Some Syale trees, a species of the mimosa, grow in this valley. The pod
which they produce, together with the tenderest shoots of the branches,
serve as fodder to the camels; the bark of the tree is used by the Arabs
to tan leather. The rocks round the resting-place of Naszeb are much
shattered and broken, evidently by torrents; yet no torrents within the
memory of man have ever rushed down the valley.
In the afternoon we entered a lateral branch of the Naszeb, more
northerly than the main branch which contains the well, and we gradually
ascended it. We had been joined at the Ayoun Mousa by an Egyptian
Bedouin, belonging to the Arabs of the province
RAML EL MORAK
[p.480] of Sherkyeh, who was married to a girl of the Towara Arabs; last
night, being in the vicinity of the place where he knew his wife to be,
he put spurs to the ass on which he was mounted, and thinking that he
knew the road, he quitted the Wady Shebeyke two hours before we did, and
without any provision of water. He missed his way on the sandy plain of
Debbe, and instead of reaching the spring of Naszeb, where he intended
to allay his thirst, he rode the whole of this morning and afternoon
about the mountain in different directions, in fruitless search after
the shady and conspicuous rock of Naszeb. Towards the evening we met
him, so much exhausted with thirst, that his eyes had become dim, and he
could scarcely recognise us; had he not fallen in with us he would
probably have perished.
