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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Land of Midian, Vol. 2, by Richard Burton
+#24 in our series by Richard Burton
+
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+Title: The Land of Midian, Vol. 2
+
+Author: Richard Burton
+
+Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7113]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 11, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF MIDIAN, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by JC Byers and proofread by MaryAnn Short
+
+
+
+
+
+                The Land of Midian (Revisited).
+
+                     By Richard F. Burton.
+
+                        In Two Volumes.
+
+                            Vol. II.
+
+                      C. Kegan Paul & Co.
+                            London:
+
+                             1879.
+
+
+
+
+
+             To the Memory of My Much Loved Niece,
+                  Maria Emily Harriet Stisted,
+                    Who Died at Dovercourt,
+                       November 12, 1878.
+
+
+
+
+
+                            CONTENTS
+
+
+
+                            PART II.
+   The March Through Central and Eastern Midian. (Continued)
+
+Chapter XI.    The Unknown Lands South of the Hismá--Ruins of
+               Shuwák and Shaghab
+Chapter XII.   From Shaghab to Zibá--Ruins of El-Khandakí and Umm
+               Ámil--The Turquoise Mine--Return to El-Muwaylah
+Chapter XIII.  A Week Around and Upon the Shárr Mountain--Résumé
+               of the March Through Eastern or Central Midian
+Chapter XIV.   Down South--To El-Wijh–Notes on the Quarantine--
+               The Hutaym Tribe.
+Chapter XV.    The Southern Sulphur-Hill--The Cruise to El-Haurá-
+               -Notes on the Baliyy Tribe and the Volcanic
+               Centres of North-Western Arabia
+Chapter XVI.   Our Last March--The Inland Fort--Ruins of the
+               Gold-Mines at Umm El-Karáyát and Umm El-Haráb
+Chapter XVII.  The March Continued to El-Badá--Description of the
+               Plain Badais
+Chapter XVIII. Coal a "Myth"--March to Marwát--Arrival at the
+               Wady Hamz
+Chapter XIX.        The Wady Hamz--The Classical Ruin--Abá'l-
+                    Marú, The Mine of "Marwah"--Return to El-
+                    Wijh--Résumé of the Southern Journey
+Conclusion
+
+Appendix I.         Dates of the Three Journeys (Northern,
+                    Central, and Southern) made by the Second
+                    Khedivial Expedition
+Appendix II.        EXpenses of the Expedition to Midian,
+                    Commanded by Captain R. F. Burton, H.B.M.
+                    Consul, Trieste
+Appendix III.       Preserved Provisions and other Stores,
+                    Supplied by Messrs. Voltéra Bros., of the
+                    Ezbekiyyah, Cairo
+Appendix IV.        Botany and List of Insects
+Appendix V.         Meteorological Journal
+
+Index
+
+
+
+
+
+                            PART II.
+         The March Through Central and Eastern Midian.
+                          (Continued.)
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XI.
+The Unknown Lands South of the Hismá–Ruins of Shuwák and Shaghab.
+
+
+
+We have now left the region explored by Europeans; and our line
+to the south and the south-east will lie over ground wholly new.
+In front of us the land is no longer Arz Madyan: we are entering
+South Midian, which will extend to El-Hejáz. As the march might
+last longer than had been expected, I ordered fresh supplies from
+El-Muwaylah to meet us in the interior viâ Zibá. A very small boy
+acted dromedary-man; and on the next day he reached the fort,
+distant some thirty-five and a half direct geographical miles
+eastward with a trifling of northing.
+
+We left the Jayb el-Khuraytah on a delicious morning (6.15 a.m.,
+February 26th), startling the gazelles and the hares from their
+breakfast graze.
+
+The former showed in troops of six; and the latter were still
+breeding, as frequent captures of the long-eared young proved.
+The track lay down the Wady Dahal and other influents of the
+great Wady Sa'lúwwah, a main feeder of the Dámah. We made a
+considerable détour between south-south-east and south-east to
+avoid the rocks and stones discharged by the valleys of the
+Shafah range on our left. To the right rose the Jibál el-Tihámah,
+over whose nearer brown heights appeared the pale blue peaks of
+Jebel Shárr and its southern neighbour, Jebel Sa'lúwwah.
+
+At nine a.m. we turned abruptly eastward up the Wady
+el-Sulaysalah, whose head falls sharply from the Shafah range.
+The surface is still Hismá ground, red sand with blocks of ruddy
+grit, washed down from the plateau on the left; and, according to
+Furayj, it forms the south-western limit of the Harrah. The
+valley is honeycombed into man-traps by rats and lizards, causing
+many a tumble, and notably developing the mulish instinct. We
+then crossed a rough and rocky divide, Arabicè a Majrá, or, as
+the Bedawin here pronounce it, a "Magráh,"[EN#1] which takes its
+name from the tormented Ruways ridge on the right. After a hot,
+unlively march of four hours (= eleven miles), on mules worn out
+by want of water, we dismounted at a queer isolated lump on the
+left of the track. This Jebel el-Murayt'bah ("of the Little
+Step") is lumpy grey granite of the coarsest elements, whose
+false strata, tilted up till they have become quasi-vertical, and
+worn down to pillars and drums, crown the crest like gigantic
+columnar crystallizations. We shall see the same freak of nature
+far more grandly developed into the "Pins" of the Shárr. It has
+evidently upraised the trap, of which large and small blocks are
+here and there imbedded in it. The granite is cut in its turn by
+long horizontal dykes of the hardest quadrangular basalt,
+occasionally pudding'd with banded lumps of red jasper and
+oxydulated iron: from afar they look like water-lines, and in
+places they form walls, regular as if built. The rounded forms
+result from the granites flaking off in curved laminæ, like
+onion-coats. Want of homogeneity in the texture causes the
+granite to degrade into caves and holes: the huge blocks which
+have fallen from the upper heights often show unexpected hollows
+in the under and lower sides. Above the water we found an immense
+natural dolmen, under which apparently the Bedawin take shelter.
+After El-Murayt'bah the regular granitic sequence disappears, nor
+will it again be visible till we reach Shaghab (March 2nd).
+
+About noon we remounted and rounded the south of the block,
+disturbing by vain shots two fine black eagles. I had reckoned
+upon the "Water of El-Murayt'bah," in order to make an
+exceptional march after so many days of deadly slow going. But
+the cry arose that the rain-puddle was dry. We had not brought a
+sufficient supply with us, and twenty-two miles to and from the
+Wady Dahal was a long way for camels, to say nothing of their
+owners and the danger of prowling Ma'ázah. In front water lay
+still farther off, according to the guides, who, it will be seen,
+notably deceived us. So I ordered the camp to be pitched, after
+reconnoitering the locale of the water; and we all proceeded to
+work, with a detachment of soldiers and quarrymen. It was not a
+rain-puddle, but a spring rising slowly in the sand, which had
+filled up a fissure in the granite about four feet broad; of
+these crevices three were disposed parallel to one another, and
+at different heights. They wanted only clearing out; the produce
+was abundant, and though slightly flavoured with iron and
+sulphur, it was drinkable. The thirsty mules amused us not a
+little: they smelt water at once; hobbled as they were, all
+hopped like kangaroos over the plain, and with long ears well to
+the fore, they stood superintending the operation till it was
+their turn to be happy.
+
+Our evening at the foot of El-Ruways was cheered, despite the
+flies, the earwigs, and the biting Ba'úzah beetle, which here
+first put in an appearance, by the weird and fascinating aspect
+of the southern Hismá-wall, standing opposite to us, and distant
+about a mile from the dull drab-coloured basin, El-Majrá. Based
+upon mighty massive foundations of brown and green trap, the
+undulating junction being perfectly defined by a horizontal white
+line, the capping of sandstone rises regular as if laid in
+courses, with a huge rampart falling perpendicular upon the
+natural slope of its glacis. This bounding curtain is called the
+Taur el-Shafah, the "inaccessible part of the Lip-range." Further
+eastward the continuity of the coping has been broken and
+weathered into the most remarkable castellations: you pass mile
+after mile of cathedrals, domes, spires, minarets, and pinnacles;
+of fortresses, dungeons, bulwarks, walls, and towers; of
+platforms, buttresses, and flying buttresses. These Girágir
+(Jirájir), as the Bedawin call them, change shape at every new
+point of view, and the eye never wearies of their infinite
+variety. Nor are the tints less remarkable than the forms. When
+the light of day warms them with its gorgeous glaze, the
+buildings wear the brightest hues of red concrete, like a certain
+house near Prince's Gate, set off by lambent lights of lively
+pink and balas-ruby, and by shades of deep transparent purple,
+while here and there a dwarf dome or a tumulus gleams sparkling
+white in the hot sun-ray. The even-glow is indescribably lovely,
+and all the lovelier because unlasting: the moment the red disc
+disappears, the glorious rosy smile fades away, leaving the pale
+grey ghosts of their former selves to gloom against the gloaming
+of the eastern sky. I could not persuade M. Lacaze to transfer
+this vividity of colour to canvas: he had the artist's normal
+excuse, "Who would believe it?"
+
+The next morning saw the Expedition afoot at six a.m., determined
+to make up for a half by the whole day's work so long intended.
+The track struck eastward, and issued from the dull hollow, Majrá
+el-Ruways, by a made road about a mile and a half long, a cornice
+cut in the stony flanks of a hill whose head projected southwards
+into the broad Wady Hujayl ("the Little Partridge"). This line
+seems to drain inland; presently it bends round by the east and
+feeds the Wady Dámah. Rain must lately have fallen, for the earth
+is "purfled flowers," pink, white, and yellow. The latter is the
+tint prevailing in Midian, often suggesting the careless European
+wheat-field, in which "shillock" or wild mustard rears its
+gamboge head above the green. Midian wants not only the charming
+oleander and the rugged terebinth, typical of the Desert; but
+also the "blood of Adonis," the lovely anemone which lights up
+the Syrian landscape like the fisherman's scarlet cap in a
+sea-piece. This stage introduced us to the Hargul (Harjal, Rhazya
+stricta), whose perfume filled the valley with the clean smell of
+the henna-bloom, the Eastern privet--Mr. Clarke said
+"wallflowers." Our mules ate it greedily, whilst the country
+animals, they say, refuse it: the flowers, dried and pounded,
+cure by fumigation "pains in the bones." Here also we saw for the
+first time the quaint distaff-shape of the purple red Masrúr
+(Cynomorium coccineum, Linn.), from which the Bedawi "cook
+bread." It is eaten simply peeled and sun-dried, when it has a
+vegetable taste slightly astringent as if by tannin, something
+between a potato and a turnip; or its rudely pounded flour is
+made into balls with soured milk. This styptic, I am told by Mr.
+R. B. Sharpe, of the British Museum, was long supposed to be
+peculiar to Malta; hence its pre-Linnaean name (Fungus
+Melitensis).[EN#2] Now it is known to occur through the
+Mediterranean to India. Let me here warn future collectors of
+botany in Midian that throughout the land the vegetable kingdom
+follows the rule of the mineral: every march shows something new;
+and he who neglects to gather specimens, especially of the
+smaller flowers, in one valley, will perhaps find none of them in
+those adjoining.
+
+A denser row of trees lower down the Wady Hujayl led to the water
+of Amdán (Mídán?), about an hour and a half from our last
+nighting-place; yesterday it had been reported six hours distant.
+High towering on our left (north) rose three huge buttresses of
+the Girágir. In front stood a marvellous background of domes and
+arches, cones and ninepins, all decayed Hismá, blurred and broken
+by the morning mist, which could hardly be called a fog; and
+forming a perspective of a dozen distances. Now they curve from
+north-east to south-west in a kind of scorpion's tail, with
+detached vertebrae torn and wasted by the adjacent plutonic
+outcrops; and looking from the west they suggest blood-red islets
+rising above the great gloomy waves of trap and porphyry. This
+projection will remain in sight until we reach Shuwák; and in
+places we shall see it backed by the basalts and lavas of the
+straightlined Harrah.
+
+Presently turning sharp to the right (south-east), we struck
+across a second divide, far more shallow than the first; and fell
+into the northern basin of the great Dámah valley, also known as
+El-Rahabah, "the Open;"--the Rehoboth ("spaces") of the Hebrews.
+Like yesterday's, the loose red sand is Hismá; and it is also
+scattered with Harrah lava. After a four hours' ride we halted to
+enable the caravan to come up. Our Shaykhs were bent upon making
+twelve miles the average day's work; and their "little game" was
+now to delay as much as possible. Here we again found flocks of
+sheep and goats tended by young girls, who ran away like
+ostriches, and by old women who did not: on the contrary, Sycorax
+enjoyed asking the news and wrangling over a kid. The camels
+throughout this country seem to be always under the charge of men
+or boys.
+
+Here began our study of the great Wady Da'mah, whose fame as an
+Arabian Arcadia extends far and wide, and whose possession has
+caused many a bloody battle. We now see it at its best, in early
+spring morning, when
+
+          "The landscape smiles
+     Calm in the sun, and silent are the hills
+     And valleys, and the blue serene of air."
+
+This notable feature is a Haddúdah ("frontier divider"), which in
+ancient days separated the ‘Ukbíyyah ("Ukbah-land") to the north
+from the Balawi'yyah ("Baliyy-land") south. The latter still
+claim it as their northern limit; but the intrusive Egypto-Arabs
+have pushed their way far beyond this bourne. Its present Huwayti
+owners, the Sulaymiyyín, the Sulaymát, the Jeráfín, and other
+tribes, are a less turbulent race than the northerns because they
+are safe from the bandit Ma'ázah: they are more easily managed,
+and they do not meet a fair offer with the eternal Yaftah
+‘Allah--"Allah opens."[EN#3]
+
+The head of the Dámah, a great bay in the Hismá-wall to the east,
+is now in sight of us; and we shall pass its mouth, which
+debouches into the sea below Zibá. This tract is equally abundant
+in herds (camels), flocks, and vegetation: in places a thin
+forest gathers, and the tree-clumps now form a feature in the
+scenery. The sole, a broad expanse of loose red arenaceous
+matter, the washings of the plateau, is fearfully burrowed and
+honeycombed; it is also subject, like its sister the Sadr, to the
+frequent assault of "devils," or sand-pillars. That it is
+plentifully supplied with water, we learn from the presence of
+birds. The cries of the caravane, the "knock-kneed" plover of
+Egypt, yellow-beaked and black-eyed, resounded in the more barren
+belts. A lovely little sun-bird (Nectarinia oseœ?), which the
+Frenchmen of course called colibri, with ravishing reflections of
+green and gold, flashed like a gem thrown from shrub to shrub:
+this oiseau mouche is found scattered throughout Midian; we saw
+it even about El-Muwaylah, but I had unfortunately twice
+forgotten dust-shot. The Egyptian Rakham (percnopter), yellow
+with black-tipped wings; a carrion-eater, now so rare, and the
+common brown kite, still so common near civilized Cairo, soared
+in the sky; while the larger vultures, perching upon the
+rock-ridges, suggested Bedawi sentinels. The ravens, here as
+elsewhere, are a plague: flights of them occupy favourite places,
+and they prey upon the young lambs, hares, and maimed birds.
+
+We advanced another five miles, and crossed to the southern side
+of the actual torrent-bed, whose banks, strewed with a quantity
+of dead flood-wood entangling the trees, and whose flaky clays,
+cracked to the shape of slabs and often curling into tubes of
+natural pottery, show that at times the Hismá must discharge
+furious torrents. We camped close to the Dámah at the foot of the
+Jebel el-Balawi; the water, known as Máyat el-Jebayl ("of the
+Hillock"), lay ahead in a low rocky snout: it was represented as
+being distant a full hour, and the mules did not return from it
+till three had passed; but thirty minutes would have been nearer
+the truth. The Nile-drinkers turned up their fastidious noses at
+the supply, but Lieutenant Amir, who had graduated in the rough
+campaigning-school of the Súdán, pronounced it "regular."
+
+The nighting-place on the Dámah was as pretty and picturesque as
+the Majrá was tame and uncouth. While the west was amber clear,
+long stripes of purpling, crimson, flaming cloud, to the south
+and the east, set off the castled crags disposed in a semicircle
+round the Wady-head; and the "buildings" appeared art-like
+enough to be haunted ground, the domain of the Fata Morgana, a
+glimpse of the City of Brass built by Shaddaá, son of ‘Ad. When
+the stars began to glitter sharp and clear, our men fell to
+singing and dancing; and the boy Husayn Ganinah again
+distinguished himself by his superior ribaldry. Our work was more
+respectable and prosaic, firing a mule with a swollen back.
+
+Within a mile or so of us stood some Bedawi tents, which we had
+passed on the march: they were deserted by the men, here
+Sulaymát, who drive their camels to the wilds sometimes for a
+week at a time. An old wife who brought us a goat for sale, and
+who begged that Husayn, the Básh-Buzúk, might pass the night with
+her, in order to shoot an especially objectionable wolf, had a
+long tale to tell of neighbouring ruins. She also reported that
+near the same place there is a well with steps, into which the
+Arabs had descended some seven fathoms; presently they found
+houses occupying the galleries at the bottom, and fled in terror.
+
+Lieutenant Amir was sent to sketch and survey the site next
+morning; and he was lucky enough to be guided by one Sa'id bin
+Zayfullah, the Sulaymi, whose prime dated from the palmy days of
+the great Mohammed Ali Pasha. He acknowledged as his friends the
+grandfather, and even the father, of our guide Furayj; but the
+latter he ignored, looking upon him as a mere Walad ("lad").
+Moreover, he remembered the birth of Shaykh Mohammed ‘Afnán,
+chief of the Baliyy, which took place when he himself had already
+become a hunter of the gazelle.[EN#4] According to him, the
+remains are still known as the Dár ("house") or Diyár ("houses")
+El-Nasárá--"of the Nazarenes," that is, of the Nabathaeans. The
+former term is retained here, as in Sinai, by popular tradition;
+and the latter is clean forgotten throughout Midian.[EN#5]
+
+Riding down the Wady Dámah to the southwest, Lieutenant Amir came
+upon a spring in a stone-revetted well near the left bank: this
+Ayn el-Bada' is not to be confounded with the Badí' water, or
+with the Badá plain, both of which we shall presently visit. A
+strew of broken quartz around it showed the atelier, and
+specimens of scattered fragments, glass and pottery, were
+gathered. The settlement-ruins, which the guide called
+El-Kantarah, lie further down upon a southern influent of the
+main line: they are divided into two blocks, one longer than the
+other. Lieutenant Amir made a careful plan of the remains, and
+then pushed forward to Shuwák by the direct track, westward of
+that taken by the caravan. He arrived in camp, none the worse for
+a well-developed "cropper;" his dromedary had put its foot in a
+hole, and had fallen with a suddenness generally unknown to the
+cameline race.
+
+By way of geographical exercitation, we had all drawn our several
+plans, showing, after Arab statement, the lay of Shaghab and
+Shuwák, the two ruins which we were about to visit. Nothing could
+be more ridiculous when the sketch-maps came to be compared. This
+was owing to the route following the three sides of a long
+parallelogram; whilst the fourth is based upon the Wady Dámah,
+causing considerable complication. And, the excursus ended, all
+were convinced that we had made much southing, when our furthest
+point was not more than five miles south of Zibá (north lat. 27°
+20').
+
+We quitted the great valley at six a.m. (February 28th), and
+struck up the Wady Shuwák, an influent that runs northwards to
+the Dámah's left bank. On the stony ground above the right side
+of this Fiumara lay six circles of stones, disposed in a line
+from north-east to south-west: they may have been ruins of Hufrah
+("water-pits"). As we rose the Nullah surface was pied with white
+flowers, the early growth which here takes the place of
+primroses. I had some difficulty in persuading our good friend
+Furayj, who had not seen the country for fifteen years, to engage
+as guide one of the many Bedawin camel-herds: his course seemed
+to serpentine like that of an animal grazing--he said it was
+intended to show the least stony road--and, when he pointed with
+the wave of the maimed right hand, he described an arc of some
+90°. The Sulaymi lad caught the nearest camel, climbed its sides
+as you would a tree, and, when the animal set off at a lumbering
+gallop, pressed the soles of his feet to the ribs, with exactly
+the action of a Simiad; clinging the while, like grim Death, to
+the hairy hump.
