I saw nothing in the position that could have
compensated the inhabitants for these disadvantages, except the river,
the benefit of which might have been equally enjoyed had the town been
built below Eldjy. Security therefore was probably the only object which
induced the people to overlook such objections, and to select such a
singular position for a city. The architecture of the sepulchres, of
which there are at least two hundred and fifty in the vicinity of the
ruins, are of very different periods.
[p.433] On our return I stopped a few hours at Eldjy. The town is
surrounded with fruit-trees of all kinds, the produce of which is of the
finest quality. Great quantities of the grapes are sold at Ghaza, and to
the Bedouins. The Lyathene cultivate the valley as far as the first
sepulchres of the ancient city; in their townhouses they work at the
loom. They pay tribute to the Howeytat and carry provisions to the
Syrian pilgrims at Maan, and to the Egyptian pilgrims at Akaba. They
have three encampments of about eighty tents each. Like the Bedouins and
other inhabitants of Shera they have become Wahabis, but do not at
present pay any tribute to the Wahabi chief.
Wady Mousa is comprised within the territory of Damascus, as are the
entire districts of Shera and Djebal. The most southern frontiers of the
Pashalik are Tor Hesma, a high mountain so called at one day’s journey
north of Akaba; from thence northward to Kerek, the whole country
belongs to the same Pashalik, and consequently to Syria; but it may
easily be conceived that the Pasha has little authority in these parts.
In the time of Djezzar, the Arabs of Wady Mousa paid their annual land-
tax into his treasury, but no other Pasha has been able to exact it.
I returned from Eldjy to the encampment above Ain Mousa, which is
considerably higher than the town, and set out from thence immediately,
for I very much disliked the people, who are less civil to strangers
than any other Arabs in Shera. We travelled in a southern direction
along the windings of a broad valley which ascends from Ain Mousa, and
reached its summit at the end of two hours and a quarter. The soil,
though flinty, is very capable of cultivation.
This valley is comprised within the appellation of Wady Mousa, because
the rain water which collects here joins, in the winter, the torrent
below Eldjy. The water was anciently conducted through this valley in an
artificial channel, of which the
AIN MEFRAK
[p.434] stone walls remain in several places. At the extremity of the
Wady are the ruins of an ancient city, called Betahy (Arabic),
consisting of large heaps of hewn blocks of silicious stone; the trees
on this mountain are thinly scattered.
