This Immediately Put Them Into
Good Humour, And In Return, They Brought Me Some Milk, Cucumbers, And A
Quantity Of Bsyse, Or Ground Nebek.
I purchased from them a skinful of
dates reduced to a paste, and one of them joined us for the sake of
travelling in our company to Suez, where he intended to sell a load of
charcoal; we then set out, leaving every body behind us well satisfied.
We followed the same road by which we had ascended last night, and
halted again where the date trees terminate. Here the same Arabs whom we
had found yesterday evening, having been informed that I had made some
presents where I had slept, thought, no doubt, that by being vociferous
they would obtain something. In this, however, they were mistaken, for I
gave them nothing, telling them they might seize my baggage if they
chose, but this they
[p.616] prudently declined to do. Ten years ago I should hardly have
been able to extricate myself in this manner.
The valley of Feiran widens considerably where it is joined by the Wady
Aleyat, and is about a quarter of an hour in breadth. Upon the mountains
on both sides of the road stand the ruins of an ancient city. The houses
are small, but built entirely of stones, some of which are hewn and some
united with cement, but the greater part are piled up loosely. I counted
the ruins of about two hundred houses. There are no traces of any large
edifice on the north side; but on the southern mountain there is an
extensive building, the lower part of which is of stone, and the upper
part of earth.
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