+
+After some six miles we attempted a short cut, a gorge that
+debouched on the left bank of the Shuwák valley. It showed at
+once a complete change of formation: the sides were painted with
+clays of variegated colours, crystallized lime and porphyritic
+conglomerates, tinted mauve-purple as if by manganese. Further
+on, the path, striking over broken divides and long tracts of
+stony ground, became rough riding: it was bordered by the usual
+monotonous, melancholy hills of reddish and greenish trap, whose
+slaty and schist-like edges in places stood upright. On the
+summit of the last Col appeared the ruins of an outwork, a large
+square and a central heap of boulder-stones. Straight in front
+rose the block that backs our destination, the Jebel el-Sáni', or
+"Mountain of the Maker," the artificer par excellence, that is,
+the blacksmith: it is so called from a legendary shoer of horses
+and mules, who lived there possibly in the days before Sultán
+Selim. It is remarkable for its twin peaks, sharp-topped blocks,
+the higher to the east, and called by the Bedawin Naghar and
+Nughayr. The guides spoke of a furnace near the summit of these
+remarkable cones; excellent landmarks which we shall keep in
+sight during several marches. At length, after ten miles of slow
+work, we saw before us, stretched as upon a map, the broad valley
+with its pink sands; the Daum-trees, the huge ‘Ushr or "Apple of
+Sodom," the fan-palm bush, and the large old Jujubes--here an
+invariable sign of former civilization--which informed us that
+there lay fair Shuwák.
+
+The dull gorge introduced us to what was then a novelty in
+Midian; but we afterwards found it upon the cold heights of the
+Shárr, where it supplied us with many a dainty dish. This was the
+Shinnár[EN#6] (caccabis), a partridge as large as a pheasant, and
+flavoured exactly like the emigrant from Phasis.
+
+The coat, the clock! clock! and the nimble running over the
+rocks, ever the favourite haunt, denote the "perdix." The head is
+black, as in the C. melanocephala of Abyssinia, and the legs and
+feet are red like the smaller "Greek" caccabis that inhabits the
+Hismá; the male birds have no spurs, and they are but little
+larger than their mates. There seems to be no difficulty in
+keeping them; we bought a hen and chicks caged at El-Wijh, but
+whether they lived or not I neglected to note. Here, too, we
+learned the reason why the falcons and the hawks (Falco milvus,
+F. gentilis, etc.) are so fierce and so well-fed. The tyrant of
+the air raises the partridge or the quail by feinting a swoop,
+and, as it hurries away screaming aloud, follows it leisurely at
+a certain distance. Finally, when the quarry reaches the place
+intended--at least, the design so appears--the falcon stoops and
+ends the chase. The other birds were ring-doves, turtles, and the
+little "butcher" impaling, gaily as a "gallant Turk," its live
+victim upon a long thorn.
+
+Shuwák, which lies in about north lat. 27° 15', can be no other than
+the <Greek> placed by Ptolemy (vi. 7) in north lat. 26° 15'; and, if
+so, we must add one degree to his latitudes, which are sixty miles
+too low.[EN#7] According to Sprenger ("Alt. Geog.," p. 25), <Greek>
+and <Greek> do not fit into any of the Alexandrian's routes; and
+were connected only with their ports Rhaunathos (M'jirmah?) and
+Phoenicon Vicus (Zibá?). But both these cities were large and
+important centres, both of agriculture and of mining industry,
+forming crucial stations on the great Nabathæan highway, the
+overland between Leukè Kóme and Petra. The line was kept up by the
+Moslems until Sultán Selim's superseded it; and hence the modern
+look of the remains which at first astonished us so much. The
+tradition of the Hajj-passage is distinctly preserved by the
+Bedawin; and I have little doubt that metal has been worked here as
+lately, perhaps, as the end of the last century. But by whom, again,
+deponent ventures not to say, even to guess.
+
+The site of Shuwák is a long island in the broad sandy Wady of
+the same name, which, as has been remarked, feeds the Dámah. Its
+thalweg has shifted again and again: the main line now hugs the
+southern or left bank, under the slopes and folds of the Jebel
+el-Sáni'; whilst a smaller branch, on the northern side, is
+subtended by the stony divide last crossed. At the city the lay
+of the valley is from north-east to south-west, and the altitude
+is about seventeen hundred feet (aner. 28.28). The head still
+shows the castellations of the Hismá. Looking down-stream, beyond
+the tree-dotted bed and the low dark hills that divide this basin
+from the adjoining Wady to the south, we see the tall grey tops
+of the Jebel Zigláb (Zijláb) and of the Shahbá-Gámirah--the
+"ashen-coloured (Peak) of Gámirah"--the latter being the name of
+a valley. Both look white by the side of the dark red and green
+rocks; and we shall presently find that they mark the granite
+region lying south and seaward of the great trap formations. We
+were not sorry to see it again--our eyes were weary of the gloomy
+plutonic curtains on either side.
+
+At Shuwák we allowed the camels a day of rest, whilst we planned
+and sketched, dug into, and described the ruins. A difficulty
+about drinking-water somewhat delayed us. The modern wells, like
+those of the Haurán, are rudely revetted pits in a bald and shiny
+bit of clay-plain below the principal block of ruins: only one in
+the dozen holds water, and that has been made Wahsh ("foul") by
+the torrent sweeping into it heaps of the refuse and manure
+strewed around. The lower folds of the Sáni' block also supply
+rain-pools; but here, again, the Arabs and their camels had left
+their marks. The only drinkable water lies a very long mile down
+the southern (left) bank, above the old aqueduct, in a deep and
+narrow gorge of trap. The perennial spring, still trickling down
+the rocks, was dammed across, as remnants of cement show us, in
+more places than one. There are also signs of cut basins, which
+the barrages above and below once divided into a series of tanks.
+Up the rough steps of the bed the camel-men drove their beasts;
+and the name of a Gujráti maker, printed upon a sack of
+Anglo-Indian canvas, had a curious effect among such Bedawi
+surroundings.
+
+At last we sank a pit some five feet deep in a re-entering angle
+of the northern or smaller branch; we lined it with stone
+down-stream, where the flow made the loose sand fall in, and we
+obtained an ample and excellent supply. Doubtless it was spoiled,
+as soon as our backs were turned, by the half-Fellah
+Jeráfín-Huwaytát, to whom the place belongs. The sea-breeze
+during the day was high and dust-laden, but we passed a cool
+delicious night upon the clean sweet sand, which does not stick
+or cling. At this altitude there is no fear of bugs and
+fleas--the only dread is Signor "Pediculus."
+
+We will begin, with our surveyors, at the valley head, and note
+the ruins as we stroll down. This section, Shuwák proper, is
+nearly a mile and a half long, and could hardly have lodged less
+than twenty thousand souls. But that extent by no means
+represents the whole; our next march will prolong it along the
+valley for a total of at least four miles. The material is
+various--boulders of granite and syenite; squares of trap and
+porphyry; the red sandstones of the Hismá; the basalts of the
+Harrah; and the rock found in situ, a brown and crumbling grit,
+modern, and still in process of agglutination. The heaps and
+piles which denote buildings are divided by mounds and tumuli of
+loose friable soil, white with salt,--miniatures of Babylon,
+Nineveh, and Troy. On either flanks of the river-holm the
+periodical torrents have done their worst, cutting up the once
+regular bank into a succession of clay buttresses. On the right
+side we find a large fort, half sliced away, but still showing
+the concrete flooring of a tower. About the centre of the length
+are the remnants of a round Burj; blocks of buildings, all
+levelled to the foundations, lie to the north-west, and on the
+west appear signs of a square. Perhaps the most interesting
+discovery is that of catacombs, proving a civilization analogous
+to Magháir Shu'ayb, but ruder, because more distant from the
+centre. The "caves" are hollowed in a long reef of loose breccia,
+which, fronting eastward, forms the right bank of the smaller
+branch. They are now almost obliterated by being turned into
+sheep-folds; the roofs have fallen in, and only one preserves the
+traces of two loculi.
+
+The arrangements touching fuel and water in this great
+metal-working establishment are on a large scale. The biggest of
+the Afrán ("furnaces") lies to the north-west, near the right
+bank of the valley: all are of the ordinary type, originally some
+five or six feet high, to judge from the bases. They are built of
+fire-brick, and of the Hismá stone, which faces itself into a
+natural latex. We dug deep into several of them; but so careful
+had been the workmen, or perhaps those who afterwards ransacked
+these places, that not the smallest tear of metal remained: we
+found only ashes, pottery, and scoriae, as usual black and green,
+the latter worked sub-aerially; many of them had projections like
+stalactite. Round the furnaces are strewed carbonate of lime,
+stained black with iron, like that of Sharmá; and a quantity of
+the chlorite-enamelled serpentine still used in the Brazil as a
+flux.
+
+Quartz was absent, and we were at a loss to divine what stone had
+been worked. At last we observed near the catacombs sundry heaps
+of pinkish earth, evidently washed out; and our researches in the
+South Country afterwards suggested that this may have been the
+remains of the micaceous schist, whose containing quartz was so
+extensively worked at Umm el-Haráb. Moreover, a short study of
+Shaghab threw more light on the matter.
+
+Water also had been stored up with prodigious labour. We could
+easily trace the lines of half a dozen aqueducts, mostly
+channelled with rough cement, overlying a fine concrete; some of
+them had grooved stones to divert the stream by means of lashers.
+The Fiskíyyah or "tanks," as carefully built, were of all sizes;
+and the wells, which appeared to be mediaeval, were lined with
+stones cut in segments of circles: we shall see the same curve in
+Sultán Selim's work near Zibá. The greatest feat is an aqueduct
+which, sanded over in the upper part, subtends the left side of
+the valley. It is carefully but rudely built, and where it
+crosses a gully, the "horizontal arch" is formed of projecting
+stone tiers, without a sign of key. This magnum opus must date
+from the days when the southern part of the Wady was nearly what
+it is now.
+
+About a mile and a quarter below our camp, the Wady, which
+broadens to a mile, shows on the left bank a wall measuring a
+thousand metres long, apparently ending in a tank of 110 feet
+each way. Around it are ruined parallelograms of every size,
+which in ancient times may have been workshops connected with the
+buildings in the island higher up. The torrents have now washed
+away the continuation, if ever there was any; and, though the
+lower remnants are comparatively safe upon their high ledge, the
+holm is evidently fated to disappear.
+
+I did not learn till too late that a single day's march
+southwards from the Wady Shuwák, along the old main line of
+traffic, leads to the Wady Nejd, upon whose upper course is the
+plain of Badá; and which, after assuming four different names,
+falls, as will be seen, into the sea about thirty-five miles
+north of El-Wijh.
+
+We left Shuwák considerably posed, puzzled, and perplexed by what
+it had shown us. A little pottery had been picked up, but our
+diggings had not produced a coin or even a bit of glass. The
+evidences of immense labour are the more astonishing when
+compared with the utter absence of what we call civilization. The
+Greek and Latin inscriptions of the Hauranic cities declare their
+origin: these, absolutely unalphabetic, refuse a single hint
+concerning the mysterious race which here lived and worked, and
+worked so nobly. And, finally, who were the Moslems that
+succeeded them in a later day, when the Hajj-caravan, some three
+centuries and a half ago, ceased to march by this road? How is it
+that the annalists say nothing of them? that not a vestige of
+tradition remains concerning any race but the Nazarenes?
+
+From Shuwák to the Wady Dámah there are two roads, a direct and
+an indirect; the latter passing by the ruins of Shaghab. The
+caravan begged hard to take the former, but was summarily
+refused. At six a.m. we rode down the Shuwák valley, again noting
+its huge constructions, and then striking away from it to the
+left, we passed over a short divide of brown hill, where the
+narrow Pass was marked only by Bedawi graves. The morning showed
+a peculiar rainbow, if a bow may be called so when no rain
+appeared; a perpendicular stripe, brilliant enough, and lasting
+at least twenty minutes. The cloud behind it had no skirt, no
+droop in fact, no sign of dissolution; and what made it the
+stranger was that this "bull's-eye" lay north of, and not
+opposite to, but quite near, the rising sun. We shall note
+another of these exceptional rainbows at El-Badá.[EN#8]
+
+After marching some seven miles to the south with westing, we saw
+inform heaps to the left: half an hour afterwards,
+boulder-encircled pits of a brighter green on the right, the
+Themáil el-Má ("artificial cisterns") of the Arabs, announced
+that we were reaching Shaghab. The caravan punished us by wasting
+five hours on the way, in order to force a halt; and by camping
+at the wrong place, when I objected to the delay. It brought with
+it, however, a fine young Beden (ibex), killed by one of the
+Bedawin; and we determined to stuff, to bury, and to bake it,
+Arab fashion, under the superintendence of the Básh-Buzúk Husayn.
+Unfortunately it was served to us on the next day cold, whereas
+it should have been eaten at once, piping hot. The meat was dark,
+with a beefy rather than a gamey flavour, palatable, but by no
+means remarkable. There were loud regrets that a cuisse de
+chevreuil had not been marinée; in fact, an infect odour of the
+Quartier Latin everywhere followed us; and when a guide told us
+the pattern lie, that we should not reach Umm ‘Amir before the
+fourth day, the poor "Frogs" croaked, and croaked audibly as
+dismally. Their last bottle of ordinaire was finished; Gabr, the
+Kázi, had come into camp, bearing a long official Arabic document
+from Lieutenant Yusuf, but not a single Journal de Genève; there
+was no news of a steamer being sent with rations and forage from
+Suez: briefly, c'était embetant--to use the milder of the two
+favourite synonyms.
+
+The ruins of Shaghab are built upon a more complicated site than
+those of Shuwák. The position is charming. The Wady Shaghab,
+flowing to the south, here spreads out in a broad bulge or basin
+open to the west. Down-stream we see a "gate" formed by the
+meeting of two rocky tongue-tips, both showing large works.
+Beyond these narrows the valley bends to the south-west and feeds
+the Wady Aznab, which falls into the sea south of the Dámah. The
+mass of the ruined city lies upon the left bank, where a high and
+artificial-looking remblai of earth masks an eastern influent,
+the Wady el-Aslah (Athlah), or "of the Kali-plant." It drains the
+mountain of the same name, and the Jebel Zigláb (Zijláb), the
+cones of pale granite visible from Shuwák; and upon its broad
+mouth the old settlement stood à cheval. A little north of west
+rises profiled the great Shárr, no longer a ridge with a coping
+of four horns, but a tall and portly block, from whose summit
+spring heads and peaks of airy blue-pink. Slightly east of north
+the twins Naghar and Nughayr, combining to form the "Mountain of
+the Maker" (Jebel el-Sáni'), tower in the shape of a huge
+pyramid. Lastly, a regular ascent, the Majrá el-Wághir, fronts
+the city, sloping up to the west-north-west, and discloses a view
+of the Jibál el-Tihámah: this broad incline was, some three
+centuries ago, the route of the Hajj-caravan.
+
+We walked down the Shaghab valley-bed, whose sides, like those of
+the Dámah, are chevaux de frise of dead wood. The characteristic
+rock is a conglomerate of large and small stones, compacted by
+hard silicious paste, and stained mauve-purple apparently by
+manganese: we had seen it on the way to Shuwák; and the next
+day's march will pave the uplands with it. The wells in the sole
+are distinctly Arab, triangular mouths formed and kept open by
+laying down tree-trunks, upon which the drawer of water safely
+stands. On the right bank up-stream no ruins are perceptible;
+those on the left are considerable, but not a quarter the size of
+Shuwák. Here again appear the usual succession of great squares:
+the largest to the east measures 500 metres along the sides; and
+there are three others, one of 400 metres by 192. They are
+subtended by one of many aqueducts, whose walls, two feet thick,
+showed no signs of brick: it is remarkable for being run
+underground to pierce a hillock; in fact, the system is rather
+Greek or subterranean, than Roman or subaerial. Further down are
+the remains apparently of a fort: heaps of land-shells lie about
+it; they are very rare in this region, and during our four
+months' march we secured only two species.[EN#9]
+
+Still descending, we found the ancient or mediaeval wells,
+numbering about a dozen, and in no wise differing from those of
+Shuwák. At the gorge, where the Wady escapes from view,
+Lieutenant Amir planned buildings on the lower right bank, and on
+the left he found a wall about half a mile long, with the remains
+of a furnace and quartz scattered about it. This stone had
+reappeared in large quantities, the moment we crossed the divide;
+the pale grey of the Jebel Zigláb and its neighbours was
+evidently owing to its presence; and from this point it will be
+found extending southwards and seawards as far as El-Hejaz. He
+brought with him a hard white stone much resembling trachyte, and
+fragments of fine green jasper.
+
+A cursory inspection of Shaghab removed some of the difficulties
+which had perplexed us at Shuwák and elsewhere. In the North
+Country signs of metal-working, which was mostly confined to the
+Wadys, have been generally obliterated; washed away or sanded
+over. Here the industry revealed itself without mistake. The
+furnaces were few, but around each one lay heaps of Negro and
+copper-green quartz, freshly fractured; while broken handmills of
+basalt and lava, differing from the rubstones and mortars of a
+softer substance, told their own tale.
+
+At Shaghab, then, the metalliferous "Marú" brought from the
+adjacent granitic mountains was crushed, and then transported for
+roasting and washing to Shuwák, where water, the prime necessary
+in these lands, must have been more abundant. Possibly in early
+days the two settlements formed one, the single <Greek> of
+Ptolemy; and the south end would have been the headquarters of
+the wealthy. Hence the Bedawin always give it precedence--Shaghab
+wa Shuwák; moreover, we remarked a better style of building in
+the former; and we picked up glass as well as pottery.
+
+As a turkey buzzard (vulture) is the fittest emblem for murderous
+Dahome, so I should propose for Midian, now spoiled and wasted by
+the Wild Man, a broken handmill of basalt upon a pile of spalled
+Negro quartz.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XII.
+
+ From Shaghab to Zibá--ruins of El-Khandakí' and Umm Ámil--the
+             Turquoise Mine–Return to El-Muwaylah.
+
+
+
+Leaving Lieutenant Amir to map the principal ruins, we followed
+the caravan up the Majrá el-Wághir, the long divide rising to the
+west-north-west. The thin forest reminded me of the wooded slopes
+of the Anti-Libanus about El-Kunaytarah: there, however,
+terebinths and holm-oaks take the place of these unlovely and
+uncomfortable thorn-trees. They are cruelly beaten--an operation
+called El-Ramá--by the Bedawi camel-man, part of whose travelling
+kit, and the most important part too, here as in Sinai, is the
+flail (Murmár or Makhbat) and the mat to receive the leaves:
+perhaps Acacias and Mimosas are not so much bettered by "bashing"
+as the woman, the whelp, and the walnut-tree of the good old
+English proverb. After three miles we passed, on the left, ruins
+of long walls and Arab Wasm, with white memorial stones perched
+on black. In front rose the tall Jebel Tulayh, buttressing the
+right or northern bank of the Dámah; and behind it, stained
+faint-blue by distance, floated in the flickering mirage the
+familiar forms of the Tihámah range, a ridge now broken into half
+a dozen blocks. I had ordered the caravan to march upon the
+Tuwayl el-Súk; but, after one hour and fifteen minutes, we found
+the tents pitched some three miles short of it, on a bleak and
+ugly wave of the Wághir. The Shaykhs swore, by all holy things,
+that this was the veritable Tuwayl; and a Bedawi, who declared
+that he knew where water lay in the neighbourhood, refused to
+show it sans the preliminary "bakhshísh." Mashallah! It is a
+noble race.
+
+Early next morning (six a.m., March 3rd) we followed the right
+bank of the Wady el-Khandakí, which runs north with westing.
