In an hour and a half we passed Essowara [Arabic], a
ruined town on our right; we travelled along the fertile plain that
skirts the rocky surface of the Ledja, which at two hours took a more
southern direction. On our right was El Hazzem [Arabic], a ruined town;
and a little farther, Meharetein [Arabic], also in ruins. All these
towns are on the borders of the Ledja. Their inhabitants formerly
cultivated the fields watered by the Lowa, of which the stone enclosures
are still visible in some places. At three hours is El Khelkhele
[Arabic], a ruined town, where we slept, in the house of the owner of a
saltpetre manufactory.
The Wady Lowa in some places approaches close to the Ledja, and in
others advances for a mile into the plain; its banks were covered with
the most luxuriant herbage, of which little use is
SOWARAT EL DSAKEIR.
[p.217]made; the Arabs of the Ledja being afraid to pass beyond its
limits, from the almost continual state of warfare in which they live
with the powerful tribe of Aeneze, and the government of Damascus; while
the Aeneze, on the other hand, are shy of approaching too near the
Ledja, from fear of the nightly robberies, and of the fire-arms of the
Arabs who inhabit it.
