All Were Of A Pink
Coarse-Grained Granite, Which Flakes Off In Large Crusts Under The
Influence Of The Atmosphere.
I remarked one block which could not
measure fewer than thirty feet in height.
Through these scenes we
travelled till about half-past four P.M., when the guns suddenly roared
a halt. There was not a trace of human habitation around us: a few
parched shrubs and the granite heaps were the only objects diversifying
the hard clayey plain. Shaykh Mas’ud correctly guessed the cause of our
detention at the inhospitable “halting-place of the Mutayr” (Badawin). “Cook
your bread and boil your coffee,” said the old man; “the camels will rest
for awhile, and the gun will sound at nightfall.”
We had passed over about eighteen miles of ground; and our present
direction was South-west twenty degrees of Al-Sufayna.
At half-past ten that evening we heard the signal for
[p.132] departure, and, as the moon was still young, we prepared for a
hard night’s work. We took a south-westerly course through what is called
a Wa’ar—rough ground covered with thicket. Darkness fell upon us like a
pall. The camels tripped and stumbled, tossing their litters like
cockboats in a short sea; at times the Shugdufs were well nigh torn off
their backs. When we came to a ridge worse than usual, old Mas’ud would
seize my camel’s halter, and, accompanied by his son and nephew bearing
lights, encourage the animals with gesture and voice.
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