+Beyond it lay the foot-hills of gloomy trap leading to the Jebel
+el-Raydán, a typical granitic form, a short demi-pique saddleback
+with inwards-sloping pommel like the Pao d'Assucar of picturesque
+Rio de Janeiro. Here as elsewhere, the granites run parallel with
+and seaward of the traps. The Tuwayl el-Súk is nothing but an
+open and windy flat, where the Hajj-caravan used to camp an
+adjoining ridge, the Hamrá el-Tuwayl, shows spalled quartz, Wasm
+and memorial stones. The principal formation here is the
+mauve-purple conglomerate before described.
+
+After riding nine miles we came unexpectedly upon a large and
+curious ruin, backed by the broad Wady Dámah gleaming white in
+the sun. The first feature noticed was a pair of parallel walls,
+or rather their foundations, thirty-five feet apart, and nearly a
+kilometre in length: it looked like a vast hangar. To the left
+lie three tracings of squares; the central is a work of earth and
+stone, not unlike a rude battery; and, a few paces further north,
+a similar fort has a cistern attached to its western curtain.
+Heaps of rounded boulders, and the crumbling white-edged mounds
+which, in these regions, always denote old habitations, run down
+the right bank of the Wady el-Khandakí to its junction with the
+Dámah. For want of a better name I called this old settlement
+Kharábát (the "Ruins of") el-Khandakí, and greatly regretted that
+we had not time enough to march down the whole line of the Dámah.
+
+Half an hour more placed us at the great Wady, whose general
+direction is here west with a little southing, and which still
+merits its fame as an Arabian Arcadia. The banks were thickly
+bordered with secular tamarisks (T. orientalis), those hardy
+warriors with the Hebrew-Arabic name Asl (Athl), that battle
+against wind and weather, as successfully at Dovercourt (Essex)
+as at Haydarábád (Sind).
+
+The tint was the normal grey-green, not unlike that of the traps
+in arrière plan. The clumps sheltered goats, sheep, and camels;
+and our mules now revel every day on green meat, growing fatter
+and fatter upon the Aristida grass, the Panicum, the Hordeum
+murinum, and the Bromus of many varieties. Fronting us rose the
+twin granitic peaks of Jebel Mutadán, one with a stepped side
+like an unfinished pyramid. They are separated from the Dámah by
+a rough and stony divide; and ruins with furnaces are reported to
+be found in their valley-drain, which feeds the great Wady ‘Amúd.
+
+We halted, after some sixteen to seventeen miles, at the water
+El-Ziyayb, slightly brackish but relished by our animals; and
+resumed our way in the cool sea-breeze at one p.m., passing the
+Jebel Tulayh on the north bank. The track then left the Dámah and
+turned up a short broad bed to the north-west. On the right rose
+a block of syenite, ruddy with orthose, all rounded lumps and
+twisted finials; it discharged a quantity of black sand that
+streaked the gravel plain. At four p.m. we camped on a broad
+divide, El-Kutayyifah, where an adjacent Sha'b, or "fold,"
+supplied fresh rain-water. The march had teen long (seven hours =
+twenty-two miles); and Shaykhs and camel-men looked, the Sayyid
+said, as if they had "smelt Jehannum."
+
+This divide, also called the Jayb el Sa'lúwwah, with granites to
+the east, and traps mixed with granites on the west, shows signs
+of labour. Hard by, to the south-west, some exceptionally
+industrious Bedawi, of the Jeráfín-Huwaytát, had laid out a small
+field with barley. In the evening we walked westward to the hills
+that bound the slope; and came upon a rock-cut road leading to an
+atalier, where "Marú" has been spalled from the stone in situ.
+Some specimens had a light-bluish tinge, as if stained by cobalt,
+a metal found in several slags; and there were veins of
+crystalline amethyst-quartz, coloured, said the engineer by
+chlorure of silver (?). The filons and filets cut the granite in
+all directions; and the fiery action of frequent trap-dykes had
+torn the ground-rock to tatters. The western side of
+El-Kutayyifah also showed modern ruins.
+
+The guides reported, as usual when too late, that to the
+west-south-west lies a Nakb, called Abú'l Marwah ("Father of the
+Quartz-place"), whose waters flow viâ the Mutadán to the ‘Amúd
+valley. For some days I had cold shudders lest this Pass, thus
+left unvisited, might be the Zúl-Marwah, the classical
+"Móchoura," one of the objects of our Expedition. The alarm
+proved, however, as will be seen, false. A Bedawi youth also
+volunteered a grand account of three "written stones;" a built
+well surrounded by broken quartz; and, a little off the road from
+El-Kutayyifah to Umm Ámil, the remains of El-Dayr ("the
+Convent"). As Leake well knew, the latter is "a name which is
+often indiscriminately applied by the Arabs to ancient ruins."
+The lad said they were close by, but the Garíb ("near") and the
+Gurayyib ("nearish") of the Midianite much resemble the Egyptian
+Fellah's Taht el-Wish, "Under the face"--we should say "nose"--or
+Taht el-Ka'b, "Under the heel." They may mean a handful of miles.
+As he refused to guide us, we secured the services of an old
+shepherd, who, objecting to sleep in camp, caused abundant
+trouble and delay next morning.
+
+From this divide two roads lead to the ruins of Umm Ámil: one
+makes a considerable detour up a branch-valley in order to avoid
+an ugly Pass on the direct line. I again refused the camel-men
+permission to proceed by the indirect route, well knowing that
+they would do their best to miss us. On March 4th, at six a.m., a
+long descent and a similar rise led us to a Col, which presently
+became a broad open plain, 2100 feet above sea-level (aner.
+28.85). Tents were scattered about the valleys; the lads tended
+their goats, and we greatly admired one fellow who had fallen
+asleep in the hot ascending steams. Here the old guide halted us,
+and declared that on the top of the dark trap-block the left
+(south) was a Mashghal, or "work-place," with a strew of quartz
+and nothing else. Thus ended the "built well." Descending to a
+lower plane, bounded in front by low rolling hills, I sent
+Lieutenant Amir to examine the "Convent" and the "written
+stones." He came up with us at the halt; having been led over a
+rough divide by an abominable path; and he had seen only a few
+ruined heaps and three Arab Wusúm. Moreover, he had not dared to
+show disappointment before the old shepherd, who would probably
+have bolted in fear, and left him to find his own way.
+
+Meanwhile the caravan continued its course down the broad smooth
+Wady Ruways, on whose left side was a large atelier, with broken
+walls and spalled quartz of the Negro variety. Here we found, for
+the first time, the handmills made of the hardest grey granite,
+so beautifully worked further south; they explained the fine and
+carefully polished tube which had been brought to the first
+Expedition at Zibá.[EN#10] Several of these articles were all but
+whole, an exception in this land of "‘clasts." We then struck
+over the stony divide to the left, towards a fine landmark--a
+Khitm, or "block," shaped like a seal cut en cabochon: its name
+is the barbarous sounding Khurm el-Badaríyyah. During the ascent,
+which was easy, we passed a second strew and scatter of the white
+stone broken into small pieces. From the Col, reached at 9.45
+a.m., a descent, vile for camels not for mules, presently landed
+us in the Wady Umm Ámil. The left bank of the hideous narrow
+gorge showed a line of wells or water-pits, made, said Furayj, by
+the Mutakaddimín (veteres),--the Ancients who were probably
+Mediævals. Crossing the torrent-gully we left on its right bank
+the ruins of large works, especially the upper parallelogram.
+After a thirteen miles' ride we halted at 10.40 a.m. under a rock
+on the left side, opposite three couthless heaps of water-rolled
+stones surrounded by fine quartz. By far the poorest thing we had
+yet seen, this "town" had been grandiosely described to the first
+Expedition at Zibá. Many blessings were heaped upon the head of
+Ámil and his mother: the name, however, as the Sayyid suggested,
+is evidently a corruption of Mu'ámil--"the workman, the
+employee."[EN#11] I would conjecture that here the slave-miners
+were stationed, Old Zibá being the master's abode: our caravan
+entitled it El-Lomán--"the bagnio, the prison for galériens." On
+the coast-town I procured some specimens of heavy red copper
+which had been dug out of a ruined furnace; the metal is
+admirable, and it retrieves to a certain extent the lost
+reputation of Umm Ámil.
+
+At noon we resumed a hot ride down the ugly, rocky watercourse,
+both of whose banks showed long lines of ruins. Presently,
+crossing a divide marked by two stone-heaps, we fell into the
+broader but equally unpicturesque Wady Salmá. It is on about the
+same parallel as Ziba' (north lat. 27° 20'); and more than the
+usual allowance for the error of low latitude must be admitted if
+we would identify it with the Mediterranean <Greek> of
+Ptolemy (vi. 7), <Greek>, in north lat. 260°, or fifteen
+miles south of Sóaka.
+
+Wady Salmá is the smallest and the northernmost of the three
+basins which we have just visited; the central being the Dámah,
+and the southern Wady Shaghab-Aslah-Aznab. Steaming southwards we
+shall note the mouths of all these watercourses. We presently
+passed on the right bank the debouchure of the Wady Ruways, and
+left there a guard to direct the caravan, in case it should
+disobey orders, and march up to Umm Ámil. Here the valley gave
+forage to a herd of milch-camels, apparently unguarded; each had
+her foal, some newborn, others dating from January or February.
+After one hour and forty-five minutes (= six miles) we camped on
+the fine sands that floor the dull line hemmed in by tall masses
+of red and green trap. The adjacent scatter of Arab wells in the
+bed is known as the Má el-Badí'ah. I carefully inquired
+concerning ruins in the neighbourhood; and we climbed the
+torrent-sides to command a (very limited) bird's-eye view of the
+hills. According to the guides, there are no remains of the "old
+ones" nearer than Umm Ámil
+
+Setting out early next morning (5.45 a.m., March 5th), after half
+an hour down the Wady Salmá, we saw its lower course becoming a
+mere gorge, constricted by two opposite rocks. On the left bank,
+above this narrow, lies a group of Arab graves, which may have
+been built upon older foundations. The right side here receives
+the Wady Haraymal ("Little Peganum-plant"), the Haráímil of the
+broad-speaking Bedawin. As we struck up its dull ascent, the
+southern form of the Shárr-giant suddenly broke upon us, all
+glorious in his morning robes of ethereal gauzy pink. The
+foreshortened view, from the south as well as the north, shows a
+compact prism-formed mass which has been compared with an
+iceberg. The main peak, Abú Shenázir, here No. 4 from the north,
+proudly bears a mural crown of granite towers, which it hides
+from El-Muwaylah; and the southern end, a mere vanishing ridge at
+this angle, but shown en face to the seaboard abreast of it,
+breaks into three distinctly marked bluffs and heads.[EN#12]
+
+A divide then led upwards and downwards to the Wady Abá Rikayy,
+remarkable only for warm pools, and crystal-clear runners,
+springing from the sole. The fringings of white show the presence
+of salt; the shallows are covered with the greenest mosses, and
+beetles chase one another over the depths where the waters sleep.
+The lower course takes the name of Wady Kifáfí, and discharges
+into the sea north of the Wady Salmá, with which it has
+erroneously been united, as in Niebuhr's Selmá wa Kafâfa.
+According to the Kátib Chelebi, who, over two centuries ago, made
+the "Kabr Shaykh el-Kifáfí" the second pilgrim-station south of
+El-Muwaylah, a certain Bedawi chief, El-Kifáfí, was killed with a
+spear, and his tomb became a place of pious visitation. It is
+said still to exist between the Wadys Salmá and Kifáfí. A third
+divide to the north led along the eastern flank of the Jebel Abú
+Rísh, which exposes its head to the sea; and, reaching the Col,
+we had the pleasure of once more greeting the blue cove that
+forms the port of Zibá.
+
+We then descended into the Wady Sidrah, whose left bank is formed
+by the Safrá Zibá--"the Yellow (hill) of Zibá." This small
+outlying peak is clad in the gaudiest of colours, especially a
+vivid citron-yellow, set off by red and rusty surroundings, which
+are streaked with a dead chalky-white. The citizens declare that
+it is absolutely useless, because it does not supply sulphur.
+During our day's halt at Zibá, M. Marie brought from it quartz of
+several kinds; the waxy, the heat-altered, and the blue, stained
+with carbonate of copper. Possibly this metal may be abundant at
+a lower horizon
+
+The "Valley of the (one) Jujube-tree," after narrowing to a stony
+gut, suddenly flares out into the Wady Zibá, the vulgar feature of
+these regions, provided with the normal "Gate" some three hundred
+yards broad. Beyond it, the flat surrounding the head of the cove is
+remarkably well grown with palms, clumps of the Daum, and scattered
+date-trees, of which one is walled round. Hence I am disposed to
+consider Zibá the <Greek>, or Phoenicon Vicus, of Ptolemy: although
+he places it in north lat. 26° 20', or between Sharm Dumayghah and
+El-Wijh, when it lies in north lat. 27° 20'. I have already
+protested against the derivation of the word--which is written
+"Dhoba" by Wallin, "Deba" by Niebuhr, and "Zibber" by the
+Hydrographic Chart--proposed by my learned friend Sprenger.[EN#13]
+His theory was probably suggested by El-Yákút (iii. 464), who, in
+the twelfth century, describes "Dhabba" as "a village on the coast,
+opposite to which is a settlement with flowing water, called Badá:
+the two are separated by seventy miles." An older name for the
+station is Bir el-Sultáni--the "Well of the Sultán" (Selim?): we
+shall presently inspect these remains. Itineraries also give Kabr
+el-Tawáshi, "the Eunuch's Tomb;" and this we still find near the
+palms at the head of the inner baylet. It is a square measuring six
+paces each way, mud and coralline showing traces of plaster outside.
+Like Wellsted (II. X.) we failed to discover any sign of the Birkat
+("tank") mentioned in a guide-book which Burckhardt quotes; nor had
+the citizens ever heard of a "reservoir."
+
+The camping-ground of the pilgrims lies between the "Gate" and
+the cove-head. Around the wells sat at squat a small gathering of
+the filthy "Moghrebin" (Allah yakharrib-hum!). About 260 of these
+rufffians were being carried gratis, by some charitable merchant,
+in a Sambúk that lay at the harbour-mouth. A party had lately
+slaughtered a camel, of course not their own property; and yet
+they wondered that the Bedawin shoot them. They showed their
+insolence by threatening with an axe the dog Juno, when she
+sportively sallied out to greet them; and were highly offended
+because, in view of cholera and smallpox, I stationed sentries to
+keep them at a distance. Had there been contagious disease among
+them, it would have spread in no time. They haunted the wells,
+which were visited all day by women driving asses from the
+settlement; even the single old beggar of Zibá--unfailing sign of
+civilization--was here; and the black tents of the Arabs, who
+grazed their flocks at the cove-head, lay within easy shot of
+infection. On the evening of the next day, when the Sambúk made
+sail, the shouting and screaming, the brawling, cudgelling, and
+fighting, heard a mile off, reminded me of the foul company of
+Maghrabís on board the Golden Wire.
+
+"Sultán Selim's Well" has now grown to four, all large and
+masonry-lined. That to the south-east is dry; travellers are
+confined to the western, whose strong coping they have managed to
+tear down; whilst the northern shows hard old kerb-stones, deeply
+grooved and rope-channelled like that of Beersheba. We
+breakfasted at the head of the inner bay, whilst the Sayyid rode
+forward to meet his brother Mahmúd, who had kindly brought us the
+news from El-Muwaylah. Here we could see the townlet covering a
+low point projecting into the Sharm; a few large and some small
+tenements formed the body, whilst the head was the little Burj
+built, some fourteen years ago, upon the tall sea-bank to the
+north. It bore, by way of welcome, the Viceroy's flag.
+
+The camp was pitched upon the northern shore of the inner cove,
+behind the new town, and sheltered by the tall sea-cliff: here
+stood Old Zibá, whose stones, buried for ages under the sand, are
+now dug up to build its successor. I thought better of the
+settlement and of the port after visiting them a second time. We
+had looked forward to it even as to a petit Paris: so Damascus
+and the Syrian cities appear centres of civilization to Westerns
+coming from the East--not from the West. It is far superior,
+especially in the article water, to El-Muwaylah; it exports
+charcoal in large quantities, and it does a thriving business
+with the Bedawi. Here are signs of a pier, and a mosque is to be
+built. The fish is excellent and abundant; lobsters are caught by
+night near the reef, and oysters in the bay when the tide is out.
+We succeeded, at last, in having our batterie de cuisine properly
+tinned, and we replenished our stores.[EN#14] As at El-‘Akabah,
+"Hashísh" may be bought in any quantity, but no ‘Ráki--hence,
+perhaps, the paleness and pastiness of the local complexion--and
+yet our old acquaintance, Mohammed el-Musalmáni, is a Copt who
+finds it convenient to be a Moslem. He aided us in collecting
+curiosities, especially a chalcedony (agate) intended for a
+talisman and roughly inscribed in Kufic characters, archaic and
+pointed like Bengali, with the Koranic chapter (xcii.) that
+testifies the Unity, "Kul, Huw' Allah," etc. As regards the port,
+Wellsted (Il. X.) is too severe upon it: "At Sherm Dhobá the
+anchorage is small and inconvenient, and could only be made
+available for boats or small vessels." Dredging the sand-bar and
+cutting a passage in the soft coralline reef will give excellent
+shelter and, some say, a depth of seventeen fathoms.
+
+Our first care was to walk straight into the sea, travelling
+clothes and all. I then received the notables, including Mohammed
+Selámah of El-Wijh, and at once began to inquire about the Jebel
+el-Fayrúz. The chief trader pleaded ignorance: he was a stranger,
+a new-comer; he had never been out of the settlement. The others
+opposed to me hard and unmitigated Iying: they knew nothing about
+turquoises; there were no such stones; the mines were exhausted.
+
+And yet I knew that this coast is visited for turquoises by
+Europeans; and that the gem has been, and still is, sold at Suez
+and Cairo. Mr. Clarke had many uncut specimens at Zagázig,
+embedded in a dark gangue, which he called "porphyry," as opposed
+to the limestone which bears the silicate of copper. Upon our
+first Expedition, we had noticed a splendid specimen, set in a
+Bedawi matchlock; and the people of El-‘Akabah praised highly the
+produce of the Jebel el-Ghál. Lastly, I happened to have heard
+that an Arab lately brought to Zibá a turquoise which sold there
+for £3. Evidently the mine, like the gold-sands before alluded
+to, would be carefully hidden from us. This reticence explained
+how, on our first visit, the two Staff-officers sent to prospect
+the diggings had been misdirected to a block lying north of the
+townlet, the "Red Hills," alias the Jebel el-Shegayg.
+
+Shortly after I left Egypt an Italian, Sig. F--, returned to Suez
+from El-Muwaylah, with some fine pearls worth each from £20 to
+£30, and turquoises which appeared equally good. He was then
+bound for Italy, but he intended returning to Midian in a month
+or two. These are the men who teach the ready natives the very
+latest "dodges;" such as stimulating the peculiar properties of
+the pearl-oyster by inserting grains of sand.
+
+I also collected notes concerning the ruins of M'jirmah, of which
+we had heard so many tales. The site, they said, is a branch of
+the Wady Azlam, the first of the three marches between Zibá and
+El-Wijh, and seven and a half hours' sail along the coast. This
+watercourse shows, above the modern Hajj-station, the ruins of a
+fort built by Sultán Selim: Wellsted (II. X.) also mentions a
+castle lying three miles inland. From the head of the Sharm
+Dumayghah, seventy to seventy-two knots south of El-Muwaylah,
+Shaykh Furayj pointed out to us the pale-blue peaks of the Jebel
+Zafar:[EN#15] in the upper part of its Wady, the ‘Amúd Zafar, a
+southern branch valley of the Azlam, lies the ruin. He made it
+six hours' march from the seaboard. It was an ancient gold-mine
+(?), whose house-foundations and a "well with steps" still
+remain. "M'jirmah," which must not be confounded with the "Umm
+Jirmah," an atelier that we shall visit to-morrow, has been
+identified with the <Greek> (Rhaunathi Pagus) of Ptolemy
+(north lat. 25° 40'). We will return to this subject when
+steaming down coast.
