When The Pilgrims Reach The Bottom Of The Descent
They Fire Off Their Pistols For The Sake Of The Echo.
The mountain sinks
gradually, and is lost at a great distance in the plain, which is very
sandy.[FN#1]
13. Medawara [Arabic], one day’s journey, a castle with a Birket of
rainwater.
14. Dzat Hadj [Arabic], a castle surrounded by a great number of wells,
which are easily found on digging two or three feet. It has likewise a
Birket of rainwater. At four hours from it is a descent, rendered
difficult by the deep sand. It is called El Araie [Arabic], or Halat
Ammar [Arabic]; it was here that in the time of Daher el Omar, Pasha of
Acre, and of Osman, Pasha of Damascus, the Arabs Beni Szakher plundered
the Hadj in the year 1170 of the Hedjra (1757), the only example of such
an event in the last century. From Halat Ammar the plain is no longer
sandy, but covered with a white earth as far as Tebouk. The vicinity of
Dzat Hadj is covered with palm trees: but the trees being male, they
bear no fruit, and remain very low. The inhabitants sell the wood to the
Hadj.
15. One day from Dzat Hadj is Tebouk [Arabic], a castle, with a village
of Felahein, of the tribe of Arabs Hammeide. There is a copious source
of water, and gardens of fig and pomegranate trees, where Badintshaus
(egg plant), onions, and ether vegetables are also cultivated.
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