Each Of The Two Latter Have A Window In The Western Wall.
The Roof Of The Apartments Are Vaulted Below, And Flat Above.
The walls
which divide the apartments are two yards in thickness; in the two first
rooms there is a stone pavement, in the small room the Arabs have taken
up the pavement to dig for treasures; but they found nothing underneath,
except small pieces of planks and some rusty iron.
The ceiling of all
the three apartments is chalked over, and looks quite new. In the small
room it is painted all over with serpents, hares, gazelles, mares, and
birds; there are neither human figures nor trees amongst the paintings.
The colour of the paintings is red, green, and yellow, and they look as
bright and well preserved, as if they had been done a short time ago.
There are no kinds of niches, bas-reliefs, or inscriptions in the walls.
From Hudrush branches out a Wady towards Wady Serhhan, called Chadef
[Arabic]. Four days beyond Tebig you arrive at a Byr called El Sheben or
Szefan [Arabic], situated upon a small ascent. According to my informant
the Byr is two hundred yards in depth. To the north of that well the
desert is called Beseita [Arabic]. For two days farther the earth is
covered to the depth of six inches with small black gray stones, looking
like flints. The plant Samah [Arabic] grows there, which is collected by
the people of Djof. From the end of the Beseita to the Djof is one day’s
journey farther, and the Beseita ends in the Dhahi.
All the Arabs along this road from El Hassa, are Sherarat, the Aeneze do
not come this way.
Between Tebig, Szauan, Hudrush, and to the S. of these places, are a
quantity of wild asses, which the Arabs Sherarat hunt, and eat
(secretly). Their skins and hoofs are sold to the wandering Christian
pedlars, and in the towns of Syria. Of the hoofs rings are made, which
the Fellahs of eastern Syria wear on the thumb, or tied with a thread
round the arm-pit, to prevent, or to heal rheumatic complaints. I may
here make a general remark that there is an infinity of names of places
in the desert. Every Tel, every declivity, or, elevation in a Wady,
every extent of plain ground, where a particular herb grows, has its
name, well known to the Arabs. The Khabera [Arabic], or places where the
rain-water collects, winter-time, are generally distinguished by the
name of some well known Sheikh who once pitched his tent near them; as
Khabera Ibn Ghebein [Arabic], the watering places of Ibn Ghebein.
The side of a Wady where the Arab descends is called by him Hadhera
[Arabic], the opposite side, where he re-ascends Sende [Arabic].
A Ghadir [Arabic] is distinguished from a Wady, the two sides of the
latter are hills which rise above the surface of the adjacent plain; the
Ghadir on the contrary is only a hollow in the plain.
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