+
+Our day of rest ended, at seven p.m., with a heavy storm of wind
+and rain from the north: the sun had been unusually hot for some
+days, and the sky looked ugly in the evening. As usual, all
+assured us that the clouds contained wind, not rain. Despite
+which, when the mess-tent had been nearly blown down, owing to
+our men being unwilling to leave their warm retreats, a heavy
+drenching downfall set in, and continued till eleven p.m. After a
+short lull, wind and rain again raged at midnight; and then the
+gale gradually blew itself out. The next two mornings were
+delightfully brisk and bracing; and deep puddles dotted the
+rocks.
+
+On March 7th the caravan marched straight northwards, by the
+Hajj-road, along the shore to its camping-ground, an affair of
+two hours, while M. Marie and I set off for the turquoise mine.
+Furayj, who had never passed that way, engaged as guide one
+Sulaym el-Makrafi; and this old dromedary-rider's son had been
+sent on to bring into camp all the Fayruz he could find. Crossing
+at six a.m. the broad pilgrim-track, we struck eastward at a
+place where the Secondary gypsum subtends the old coralline
+cliff. After three-quarters of an hour, we traversed the Wady
+Zahakán, the southernmost Pass over the Shárr (proper); and
+presently we ascended a branch that falls into the right bank. As
+we advanced, it became a rock-walled, stonesoled tunnel; winding,
+contracting and widening, rising and flattening, and generally
+interesting, compared with the dull flat breadth of such features
+as the Wady Salmá. The overfalls of rock and the unfriendly
+thorn-trees, selfishly taking up all the room, necessitate
+frequent zigzags up and down the rocky, precipitous banks. After
+a number of divides we entered the Wady Háskshah, which was wider
+and good for riding; and at 8.30 a.m. we passed into the Wady Umm
+Jirmah.
+
+In this broad basin we found none of the ruins so often reported;
+but immense quantities of broken quartz showed the Mashghal or
+atelier. The material was distinguished, from all the outcrops
+hitherto observed, by its pretty pink, stained with oxide of
+iron: it appeared in large ramifications mostly striking
+east-west, and in little pitons dotting the valley sole and
+sides. A subsequent visit to Wady Umm Jirmah found many furnaces
+surrounded by well-worked scoriae; of these, specimens were
+secured.
+
+After another half-hour, we dismounted at the watershed of the
+Wady el-Ghál, where the old guide lost no time in losing his
+head. The Jebel el-Ghál, whose folds fall into its watercourse,
+is a detached block, rising nearly due south of the "Sharp Peak,"
+as the Chart calls Abú Kusayb, the northernmost horn of the
+Shárr; while the Ghál cove, breaking the sea-cliff, bears 270°
+(mag.) from the summit. The hill, which may measure 250 feet
+above sea-level (aner. 29.75), is composed of porphyritic trap
+and of the hardest felspars, veined with chocolate-coloured
+quartz, the true gangue. While we examined the formation, Furayj
+and old Sulaym, who became more and more "moony," ransacked the
+block in all directions, and notably failed to find a trace of
+mining. Evidently Athor, the genius of the "Turquoise Mountain,"
+was not to be conquered by a coup de main; so I determined to
+tire her out.
+
+After building a stone-man on the finial of the Jebel el-Ghál,
+and a short rest in the north-western Wady, we remounted and
+struck seawards. Some ugly divides led us, after half an hour, to
+a broad Fiumara, well grown with palm-bush, the veritable Wady
+el-Ghál. From this point a total of four miles, and a grand total
+of fourteen, led us to the camp: it had been pitched at the
+Mahattat el-Gha'l, on the north bank, where the "winter-torrent,"
+falling into the cove, has broken through the sea cliff.
+
+Here the best of news was in store for us. Lieutenant Yusuf, who
+had this morning rejoined the Expedition, brought our mails from
+the Sambúk, which I had ordered by letter at El-‘Akabah; and
+reported that his Highness's frigate Sinnár, an old friend, would
+relieve the lively Mukhbir in taking us to our last journey
+southwards. Rations for men and mules, and supplies for
+ourselves, all were coming. We felt truly grateful to the Viceroy
+and the Prince Minister for the gracious interest they had taken
+in the Expedition; and we looked forward with excitement to the
+proper finish of our labours. Without the third march, the
+exploration of Midian would have been Abtar, as the Arabs say,
+"tail-less;" that is, lame and impotent in point of conclusion.
+
+But I would not be beaten by the enemy upon the subject of the
+lapis Pharanitis mine. During the course of the day, a Jeráfín
+Bedawi, Selím ibn Musallim, brought in scoriae of copper and
+iron; and on the morrow I sent him as guide to Lieutenant Yusuf,
+with an escort of two soldiers and eight quarrymen on seven
+camels. After three days' absence (March 8--10) the officer
+rejoined us and reported as follows:--
+
+Leaving the Mahattat el-Ghál, he rode up its watercourse, and
+then turned southwards into the long Wady Umm Jirmah. After seven
+miles and a half (= direct five and three-quarters), he came upon
+the Jebel el-Fayrúz. It is a rounded eminence of no great height,
+showing many signs of work, especially three or four cuttings
+some twenty metres deep. A hillock to the north-west supplied the
+scoriæ before mentioned. Lieutenant Yusuf blasted the
+chocolate-coloured quartzose rock in four places, filled as many
+sacks, and struck the pilgrim-road in the Wady el-Mu'arrash,
+leaving its red block, the Hamrá el-Mu'arrash, to the left. His
+specimens were very satisfactory; except to the learned
+geologists of the Citadel, Cairo, who pronounced them to be
+carbonate of copper! Dr. L. Karl Moser, of Trieste, examined them
+and found crystals of turquoise, or rather "johnite," as Dana has
+it, embedded in or spread upon the quartz. One specimen,
+moreover, contained silver. So much for the Zibá or southern
+turquoise-diggings.
+
+Our journey ended on March 8th with a dull ride along the
+Hajj-road northwards. Passing the creek Abú Sharír, which, like
+many upon this coast, is rendered futile by a wall of coral reef,
+we threaded a long flat, and after two hours (= seven miles) we
+entered a valley where the Secondary formation again showed its
+débris. Here is the Mahattat el-Husan ("the Stallion's Leap"), a
+large boulder lying to the left of the track, and pitted with
+holes which a little imagination may convert into hoof-prints.
+The name of the noble animal was El-Mashhúr; that of its owner
+is, characteristically enough, forgotten by the Arabs: it lived
+in the Days of Ignorance; others add, more vaguely still, when
+the Beni ‘Ukbah, the lords of the land, were warring with the
+Baliyy. The gorge was then a mere cutting, blocked up by this
+rock. El-Mashhúr "negotiated" it, alighting upon the surface like
+a Galway hunter taking a stone wall; and carried to Wady Tiryam
+its rider, whose throat was incontinently cut by the foeman in
+pursuit. The legend is known to all, and the Bedawin still scrape
+away the sands which threaten to bury the boulder: it has its
+value, showing that in regions where the horse is now unknown,
+where, in fact, nothing but a donkey can live, noble blood was
+once bred. The same remark is made by Professor Palmer ("The
+Desert of the Exodus," p. 42) concerning the Mangaz Hisán Abú
+Zená ("Leap of the Stallion of the Father of Adultery"), two
+heaps of stone near the Sinaitic Wady Gharandal. There, however,
+the animal is cursed, while here it is blessed: perhaps, also,
+the Midianite tradition may descend from a source which, still
+older, named the <Greek>. Is this too far-fetched? And yet,
+peradventure, it may be true.
+
+We then fell into the Wady Jibbah; passed the Jebel el-Kibrít,
+examined M. Philipin's work, and, led over a very vile and very
+long "short cut," found ourselves once more on board the Mukhbir.
+
+
+
+
+
+            Note on the Supplies Procurable at Zibá.
+
+
+
+The chief stores are:--
+
+Rice (good Yemani), per Kis, or bag of five and a half Kaylah
+(each twenty-one Ratl = eighteen pounds), four to six dollars.
+
+Durrah (Sorghum), per Ardebb (each = twelve Kaylah), seven and a
+half to eight dollars.
+
+Dukhn (millet), not common, per Ardebb, eight dollars.
+
+Wheat, always procurable, per Ardebb, ten to twelve dollars.
+
+Barley, always procurable, per Ardebb, five to six dollars.
+
+‘Adas (lentils, Revalenta Arabica), per Ardebb, ten to twelve
+
+Samn (liquified butter), per Ratl, seven and a half to eight
+dollars.
+
+Coffee (green), per pound, eighteen-pence.
+
+‘Ajwah (pressed dates), 100 to 110 piastres per Kantar (= 100
+Ratl).
+
+Eggs, thirty-five to the shilling.
+
+It is generally possible to buy small quantities of Hummus
+(lupins or chick-peas), Kharru'b (carob-pods), "hot" and coarse
+tobacco for the Arabs, and cigarette-paper, matches, etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Chapter XIII.
+ A Week Around and upon the Shárr Mountain–Résumé of the March
+               Through Eastern or Central Midian.
+
+
+
+For months the Jebel Shárr, the grand block which backs
+El-Muwaylah, had haunted us, starting up unexpectedly in all
+directions, with its towering heads, that shifted shape and
+colour from every angle, and with each successive change of
+weather. We could hardly leave unexplored the classical "Hippos
+Mons," the Moslem's El-Ishárah ("the Landmark"), and the
+Bullock's Horns of the prosaic British tar.[EN#16] The few vacant
+days before the arrival of the Sinnár offered an excellent
+opportunity for studying the Alpine ranges of maritime Midian.
+Their stony heights, they said, contain wells and water in
+abundance, with palms, remains of furnaces, and other
+attractions. Every gun was brought into requisition, by tales of
+leopard and ibex, the latter attaining the size of bullocks (!)
+and occasionally finding their way to the fort:--it was curious
+to hear our friends, who, as usual, were great upon "le shport,"
+gravely debating whether it would be safe to fire upon le
+léopard. I was anxious to collect specimens of botany and natural
+history from an altitude hitherto unreached by any traveller in
+Western Arabia; and, lastly, there was geography as well as
+mineralogy to be done.
+
+The Hydrographic Chart gives the Mountain a maximum of nine
+thousand[EN#17] feet, evidently a clerical error often
+repeated--really those Admiralty gentleman are too incurious:
+Wellsted, who surveyed it, remarks (II. X.), "The height of the
+most elevated peak was found to be 6500 feet, and it obtained
+from us the appellation of ‘Mowilabh High Peak"'--when there are
+native names for every head. We had been convinced that the
+lesser is the true measure, by our view from the Hismá plateau,
+3800 feet above sea-level. Again, the form, the size, and the
+inclination of the noble massif are wrongly laid down by the
+hydrographers. It is a compact block, everywhere rising abruptly
+from low and sandy watercourses, and completely detached from its
+neighbours by broad Wadys--the Surr to the north and east, while
+southwards run the Kuwayd and the Zahakán. The huge long-oval
+prism measures nineteen and a half by five miles (= ninety-seven
+and a half square miles of area); and its lay is 320° (mag.),
+thus deflected 40° westward of the magnetic north. The general
+appearance, seen in profile from the west, is a Pentedactylon, a
+central apex, with two others on each side, tossed, as it were,
+to the north and south, and turning, like chiens de faïence,
+their backs upon one another.
+
+Moreover, the Chart assigns to its "Mount Mowilah" only two great
+culminations--"Sharp Peak, 6330 feet," to the north; and south of
+it, "High Peak, 9000." The surveyors doubtless found difficulty
+in obtaining the Bedawi names for the several features, which are
+unknown to the citizens of the coast; but they might easily have
+consulted the only authorities, the Jeráfín-Huwaytát, who graze
+their flocks and herds on and around the mountain. As usual in
+Arabia, the four several main "horns" are called after the
+Fiumaras that drain them. The northernmost is the Abú Gusayb
+(Kusayb) or Ras el-Gusayb (the "Little Reed"), a unity composed
+of a single block and of three knobs in a knot; the tallest of
+the latter, especially when viewed from the south, resembles an
+erect and reflexed thumb--hence our "Sharp Peak." Follows Umm
+el-Furút (the "Mother of Plenty"), a mural crest, a quoin-shaped
+wall, cliffing to the south: the face, perpendicular where it
+looks seawards, bears a succession of scars, upright gashes, the
+work of wind and weather; and the body which supports it is a
+slope disposed at the natural angle. An innominatus, in the shape
+of a similar quoin, is separated by a deep Col, apparently a
+torrent-bed, from a huge Beco de Papagaio--the "Parrot's Bill" so
+common in the Brazil. This is the Abú Shenázir or Shaykhánib (the
+"Father of Columns"); and, as if two names did not suffice, it
+has a third, Ras el-Huwayz ("of the Little Cistern"). It is our
+"High Peak," the most remarkable feature of the sea-façade, even
+when it conceals the pair of towering pillars that show
+conspicuously to the north and south. From the beak-shaped apex
+the range begins to decline and fall; there is little to notice
+in the fourth horn, whose unimportant items, the Ras Lahyánah,
+the Jebel Maí'h, and the Umm Gisr (Jisr), end the wall. Each has
+its huge white Wady, striping the country in alternation with
+dark-brown divides, and trending coastwards in the usual network.
+
+The material of the four crests is the normal grey granite,
+enormous lumps and masses rounded by degradation; all chasms and
+naked columns, with here and there a sheet burnished by ancient
+cataracts, and a slide trickling with water, unseen in the shade
+and flashing in the sun like a sheet of crystal. The granite,
+however, is a mere mask or excrescence, being everywhere based
+upon and backed by the green and red plutonic traps which have
+enveloped it. And the prism has no easy inland slopes, as a first
+glance suggests; instead of being the sea-wall of a great
+plateau, it falls abruptly to the east as well as to the west.
+The country behind it shows a perspective of high and low hills,
+lines of dark rock divided from one another by Wadys of the usual
+exaggerated size. Of these minor heights only one, the Jebel
+el-Sahhárah looks down upon the sea, rising between the
+Dibbagh-Kh'shabríyyah block to the north, and the Shárr to the
+south. Beyond the broken eastern ground, the ruddy Hismá and the
+gloomy Harrah form the fitting horizon.
+
+After this much for geography, we may view the monarch of
+Midianite mountains in the beauty and the majesty of his
+picturesque form. Seen from El-Muwaylah, he is equally
+magnificent in the flush of morning, in the still of noon, and in
+the evening glow. As the rays, which suggested the obelisk, are
+shooting over the southern crests, leaving the basement blue with
+a tint between the amethyst and the lapis lazuli, its northern
+third lies wrapped in a cloak of cold azure grey, and its central
+length already dons a half-light of warmer hue. Meanwhile, the
+side next the sun is flooded with an aerial aureole of subtle
+mist, a drift of liquid gold, a gush of living light, rippling
+from the unrisen orb, decreasing in warmth and brilliancy, paling
+and fading and waxing faint with infinite gradations proportioned
+to the increase of distance. Again, after the clear brooding
+sheen of day has set off the "stark strength and grandeur of
+rock-form contrasted with the brilliancy and sprightliness of
+sea," the sinking sun paints the scene with the most gorgeous of
+blazonings. The colours of the pale rock-skeleton are so faint
+that there is nothing to interfere with the perfect development
+of atmospheric effects: it is a white sheet spread to catch the
+grand illumination, lambent lights of saffron and peach-blossom
+and shades of purple and hyacinth. As indescribably lovely is the
+after-glow, the zodiacal light which may have originated the
+pyramid; the lively pink reflection from the upper atmosphere;
+the vast variety of tints with which the greens and the reds, the
+purples and the fiery crimsons of the western sky tincture the
+receptive surface of the neutral-hued granites; and the
+chameleon-shiftings of the dying day, as it sinks into the arms
+of night. Nor less admirable are the feats of the fairy
+Refraction. The mighty curtain seems to rise and fall as if by
+magic: it imitates, as it were, the framework of man. In early
+morning the dancing of the air adds many a hundred cubits to its
+apparent stature: it is now a giant, when at midnight, after the
+equipoise of atmospheric currents, it becomes a dwarf replica of
+its former self.
+
+                           * * * * * *
+
+I had neglected to order overnight the camels from El-Muwaylah, a
+penny-wise proceeding which delayed our departure. It was nearly
+nine a.m. (March 13th) before we left the Mukhbir, whose
+unhappies still sighed and yearned for the civilization and
+dissipation of Suez; landed at the head of the Sharm Yáhárr, and
+marched up the Wady Hárr. We were guided by two Jeráfín, Sulayman
+ibn Musallim and Farj ibn ‘Awayz; the former a model hill-man, a
+sturdy, thick-legged, huge-calved, gruff-voiced, full-bearded
+fellow, hot-tempered, good-humoured, and renowned as an
+ibex-hunter. His gun, marked "Lazari Coitinaz," was a
+long-barrelled Spanish musket, degraded to a matchlock: it had
+often changed hands, probably by theft, and the present owner
+declared that he had bought it for seventy dollars--nearly £15!
+Yet its only luxury was the bottom of a breechloader brass
+cartridge, inlaid and flanked by the sharp incisors of the little
+Wabar, or mountain coney. These Bedawin make gunpowder for
+themselves; they find saltpetre in every cavern, and they buy
+from Egypt the sulphur which is found in their own hills.
+
+After a few minutes we left the Hárr, which drains the tallest of
+the inland hillock-ranges, and the red block "Hamrá el-Maysarah;"
+and we struck south-east into the Wady Sanawíyyah. It is a vulgar
+valley with a novelty, the Tamrat Faraj. This cairn of
+brick-coloured boulders buttressing the right bank has, or is
+said to have, the Memnonic property of emitting sounds--Yarinn is
+the Bedawi word. The boomings and bellowings are said to be
+loudest at sunrise and sunset. The "hideous hum" of such
+subterraneous thunderings is alluded to by all travellers in the
+Dalmatian Island of Melada, and in the Narenta Valley. The marvel
+has been accounted for by the escape of imprisoned air unequally
+expanded, but "a veil of mystery hangs over the whole."[EN#18]
+The valley-sides of dark trap were striped with white veins of
+heat-altered argil; the sole with black magnetic sand; and
+patches of the bed were buttercup-yellow with the Handán
+(dandelion), the Cytisus, and the Zaram (Panicum turgidum) loved
+by camels. Their jaundiced hue contrasted vividly with the red
+and mauve blossoms of the boragine El-Kahlá, the blue flowerets
+of the Lavandula (El-Zayti), and the delicate green of the
+useless[EN#19] asphodel (El-Borag), which now gave a faint and
+shadowy aspect of verdure to the slopes. Although the rise was
+inconsiderable, the importance of the vegetation palpably
+decreased as we advanced inland.
+
+After four miles we reached the Wady-head, and wasted a couple of
+hours awaiting the camels that carried our supplies. The path
+then struck over a stony divide, with the Hamrá to the left or
+north, and on the other side the Hamrá el-Mu'arrash, made
+familiar to us by our last march. The latter ends in an isolated
+peak, the Jebel Gharghúr, which, on our return, was mistaken for
+the sulphur-hill of Jibbah. Presently we renewed acquaintance
+with the Wady el-Bayzá, whose lower course we had crossed south
+of Sharm Yáhárr: here it is a long and broad, white and
+tree-dotted expanse, glaring withal, and subtending all this
+section of the Shárr's sea-facing base. We reached, after a total
+of eight miles, the Jibál el-Kawáim, or "the Perpendiculars," one
+of the features which the Bedawin picturesquely call the Aulád
+el-Shárr ("Sons of the Sha'rr"). The three heads, projected
+westwards from the Umm Furút peak and then trending northwards,
+form a lateral valley, a bay known as Wady el-Káimah. It is a
+picturesque feature with its dark sands and red grit, while the
+profile of No. 3 head, the Káimat Abú Rákí, shows a snub-nosed
+face in a judicial wig, the trees forming an apology for a beard.
+I thought of "Buzfuz Bovill."
