Travels in Syria and the Holy Land Part 35

Maan is situated in the midst of a rocky country, not capable of cultivation; the inhabitants therefore depend upon their neighbours of Djebal and Shera for their provision of wheat and barley. At present, owing to the discontinuance of the Syrian Hadj, they are scarcely able to obtain money to purchase it. Many of them have commenced pedlars among the Bedouins, and fabricators of different articles for their use, especially sheep-skin furs, while others have emigrated to Tafyle and Kerek. The Barbary pilgrims who were permitted by the Wahabi chief to perform their pilgrimage in 1810, and 1811, returned from Medina by the way of Maan and Shobak to Hebron, Jerusalem, and Yaffa, where they embarked for their own country, having taken this circuitous route on account of the hostile demonstrations of Mohammed Ali Pasha on the Egyptian road.Several thousands of them died of fatigue before they reached Maan. The people of this town derived large profits from the survivors, and for the transport of their effects; but it is probable that if the Syrian Hadj is not soon reestablished, the place will in a few years be abandoned. The inhabitants considering their town as an advanced post to the sacred city of Medina, apply themselves with great eagerness to the study of the Koran. The greater part of them read and write, and many serve in the capacity of Imams or secretaries to the great Bedouin Sheikhs. The two hills upon which the town is built, divide the inhabitants into two parties, almost incessantly engaged in quarrels which are often sanguinary; no individual of one party even marries into a family belonging to the other.

On arriving at the encampment of the Howeytat, we were informed that the caravan was to set out on the second day; I had

HOWEYTAT ENCAMPMENT

[p.438] the advantage, therefore, of one day?s repose. I was now reduced to that state which can alone ensure tranquillity to the traveller in the desert; having nothing with me that could attract the notice or excite the cupidity of the Bedouins; my clothes and linen were torn to rags; a dirty Keffye, or yellow handkerchief, covered my head; my leathern girdle and shoes had long been exchanged, by way of present, against similar articles of an inferior kind, so that those I now wore were of the very worst sort. The tube of my pipe was reduced from two yards to a span, for I had been obliged to cut off from it as much as would make two pipes for my friends at Kerek; and the last article of my baggage, a pocket handkerchief, had fallen to the lot of the Sheikh of Eldjy. Having thus nothing more to give, I expected to be freed from all further demands: but I was mistaken: I had forgotten some rags torn from my s.h.i.+rt, which were tied round my ancles, wounded by the stirrups which I had received in exchange from the Sheikh of Kerek. These rags happening to be of white linen, some of the ladies of the Howeytat thought they might serve to make a Berkoa (Arabic), or face veil, and whenever I stepped out of the tent I found myself surrounded by half a dozen of them, begging for the rags. In vain I represented that they were absolutely necessary to me in the wounded state of my ancles: their answer was, ?you will soon reach Cairo, where you may get as much linen as you like.? By thus incessantly teazing me they at last obtained their wishes; but in my anger I gave the rags to an ugly old woman, to the no slight disappointment of the young ones.

August 26th.?We broke up in the morning, our caravan consisting of nine persons, including myself, and of about twenty camels, part of which were for sale at Cairo; with the rest the Arabs expected to be able to transport, on their return home, some provisions and army-baggage to Akaba, where Mohammed Ali Pasha

DEPARTURE FOR CAIRO

[p.439] had established a depot for his Arabian expedition. The provisions of my companions consisted only of flour; besides flour, I carried some b.u.t.ter and dried Leben (sour milk), which when dissolved in water, forms not only a refres.h.i.+ng beverage, but is much to be recommended as a preservative of health when travelling in summer. These were our only provisions. During the journey we did not sup till after sunset, and we breakfasted in the morning upon a piece of dry bread, which we had baked in the ashes the preceding evening, without either salt or leven. The frugality of these Bedouins is indeed without example; my companions, who walked at least five hours every day, supported themselves for four and twenty hours with a piece of dry black bread of about a pound and a half weight, without any other kind of nourishment. I endeavoured, as much as possible to imitate their abstemiousness, being already convinced from experience that it is the best preservative against the effects of the fatigues of such a journey.

My companions proved to be very good natured people: and not a single quarrel happened during our route, except between myself and my guide.

