At Four Hours And Three Quarters Is Melieha El Aattash [Arabic], In A Direction N.W. From Daara; From Thence

Our route lay W. by N. Not more than one-third of the plain was cultivated, though the peasants had

Sown more grain this year, than they had done for many years back. S. of Melieha half an hour lies the village Rakham [Arabic]. Five hours and a half the village El Herak [Arabic]. Five hours and three quarters, the village El Hereyek [Arabic]. In all these villages are several reservoirs of water, for the supply of the inhabitants during summer, and which are filled either by the winter torrents descending from the Djebel Haouran, or by rain water, which is conducted into them from every side by narrow channels: they are all of ancient date, and built entirely with the black Haouran stone; but I saw in none of the villages any edifice of magnitude. Near Hereyek we fell in with the encampment of the Damascus beggars, who make an excursion every spring to the Haouran, to collect alms from the peasants and Arabs; these contributions are principally in butter and wool,

NAEME.

[p.238]which they sell on their return to Damascus. They had about a dozen tents, and as many asses, and I saw a good mare tied before the tent of the Sheikh, who is a man of consequence among the thieves and vagabonds of Damascus. His name is El Shuhadein [Arabic]: he invited us to drink a cup of coffee, and take some refreshment; but my companions, who knew him, advised me to keep clear of him.

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