, bore S.S.E.
distant about five hours; the town of Maan, S. distant ten or twelve
hours; and the castle El Shobak, S.S.W. East of Aaneiza runs a chain of
hills called Teloul Djaafar (Arabic). Proceeding a little farther, we
came to the high borders of a broad valley, called El Ghoeyr (Arabic),
(diminutive of Arabic El Ghor) to the S. of Wady Dhana. Looking down
into this valley, we saw at a distance a troop of horsemen encamped near
a spring; they had espied us, and immediately mounted their horses in
pursuit of us. Although several people had joined our little caravan on
the road, there was only one armed man amongst us, except myself. The
general opinion was that the horsemen belonged to the Beni Szakher, the
enemies of the Howeytat, who often make inroads into this district;
there was therefore no time to lose; we drove the cattle hastily back,
about a quarter of an hour, and hid them, with the women and baggage,
behind some rocks near the road, and we then took to our heels towards
the village of Dhana (Arabic), which we reached in about three quarters
of an hour, extremely exhausted, for it was about two o’clock in the
afternoon and the heat was excessive.
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