Charcoal, Commonly Called Fahm In Arabic,
Is By These Bedouins Called Habesh, A Term Which I Never Heard Given To
It by any other Arabs; this word may perhaps be the origin of the name
of Abyssinia, which may have
Been called Habesh by the Arabs from the
colour of its inhabitants. Travellers will do well to enquire for the
Dhafary, in their way to Feiran, as the water of the Morkha is of the
very worst kind; this memorandum would be particularly useful to any
person intending to copy the inscriptions of Wady Mokatteb.
We reached Morkha, [Arabic], which bears from Dhafary N.W. b. N. in half
an hour, the road leading over level but very rocky ground. Morkha is a
small pond in the sand-stone rock, close to the foot of the mountains.
Two date-trees grow near its margin. The bad taste of the water seems to
be owing partly to the weeds, moss, and dirt, with which the pond is
filled, but chiefly, no doubt, to the saline nature of the soil around
it. Next to Ayoun Mousa, in the vicinity of Suez, and Gharendel, it is
the principal station on this road. After watering our camels, which was
our only motive for coming to the Morkha, we returned to the
BAY OF BIRKET FARAOUN
[p.624] sea-shore, one hour distant N.W. We followed the shore for three
quarters of an hour in a N.W. b. N. direction, and then halted close by
the sea, where the maritime level is greatly contracted by a range of
chalk hills which in some places approaches close to the water. Before
us extended the large bay of Birket Faraoun, so called, from being,
according to Arab and Egyptian tradition, the place where the Israelites
crossed the sea, and where the returning waves overwhelmed Pharaoh and
his host. There is an almost continual motion of the waters in this bay,
which they say is occasioned by the spirits of the drowned still moving
in the bottom of the sea; but which may also be ascribed to its being
exposed on three sides to the sea, and to the sudden gusts of wind from
the openings of the valleys. These circumstances, together with its
shoals, render it very dangerous, and more ships have been wrecked in
the Bay of Birket Faraoun than in any other part of the gulf of Tor,
another proof, in the eyes of the Arabs, that spirits or demons dwell
here.
This evening and night we had a violent Simoum. The air was so hot, that
when I faced the current, the sensation was like that of sitting close
to a large fire; the hot wind was accompanied, at intervals with gusts
of cooler air. I did not find my respiration impeded for a moment during
the continuance of the hot blast. The Simoum is frequent on this low
coast, but the advantage of sea bathing renders it the less distressing.
June 5th.—We rode close by the shore, at the foot of sandy cliffs; but
as the road was passable only at low water, we were obliged, as the tide
set in, to take a circuitous route over the mountain.
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