He too was an honest, good tempered man, but I suffered from his negligence, and rather from his ignorance of my wants, as an European.

He had brought only one water-skin with him, which was to serve us both for drinking and cooking; and as we had several intervals of three days without meeting with water, I found myself on very short allowance, and could not receive any a.s.sistance from my companions, who had scarcely enough for themselves. But these people think nothing of hards.h.i.+ps and privations, and take it for granted, that other people?s const.i.tutions are hardened to the same apt.i.tude of enduring thirst and fatigue, as their own.

We returned to Szadeke, where we filled our water-skins, and proceeded from thence in a W.S.W. direction, ascending the eastern

DJEBEL KOULA

[p.440] hills of Djebel Shera. After two hours march we began to descend, in following the course of a Wady. At the end of four hours is a spring called Ibn Reszeysz (Arabic). The highest point of Djebel Hesma, in the direction of Akaba, bears from hence S.W. Hesma is higher than any part of Shera. In five hours we reached Ain Daleghe (Arabic), a spring in a fertile valley, where the Howeytat have built a few huts, and cultivate some Dhourra fields. We continued descending Wady Daleghe, which in winter is an impetuous torrent. The mountains are quite barren here; calcareous rock predominates, with some flint. At the end of seven hours we left the Wady, which takes a more northern direction, and ascended a steep mountain. At eight hours and a half we alighted on the declivity of the mountain, which is called Djebel Koula (Arabic), and which appears to be the highest summit of Djebel Shera. Our road was tolerably good all the way.

August 27th.?After one hour?s march we reached the summit of Djebel Koula, which is covered with a chalky surface. The descent on the other side is very wild, the road lying along the edges of almost perpendicular precipices amidst large blocks of detached rocks, down a mountain entirely dest.i.tute of vegetation, and composed of calcareous rocks, sand-stone, and flint, lying over each other in horizontal layers. At the end of three hours we came to a number of tombs on the road side, where the Howeytat and other Bedouins who encamp in these mountains bury their dead. In three hours and a half we reached the bottom of the mountain, and entered the bed of a winter torrent, which like Wady Mousa has worked its pa.s.sage through the chain of sand-stone rocks that form a continuation of the Syk. These rocks extend southwards as far as Djebel Hesma. The narrow bed is enclosed by perpendicular cliffs, which, at the entrance of the Wady, are about fifteen or twenty yards distant from each other, but wider lower down.

WADY GHARENDEL

[p.441] We continued in a western direction for an hour and a half, in this Wady, which is called Gharendel (Arabic). At five hours the valley opens, and we found ourselves upon a sandy plain, interspersed with rocks; the bed of the Wady was covered with white sand. A few trees of the species called by the Arabs Talh, Tarfa, and Adha (Arabic), grow in the midst of the sand, but their withered leaves cannot divert the traveller?s eye from the dreary scene around him. At six hours the valley again becomes narrower; here are some more tombs of Bedouins on the side of the road. At the end of six hours and a half we came to the mouth of the Wady, where it joins the great lower valley, issuing from the mountainous country into the plain by a narrow pa.s.sage, formed by the approaching rocks. These rocks are of sand-stone and contain many natural caverns. A few hundred paces above the issue of the Wady are several springs, called Ayoun Gharendel, surrounded by a few date trees, and some verdant pasture ground. The water has a sulphureous taste, but these being the only springs on the borders of the great valley within one day?s journey to the N. and S. the Bedouins are obliged to resort to them. The wells are full of leeches, some of which fixed themselves to the palates of several of our camels whilst drinking, and it was with difficulty that we could remove them. The name of Arindela, an ancient town of Palaestina Tertia, bears great resemblance to that of Gharendel.

On issuing from this rocky country, which terminates the Djebel Shera, on its western side, the Wady Gharendel empties itself into the valley El Araba, in whose sands its waters are lost. This valley is a continuation of the Ghor, which may be said to extend from the Red sea to the sources of the Jordan. The valley of that river widens about Jericho, and its inclosing hills are united to a chain of mountains which open and enclose the Dead sea. At the southern

WADY EL ARABA

[p.442] extremity of the sea they again approach, and leave between them a valley similar to the northern Ghor, in shape; but which the want of water makes a desert, while the Jordan and its numerous tributary streams render the other a fertile plain. In the southern Ghor the rivulets which descend from the eastern mountains, to the S. of Wady Szafye, or El Karahy, are lost amidst the gravel in their winter beds, before they reach the valley below, and there are no springs whatever in the western mountain; the lower plain, therefore, in summer is entirely without water, which alone can produce verdure in the Arabian deserts, and render them habitable. The general direction of the southern Ghor is parallel to the road which I took in coming from Khanzyre to Wady Mousa.