+
+We camped early, as the Safh el-Shárr (the "Plain of the Shárr")
+and the lateral valley were found strewed with quartzes, white,
+pink, and deep slate-blue. The guides had accidentally mentioned
+a "Jebel el-Marú," and I determined to visit it next morning. The
+night was warm and still. The radiation of heat from the huge
+rock-range explained the absence of cold, so remarkable during
+all this excursion--hence the African traveller ever avoids
+camping near bare stones. Dew, however, wetted our boxes like
+thin rain: the meteor, remarked for the first time on March 13th,
+will last, they say, three months, and will greatly forward
+vegetation. It seems to be uncertain, or rather to be influenced
+by conditions which we had no opportunity of studying: at times
+it would be exceptionally heavy, and in other places it was
+entirely absent. Before evening new contract-boots, bought from
+the Mukhbir, were distributed to the soldiers and all the
+quarrymen, who limped painfully on their poor bare feet:--next
+day all wore their well-hidden old boots.
+
+Early on March 14th we ascended the Wady el-Káimah, which showed
+a singular spectacle, and read us another lecture upon the
+diversity of formation which distinguishes this region. An abrupt
+turn then led over rough ground, the lower folds of the Umm
+Furút, where a great granite gorge, the Nakb Abú Shár, ran up to
+a depression in the dorsum, an apparently practicable Col.
+Suddenly the rocks assumed the quaintest hues and forms. The
+quartz, slaty-blue and black, was here spotted and streaked with
+a dull, dead white, as though stained by the droppings of myriad
+birds: there it lay veined and marbled with the most vivid of
+rainbow colours-- reds and purples, greens and yellows, set off
+by the pale chalky white. Evident signs of work were remarked in
+a made road running up to the Jebel el-Marú (proper), whose
+strike is 38° (mag.), and whose dip is westward. It is an arête,
+a cock's-comb of snowy quartz some sixty feet high by forty-five
+broad at the base; crowning a granitic fold that descends
+abruptly, with a deep fall on either side, from the "Mother of
+Plenty." This strangely isolated wall, left standing by the
+denudation that swept away the containing stone, had been broken
+by perpendicular rifts into four distinct sections; the colour
+became whiter as it neared the coping, and each rock was crowned
+with a capping that sparkled like silver in the sudden glance of
+the "cloud-compelling" sun. The sight delighted us; and M. Lacaze
+here made one of his most effective croquis, showing the
+explorers reduced to the size of ants. As yet we had seen nothing
+of the kind; nor shall we see a similar vein till we reach
+Abú'l-Marwah, near our farthest southern point. I expected a
+corresponding formation upon the opposite eastern versant: we
+found only a huge crest, a spine of black plutonic rock,
+intensely ugly and repulsive. As we rode back down the "Valley of
+the Perpendiculars," the aspect of the Jebel el-Marú was
+épâtant--to use another favourite camp-word. Standing sharply out
+from its vague and gloomy background made gloomier by the morning
+mists, the Col, whose steep rain-cut slopes and sole were
+scattered with dark trees and darker rocks, this glittering wall
+became the shell of an enchanted castle in Gustave Doré.
+
+Returning to our old camping-ground after a ride of three hours
+and thirty minutes (= nine miles), we crossed two short divides,
+and descended the Wady el-Kusayb, which gives a name to "Sharp
+Peak." Here a few formless stone-heaps and straggling bushes
+represented the ruins, the gardens of palms, and the bullrushes
+of the Bedawi shepherd lads.[EN#20] Our tents had been pitched in
+the rond-point of the Wady Surr, which before had given us
+hospitality (February 19th), on a Safh or high bouldery ledge of
+the left bank, where it receives the broad Kusayb watercourse.
+The day had been sultry; the sun was a "rain sun," while the
+clouds massed thick to the south-west; and at night the lamps of
+heaven shone with a reddish, lurid light. The tent-pegs were
+weighted with camel-boxes against the storm; nevertheless, our
+mess-tent was levelled in a moment by the howling
+north-easter--warm withal--which, setting in about midnight, made
+all things uncomfortable enough.
+
+Whilst the caravan was ordered to march straight up the noble
+Wady Surr, we set off next morning at six a.m. up the Wady Malíh,
+the north-eastern branch of the bulge in the bed. A few Arab
+tents were scattered about the bushes above the mouth; and among
+the yelping curs was a smoky-faced tyke which might have been
+Eskimo-bred:--hereabouts poor ‘Brahim had been lost, and was not
+fated to be found. A cross-country climb led to the Jebel Malíh,
+whose fame for metallic wealth gave us the smallest
+expectations--hitherto all our discoveries came by surprise. A
+careful examination showed nothing at all; but a few days
+afterwards glorious specimens of cast copper were brought in, the
+Bedawi declaring that he had found them amongst the adjoining
+hills. In the re-entering angles of the subjacent Wady the thrust
+of a stick is everywhere followed by the reappearance of
+stored-up rain, and the sole shows a large puddle of brackish and
+polluted water. Perhaps the Malayh of the Bedawin may mean "the
+salt" (Málih), not "the pleasant" (Malíh). Malíh, or Mallih, is
+also the name of a plant, the Reaumuria vernice of Forskâl.
+
+Resuming our ride up the torrent-bed, and crossing to the Wady
+Daumah (of the "Single Daum-palm"), we dragged our mules down a
+ladder of rock and boulder, the left bank of the upper Surr. The
+great valley now defines, sharply as a knife-cut, the
+northernmost outlines of the Shárr, whose apex, El-Kusayb,
+towered above our heads. Thorn-trees are abundant; fan-palm bush
+grows in patches; and we came upon what looked like a flowing
+stream ruffled by the morning breeze: the guides declared that it
+is a rain-pool, dry as a bone in summer. Presently the rocky bed
+made a sharp turn; and its "Gate," opened upon another widening,
+the meeting place of four Wadys, the northern being the Wady
+Zibayyib that drains ruddy Abá‘l-bárid.
+
+After a short halt to examine the rude ruins reported by Mr.
+Clarke,[EN#21] we resumed the ascent of the Surr, whose left bank
+still defines the eastern edge of the Shárr. The latter presently
+puts forth the jagged spine of black and repulsive plutonic rock,
+which notes the Sha'b Makhúl, the corresponding versant of the
+Nakb Abú Sha'r. The Bedawin, who, as usual, luxuriate in
+nomenclature, distinguish between the eastern and western faces
+of the same block, and between the Wadys of the scarp and the
+counter-scarp. For instance, the eastern front of the Ras
+el-Kusayb is called Abú Kurayg (Kurayj). This is natural, as the
+formations, often of a different material, show completely
+different features.
+
+A little further on, the continuity of the right bank is broken
+by the Wady el-Hámah. It receives the Wady Kh'shabríyyah, which,
+bifurcating in the upper bed, drains the Dibbagh and the Umm
+Jedayl blocks; and in the fork lie, we were told, the ruins of
+El-Fara', some five hours' march from this section of the Surr.
+At the confluence of El-Hámah we found the camels grazing and the
+tents pitched without orders: the two Shaykhs were determined to
+waste another day, so they were directed to reload while we
+breakfasted. Everything was in favour of a long march; the dusty,
+gusty north-easter had blown itself out in favour of a pleasant
+southerly wind, a sea breeze deflected from the west.
+
+After marching three miles we camped at the foot of the ridge to
+be ascended next morning: the place is called Safhat el-Mu'ayrah
+from a slaty schistose hill on the eastern bank. The guides
+declared that the only practicable line to the summit was from
+this place; and that the Sha'bs (Cols) generally cannot be
+climbed even by the Arabs--I have reason to believe the reverse.
+Musallim, an old Bedawi, brought, amongst other specimens from
+the adjacent atelier, the Mashghal el-Mu'ayrah, a bright bead
+about the size of No. 5 shot: in the evening dusk it was taken
+for gold, and it already aroused debates concerning the proper
+direction of the promised reward, fifty dollars. The morning
+light showed fine copper. Here free metal was distinctly
+traceable in the scoriæ, and it was the first time that we had
+seen slag so carelessly worked. Not a little merriment was caused
+by the ostentatious display of "gold-stones," marked by M.
+Philipin's copper-nailed boots. Sulaymán, the Bedawi, had killed
+a Wabar, whose sadly mutilated form appeared to be that of the
+Syrian hill coney: these men split the bullet into four; "pot" at
+the shortest distance, and, of course, blow to pieces any small
+game they may happen to hit.
+
+Early on March 16th we attacked the Shárr in a general direction
+from north to south, where the ascent looked easy enough. On the
+left bank a porphyritic block, up whose side a mule can be
+ridden, is disposed in a slope of the palest and most languid of
+greens, broken by piles of black rock so regular as to appear
+artificial. This step leads to a horizontal crest, a broken wall
+forming its summit: it is evidently an outlier; and experience
+asked, What will be behind it? The more distant plane showed only
+the heads of the Shenázir or "Pins," the two quaint columns which
+are visible as far as the Shárr itself. This lower block is
+bounded, north and south, by gorges; fissures that date from the
+birth of the mountain, deepened by age and raging torrents:
+apparently they offered no passage. In the former direction yawns
+the Rushúh Abú Tinázib, so called from its growth--the
+Tanzub-tree[EN#22] (Sodada decidua); and in the latter the Sháb
+Umm Khárgah (Khárjah). I should have preferred a likely looking
+Nakb, south of this southern gorge, but the Bedawin, and
+especially Abú Khartúm, who had fed his camels and sheep upon the
+mountain, overruled me.
+
+The ascent of the outlier occupied three very slow hours, spent
+mostly in prospecting and collecting. At nine a.m. we stood 3200
+feet above sea-level (aner. 26.79), high enough to make our tents
+look like bits of white macadam. What most struck us was the
+increased importance of the vegetation, both in quantity and
+quality; the result, doubtless, of more abundant dew and rain, as
+well as of shade from each passing mist-cloud. The view formed a
+startling contrast of fertility and barrenness. At every hundred
+yards the growths of the plain became more luxuriant in the rich
+humus filling the fissures, and, contrary to the general rule,
+the plants, especially the sorrel (Rumex) and the dandelion
+(Taraxacum), instead of dwindling, gained in stature. The
+strong-smelling Ferula looked like a bush, and the Sarh grew into
+a tree: the Ar'ar,[EN#23] a homely hawthorn (hawthorn-leaved
+Rhus), whose appearance was a surprise, equalled the Cratœgus of
+Syria; and the upper heights must have been a forest of fine
+junipers (Habíbah = Juniperus Phœnicea), with trunks thick as a
+man's body. The guides spoke of wild figs, but we failed to find
+them. Our chasseurs, who had their guns, eagerly conned over the
+traces of ibex and hyenas, and the earths, as well as the large
+round footprints, of un léopard; but none of the larger animals
+were seen. The Bedawi matchlock has made them wary; chance might
+give a shot the first day: on the other hand, skill might be
+baffled for a month or two--I passed six weeks upon the
+Anti-Libanus before seeing a bear. The noble Shinnár-partridge
+again appeared; an eagle's feather lay on the ground; two white
+papillons and one yellow butterfly reminded me of the Camarones
+Mountain; the wild bee and the ladybird-like Ba'úzah stuck to us
+as though they loved us; and we were pestered by the attentions
+of the common fly. The Egyptian symbol for "Paul Pry" is supposed
+to denote an abundance of organic matter: it musters strong
+throughout Midian, even in the dreariest wastes; and it
+accompanies us everywhere, whole swarms riding upon our backs.
+
+The only semblance of climbing was over the crest of brown,
+burnished, and quartzless traps. Even there the hands were hardly
+required, although our poor feet regretted the want of
+Spartelles.[EN#24] Here the track debouched upon an inverted
+arch, with a hill, or rather a tall and knobby outcrop of rock,
+on either flank of the keystone. The inland or eastward view was
+a map of the region over which we had travelled; a panorama of
+little chains mostly running parallel with the great range, and
+separated from it by Wadys, lateral, oblique, and perpendicular.
+Of these torrent-beds some were yellow, others pink, and others
+faint sickly green with decomposed trap; whilst all bore a fair
+growth of thorn-trees--Acacias and Mimosas. High over and beyond
+the monarch of the Shafah Mountains, Jebel Sahhárah, whose blue
+poll shows far out at sea, ran the red levels of the Hismá,
+backed at a greater elevation by the black-blue Harrah. The whole
+Tihámah range, now so familiar to us, assumed a novel expression.
+The staple material proved to be blocks and crests of granite,
+protruding from the younger plutonics, which enfolded and
+enveloped their bases and backs. The one exception was the dwarf
+Umm Jedayl, a heap composed only of grey granite. The Jebel
+Kh'shabríyyah in the Dibbagh block attracted every eye; the head
+was supported by a neck swathed as with an old-fashioned cravat.
+
+The summit of the outlier is tolerably level, and here the
+shepherds had built small hollow piles of dry stone, in which
+their newly yeaned lambs are sheltered from the rude blasts. The
+view westwards, or towards the sea, which is not seen, almost
+justifies by its peculiarity the wild traditions of built wells,
+of a "moaning mountain," and of furnaces upon the loftiest
+slopes: it is notable that the higher we went, the less we heard
+of these features, which at last vanished into thin air. Our
+platform is, as I suspected, cut off from the higher plane by a
+dividing gorge; but the depth is only three hundred feet, and to
+the south it is bridged by a connecting ridge. Beyond it rises
+the great mask of granite forming the apex, a bonier skeleton
+than any before seen. Down the northern sheet-rocks trickled a
+thin stream that caught the sun's eye; thus the ravine is well
+supplied with water in two places. South of it rises a tempting
+Col, with a slope apparently easy, separating a dull mass of
+granite on the right from the peculiar formation to the left. The
+latter is a dome of smooth, polished, and slippery grey granite,
+evidently unpleasant climbing; and from its landward slope rise
+abrupt, as if hand-built, two isolated gigantic "Pins," which can
+hardly measure less than four hundred feet in stature. They are
+the remains of a sharp granitic comb whose apex was once the
+"Parrot's Beak." The mass, formerly mammilated, has been broken
+and denticulated by the destruction of softer strata. Already the
+lower crest, bounding the Sha'b Umm Khárgah, shows perpendicular
+fissures which, when these huge columns shall be gnawed away by
+the tooth of Time, will form a new range of pillars for the
+benefit of those ascending the Shárr, let us say in about A.D.
+10,000. Such are the "Pins" which name the mountain; and which,
+concealed from the coast, make so curious a show to the north,
+south, and east of this petrified glacier.
+
+After breaking their fast, M.M. Clarke, Lacaze, and Philipin
+volunteered to climb the tempting Col. None of them had ever
+ascended a mountain, and they duly despised the obstacles offered
+by big rocks distance-dwarfed to paving-stones; and of sharp
+angles, especially the upper, perspective-blunted to easy slopes.
+However, all three did exceeding well: for such a "forlorn hope"
+young recruits are better than old soldiers. They set out at
+eleven a.m., and lost no time in falling asunder; whilst the
+quarrymen, who accompanied them with the water-skins, shirked
+work as usual, lagged behind, sat and slept in some snug hollow,
+and returned, when dead-tired of slumber, declaring that they had
+missed the "Effendis."
+
+M. Philipin took singly the sloping side of the connecting ridge;
+and, turning to the right, made straight for the "Pins," below
+which was spread a fleck of lean and languid green. The ascent
+was comparatively mild, except where it became a sheet of smooth
+and slippery granite; but when he reached a clump of large
+junipers, his course was arrested by a bergschrund, which divides
+this block--evidently a second outlier--from the apex of the
+Shárr, the "Dome" and the "Parrot's Beak." It was vain to attempt
+a passage of the deep gash, with perpendicular upper walls, and
+lower slopes overgrown with vegetation; nor could he advance to
+the right and rejoin his companions, who were parted from him by
+the precipices on the near side of the Col. Consequently, he beat
+a retreat, and returned to us at 2.30 p.m., after three hours and
+thirty minutes of exceedingly thirsty work: the air felt brisk
+and cool, but the sun shone pitilessly, unveiled by the smallest
+scrap of mist. He brought with him an ibex-horn still stained
+with blood, and a branch of juniper, straight enough to make an
+excellent walking-stick.
+
+The other two struck across the valley, and at once breasted the
+couloir leading to the Col, where we had them well in sight. They
+found the ascent much "harder on the collar" than they expected:
+fortunately the sole of the huge gutter yielded a trickle of
+water. The upper part was, to their naive surprise, mere climbing
+on all fours; and they reached the summit, visible from our
+halting-place, in two hours. Here they also were summarily
+stopped by perpendicular rocks on either side, and by the deep
+gorge or crevasse, shedding seawards and landwards, upon whose
+further side rose the "Parrot's Beak." The time employed would
+give about two thousand feet, not including the ascent from the
+valley (three hundred feet); and thus their highest point could
+hardly be less than 5200 feet. Allowing another thousand for the
+apex, which they could not reach,[EN#25] the altitude of the
+Shárr would be between 6000 and 6500 feet.
+
+The shadows were beginning to lengthen before the two reappeared,
+and the delay caused no small apprehension; the Sayyid showed a
+kindly agitation that was quite foreign to his calm and collected
+demeanour, when threatened by personal danger. To be benighted
+amongst these cruel mountains must be no joke; nor would it have
+been possible to send up a tent or even mouth-munition. However,
+before the sun had reached the west, they came back triumphant
+with the spoils of war. One was a snake (Echis colorata,
+Günther), found basking upon the stones near the trickle of
+water. It hissed at them, and, when dying, it changed colour,
+they declared, like a chameleon--that night saw it safely in the
+spirit-tin. They were loaded with juniper boughs, and fortunately
+they had not forgotten the berries; the latter establish the
+identity of the tree with the common Asiatic species. M. Lacaze
+brought back several Alpine plants, a small Helix which he had
+found near the summit, and copious scrawls for future
+croquis--his studies of the "Pins" and the "Dome" were greatly
+admired at Cairo.
+
+Ere the glooms of night had set in, we found ourselves once more
+at the tents. Only one man suffered from the ascent, and his
+sunstroke was treated in Egyptian fashion. Instead of bleeding
+like that terrible, murderous Italian school of Sangrados, the
+Fellahs tie a string tightly round the head; and after
+sunset--which is considered de rigueur--they fill the ears with
+strong brine. According to them the band causes a bunch of veins
+to swell in the forehead, and, when pressed hard, it bursts like
+a pistol-shot. The cure is evidently effected by the cold
+salt-and-water. The evening ended happily with the receipt of a
+mail, and with the good news that the Sinnár corvette had been
+sent to take the place of El-Mukhbir, the unfortunate. Once more
+we felt truly grateful to the Viceroy and the Prince who so
+promptly and so considerately had supplied all our wants, and
+whose kindness would convert our southern cruise into a holiday
+gîte, without the imminent deadly risk of a burst boiler.
+
+We set out in high spirits on the next morning (6.15 a.m., March
+17th), riding, still southwards, up the Surr: the stony, broken
+surface now showed that we were fast approaching its source.
+Beyond the Umm Khárgah gorge on the western bank, rose a tall
+head, the Ras el-Rukabíyyah; and beyond it was a ravine, in which
+palms and water are said to be found. The opposite side raised
+its monotonous curtain of green and red traps, whose several
+projections bore the names of Jebel el-Wu'ayrah--the hill behind
+our camping-ground--Jebel el-Maín, and Jebel Sháhitah. A little
+beyond the latter debouched the Darb el-Kufl ("Road of
+Caravans"), alias Darb el-Ashárif ("Road of the Sherifs"), a
+winding gap, the old line of the Egyptian pilgrims, by which the
+Sulaymáyyán Bedawin still wend their way to Suez. The second
+name, perhaps, conserves the tradition of long-past wars waged
+between the Descendants of the Apostle and the Beni
+‘Ukbah.[EN#26] The broad mouth was dotted with old graves, with
+quartz-capped memorial-cairns, and, here and there, with a block
+bearing some tribal mark. The Wady-sole grew a "stinkhorn" held
+to be poisonous, and called, from its fetor, "Faswat el-‘Agúz"
+(Cynophallus impudicus): one specimen was found on the tip of an
+ibex-horn, and the other had been impaled with a stick. After two
+hours and thirty minutes (= seven miles) we sighted the head of
+the Wady Surr proper, whose influents drain the southern
+Khurayatah or Hismá Pass. Here the amount of green surface, and
+the number of birds, especially the blue-rock and the
+insect-impaling "butcher," whose nests were in the thin forest of
+thorn-trees, argue that water is not far off. The Ras Wady Surr
+is a charming halting-place.
