There Appeared To Be So Much Good Faith And Sense In
All The Old Man Said, And I Found Him
So well informed respecting the
country, that I soon determined to engage him to join us; but as we were
To descend the next morning by the same road to the sea-shore, I
deferred making him any overtures till we should arrive there.
The Wady Boszeyra is enclosed by gray granite rocks, out of which the
Towara Arabs sometimes hew stones for hand mills, which they dispose of
to the northern Arabs, and transport for sale as far as Khalyl. It is
very seldom that any Arabs pasture in the district we had traversed,
from Wady Sal. The Towara find better pasturage in the southern and
south-western parts of the peninsula, and as its whole population is
very small, the more barren parts of it are abandoned, and especially
this side, where very few wells are found.
WASTA
[p.498] May 7th.—From Boszeyra we crossed a short ridge of mountains,
and then entered a narrow valley, the bed of a torrent, called Saada
[Arabic], in the windings of which we descended by a steeper slope than
any of the former; our main direction E. The mountains on both sides
were of moderate height and with gentle slopes, till after an hour and a
half, when we reached a chain of high and perpendicular grünstein rocks,
which hemmed in the valley so closely as to leave in several places a
passage of only ten feet across. After proceeding for a mile in this
very striking and majestic defile, I caught the first glimpse of the
gulf of Akaba; the valley then widens and descends to the sea, and after
two hours and a quarter we alighted upon the sandy beach, which is here
several hundred paces in breadth; the grünstein and granite rocks reach
all the way down; but at the very foot of the mountain a thin layer of
chalk appeared just above the surface of the ground. The valley opens
directly upon the sea, into which it empties its torrent when heavy
rains fall. Some groves of date-trees stand close by the shore, among
which is a well of brackish but drinkable water; the place is called El
Noweyba [Arabic]. We now followed the coast in a direction N.N.E. and at
the end of three hours and a quarter halted at a grove of date-trees,
intermixed with a few tamarisks, called Wasta [Arabic], close by the
sea. Here is a small spring at a distance of fifty yards from the sea,
and not more than eight feet above the level of the water; it was choked
with sand, which we removed, and on digging a hole about three feet deep
and one foot in diameter, it filled in half an hour with very tolerable
water. The shore is covered with weeds brought hither by the tide[.]
Here the two Bedouins intended to take up their quarters for fishing,
but I easily prevailed upon Ayd to accompany us farther on.
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