At the point where we crossed it, near Gharendel, its direction was from N.N.E. to S.S.W. From Gharendel it extends southwards for fifteen or twenty hours, till it joins the sandy plain which separates the mountains of Hesma from the eastern branch of the Red sea. It continues to bear the appellation of El Ghor as far as the lat.i.tude of Beszeyra, to the S. of which place, as the Arabs informed me, it is interrupted for a short s.p.a.ce by rocky ground and Wadys, and takes the name of Araba (Arabic), which it retains till its termination near the Red sea. Near Gharendel, where I saw it, the whole plain presented to the view an expanse of s.h.i.+fting sands whose surface was broken by innumerable undulations, and low hills. The sand appears to have been brought from the sh.o.r.es of the Red sea by the southerly winds; and the Arabs told me that the valley continued to present the same appearance beyond the lat.i.tude of Wady Mousa. A few Talh trees (Arabic) (the acacia which produces the gum arable), Tarfa (Arabic) (tamarisk), Adha (Arabic), and Rethem (Arabic), grow among the sand hills; but the depth of sand precludes all vegetation of herbage. Numerous Bedouin tribes encamp here in the winter, when the torrents produce a copious supply of water, and a few

[p.443] shrubs spring up upon their banks, affording pasturage to the sheep and goats; but the camels prefer the leaves of the trees, especially the th.o.r.n.y Talh.

The existence of the valley El Araba, the Kadesh Barnea, perhaps, of the Scriptures, appears to have been unknown both to ancient and modern geographers, although it forms a prominent feature in the topography of Syria and Arabia Petraea. It deserves to be thoroughly investigated, and travellers might proceed along it in winter time, accompanied by two or three Bedouin guides of the tribes of Howeytat and Terabein, who could be procured at Hebron. Akaba, or Eziongeber, might be reached in eight days by the same road by which the communication was anciently kept up between Jerusalem and her dependencies on the Red sea, for this is both the nearest and the most commodious route, and it was by this valley that the treasures of Ophir were probably transported to the warehouses of Solomon.

Of the towns which I find laid down in D?Anville?s maps, between Zoara and Aelana, no traces remain, Thoana excepted, which is the present Dhana. The name of Zoar is unknown to the Arabs, but the village of Szafye is near that point; the river which is made by D?Anville to fall into the Dead sea near Zoara, is the Wady El Ahhsa; but it will have been seen in the above pages, [t]hat the course of that Wady is rather from the east than south. I enquired in vain among the Arabs for the names of those places where the Israelites had sojourned during their progress through the desert; none of them are known to the present inhabitants. The country, about Akaba, and to the W.N.W. of it, might, perhaps, furnish some data for the ill.u.s.tration of the Jewish history. I understand that M. Seetzen went in a straight line from Hebron to Akaba, across the desert El Ty; he may perhaps, have collected some interesting information on the subject.

[p.444] The following ruined places are situated in Djebal Shera, to the S. and S.S.W. of Wady Mousa; Kalaat Beni Madha (Arabic), Atrah (Arabic), a ruined tower, with water near it, Djerba (Arabic), Basta (Arabic), Eyl (Arabic), Ferdakh (Arabic), with a spring; Anyk (Arabic), Bir el Beytar (Arabic), a number of wells upon a plain surrounded by high cliffs, in the midst of Tor Hesma. The caravans from Wady Mousa to Akaba make these wells their first station, and reach Akaba on the evening of the second day; but they are two long days journeys of ten or twelve hours each. At the foot of Hanoun are the ruins of Wayra (Arabic), and the two deserted villages of Beydha (Arabic) and Heysha (Arabic). West of Hanoun is the spring Dhahel (Arabic), with some ruins. In that neighbourhood are the ruined places Shemakh (Arabic) and Syk (Arabic).

