He Promised
To Conduct Us As Far As Taba, A Valley In Sight Of Akaba, But Declared
That He Should Not Be Justified In
[P.499] holding out to me promises of safety beyond that point.
This was
all that I wished, for the present, thinking that when we arrived
thither, I should be able to prevail on him to continue farther. Szaleh
now gave me reason to suspect that, from the moment of our setting out,
he had had treacherous intentions. He secretly endeavoured to persuade
Hamd to return, and finding the latter resolved to fulfil his
engagements, he declared that he had now shown us enough of the way,
that we had only to follow the shore to reach Akaba, and that the
weakness of his camel would not allow it to proceed farther. I replied
that he was at liberty to take himself off, but that, on my return to
the convent, I should pay him only for the three days he had travelled
with me. This was not to his liking, and he therefore preferred going
on. Before we left this place Ayd told me that as I had treated him with
a supper last night, it was his duty to give me a breakfast this
morning. While he kneaded a loaf of flour, and baked it in the ashes,
his companion caught some fish, which we boiled, and made a soup of the
broth mixed with bread. The deaf man was made to understand by signs
that he was to wait for the return of Ayd, and we set out together
before mid-day. Before us lay a small bay, which we skirted; the sands
on the shore every where bore the impression of the passage of serpents,
crossing each other in many directions, and some of them appeared to be
made by animals whose bodies could not be less than two inches in
diameter. Ayd told me that serpents were very common in these parts;
that the fishermen were much afraid of them, and extinguished their
fires in the evening before they went to sleep, because the light was
known to attract them. As serpents are so numerous on this side, they
are probably not deficient towards the head of the gulf on its opposite
shore, where it appears that the Israelites passed, when they journeyed
from mount Hor, by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of
[p.500] Edom,” and when the “Lord sent fiery serpents among the
people.”[Numbers c. xxi, v. 4, 6. The following passage of Deuteronomy
(viii. 15) in giving a general description of this country, alludes to
the serpents: “Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness
wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was
no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint. Who fed
thee in the wilderness with manna,” &c. Scorpions are numerous in all
the adjacent parts of Palestine and the desert.
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