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. The Wady is seen
from afar, the Ghadir only on arriving near the descent.
[p.667]APPENDIX. No. VI.
Description of the Desert from the Neighbourhood of Damascus towards the
Euphrates.
From the Wady Serhhan northward and north-eastward, the whole desert is
called El Hammad [Arabic], till it reaches the neighbourhood of the
Euphrates, where the broad valley of the river is by the Arabs called
Oerak (Irak). That name therefore is not exclusively applied to the
Djezire or island between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but (in the
Bedouin acceptation of the word at least), to the fertile country also
between the desert and the river’s right bank.
