Hammet Essowanye [Arabic]; 4. Hammet
Dser Aryshe [Arabic]; 5. Hammet Zour Eddyk [Arabic]; 6. Hammet Erremlye
[Arabic]; 7. Hammet Messaoud [Arabic]; 8. Hammet Om Selym [Arabic]; this
last is distant from that of El Sheikh two hours and a half. These
FEIK.
[p.278]eight springs are on both sides of the Wady, and have remains of
ancient buildings near them. I conceive that a naturalist would find it
well worth his time to examine the productions of this Wady, hitherto
almost unknown. In the month of April the Hammet el Sheikh is visited by
great numbers both of sick and healthy people, from the neighbourhood of
Nablous and Nazaret, who prefer it to the bath of Tabaria; they usually
remain about a fortnight.
We returned from the Hamme by the same road we came; on reaching the
plain of El Ghor we turned to our right up the mountain. We here met a
wild boar of great size; these animals are very numerous in the Ghor,
and my companions told me that the Arabs of the valley are unable to
cultivate the common barley, called here Shayr Araby [Arabic], on
account of the eagerness with which the wild swine feed upon it, they
are therefore obliged to grow a less esteemed sort, with six rows of
grains, called Shayr Kheshaby [Arabic], which the swine do not touch. At
three quarters of an hour from the spot where we began to ascend, we
came to a spring called Ain el Khan, near a Khan called El Akabe, where
caravans sometimes alight; this being the great road from the Djolan and
the northern parts of the Haouran to the Ghor.