We were one hour and a half in crossing the Araba, direction W. by N. In some places the sand is very deep, but it is firm, and the camels walk over it without sinking. The heat was suffocating, and it was increased by a hot wind from the S.E. There is not the slightest appearance of a road, or of any other work of human art in this part of the valley. On the other side we ascended the western chain of mountains. The mountain opposite to us appeared to be the highest point of the whole chain, as far as I could see N. and S.; it is called Djebel Beyane (Arabic); the height of this chain, however, is not half that of the eastern mountains. It is intersected by numerous broad Wadys, in which the Talh tree grows; the rock is entirely silicious, of the same species as that of the desert which extends from hence to Suez. I saw some large pieces of flint perfectly oval, three to four feet in length, and about a foot and a half in breadth.

After an hour and a half of gentle ascent we arrived at the summit of the hills, and then descended by a short and very gradual declivity into the western plain, the level of which although higher

WADY EL LAHYANE

[p.445] than that of the Araba, is perhaps one thousand feet lower than the eastern desert. We had now before us an immense expanse of dreary country entirely covered with black flints, with here and there some hilly chains rising from the plain. About six hours distant, to our right, were the hills near Wady Szays (Arabic). The horizon being very clear near sunset, my companions pointed out to me the mountains of Kerek, which bore N.E. by N. Djebel Dhana bore N.E. by F., and Djebel Hesma S.S.E. I must here observe, that during all my journeys in the deserts I never allowed the Arabs to get a sight of my compa.s.s, as it would certainly have been considered by them as an instrument of magic.

When on horseback I took the bearings, unseen, beneath my wide Arab cloak; under such circ.u.mstances it is an advantage to ride a mare, as she may easily be taught to stand quite still. When mounted on, a camel, which can never be stopped while its companions are moving on, I was obliged to jump off when I wished to take a bearing, and to couch down in the oriental manner, as if answering a call of nature. The Arabs are highly pleased with a traveller who jumps off his beast and remounts without stopping it, as the act of kneeling down is troublesome and fatiguing to the loaded camel, and before it can rise again, the caravan is considerably ahead. From Djebel Beyane we continued in the plain for upwards of an hour; and stopped for the night in a Wady which contains Talh trees, and extends across the plain for about half an hour. We had this day marched eleven hours.

August 28th.?In the morning we pa.s.sed two broad Wadys full of tamarisks and of Talh trees, which have given to them the name of Abou Talhha (Arabic). At the end of four hours we reached Wady el Lahyane (Arabic).

In this desert the water collects in a number of low bottoms and Wadys, where it produces verdure in winter time: and an abundance of trees with

[p.446] green leaves are found throughout the year. In the winter some of the Arabs of Ghaza, Khalyl, as well as those from the sh.o.r.es of the Red sea, encamp here. The Wady Lahyane [The road from Akaba to Ghaza pa.s.ses here. It is a journey of eight long days. The watering places on it are, El Themmed (Arabic), Mayeyu (Arabic), and Berein (Arabic). The distance from Akaba to Hebron is nine days. The springs on the road are: El Ghadyan (Arabic), El Ghammer (Arabic), and Weyba (Arabic).] is several hours in extent; its bottom is full of gravel. We met with a few families of Arabs Heywat (Arabic), who had chosen this place, that their camels might feed upon the th.o.r.n.y branches of the gum arabic tree, of which they are extremely fond. These poor people had no tents with them; and their only shelter from the burning rays of the sun, and the heavy dews of night, were the scanty branches of the Talh trees. The ground was covered with the large thorns of these trees, which are a great annoyance to the Bedouins and their cattle. Each Bedouin carries in his girdle a pair of small pincers, to extract the thorns from his feet, for they have no shoes, and use only a sort of sandal made of a piece of camel?s skin, tied on with leathern thongs. In the summer they collect the gum arabic (Arabic), which they sell at Cairo for thirty and forty patacks the camel load, or about twelve or fifteen s.h.i.+llings per cwt.

English; but the gum is of a very inferior quality to that of Sennaar.

My companions eat up all the small pieces that had been left upon the trees by the road side. I found it to be quite tasteless, but I was a.s.sured that it was very nutritive.