+
+Our Arabs worked hard to gain another day. The only tolerable
+Pass rounding the southern Shárr was, they declared, the Wady
+Aújar, an influent of the Wady Zahakán, near Zibá. The Col
+el-Kuwayd, now within a few yards of us, is so terrible that the
+unfortunate camels would require, before they could attempt it,
+at least twenty-four hours of preparatory rest and rich feeding;
+and so forth. However, we pushed them on with flouts and jeers,
+and we ourselves followed at eleven a.m.
+
+The Pass proved to be one of the easiest. It began with a gradual
+rise up a short broad Wady, separating the southernmost
+counterforts of the Shárr from the north end of the Jebel
+el-Ghuráb. This "Raven Mountain" is a line of similar but lower
+formation, which virtually prolongs the great "Landmark," down
+coast. The bottom was dotted with lumps of pure "Marú," washed
+from the upper levels. We reached the summit in forty minutes,
+and the seaward slope beyond it was a large outcrop of quartz in
+situ, that assumed the strangest appearance,--a dull, dead
+chalky-white, looking as if heat-altered or mixed with clay. The
+rock-ladder leading to the lower Wady Kuwayd, which has an upper
+branch of the same name, offered no difficulty to man or beast;
+and the aneroid showed its height to be some 470 feet
+(28.13--28.50). The caravan, having preceded us, revenged itself
+by camping at the nearest pool, distant nineteen and a half
+direct geographical miles from our destination.
+
+This day was the first of the Khamsín or, as M. Loufti (?), a
+Coptic student, writes it, "Khamasín," from Khama ("warm") and
+Sina ("air").[EN#27] The Midianites call it El-Daufún, the hot
+blasts, and expect it to blow at intervals for a couple of
+months. This scirocco has been modified in Egypt, at least during
+the spring, apparently by the planting of trees. About a
+quarter-century ago, its regular course was three days: on the
+first it set in; the second was its worst; and men knew that it
+would exhaust itself on the third. Now it often lasts only a
+single day, and even that short period has breaks.
+
+The site of the camp made sleep well-nigh impossible--a bad
+preparation for the only long ride of this excursion. Setting off
+at dark (4.20 a.m., March 18th), we finished the monotonous Wady
+Kuwayd, which mouths upon the rolling ground falling coastwards.
+The track then struck to the north-west, across and sometimes
+down the network of Wadys that subtends the south-western
+Shárr--their names have already been mentioned. As we sighted the
+cool green-blue sea, its horizon-line appeared prodigiously
+uplifted, as if the Fountains of the great Deep were ready for
+another Deluge. I remembered the inevitable expressions of
+surprise with which, young Alpinists and ballooners, expecting
+the rim of the visible circle to fall away, see it rising around
+them in saucer-shape. The cause is simply that which breaks the
+stick in water, and which elevates the Sha'rr every
+morning--Refraction.
+
+After a march of seven hours (= twenty-two miles), we debouched,
+viâ the Wady Hárr, upon our old Sharm, the latter showing, for
+the first time since its creation, two war-steamers, with their
+"tender," a large Sambúk. The boats did not long keep us waiting;
+and we were delighted to tread once more the quarter-deck of the
+corvette Sinnár. Captain Ali Bey Shukri's place had been taken by
+Captain Hasan-Bey, an Osmanli of Cavala who, having been
+forty-eight years in the service, sighed for his pension. He did,
+however, everything in his power to make us feel "at home;" and
+the evening ended with a fantasia of a more pronounced character
+than anything that I had yet seen.[EN#28]
+
+
+
+
+
+     Résumé of the March Through Eastern or Central Midian.
+
+
+
+Our journey through Eastern or Central Midian lasted eighteen
+days (February 19--March 8), with an excursion of six (March
+13--18) to its apex, the mighty Shárr, which I would add to our
+exploration of Central Midian. Despite enforced slow marches at
+the beginning of the first section, we visited in round numbers,
+according to my itinerary, 197 miles: Lieutenant Amir's map gives
+a linear length of 222 miles, not including the offsets. The
+second part covered fifty-five miles, besides the ascent of the
+mountain to a height of about five thousand feet: the mapper also
+increased this figure to 59 2/3. Thus the route-line shows a
+grand total of 252 to 281 2/3 in direct statute miles. The number
+of camels engaged from Shaykhs ‘Alayán and Hasan was sixty-one;
+and the hire, according to Mr. Clarke, represented £147 6s. 6d.,
+not including the £40 of which we were plundered by the bandit
+Ma'ázah. The ascent of the Shárr also cost £40, making a grand
+total of £187 6s. 6d.
+
+The march to the Hismá gave us a fair idea of the three main
+formations of Madyan, which lie parallel and east of one
+another:--1. The sandy and stony maritime region, the foot-hills
+of the Gháts, granites and traps with large veins and outcrops of
+quartz; and Wadys lined with thick beds of conglomerate. 2. The
+Jibál el-Tihámah, the majestic range that bounds the seaboard
+inland, with its broad valleys and narrow gorges forming the only
+roads. 3. The Jibál el-Shafah, or interior ridge, the "lip" of
+North-Western Arabia; in fact, the boundary-wall of the Nejd
+plateau.
+
+The main object of this travel was to ascertain the depth from
+west to east of the quartz-formations, which had been worked by
+the Ancients. I had also hoped to find a virgin region lying
+beyond El-Harrah, the volcanic tract subtending the east of the
+Hismá, or plateau of New Red Sandstone. We ascertained, by
+inquiry, that the former has an extent wholly unsuspected by Dr.
+Wallin and by the first Expedition; and that a careful
+examination of it is highly desirable. But we were stopped upon
+the very threshold of the Hismá by the Ma'ázah, a tribe of
+brigands which must be subjected to discipline before the
+province of Madyan can be restored to its former status.
+
+This northern portion had been visited by Dr. Wallin; the other
+two-thirds of the march lay, I believe, over untrodden ground. We
+brought back details concerning the three great parallel Wadys;
+the Salmá, the Dámah, that "Arabian Arcadia," and the
+‘Aslah-Aznab. We dug into, and made drawings and plans of, the
+two principal ruined cities, Shuwák and Shaghab, which probably
+combined to form the classical <Greek>; and of the two less
+important sites, El-Khandaki and Umm Ámil.
+
+The roads of this region, and indeed of all Midian, are those of
+Iceland without her bogs and snows: for riding considerations we
+may divide them into four kinds:--
+
+1. Wady--the Fiumara or Nullah; called by travellers
+"winter-brook" and "dry river-bed." It is a channel without
+water, formed, probably, by secular cooling and contraction of
+the earth's surface, like the fissures which became true streams
+in the tropics, and in the higher temperate zones. Its geological
+age would be the same as the depressions occupied by the ocean
+and the "massive" eruptions forming the mountain-skeleton of the
+globe. Both the climate and the vegetation of Midian must have
+changed immensely if these huge features, many of them five miles
+broad, were ever full of water. In modern days, after the
+heaviest rains, a thin thread meanders down a wilderness of bed.
+
+The Wady-formation shows great regularity. Near the mouth its
+loose sands are comfortable to camels and distressing to man and
+mule. The gravel of the higher section is good riding; the upper
+part is often made impassable by large stones and overfalls of
+rock; and the head is a mere couloir. Flaked clay or mud show the
+thalweg; and the honeycombed ground, always above the line of
+highest water, the homes of the ant, beetle, jerboa, lizard, and
+(Girdi) rat, will throw even the cautious camel.
+
+2. Ghadír--the basin where rain-water sinks. It is mostly a
+shining bald flat of hard yellow clay, as admirable in dry as it
+is detestable in wet weather.
+
+3. Majrá--here pronounced "Maghráh"[EN#29]--the divide;
+literally, the place of flowing. It is the best ground of all,
+especially where the yellow or brown sands are overlaid by hard
+gravel, or by a natural metalling of trap and other stones.
+
+4. Wa'r--the broken stony surface, over which camels either
+cannot travel, or travel with difficulty: it is the horror of the
+Bedawi; and, when he uses the word, it usually means that it
+causes man to dismount. It may be of two kinds; either the Majrá
+proper ("divide") or the Nakb ("pass"), and the latter may safely
+be left to the reader's imagination.
+
+The partial ascent of the mighty Shárr gave an admirable study of
+the mode in which the granites have been enfolded and enveloped
+by the later eruptions of trap. Nor less curious, also, was it to
+remark how, upon this Arabian Alp, vegetation became more
+important; increasing, contrary to the general rule, not only in
+quantity but in size, and changing from the date and the Daum to
+the strong smelling Ferula, the homely hawthorn, and the tall and
+balmy juniper-tree. There is game, ibex and leopard, in these
+mountains; but the traveller, unless a man of leisure, must not
+expect to shoot or even to sight it.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XIV.
+Down South--to El-Wijh–Notes on the Quarantine--the Hutaym Tribe.
+
+
+
+There remained work to do before we could leave El-Muwaylah. The
+two Shaykhs, ‘Alayán and Hasan el-‘Ukbi, were to be paid off end
+dismissed with due ceremony; provisions were to be brought from
+the fort to the cove; useless implements to be placed in store;
+mules to be embarked--no joke without a pier!--and last, but not
+least, the ballastless Mukhbir was to be despatched with a mail
+for Suez. The whole Expedition, except only the sick left at the
+fort, was now bound southwards. The Sayyid and our friend Furayj
+accepted formal invitations to accompany us: Bukhayt, my
+"shadow," with Husayn, chef and romancer-general, were shipped as
+their henchmen; and a score of soldiers and quarrymen represented
+the escort and the working-hands. Briefly, the Sinnár, though
+fretting her vitals out at the delay, was detained two days
+(March 19--20) in the Sharm Yáhárr. Amongst other things that
+consoled us for quitting the snug dock, was the total absence of
+fish. At this season the shoals leave the coast, and gather round
+their wonted spawning-grounds, the deep waters near the Sha'b
+("reefs"), where they find luxuriant growths of seaweed, and
+where no ships disturb them.
+
+Bidding a temporary adieu to our old fellow voyagers on board the
+Mukhbir, including the excellent engineer, Mr. David Duguid, we
+steamed out of the quiet cove, at a somewhat late hour (6.30
+a.m.) on March 21st; and, dashing into the dark and slaty sea,
+stood to the south-east. For two days the equinoctial weather had
+been detestable, dark, cloudy, and so damp that the dry and the
+wet bulbs showed a difference of only 4°--5°. This morning, too,
+the fire of colour had suddenly gone out; and the heavens were
+hung with a gloomy curtain. The great Shárr, looming unusually
+large and tall in the Scandinavian mountain-scene, grey of shadow
+and glancing with sun-gleams that rent the thick veils of
+mist-cloud, assumed a manner of Ossianic grandeur. After three
+hours and a half we were abreast of Zibá, around whose dumpy
+tower all the population had congregated. Thence the regular
+coralline bank, whose beach is the Bab, runs some distance down
+coast, allowing passage to our ugly old friend, Wady Salmá. The
+next important mouth is the Wady ‘Amúd, showing two Sambúks at
+anchor, and a long line of vegetation like the palm-strips of the
+‘Akabah Gulf: this valley, I have said, receives the Mutadán,
+into which the Abú Marwah gorge discharges.[EN#30]
+
+It would appear that this "‘Amúd" represents the "Wady el-‘Aúníd," a
+name utterly unknown to the modern Arabs, citizens and Bedawin, at
+least as far south as El-Haurá. Yet it is famed amongst mediaeval
+geographers for its fine haven with potable water; and for its
+flourishing city, where honey was especially abundant. El-Idrísí
+settles the question of its site by placing it on the coast opposite
+the island El-Na'mán (Nu'mán), but can El-Idrísí be trusted?
+Sprenger (p. 24), induced, it would appear, by similarity of sound,
+and justly observing that in Arabic the letters Ayn and Ghayn are
+often interchanged, would here place the <Greek> (Rhaunathi Vicus)
+of Ptolemy (north lat. 25 degrees 40'). According to my friend,
+also, the Ras Abú Masárib, the long thin point north of which the
+Wady Dámah, half-way to the Wady Azlam, falls in, represents the
+<Greek> (Chersónesi Extrema) on the same parallel. I cannot help
+suspecting that both lie further south--in fact, somewhere about El-
+Haurá.[EN#31]
+
+Here the maritime heights, known as the Jibál ("Mountains" of
+the) Tihámat-Balawiyyah (of "the Baliyy tribe"), recede from the
+sea, and become mere hills and hillocks; yet the continuity of
+the chain is never completely broken. At noon we slipped into the
+channel, about a mile and a half broad, which separates the
+mainland from the Jebel ("Mount") Nu'mán, as the island is
+called: so the Arabs speak of Jebel (never Jezírat)
+Hassáni.[EN#32] The surface of the water was like oil after the
+cross seas on all sides, the tail of an old gale which the Arab
+pilots call Bahr madfún ("buried sea"), corresponding with the
+Italian mar vecchio. On our return northwards we landed upon
+Nu'mán, whose name derives from the red-flowered Euphorbia
+retusa; bathed, despite the school of sharks occupying the waters
+around; collected botany, and examined the ground carefully. Like
+the Dalmatian Archipelago, it once formed part of the mainland,
+probably separated by the process that raised the maritime range.
+The rolling sandy plateau and the dwarf Wadys are strewed with
+trap and quartz, neither of which could have been generated by
+the new sandstones and the yellow corallines. It has two fine
+bays, facing the shore and admirably defended from all winds; the
+southern not a little resembles Sináfir-cove.
+
+The "top," or dwarf plateau, commands a fine view of the coast
+scenery; the "Pins" of the Shárr; the Mutadán Mountain, twin ridges
+of grey white granite, and, further south, the darker forms of
+Raydán and Zigláb. Here, during springtide, the Huwaytát transport
+their flocks in the light craft called Katirah, and feed them till
+the pasture is browsed down. We made extensive inquiries, but could
+hear of no ruins. Yet the islet, some three to four miles long by
+one broad, forming a natural breakwater to the coast, is important
+enough to bear, according to Sprenger, a classical name, the <Greek>
+(Timagenis Insula) of Ptolemy. If this be the case, either the
+Pelusian or his manuscripts are greatly in error. He places the bank
+in north lat. 25° 45', whilst its centre would be in north lat. 27°
+5'; and the sixty miles of distance from the coast, evidently the
+blunder of a copyist, must be reduced to a maximum of three.
+
+Passing another old friend, the Aslah-Aznab, down whose head we
+had ridden to Shaghab, about two p.m. we steamed along the mouth
+of the Wady Azlam, the Ezlam of Wellsted,[EN#33] which he unduly
+makes the southern frontier of the Huwaytát, and the northern of
+the Baliyy tribes. Beyond it is the gape of the once populous
+Wady Dukhán--of "the (furnace?) Smoke"--faced by a large splay of
+tree-grown sand. Ruins are reported in its upper bed. Beyond
+Marsá Zubaydah (not Zebaider), the sea is bordered by the
+red-yellow coast-range; and the fretted sky line of peaks and
+cones, "horses" and "hogs'-backs," is cut by deep valleys and
+drained by dark "gates." The background presents a long, regular
+curtain of black hill, whose white sheets and veins may be
+granite and quartz. We were then shown the Mínat el-Marrah, one
+of the many Wady-mouths grown with vegetation; and here the ruins
+El-Nabagah (Nabakah) are spoken of. At four p.m. we doubled the
+Ras Labayyiz (not Lebayhad), a long flat tongue projecting from
+the coast range, and defending its valley to the south. In the
+Fara't or upper part, some five hours' march from the mouth, lie
+important remains of the Mutakkadimín ("ancients"). The report
+was confirmed by an old Arab Básh-Buzúk at El-Wijh; he declared
+that in his youth he had seen a tall furnace, and a quantity of
+scoriæ from which copper could be extracted, lying northwards at
+a distance of eighteen hours' march and five by sea.
+
+The next important feature is the Wady Salbah, the Telbah of the
+Chart, up whose inland continuation, the Wady el-Nejd, we shall
+travel. Here the coast-range again veers off eastward; and the
+regular line is cut up into an outbreak of dwarf cones, mere
+thimbles. Above the gloomy range that bounds it southwards,
+appear the granitic peaks and "Pins" of Jebel Libn, gleaming
+white and pale in the livid half-light of a cloudy sunset. After
+twelve hours' steaming over seventy to seventy-two knots of reefy
+sea, we ran carefully into the Sharm Dumayghah.[EN#34] This
+lake-like, land-locked cove is by far the best of the many good
+dock-harbours which break the Midian coast. Its snug retreat gave
+hospitality to half a dozen Juhayni Sambúks, fishers and divers
+for mother-of-pearl, riding beyond sight of the outer world, and
+utterly safe from the lighthouse dues of El-Wijh.
+
+I resolved to pass a day at these old quarters of a certain Háji
+‘Abdullah. The hydrographers have given enlarged plans of Yáhárr
+and Jibbah, ports close to each other; while they have ignored
+the far more deserving Sharm Dumayghah. Distant only thirty miles
+of coasting navigation, a line almost clear of reefs and shoals,
+it is the natural harbour for the pilgrim-ships, which ever run
+the danger of being wrecked at El-Wijh; and it deserves more
+notice than we have hitherto vouchsafed to it. The weather also
+greatly improved on the next day (March 22nd): the cloud-canopy,
+the excessive moisture, and the still sultriness which had
+afflicted us since March 19th, were in process of being swept
+away by the strong, cool, bright norther.
+
+The survey of the Egyptian officers shows an oval extending from
+north-west to south-east, with four baylets or bulges in the
+northern shore. The length is upwards of a knot, and the breadth
+twelve hundred yards. It may be described as the embouchure of
+the Wady Dumayghah, which falls into its head, and which,
+doubtless, in olden times, when the land was wooded, used to roll
+a large and turbulent stream. As is often seen on this coast, the
+entrance is defended by a natural breakwater which appears like a
+dot upon the Chart. Capped with brown crust, falling bluff
+inland, and sloping towards the main, where the usual stone-heaps
+act as sea-marks, this bank of yellowish-white coralline,
+measuring 310 metres by half that width, may be the remains of
+the bed in which the torrents carved out the port. The northern
+inlet is a mere ford of green water: my "Pilgrimage" made the
+mistake of placing a fair-way passage on either side of the
+islet. The southern channel, twenty-five fathoms deep and three
+hundred metres broad, is garnished on both flanks with a hundred
+metres of dangerous shallow, easily distinguished by green
+blazoned upon blue. The bay is shoal to the south-east; the best
+anchorage for ships lies to the north-west, almost touching land.
+A reef or rock is reported to be in the middle ground, where we
+lay with ten fathoms under us: it was seen, they say, at night,
+by the aid of lanterns; but next morning Lieutenants Amir and
+Yusuf were unable to find it. Native craft usually make fast in
+three fathoms to a lumpy natural mole of modern sandstone, north
+of the entrance: a little trimming would convert it into a
+first-rate pier.
+
+At this place we landed to prospect the country, and to gather
+information from the Sambúk crews before they had time to hoist
+sail and be off. The owners of the land are not Juhaynah, the
+"Wild Men" with whom the Rais of the Golden Wire had threatened
+us in 1853. The country belongs to the Baliyy; now an inoffensive
+tribe well subject to Egypt, mixed with a few Kura'án-Huwaytát
+and Karáizah-Hutaym. The fishermen complained that no fish was to
+be caught, and the strong tides, setting upon the stony flank of
+the mole, had broken most of the shells, not including, however,
+the oysters. The usual eight-ribbed turtle appeared to be common.
+On the sands to the north, M. Lacaze picked up a large old and
+bleached skull, which went into my collection; we failed to find
+any neighbouring burial-ground. Striking inland, however, towards
+the dotted square, marked "Fort (ruin)" in the Chart, we came
+upon an ancient cemetery to the north of the bay, and concluded
+that these graves had been mistaken for remains of building.
