The Gharkad, Which From The Colour Of Its Fruit Is Also Called
By The Arabs Homra Delights In A Sandy
Soil, and reaches its maturity in
the height of summer when the ground is parched up, exciting an
agreeable surprise
In the traveller, at finding so juicy a berry
produced in the driest soil and season.[Might not the berry of this
shrub have been used by Moses to sweeten the waters of Marah? The words
in Exodus, xv. 25, are: “And the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he
had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.” The Arabic
translation of this passage gives a different, and, perhaps, more
correct reading: “And the Lord guided him to a tree, of which he threw
something into the water, which then became sweet.” I do not remember,
to have seen any Gharkad in the neighbourhood of Howara, but Wady
Gharendel is full of this shrub. As these conjectures did not occur to
me when I was on the spot, I did not enquire of the Bedouins whether
they ever sweetened the water with the juice of the berries, which would
probably effect this change in the same manner as the juice of
pomegranate grains expressed into it.] The bottom of the valley of
Gharendel swarms with ticks, which are extremely distressing both to men
and beasts, and on this account the caravans usually encamp on the sides
of the hills which border the valley.
WADY SHEBEYKE
[p.475] We continued in a S.E. 1/2 E. direction, passing over hills, and
at the end of four hours from our starting in the morning, we came to an
open, though hilly country, still slightly ascending, S.S.E. and then
reached by a similar descent, in five hours and a half, Wady Oszaita
[Arabic], enclosed by chalk hills. Here is another bitter well which
never yields a copious supply, and sometimes is completely dried up. A
few date trees stand near it. From hence we rode over a wide plain S.E.
b. S. and at the end of seven hours and three quarters came to Wady
Thale [Arabic]. Rock salt is found here as well as in Gharendel; date,
acacia, and tamarisks grow in the valley; but they were now all
withered. To our right was a chain of mountains, which extend towards
Gharendel. Proceeding from hence south, we turned the point of the
mountain, and then passed the rudely constructed tomb of a female saint,
called Arys Themman [Arabic], or the bridegroom of Themman, where the
Arabs are in the habit of saying a short prayer, and suspending some
rags of clothing upon some poles planted round the tomb. After having
doubled the mountain we entered the valley called Wady Taybe [Arabic],
which descends rapidly to the sea. At the end of eight hours and a half
we turned out of Wady Taybe into a branch of it, called Wady Shebeyke
[Arabic], in which we continued E.S.E. and halted for the night, after a
day’s march of nine hours and a quarter.
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