At The End Of Two Hours And A Half In The Wady
Khamyle We Came To The First Bedouin Encampment Which I Had Seen Since
Leaving Suez.
It belonged to the tribe of Szowaleha [Arabic].
On the
approach of summer all the Bedouins leave the lower country, where the
herbage is dried up, and retire towards the higher parts of the
peninsula, where, owing to the comparatively cooler climate, the pasture
preserves its freshness much longer. Ascending gently through the
valley, we passed at three hours a place of burial called Mokbera
[Arabic], one of the places of interment of the tribe of Szowaleha. It
seems to be a custom prevalent with the Arabs in every part of the
desert, to have regular burial-grounds, whither they carry their dead,
sometimes from the distance of several days journey. The burying ground
seen by Niebuhr[Voyage, vol. i. p. 189] near Naszeb, which, as I have
already mentioned, I passed without visiting, and missed in my way back,
by taking a more southern road, appears to have been an ancient cemetery
of the same kind, formed at a time when hieroglyphical characters were
in use among all the nations under Egyptian influence. As there are no
countries where ancient manners are so permanent as in the desert, it is
probable that the same customs of sepulture then prevailed which still
exist, and that the burying ground described by Niebuhr by no means
proves the former existence of a city. Among the rude tombs of Mokbera,
which consist, for the most part, of mere heaps of earth covered with
loose stones, the tomb of Sheikh Hamyd, a Bedouin saint, is
distinguished; the Szowaleha keep it always carefully covered with fresh
herbs.
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