+
+We then bent eastward towards the Jibál el-Salbah, and examined
+the two dwarf valleys which, threading the heights, feed the Wady
+Dumayghah. That to the south showed us a perfectly familiar
+formation; conglomerates of water-rolled pebbles in the lower
+levels, and hills of the normal dark porphyries, with large
+quartz-seams of many colours trending in every direction. The
+mouth of the northern gorge was blocked by a vein of finely
+crystallized carbonate of lime, containing geodes and bunches.
+The taste is astringent, probably from the alumina; and it is
+based upon outcrops of a sandy calcaire apparently fit for
+hydraulic cement. The only novelty in the vegetation was the
+Fashak-tree, a creeper like a gigantic constrictor, with sweet
+yellow wood somewhat resembling liquorice.
+
+Signs of Arab everywhere appeared, but there were no tents.
+Consequently we were unable to ascertain the extent of the
+water-supply--an important matter if this is to become the port
+of El-Wijh. The Sambúks might bring it, but the people on shore
+would be dependent upon what they can find. The Hajj-road,
+running some miles inland, is doubtless supplied with it. Even,
+however, were the necessary wanting, the pilgrim-ships, whilst
+taking refuge here, could easily transport it from the south.
+Shaykh Furayj; pointed out to us the far northern blue peaks of
+the ‘Amúd Zafar, in whose branch-Wady lie the ruins of M'jirmah.
+The day ended with a sudden trembling of the ship, as if
+straining at anchor; but the crew was again performing fantasia,
+and the earthquake or sea-quake rolled unheededly away.
+Apparently the direction was from north to south: I noted the
+hour, 9.10 p.m., and the duration, twenty seconds. According to
+the Arabs the Zilzilah is not uncommon in Midian, especially
+about the vernal equinox: on this occasion it ended the spell of
+damp and muggy weather which began on March 19th, and which may
+have been connected with it.
+
+The survey soundings were not finished till nearly eight a.m.
+(March 23rd), when the old corvette swung round on her heel; and,
+with the black hills of Salbah to port, resumed her rolling,
+rollicking way southwards. Her only ballast consisted of some six
+hundred conical shot, or twelve tons for a ship of eight hundred.
+After one hour of steaming (= seven miles) we passed the green
+mouth of the Wady ‘Antar, in whose Istabl ("stable"), or upper
+valley-course, the pilgrimage-caravan camps. It drains a small
+inland feature to the north-east, the true "Jebel ‘Antar," which
+the Hydrographic Chart has confounded with the great block,
+applying, moreover, the term Istabl to the height instead of the
+hollow. This Jebel Libn, along which we are now steaming, is a
+counterpart on a small scale, a little brother, of the Shárr,
+measuring 3733 instead of 6000 to 6500 feet. We first see from
+the north a solid block capped with a mural crown of three peaks.
+When abreast of us the range becomes a tall, fissured, and
+perpendicular wall: this apical comb, bluff to the west, reposes
+upon a base sloping, at the angle of rest, to the environing
+sandy Wady. To complete the resemblance, even the queer "Pins"
+are not wanting; and I should expect to find in it all the
+accidents of the giant of El-Muwaylah.
+
+The complexion of the Libn, which the people pronounce "Libin,"
+suggests grey granite profusely intersected with white quartz:
+hence, probably, the name, identical with Lebanon and
+Libanus--"the Milk Mountain." The title covers a multitude of
+peaks: the Bedawin have, doubtless, their own terms for every
+head and every hollow. The citizens comprehensively divide the
+block into two, El-Áli ("the Upper") being its southern, and
+El-Asfal ("the Lower") its northern, section. It is said to
+abound in water; and a Nakhil ("date-grove") is described as
+growing near the summit. The Hutaym, who own most of it, claim
+the lover and hero-poet, ‘Antar, as one of their despised
+tribe--hence, probably, his connection with the adjoining
+mountain and "the stable."
+
+"Jebel Libin" is the great feature of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah; for
+many days it will appear to follow us, and this is the proper
+place for assigning its rank and status to it. About El-‘Akabah,
+the northern head of the Gháts or coast-range, we have prospected
+the single chain of Jebel Shará'; the "Sa'ar of the tribes of the
+Shasu" (Bedawin)[EN#35] in the papyri, and the Hebrew Mount Seir,
+the "rough" or "rugged." Further south we have noted how this
+tall eastern bulwark of the great Wady el-‘Arabah bifurcates;
+forming the Shafah chain to the east, and westward of it, in
+Madyan Proper, the Jibál el-Tihámah, of which the Shárr is
+perhaps the culmination. We have noted the accidents of the
+latter as far as Dumayghah Cove, and now we descry in the offing
+the misty forms--how small they look!--of the Jebel el-Ward; the
+Jibál el-Safhah; the two blocks, south of the Wady Hamz, known as
+the Jibál el-Rál; and their neighbours still included in the
+Tihámat-Balawíyyah. Lastly, we shall sight, behind El-Haurá, the
+Abú Ghurayr and a number of blocks which, like the former, are
+laid down, but are not named, in the Chart.
+
+Beyond El-Haurá the chain stretches southwards its mighty links
+with smaller connections. The first is the bold range Jebel
+Radwah, the "Yambo Hills" of the British sailor, some six
+thousand feet high and lying twenty-five miles behind the new
+port.[EN#36] Passing it to left on the route to El-Medínah, I
+heard the fables which imposed upon Abyssinian Bruce: "All sorts
+of Arabian fruits grew to perfection on the summit of these
+hills; it is the paradise of the people of Yenbo, those of any
+substance having country-houses there." This was hardly probable
+in Bruce's day, and now it is impossible. The mountain is held by
+the Beni Harb, a most turbulent tribe, for which see my
+"Pilgrimage."[EN#37] Their head Shaykh, Sa'd the Robber, who
+still flourished in 1853, is dead; but he has been succeeded by
+one of his sons, Shaykh Hudayfah, who is described with simple
+force as being a "dog more biting than his sire." Between these
+ill-famed haunts of the Beni Harb and Jeddah rises the Jebel
+Subh, "a mountain remarkable for its magnitude" (4500 feet),
+inhabited by the Beni Subh, a fighting clan of the "Sons of
+Battle."
+
+The largest links of these West-Arabian Gháts are of white-grey
+granite, veined and striped with quartz; and they are subtended
+inland by the porphyritic traps of the Jibál el-Shafah, which we
+shall trace to the parallel of El-Hamz, the end of Egypt. I
+cannot, however, agree with Wellsted (II. xii.) that the ridges
+increase in height as they recede from the sea; nor that the
+veins of quartz run horizontally through the "dark granite." The
+greater altitudes (three to six thousand feet) are visible from
+an offing of forty to seventy miles; and they are connected by
+minor heights: some of these, however, are considerable, and here
+and there they break into detached pyramids. All are maritime,
+now walling the shore, like the Tayyib Ism; then sheering away
+from it, where a broad "false coast" has been built by Time.
+
+These western Gháts, then, run down, either in single or in
+double line, the whole length of occidental Arabia; and, meeting
+a similar and equally important eastern line, they form a mighty
+nucleus, the mountains of El-Yemen. After carefully inspecting,
+and making close inquiries concerning, a section of some five
+hundred miles, I cannot but think that the mines of precious
+ores, mentioned by the mediæval Arabian geographers,[EN#38] lay
+and lie in offsets from the flanks either of the maritime or the
+inland chain; that is, either in the Tihámah, the coast lowlands,
+or in the El-Nejd, the highland plateau of the interior.
+
+What complicates the apparently simple ground is the long line of
+volcanic action which, forming the eastern frontier of the
+plutonic granites and of the modern grits, may put forth veins
+even to the shores of the ‘Akabah Gulf and the Red Sea.[EN#39]
+The length, known to me by inquiry, would be about three degrees
+between north lat. 28° and 25°, the latter being the parallel of
+El-Medínah; others make them extend to near Yambú', in north lat.
+24° 5'. They may stretch far to the north, and connect, as has
+been suggested, with the Syrian centres of eruption, discovered
+by the Palestine Exploration. I have already explained[EN#40] how
+and why we were unable to visit "the Harrah" lying east of the
+Hismá; but we repeatedly saw its outlines, and determined that
+the lay is from north-west to south-east. Further south, as will
+be noticed at El-Haurá, the vertebrae curve seawards or to the
+south-west; and seem to mingle with the main range, the mountains
+of the Tihámat-Jahaníyyah ("of the Juhaynah"). Thus the formation
+assumes an importance which has never yet been attributed to it;
+and the five several "Harrahs," reported to me by the Bedawin,
+must be studied in connection with the mineralogical deposits of
+the chains in contact with them. It must not be forgotten that a
+fragment of porous basalt, picked up by the first Expedition near
+Makná, yielded a small button of gold.[EN#41]
+
+Dreadfully rolled the Sinnár, as she ran close in-shore before
+the long heavy swell from the north-west, and the old saying, Bon
+rouleur, bon marcheur, is cold consolation to an active man made
+to idle malgré lui. This section of the coast, unlike that to the
+north, is remarkably free from reefs. A little relief was felt
+while sheltered by the short tract of channel between the
+mainland and the shoals. But the nuisance returned in force as,
+doubling the Ras Muraybit (not Marabat), we sighted the two
+towers of El-Wijh, both beflagged, the round Burj of the fort,
+and the cubical white-washed lighthouse crowning its rocky point.
+And we were quiet once more when the Sinnár, having covered the
+thirty miles in four hours and thirty minutes, cast anchor in the
+usual place, south-east of the northern jaw. The main objection
+to our berth is that the prevailing north wind drives in a
+rolling sea from the open west. The log showed a total of 102
+miles between the Sharms Yáhárr and El-Wijh, or 107 from the
+latter to El-Muwaylah.
+
+"El-Wijh," meaning the face, a word which the Egyptian Fellah
+perverts to "Wish," lies in north lat. 26° 14'. It is the
+northernmost of the townlets on the West Arabian shore, which
+gain importance as you go south; e.g., Yambá', Jeddah, Mocha, and
+Aden. It was not wholly uncivilized during my first visit, a
+quarter of a century ago, when I succeeded in buying opium for
+feeble patients. Distant six stations from Yambá', and ten from
+El-Medínah, it has been greatly altered and improved. The
+pilgrim-caravan, which here did penance of quarantine till the
+last two years, has given it a masonry pier for landing the
+unfortunates to encamp upon the southern or uninhabited side of
+the cove. A tall and well-built lighthouse, now five years old,
+boasts of a good French lantern, wanting only soap and decent
+oil. Finally, guardhouses and bakehouses, already falling to
+ruins like the mole, and an establishment for condensing water,
+still kept in working order, are the principal and costly
+novelties of the southern shore.
+
+The site of El-Wijh is evidently old, although the ruins have
+been buried under modern buildings. Sprenger (p. 21) holds the
+townlet to be the port of "Egra, a village" (El-Hajar, or "the
+town, the townlet"?) "in the territory of Obodas," whence,
+according to Strabo (xvi. c. 4, § 24), Ælius Gallus embarked his
+baffled troops for Myus Hormus.[EN#42] Formerly he believed
+El-Aúníd to be Strabo's "Egra," the haven for the north; as
+El-Haurá was for the south, and El-Wijh for the central regions.
+Pliny (vi. 32) also mentions the "Tamudæi, with their towns of
+Domata and Hegra, and the town of Badanatha." It is generally
+remarked that "Egra" does not appear in Ptolemy's lists; yet one
+of the best texts (Nobbe, Lipsia, 1843) reads <Greek> instead
+of the "Negran" which Pirckheymerus (Lugduni, MDXXXV.) and others
+placed in north lat. 26°.
+
+My learned friend writes to me--"El-Wijh, on the coast of Arabia,
+is opposite to Qoçayr (El-Kusayr), where Ælius Gallus landed his
+troops. We know that ‘Egra' is the name of a town in the
+interior, and it was the constant habit to call the port after
+the capital of the country, e.g., Arabia Emporium = Aden. We have
+now only to inquire whether El-Wijh had claims to be considered
+the seaport of El-Hijr." This difficulty is easily settled.
+El-Wijh is still the main, indeed the only, harbour in South
+Midian; and, during our stay there, a large caravan brought
+goods, as will be seen, from the upper Wady Hamz.
+
+Under the influence of the quarantine, El-Wijh, the town on the
+northern bank of its cove, has blossomed into a hauteville,
+dating from the last dozen years. The ancient basseville,
+probably the site of many former settlements, is now used chiefly
+for shops and stores. Another and a more pretentious mosque has
+supplanted the little old Záwiyah ("chapel") with its barbarous
+minaret, whose finial, a series of inverted crescents, might be
+taken for a cross; while a Jámi' or "cathedral," begun in the
+upper town, has stopped short through want of funds. Some of the
+best houses now extend towards the northern point. As usual in
+Arab settlements, they are long, tall claret-cases of coral-rag
+and burnt lime; flat-roofed, whitewashed in front, and provided
+with wooden doors and shutters. Lastly, on the slope still
+appears the smoky coffee-shed that witnessed the memorable
+encounter between its surly proprietor and "Saad the
+Devil."[EN#43]
+
+Stony ramps, stiff as those of Gibraltar, connect the low with
+the high town, the cool breezy new settlement upon the crest of
+the northern cliff, whose noble view of the Jebel Libn and the
+palm-scattered Wady el-Wijh were formerly monopolized by the fort
+and its round tower. This work, only sixty-five years old, now
+stands so perilously near the undermined edge of the
+rock-cornice, that some day it will come down with a run. It is
+used by the garrison, and serves as a jail; but lately a Bedawi
+prisoner, like a certain Mamlúk Bey, jumped down the precipitous
+cove-face and effected his escape. Behind it are the "Doctors'
+Quarters," empty and desolate, because the sanitary officers have
+been removed. They are sheds of white-washed boarding, brought
+from the Crimea, like those of the Suez Canal; and comfortably
+distributed into Harem, kitchens, offices, and other necessaries.
+
+The inhabitants of El-Wijh may number twelve hundred, without
+including chance travellers and the few wretched Bedawin, Hutaym
+and others, who pitch their black tents, like those of
+Alexandrian "Ramleh," about and beyond the town. The people live
+well; and the merchants are large and portly men, who evidently
+thrive upon meat and rice. Flesh is retailed in the bazar, and
+mutton is cheap, especially when the Bedawin are near; a fine
+large sheep being dear at ten shillings. Water is exceptionally
+abundant, even without the condenser's aid. The poorer classes
+and animals are watered at the pits and the two regular wells
+near the valley's mouth, half an hour's trudge from the town. The
+wealthy are supplied by the inland fort, which we shall presently
+visit: the distance going and coming would be about four slow
+hours, and the skinful costs five Khurdah, or copper piastres =
+three halfpence. The inner gardens grow a small quantity of green
+meat: water-melons are brought from Yambá(?): opium and Hashísh
+abound, but no spirits are for sale since the one Greek Bakkál,
+or petty shopkeeper, "made tracks." He borrowed from a certain
+Surúr Selámah, negro merchant and head miser, 150 napoleons, in
+order to buy on commission certain bales of cotton shipwrecked up
+coast; he left in pledge the keys of his miserable store, which,
+by-the-by, la loi refuses to open; he was never seen again, and
+poor rich Surur is in the depths of despair.
+
+One of the small industries of El-Wijh is the pearl trade. Mr.
+Clarke bought for £4 (twenty dollars) a specimen of good round
+form but rather yellow colour; and presently refused £5 for it.
+Those of pear-shape easily fetch thirty-six to forty dollars.
+Turquoises set in sealing-wax are sold cheap by the returning
+Persian pilgrims: the Zib el-Bahr ("Sea-wolf"), an Egyptian
+cruiser, had carried off the best shortly before our arrival. The
+people speak of an ‘Akík ("carnelian") which, rubbed down in
+vinegar, enters into the composition of a favourite philtre--we
+could not, however, find any for sale. On our return, an ‘Anezah
+caravan of some ninety camels, driven by a hundred or so of
+spearmen and matchlockmen, came in loaded with valuable Samn or
+clarified butter: the fact suggests that the time has come for
+establishing a Gumruk ("custom-house") at El-Wijh. Another source
+of wealth will be El-Melláhah, "the salina," along which we shall
+travel: every man who has a donkey may carry off what he pleases,
+and sell to pilgrims and Bedawin the kilogramme for four piastres
+copper (= one piastre currency = five farthings). This again
+should be taken in hand by Government; and regular "salterns,"
+like those of Triestine Capodistria, would greatly increase the
+quantity. Nothing can be better than the quality except
+rock-salt. There is another salina about one hour down the coast,
+formed by a reef, near the Ras el-Ma'llah.
+
+The afternoon of arrival was spent in receiving visits. The
+Muháfiz or "civil governor," Hasan Bey, calls himself a
+Circassian: he is a handsome old man, whose straight features
+suggest the Greek slave, and who served in the Syrian campaigns
+under Ibrahim Pasha. Forty years ago he left his home; he has
+been here six years, and yet he knows absolutely nothing of the
+interior. He ought to reside at the inland fort, but he prefers
+the harbour-town; and he had not the common-sense to ride out
+with us. He shows his zeal by inventing obstacles; for instance,
+he suggests that the Bedawin should leave, during our journey,
+hostages at the fort: this is wholly unnecessary, and means only
+piastres. The Yuzbáshi, or "military commandant," Sid-Ahmed
+Effendi, has charge of the forty-five regulars, half a company,
+who garrison the post and outpost. The chief merchant, who
+afterwards volunteered to be our travelling companion, is
+Mohammed Shahádah, formerly Wakil ("agent") of the fort, a charge
+now abolished by a pound-foolish policy: he is an honest and
+intelligent, a charitable and companionable man, who has
+travelled far and wide over the interior, and who knows the
+tribes by heart. I strongly recommended him to his Highness the
+Viceroy. His brothers, Bedawi and Ali Shahádah, are also
+open-handed to the poor; very unlike their brother-in-law Surúr
+Selámah, formerly a slave to the father of Mohammed Selámah whom
+we had met at Zibá. The list of notables ends with the Sayyid
+Ibrahim El-Mara'í and with the sturdy Abd el-Hakk, pearl and
+general merchant. All recognized our friend the Sayyid, whom even
+the "gutter-boys" saluted by name; and, although the Arab manner
+is blunt and independent, all showed perfect civility. It is
+needless to say that our late work, and our future plans, were
+known to everybody at El-Wijh as well as to ourselves; and that
+the tariffs of pay and hire, established in the North Country, at
+once became the norm of the South.
+
+Our favourite walk at old "Egra" was to the quarantine-ground and
+the lighthouse. The situation of the town is by no means
+satisfactory, and the heavy dews of April, wetting the streets,
+cause frequent fevers. En revanche, nothing can be more healthy
+or exhilarating than the air of the tall plateau to the south of
+the cove. The quarantine-ground, with its grand view of the
+mountains inland, ends seawards in the Pharos that commands an
+horizon of blue water. The latter, according to the charts, is
+one hundred and six feet above sea-level, and is theoretically
+visible for fourteen miles; practice would reduce this radius to
+ten, and the least haze to six and even five.
+
+The lighthouse-charges are strongly objected to by the skippers
+of Arab fishing-boats, although very small in their case.
+Square-rigged vessels pay per ton twenty parahs (tariff): thus it
+costs a ship of five hundred tons £2 10s. (Turkish). The keeper.
+under Admiral M'Killop (Pasha), a young Greek named "Gurjí," as
+"George" here sounds, is assisted by a Moslem lad, Mohammed
+Effendi of Alexandria. They serve for three years, and they look
+forward to the end of them. The former also superintends the
+condensing establishment: this office is a sinecure, except
+during the three months of pilgrim-passage. The machine can
+distil eighteen tons per diem; and there is another
+water-magazine, an old paddle-wheeler moored to the beach under
+the town. Behind the establishment lies the pilgrim-cemetery.
+frequented by hyenas that prowl around the lighthouse,
+threatening the canine guard. I found a new use for this vermin's
+brain: it is administered by the fair ones at El-Wijh to jealous
+husbands, upon whom, they tell me, it acts as a sedative.
