I Wished Very Much To Visit It, And Might Have Done So In
Perfect Safety, And Without Expense; But I
Knew that there was a
garrison of between three and four hundred Moggrebyns in the town; a
class of men
Which, from the circumstance of their passing from one
service to another, I was particularly desirous of avoiding. It was very
probable that I might afterwards meet with some of the individuals of
this garrison in Egypt, where they would not have failed to recognize my
person, in consequence of the remarkable circumstance of my visit to
Boszra; but as I did not think proper to state these reasons to my
guides, who of course expected me to examine the greatest curiosity in
the Haouran, I told them that I had had a dream, which made it advisable
for me not to visit this place. They greatly applauded my prudent
determination, accustomed as they had been to look upon me as a person
who had a secret to insure his safety, when travelling about in such
dangerous places. We therefore left Kereye in the morning, and
proceeding N.E. reached in three quarters of an hour Houshhoush
[Arabic], after having crossed the Wady Djaar [Arabic], which descends
from the mountain. Houshhoush is a heap of ruins, upon a Tel in the
plain, and is famed over all the Haouran for the immense treasures said
to be buried there. Whenever I was asked by the Fellahs where I had
been, they never failed to enquire particularly whether I had seen
Houshhoush. The small ancient village contains nothing remarkable except
a church, supported by a single arch which rests on pillars much higher
than those generally seen in this country. At the
SHMERRIN.
[p.105]foot of the hill are several wells. We found here a great number
of mushrooms; we had met with some at Szalkhat; my guides taught me to
eat them raw, with a morsel of bread. The quantity of Kattas here was
beyond description; the whole plain seemed sometimes to rise; and far
off in the air they were seen like large moving clouds.
W. of Houshhoush half an hour, in the plain, are Tel Zakak and Deir
Aboud; the latter is a building sixty feet square, of which the walls
only are standing; they are built with small stones, and have a single
low door. From this place W.S.W. three quarters of an hour is Tahoun el
Abiad [Arabic] i.e. the White Mill, the ruins of a mill on the banks of
the Wady Ras el Beder, which I noticed in speaking of Zahouet el Khuder.
S.W. from Tahoun, three quarters of an hour, is the ruined village Kourd
[Arabic], and W. from it one hour, the village Tellafe [Arabic]. Our way
from Deir Aboud lay W.S.W.; at one hour and a half from it is the
considerable ruined village Keires [Arabic], on the Wady Zedi, the
largest of all the Wadys which descend from the mountain into the plain.
The soil of this uncultivated district is of a red colour, and appears
to be very fertile.
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