I was told that every respectable
family paid about fifty piastres per annum into the hands of the master
of the Menzels, which makes altogether a sum of about £1000. spent in
the entertainment of strangers. Were the place dependent on any Turkish
government,
[p.352] more than triple that sum would be extorted from its inhabitants
for the support of passengers. Besides the Menzels every family is
always ready to receive any acquaintances who may prefer their house to
the public inn. It will readily be conceived, that upon these terms the
people of Szalt are friends of the neighbouring Bedouins; who moreover
fear them because they have a secure retreat, and can muster about four
hundred fire-locks, and from forty to fifty horses. The powerful tribe
of Beni Szakher alone is fearless of the people of Szalt; on the
contrary, they exact a small yearly tribute from the town, which is
willingly paid, in order to secure the harvest against the depredations
of these formidable neighbours; disputes nevertheless arise, and Szalt
is often at war with the Beni Szakher.
While I remained at Szalt I was told of a traveller of whom I had also
heard in the Haouran; he was a Christian of Abyssinia, whose desire it
was to end his days at Jerusalem; he first sailed from Massoua to
Djidda, where he was seized by the Wahabi, and carried to their chief
Ibn Saoud at Deraye, where he remained two years. From Deraye he crossed
the desert with the encampments of wandering Bedouins, in the direction
of Damascus, and last year he reached Boszra in the Haouran, from whence
he was sent by the Christians to Szalt, where he remained a few days,
and then proceeded for Jerusalem. When he arrived at the Jordan, he
declared to his companions that he was a priest, a circumstance which he
had always kept secret; he continued two days on the banks of the river
fasting and praying, and from thence made his way alone to Jerusalem. He
never tasted animal food, and although he had experienced no sickness on
the road, he died soon after his arrival in the holy city.
It was not my intention to tarry at Szalt; I wished to proceed by the
first opportunity to Kerek, a town on the eastern side of the
MEZAR OSHA
[p.353] Dead sea; but the communications in these deserted countries are
far from being regular, and the want of a proper guide obliged me to
delay my departure for ten days; during this delay I had the good
fortune to see the ruins of Amman, which I had not been able to visit in
the course of my late tour in the Decapolis.