We breakfasted with the Arabs Heywat, and our people were extremely angry, and even insolent, at not having been treated with a roasted lamb, according to the promise of the Sheikh, who had invited us to alight. His excuse was that he had found none at hand; but one of our young men had overheard his wife scolding

BIAR OMSHASH

[p.447] him, and declaring that she would not permit a lamb to be slaughtered for such miserable ill-looking strangers! The Bedouin women, in general, are much less generous and hospitable than their husbands, over whom they often use their influence, to curtail the allowance to guests and strangers.

At the end of five hours we issued from the head of Wady Lahyane again into the plain. The hill on the top of this Wady is called Ras el Kaa (Arabic), and is the termination of a chain of hills which stretch across the plain in a northern direction for six or eight hours: it projects like a promontory, and serves as a land-mark to travellers; its rock is calcareous. The plain which we now entered was a perfect flat covered with black pebbles. The high insulated mountain behind which Ghaza is situated, bore from hence N. by W. distant three long days journey. At the end of seven hours, there was an insulated hill to the left of our road two hours distant, called Szoeyka (Arabic); we here turned off to the left of the great road, in order to find water. In eight hours, and late at night, we reached several wells, called Biar Omshash (Arabic), is where we found an encampment of Heywat, with whom we wished to take our supper after having filled our water skins; but they a.s.sured us that they had nothing except dry bread to give us. On hearing this my companions began to reproach them with want of hospitality, and an altercation ensued, which I was afraid would lead to blows; I therefore mounted my camel, and was soon followed by the rest.

We continued our route during the night, but lost our road in the dark, and were obliged to alight in a Wady full of moving sands, about half an hour from the wells.

August 29th.?This day we pa.s.sed several Wadys of Talh and tamarisk trees intermixed with low shrubs. Direction W. by S. The plain is for the greater part covered with flints; in some places

DESERT EL TY

[p.448] it is chalky. Wherever the rain collects in winter, vegetation of trees and shrubs is produced. In the midst of this desert we met a poor Bedouin woman, who begged some water of us; she was going to Akaba, where the tents of her family were, but had neither provisions nor water with her, relying entirely on the hospitality of the Arabs she might meet on the road. We directed her to the Heywat at Omshash and in Wady Lahyane. She seemed to be as unconcerned, as if she were merely taking a walk for pleasure. After an uninterrupted march of nine hours and a half, we reached a mountain called Dharf el Rokob (Arabic). It extends for about eight hours in a direction from N.W. to S.E. At its foot we crossed the Egyptian Hadj road; it pa.s.ses along the mountain towards Akaba, which is distant from hence fifteen or eighteen hours. We ascended the northern extremity of the mountain by a broad road, and after a march of eleven hours reached, on the other side, a well called El Themmed (Arabic), whose waters are impregnated with sulphur. The pilgrim caravan pa.s.ses to the N. of the mountain and well, but the Arabs who have the conduct of the caravan repair to the well to fill the water skins for the supply of the Hadjis. The well is in a sandy soil, surrounded by calcareous rocks, and notwithstanding its importance, nothing has been done to secure it from being choaked up by the sand and gravel which every gust of wind drives into it. Its sides are not lined, and the Arabs take so little care in descending into it, that every caravan which arrives renders it immediately turbid.

The level plain over which we had travelled from Ras el Kaa terminates at Dharf el Rokob. Westward of it the ground is more intersected by hills and Wadys, and here begins the Desert El Ty (Arabic), in which, according to tradition, both Jewish and Mohammedan, the Israelites wandered for several years, and from which

ODJME

[p.449] belief the desert takes its name. We went this evening two hours farther than the Themmed, and alighted in the Wady Gh.o.r.eyr (Arabic), after a day?s march of thirteen hours and a half. The Bedouins, when travelling in small numbers, seldom alight at a well or spring, in the evening, for the purpose of there pa.s.sing the night; they only fill their water-skins as quickly as possible, and then proceed on their way, for the neighbourhood of watering places is dangerous to travellers, especially in deserts where there are few of them, because they then become the rendezvous of all strolling parties.

August 30th.?On issuing from the Wady Gh.o.r.eyr we pa.s.sed a chain of hills called Odjme (Arabic), running almost parallel with the Dharf el Rokob.

