Having Thus Nothing More To Give, I Expected To Be Freed From All
Further Demands:
But I was mistaken:
I had forgotten some rags torn from
my shirt, which were tied round my ancles, wounded by the stirrups which
I had received in exchange from the Sheikh of Kerek. These rags
happening to be of white linen, some of the ladies of the Howeytat
thought they might serve to make a Berkoa (Arabic), or face veil, and
whenever I stepped out of the tent I found myself surrounded by half a
dozen of them, begging for the rags. In vain I represented that they
were absolutely necessary to me in the wounded state of my ancles: their
answer was, “you will soon reach Cairo, where you may get as much linen
as you like.” By thus incessantly teazing me they at last obtained their
wishes; but in my anger I gave the rags to an ugly old woman, to the no
slight disappointment of the young ones.
August 26th.—We broke up in the morning, our caravan consisting of nine
persons, including myself, and of about twenty camels, part of which
were for sale at Cairo; with the rest the Arabs expected to be able to
transport, on their return home, some provisions and army-baggage to
Akaba, where Mohammed Ali Pasha
DEPARTURE FOR CAIRO
[p.439] had established a depot for his Arabian expedition. The
provisions of my companions consisted only of flour; besides flour, I
carried some butter and dried Leben (sour milk), which when dissolved in
water, forms not only a refreshing beverage, but is much to be
recommended as a preservative of health when travelling in summer. These
were our only provisions. During the journey we did not sup till after
sunset, and we breakfasted in the morning upon a piece of dry bread,
which we had baked in the ashes the preceding evening, without either
salt or leven. The frugality of these Bedouins is indeed without
example; my companions, who walked at least five hours every day,
supported themselves for four and twenty hours with a piece of dry black
bread of about a pound and a half weight, without any other kind of
nourishment. I endeavoured, as much as possible to imitate their
abstemiousness, being already convinced from experience that it is the
best preservative against the effects of the fatigues of such a journey.
My companions proved to be very good natured people: and not a single
quarrel happened during our route, except between myself and my guide.
He too was an honest, good tempered man, but I suffered from his
negligence, and rather from his ignorance of my wants, as an European.
He had brought only one water-skin with him, which was to serve us both
for drinking and cooking; and as we had several intervals of three days
without meeting with water, I found myself on very short allowance, and
could not receive any assistance from my companions, who had scarcely
enough for themselves. But these people think nothing of hardships and
privations, and take it for granted, that other people’s constitutions
are hardened to the same aptitude of enduring thirst and fatigue, as
their own.
We returned to Szadeke, where we filled our water-skins, and proceeded
from thence in a W.S.W. direction, ascending the eastern
DJEBEL KOULA
[p.440] hills of Djebel Shera. After two hours march we began to
descend, in following the course of a Wady. At the end of four hours is
a spring called Ibn Reszeysz (Arabic). The highest point of Djebel
Hesma, in the direction of Akaba, bears from hence S.W. Hesma is higher
than any part of Shera. In five hours we reached Ain Daleghe (Arabic), a
spring in a fertile valley, where the Howeytat have built a few huts,
and cultivate some Dhourra fields. We continued descending Wady Daleghe,
which in winter is an impetuous torrent. The mountains are quite barren
here; calcareous rock predominates, with some flint. At the end of seven
hours we left the Wady, which takes a more northern direction, and
ascended a steep mountain. At eight hours and a half we alighted on the
declivity of the mountain, which is called Djebel Koula (Arabic), and
which appears to be the highest summit of Djebel Shera. Our road was
tolerably good all the way.
August 27th.—After one hour’s march we reached the summit of Djebel
Koula, which is covered with a chalky surface. The descent on the other
side is very wild, the road lying along the edges of almost
perpendicular precipices amidst large blocks of detached rocks, down a
mountain entirely destitute of vegetation, and composed of calcareous
rocks, sand-stone, and flint, lying over each other in horizontal
layers. At the end of three hours we came to a number of tombs on the
road side, where the Howeytat and other Bedouins who encamp in these
mountains bury their dead. In three hours and a half we reached the
bottom of the mountain, and entered the bed of a winter torrent, which
like Wady Mousa has worked its passage through the chain of sand-stone
rocks that form a continuation of the Syk. These rocks extend southwards
as far as Djebel Hesma. The narrow bed is enclosed by perpendicular
cliffs, which, at the entrance of the Wady, are about fifteen or twenty
yards distant from each other, but wider lower down.
WADY GHARENDEL
[p.441] We continued in a western direction for an hour and a half, in
this Wady, which is called Gharendel (Arabic). At five hours the valley
opens, and we found ourselves upon a sandy plain, interspersed with
rocks; the bed of the Wady was covered with white sand. A few trees of
the species called by the Arabs Talh, Tarfa, and Adha (Arabic), grow in
the midst of the sand, but their withered leaves cannot divert the
traveller’s eye from the dreary scene around him.
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