These Buildings Are
Altogether So Slight, And The Doors So Insecure, That A Stone Would Be
Sufficient To Break Them Open; No Watchmen Are Left To Guard Them, And
They Are In Such Solitary Spots That They Might Easily Be Plundered In
The Night, Without The Thief Being Ever Discovered.
But such is the good
faith of the Towara towards each other, that robberies of this kind are
almost unheard of; and their Sheikh Szaleh, whose magazine is well known
to contain fine dresses, shawls, and dollars, considers his property as
safe there as it would be in the best
OM SHOMAR
[p.589] secured building in a large town. The Towara are well entitled
to pride themselves on this trait in their character; for I found
nothing similar to it among other Bedouins. The only instance upon
record of a magazine having been plundered among them, is that mentioned
in page 475, for which the robber’s own father inflicted the punishment
of death.
We continued our route in a side branch of the Rababa, till at the end
of five hours and a half, we ascended a mountain, and then descended
into a narrow valley, or rather cleft, between the rocks, called Bereika
[Arabic]. The camel which I rode not being able to proceed farther on
account of the rocky road, I left it here in charge of one of the
Djebalye. This part of Sinai was completely parched up, no rain having
fallen in it during the last winter. W.S.W. from hence, on entering a
narrow pass called Wady Zereigye [Arabic], we found the ground moist,
there being a small well, but almost dried up; it would have cost us
some time to dig it up to obtain water, which no longer rose above the
surface, though it still maintained some verdure around it. This defile
was thickly overgrown with fennel, three or four feet high; the Bedouins
eat the stalks raw, and pretend that it cools the blood. Farther down we
came to two copious springs, most picturesquely situated among the
rocks, being overshaded by large wild fig-trees, a great number of which
grow in other parts of this district. We descended the Zereigye by
windings, and at the end of eight hours reached its lowest extremity,
where it joins a narrow valley extending along the foot of Om Shomar,
the almost perpendicular cliffs of which now stood before us. The
country around is the wildest I had yet seen in these mountains; the
devastations of torrents are every where visible, the sides of the
mountains being rent by them in numberless directions; the surface of
the sharp rocks is blackened by the sun; all vegetation is dry and
withered; and the whole
[p.590] scene presents nothing but utter desolation and hopeless
barrenness.
We ascended S.E. in the valley of Shomar, winding round the foot of the
mountain for about an hour, till we reached the well of Romhan [Arabic],
at nine hours from the convent, where we rested.
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