We had now re-entered the Hadj route, a broad well trodden road, strewn with the whitened bones of animals that have died by the way. The soil is chalky, and overspread with black pebbles. At the end of five hours and a half we reached Wady Rouak (Arabic); here the term Wady is applied to a narrow strip of ground, the bed of a winter torrent, not more than one foot lower than the level of the plain, where the rain water from the inequalities of the surface collects, and produces a vegetation of low shrubs, and a few Talh trees. The greater part of the Wadys from hence to Egypt are of this description. The coloquintida grows in great abundance in all of them, it is used by the Arabs to make tinder, by the following process: after roasting the root in the ashes, they wrap it in a wetted rag of cotton cloth, they then beat it between two stones, by which means the juice of the fruit is expressed and absorbed by the rag, which is dyed by it of a dirty blue; the rag is then dried in the sun, and ignites with the slightest spark of fire. The Arabs nearest to Egypt use the coloquint in venereal complaints; they fill the fruit with camel?s milk, roast it

[p.450] over the fire, and then give to the patient the milk thus impregnated with the essence of the fruit.

In nine hours and a half we pa.s.sed a chain of low chalky hills called Ammayre (Arabic). On several parts of the road were holes, out of which rock salt had been dug. At the end of ten hours and a half we arrived in the vicinity of Nakhel (i.e. date-tree), a fortified station of the Egyptian Hadj, situated about half an hour to the N. of the pilgrim?s road. Our direction was still W. by N. Nakhel stands in a plain, which extends to an immense distance southward, but which terminates to the N.

at about one hour?s distance from Nakhel, in a low chain of mountains.

The fortress is a large square building, with stone walls, without any habitations round it. There is a well of brackish water, and a large Birket, which is filled from the well, in the time of the Hadj. The Pasha of Egypt keeps a garrison in Nakhel of about fifty soldiers, and uses it as a magazine for the provisions of his army in his expedition against the Wahabi. The appellation Nakhel was probably given to this castle at a time when the adjacent country was covered with palm trees, none of which are now to be seen here. At Akaba, on the contrary, are large forests of them, belonging for the greater part to the Arabs Heywat. The ground about Nakhel is chalky or sandy, and is covered with loose pebbles.

We pa.s.sed along the road as quickly as we could, for my companions were afraid lest their camels should be stopped by the Aga of Nakhel, to transport provisions to Akaba. The Arabs Heywat and Sowadye, who encamp in this district, style themselves masters of Akaba and Nakhel, and exact yearly from the Pasha certain sums for permitting him to occupy them; for though they are totally unable to oppose his troops, yet the tribute is paid, in order to take from them all pretext for plundering small caravans.

NAKHEL

[p.451] About six hours to the S.W. of Nakhel is a chain of mountains called Szadder (Arabic), extending in a S. E. direction.

Near Nakhel my Arab companions fell in with an acquaintance, who was burning charcoal for the Cairo market. He informed us that a large party of Arabs Sowaleha, with whom my Howeytats were at war, was encamped in this vicinity; it was, in consequence, determined to travel by night, until we should be out of their reach, and we stopped at sunset, about one hour west of Nakhel, after a day?s march of eleven hours and a half, merely for the purpose of allowing the camels to eat. Being ourselves afraid to light a fire, lest it should be descried by the Sowaleha, we were obliged to take a supper of dry flour mixed with a little salt.

During the whole of the journey the camels had no other provender than the withered shrubs of the desert, my dromedary excepted, to which I gave a few handfuls of barley every evening. Loaded camels are scarcely able to perform such a journey without a daily allowance of beans and barley.

August 31st?We set out before midnight, and continued at a quick rate the whole night. In these northern districts of Arabia the Bedouins, in general, are not fond of proceeding by night; they seldom travel at that time, even in the hottest season, if they are not in very large numbers, because, as they say, during the night n.o.body can distinguish the face of his friend, from that of his enemy. Another reason is, that camels on the march never feed at their ease in the day time, and nature seems to require that they should have their princ.i.p.al meal and a few hours rest in the evening. The favourite mode of travelling in these parts is, to set out about two hours before sun-rise, to stop two hours at noon, when every one endeavours to sleep under his mantle, and to alight for the evening at about one hour before sunset. We always sat round the fire, in conversation, for two or three hours after supper. During this night?s march my companions frequently alluded to