+
+El-Wijh has been heard of in England as the prophylactic against
+the infected Hejaz. It is admirably suited for quarantine
+purposes, and it has been abolished, very unwisely, in favour of
+"Tor harbour." The latter, inhabited by a ring of thievish
+Syro-Greek traders; backed by a wretched wilderness, alternately
+swampy and sandy, is comfortless to an extent calculated to make
+the healthiest lose health. Moreover, its climate, says Professor
+Palmer (p. 222), is very malarious: "owing to the low and marshy
+nature of the ground, there is a great deal of miasma even in the
+winter season." Finally, and worst of all, it is near enough to
+Suez for infection to travel easily. A wealthy pilgrim has only
+to pay a few gold pieces, his escape to the mountains is winked
+at; and thence he travels or voyages comfortably to Suez and
+Cairo. Even without such irregularities, the transmission of
+contaminated clothing, or other articles, would suffice to spread
+cholera, typhus, and smallpox. Tor is, in fact, an excellent
+medium for focussing and for propagating contagious disease; and
+its vicinity to Egypt, and consequently to Europe, suggests that
+it should at once be abolished.
+
+At first I lent ear to the popular statement at El-Wijh; namely,
+that the visiting doctors and the resident sanitary officers
+naturally prefer the shorter to the longer voyage, and the nearer
+station to that further from home. Moreover, inasmuch as, if
+inclined to be dishonest, they find more opportunities in the
+north, it was their interest to transfer the establishment to
+Tor. The local authorities, the people assured me, were induced
+to report that the single fort-well had run dry; that the
+condensers had proved a failure, and that the old
+steamer-magazine, into which they had poured brine, was leaky and
+inefficient. But what was my astonishment when, after return to
+Cairo, I was told that the change had been strongly advocated by
+the English Government?
+
+The objections to El-Wijh are two, both equally invalid. The port
+is dangerous, especially when westerly winds are blowing: ships
+during the pilgrimage-season must bank their fires, ever ready to
+run out. True; but it has been shown that Sharm Dumayghah, the
+best of its kind, lies only thirty knots to the north. The
+second, want of water, or of good water, is even less cogent. We
+have seen that the seaboard wells supply the poorer classes and
+animals; and we shall presently see the Fort-wells, which, in
+their day, have watered caravans containing twenty to thirty
+thousand thirsty men and beasts. So far from the condensers being
+a failure, the tank still holds about twenty tons of distilled
+water, although it gives drink to some thirty mouths composing
+the establishment. Finally, the old steamer has done its duty
+well, and, like the proverbial Marine, is still ready to do its
+duty again.[EN#44]
+
+Thus the expense of laying out the quarantine-ground at El-Wijh
+has been pitifully wasted. That, however, is a very small matter;
+the neglect of choosing a proper position is serious, even
+ominous. Unlike Tor, nothing can be healthier or freer from fever
+than the pilgrims' plateau. From El-Wijh, too, escape is
+hopeless: the richest would not give a piastre to levant;
+because, if a solitary traveller left the caravan, a Bedawi
+bullet would soon prevail on him to stop. This, then, should be
+the first long halt for the "compromised" travelling northwards.
+When contagious disease has completely disappeared, the second
+precautionary delay might be either at Tor or, better still, at
+the "Wells of Moses" (‘Uyun Músá), near the head of the Suez
+Gulf: here sanitary conditions are far more favourable; and here
+supplies, including medical comforts, would be cheaper as well as
+more abundant. Briefly, it is my conviction that, under present
+circumstances, "Tor" is a standing danger, not only to Egypt, but
+to universal Europe.
+
+The coast about El-Wijh is famed for shells; the numerous reefs
+and shoals favouring the development of the molluscs. We were
+promised a heavy haul by the citizens, who, however, contented
+themselves with picking up the washed-out specimens found
+everywhere on the shore: unfortunately we had no time to
+superintend the work. A caseful was submitted to the British
+Museum, and a few proved interesting on account of their
+locality. The list printed at the end of this chapter was kindly
+supplied to me by Mr. Edgar A. Smith, superintendent of the
+Conchological Department.
+
+I will conclude this chapter with a short notice the Hutaym or
+Hitaym, a people extremely interesting to me. They are known to
+travellers only as a low caste. Wellsted (II. xii.) tells us that
+the "Huteimi," whom he would make the descendants of the
+Ichthyophagi described by Diodorus Siculus and other classics,
+are noticed by several Arabian authorities. "In one, the Kitab
+el-Mush Serif[EN#45] (Musharrif?), they are styled ‘Hooteïn,' the
+descendants of ‘Hooter,' a servant of Moses." He also relates a
+legend that the Apostle of Allah pronounced them polluted,
+because they ate the flesh of dogs. Others declare that they
+opposed Mohammed when he was rebuilding the Ka'bah; and thereby
+drew upon themselves the curse that they should be held the
+"basest of the Arabs." These tales serve to prove one fact, the
+antiquity of the race.
+
+The Hutaym, meaning the "Broken" (tribe), hold, in Midian and
+Egypt, the position of Pariahs, like the Akhdám "serviles", or
+Helots, of Maskat and El-Yemen. No clan of pure Arabs will
+intermarry with them; and when the Fellahs say, Tatahattim
+(=tatamaskin or tatazalli), they mean, "Thou cringest, thou makest
+thyself contemptible as a Hutaymi." Moreover, they must pay the
+dishonouring Akháwat, or "brother-tax," to all the Bedawin
+amongst whom they settle.
+
+The Hutaym are scattered as they are numerous. They have
+extended, probably in ancient times, to Upper Egypt, and occupy
+parts of Nubia; about Sawákin they are an important clan. They
+number few in the Sinaitic Peninsula and in Midian, but they
+occupy the very heart of the Arabian Peninsula. Those settled on
+Jebel Libn, we have seen, claim as their kinsman the legendary
+‘Antar, who was probably a negro of the noble Semitic stock. A
+few are camped about El-Wijh; and they become more important down
+coast. In the eastern regions bordering upon Midian, they form
+large and powerful bodies, such as the Nawámisah and the
+Sharárát, whose numbers and bravery secure for them the respect
+of their fighting equestrian neighbours, the Ruwalá-‘Anezah.
+
+Like other Arabs, the Hutaym tribe is divided into a multitude of
+clans, septs, and families, each under its own Shaykh. All are
+Moslems, after the Desert pattern, a very rude and inchoate
+article. Wellsted knew them by their remarkably broad chins: the
+Bedawi recognize them by their look; by their peculiar accent,
+and by the use of certain peculiar words, as Harr! when
+donkey-driving. The men are unwashed and filthy; the women walk
+abroad unveiled, and never refuse themselves, I am told, to the
+higher blood.
+
+The Arabs of Midian always compare the Hutaym with the Ghagar
+(Ghajar) or Gypsies of Egypt; and this is the point which gives
+the outcasts a passing interest. I have not yet had an
+opportunity of carefully studying the race; nor can I say whether
+it shows any traces of skill in metal-working. Meanwhile, we must
+inquire whether these Helots, now so dispersed, are not old
+immigrants of Indian descent, who have lost their Aryan language,
+like the Egyptian Ghajar. In that case they would represent the
+descendants of the wandering tribes who worked the most ancient
+ateliers. Perhaps they may prove to be congeners of the men of
+the Bronze Age, and of the earliest waves of Gypsy-immigration
+into Europe.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             NOTE.
+
+
+
+A list of the shells collected by the second Khedivial Expedition
+on the shore of Midian and the Gulf of ‘Akabah, by Edgar A.
+Smith, Esq., British Museum.
+
+I. Gastropoda.
+     1.  Conus textile, Linné.
+     2.  Conus sumatrensis, Hwass.
+     3.  Conus catus var., Hwass.
+     4.   Conus larenatus, Hwass.
+     5.   Conus hebræus, Linné.
+     6.   Conus ividus(?), Hwass.
+     6a.  Conus ceylanensis, Hwass.
+     7.   Terebra maculata, Linné.
+     8.   Terebra dimidiata, Linné.
+     9.   Terebra consobrina, Deshayes.
+     10.  Terebra (Impages) cærulescens, Lamarck.
+     11.  Pleurotoma cingulifera, Lamarck.
+     11a.      Murex tribulus, Linn.
+     12.  Murex (Chicoreus) inflatus, Lamarck.
+     13.  Cassidulus paradisiacus, Reeve.
+     14.  Nassa coronata, Lamarck.
+     15.  Nassa pulla, Linné.
+     16.  Engina (Pusiostoma) mendicaria, Lamarck.
+     17.  Cantharus (Tritonidea) sp. juv.
+     18.  Purpura hippocastanum, Lamarck.
+     19.  Sistrum arachnoides, Lamarck.
+     20.  Sistrum fiscellum, Chemnitz.
+     21.  Sistrum tuberculatum, Blainville.
+     22.  Harpa solida, A. Adams.
+     23.  Fasciolaria trapezium, Lamarck.
+     24.  Turbinella cornigera, Lamarck.
+     25.  Dolium (Malea) pomum, Linné.
+     26.  Triton maculosus, Reeve.
+     27.  Triton aquatilis, Reeve.
+     28.  Triton (Persona) anus, Lamarck.
+     29.  Natica (Polinices) mamilla, Linné.
+     30.  Natica albula(?), Récluz.
+     31.  Natica (Mamilla) melanostoma, Lamarck.
+     32.  Solarium perspectivum, Linné.
+     33.  Cypræa arabica, Linné.
+     34.  Cypræa pantherina, Linné.
+     35.  Cypræa camelopardalis, Perry.
+     36.  Cypræa carneola, Linné.
+     37.  Cypræa scurra, Chemnitz.
+     38.  Cypræa erosa, Linné.
+     39.  Cypræa tabescens(?), Solander.
+     40.  Cypræa caurica, Linné.
+     41.  Cypræa talpa, Linné.
+     41B.      Cypraea lynx, Linné.
+     42.       Cerithium tuberosum, Fabricius.
+     43.  Turritella torulosa(?), Kiener.
+     44.  Strombus tricornis, Lamarck.
+     45.  Strombus gibberulus, Linné.
+     46.  Strombus floridus, Lamarck.
+     47.  Strombus fasciatus, Born.
+     48.  Pterocera truncatum, Lamarck.
+     49.  Planaxis breviculus, Deshayes.
+     50.  Nerita marmorata, Reeve.
+     51.  Nerita quadricolor, Gmelin.
+     52.  Nerita rumphii Récluz.
+     53.  Turbo petholatus, Linné.
+     54.  Turbo chrysostoma var.(?), Linné.
+     55.  Trochus (Pyramis) dentatus, Forskâl.
+     56.  Trochus (Cardinalia) virgatus, Gmelin.
+     57.  Trochus (Polydonta) sanguinolentus, Chemnitz.
+     58.  Trochus (Clanculus) pharaonis, Linné.
+     59.  Trochus (Monodonta) sp.
+     60.  Patella variabilis(?), Krauss.
+     61.  Chiton sp.
+     62.  Bulla ampulla, Linné.
+
+II. Conchifera
+
+     63.  Dione florida, Lamarck.
+     64.  Dione sp.
+     65.  Tellina staurella, Lamarck.
+     66.  Paphia glabrata, Gmelin.
+     67.  Chama Ruppellii, Reeve.
+     68.  Arca (Barbatia) sp.
+     68a  Arca (Senilia) sp.
+     69.  Cardium leucostoma, Born.
+     70.  Venericardia Cumingii, Deshayes.
+     71.  Modiola auriculata, Krauss.
+     72.  Pectunculus lividus, Reeve.
+     73.  Pectunculus pectenoides, Deshayes.
+     74.  Avicula margaritifera, Linné.
+     75.  Tridacna gigas, Linné.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XV.
+The Southern Sulphur-hill--the Cruise to El-Haurá--Notes on the
+Baliyy Tribe and the Volcanic Centres of North--Western Arabia.
+
+
+
+On the day of our arrival at El-Wijh I sent a hurried letter of
+invitation to Mohammed ‘Afnán, Shaykh of the Baliyy tribe;
+inviting him to visit the Expedition, and to bring with him
+seventy camels and dromedaries. His tents being pitched at a
+distance of three days' long march in the interior, I determined
+not to waste a precious week at the end of the cold season; and
+the party was once more divided. Anton, the Greek, was left as
+storekeeper, with orders to pitch a camp, to collect as much
+munition de bouche as possible, and to prepare for this year's
+last journey into the interior. MM. Marie and Philipin, with
+Lieutenant Yusuf, Cook Giorji, and Body-servant Ali Marie, were
+directed to march along the shore southwards. After inspecting a
+third Jebel el-Kibrít, they would bring back notices of the Wady
+Hamz, near whose banks I had heard vague reports of a Gasr
+(Kasr), "palace" or "castle," built by one Gurayyim Sa'íd.
+Meanwhile, the rest of us would proceed in the Sinnár to
+El-Haurá, a roundabout cruise of a hundred miles to the south.
+
+M. Philipin lost time in shoeing very imperfectly his four mules;
+and M. Marie, who could have set out with eight camels at any
+moment, delayed moving till March 26th. The party was composed of
+a single Básh-Buzúk from the fort, and two quarrymen: the Ras
+Káfilah was young Shaykh Sulaymán bin ‘Afnán--of whom more
+presently--while his brother-in-law Hammád acted guide. At 6.40
+a.m. they struck to the south-east of the town, and passed the
+two brackish pits or wells, Bir el-Isma'íl and El-Sannúsi, which
+supply the poor of the port. Thence crossing the broad Wady
+el-Wijh, they reached, after a mile's ride, Wady Melláhah, or
+"the salina." It is an oval, measuring some eighteen hundred
+yards from north to south: the banks are padded with brown slush
+frosted white; which, in places, "bogs" the donkeys and admits
+men to the knee. Beyond it lie dazzling blocks of pure
+crystallized salt; and the middle of the pond is open, tenanted
+by ducks and waterfowl, and visited by doves and partridges. At
+the lower or northern end, a short divide separates it from the
+sea; and the waves, during the high westerly gales, run far
+inland: it would be easy to open a regular communication between
+the harbour and its saltern. The head is formed by the large Wady
+Surrah, whose many feeders at times discharge heavy torrents. The
+walls of the valley-mouth are marked, somewhat like the Hárr,
+with caverned and corniced cliffs of white, canary-yellow, and
+light-pink sandstone.
+
+They then left to the right the long point Ras el-Ma'llah,
+fronting Mardúnah Island. Here, as at El-‘Akabah and Makná, sweet
+water springs from the salt sands of the shore; a freak of
+drainage, a kind of "Irish bull" of Nature, so common upon the
+dangerous Somali seaboard. The tract leads to the south-east,
+never further from the shore than four or five miles, but
+separated by rolling ground which hides the main. For the same
+reason the travellers were unable to sight the immense
+development of granite-embedded quartz, which lurks amongst the
+hills to the inland or east, and which here subtends the whole
+coast-line. They imagined themselves to be in a purely Secondary
+formation of gypsum and conglomerates, cut by a succession of
+Wady-beds like the section between El-Muwaylah and ‘Aynúnah. Thus
+they crossed the mouths of the watercourses, whose heads we shall
+sight during the inland march, and whose mid-lengths we shall
+pass when marching back to El-Wijh.
+
+These exceedingly broad beds are divided, as usual, by long lines
+of Nature-metalled ground. The first important feature is the
+Wady Surrah, which falls into the Wady el-Wijh a little above the
+harbour-pier: its proper and direct mouth, El-Gá'h (Ká'h), or
+"the Hall," runs along-shore into the Melláhah. It drains the
+Hamíratayn, or "Two Reds;" the Hamírat Surrah in the Rughám or
+Secondary formation, and the granitic mass Hamírat el-Nabwah,
+where the plutonic outbreaks begin. Amongst the number of
+important formations are:--the Wady el-Miyáh, which has a large
+salt-well near the sea, and down whose upper bed we shall travel
+after leaving Umm el-Karáyát; the Wady el-Kurr, whose
+acquaintance we shall make in the eastern region; and the Wady
+el-‘Argah (‘Arjah). The latter is the most interesting. Near its
+head we shall find knots of ruins, and the quartz-reef
+Abá'l-Marú; while lower down the bed, on the north-east side of a
+hill facing the valley, Lieutenant Yusuf came upon a rock
+scrawled over with religious formulæ, Tawakkaltu ‘al' Allah ("I
+rely upon Allah"), and so forth, all in a comparatively modern
+Arabic character. The inscriptions lie to the left of the shore
+road, and to the right of the pilgrim-highway; thus showing that
+miners, not passing travellers, have here left their mark.
+
+After riding five hours and forty minutes (= seventeen miles) the
+party reached the base of the third sulphur-hill discovered by
+the Expedition on the coast of Midian. Also known as the Tuwayyil
+el-Kibrít, the "Little-long (Ridge) of Brimstone," it appears
+from afar a reddish pyramid rising about two miles inland of an
+inlet, which is said to be safe navigation. Thus far it resembles
+the Jibbah find: on the other hand, it is not plutonic, but
+chalky like those of Makná and Sinai, the crystals being
+similarly diffused throughout the matrix. In the adjoining hills
+and cliffs the Secondaries and the conglomerates take all shades
+of colour, marvellous to behold when the mirage raises to giant
+heights the white coast-banks patched with pink, red, mauve, and
+dark brown. Moreover, the quarries of mottled alabaster, which
+the Ancients worked for constructions, still show themselves.
+
+The travellers slept at the base of the Tuwayyil. Next morning M.
+Philipin proceeded to collect specimens of the sulphur and of the
+chalcedony-agate strewed over the plain, and here seen for the
+first time. M. Marie and Lieutenant Yusuf rode on to the banks of
+the Wady Hamz; and, after three hours (= nine miles), they came
+upon the "Castle" and unexpectedly turned up trumps. I had
+carelessly written for them the name of a ruin which all,
+naturally enough, believed would prove to be one of the normal
+barbarous Hawáwít. They brought back specimens of civilized
+architecture; and these at once determined one of the objectives
+of our next journey. The party returned to El-Wijh on the next
+day, in the highest of spirits, after a successful trip of more
+than fifty miles.
+
+Meanwhile I steamed southwards, accompanied by the rest of the
+party, including the Sayyid, Shaykh Furayj, and the ex-Wakíl,
+Mohammed Shahádah, who is trusted by the Bedawin, and who brought
+with him a guide of the Fawá'idah-Juhaynah, one Rájih ibn ‘Ayid.
+This fellow was by no means a fair specimen of his race: the
+cynocephalous countenance, the cobweb beard, and the shifting,
+treacherous eyes were exceptional; the bellowing voice and the
+greed of gain were not. He had a free passage for himself, his
+child, and eight sacks of rice, with the promise of a napoleon by
+way of "bakhshísh;" yet he complained aloud that he had no meat
+to break his fast at dawn--an Arab of pure blood would rather
+have starved. He shirked answering questions concerning the
+number of his tribe. "Many, many!" was all the information we
+could get from him; and his Arabic wanted the pure pronunciation,
+and the choice vocabulary, that usually distinguish the Juhayni
+pilots. Arrived at his own shore, he refused to make arrangements
+for disembarking his rice; he ordered, with bawling accents and
+pointed stick, the sailors of the man-of-war to land it at the
+place chosen by himself; and he bit his finger when informed that
+a sound flogging was the normal result of such impudence.
+
+We set out at 4.30 p.m. (March 24th); and steamed due west till
+we had rounded the northern head of El-Raykhah, a long low island
+which, lying west-south-west of El-Wijh, may act breakwater in
+that direction. Then we went south-west, and passed to port the
+white rocks of Mardu'nah Isle, which fronts the Ras el-Ma'llah,
+capping the ugly reefs and shoals that forbid tall ships to hug
+this section of the shore. It is described as a narrow ridge of
+coralline, broken into pointed masses two to three hundred feet
+high, whose cliffs and hollows form breeding-places for wild
+pigeons: the unusually rugged appearance is explained by the fact
+that here the "Jinns" amuse themselves with hurling rocks at one
+another. Before night we had sighted the Ras Kurkumah, so called
+from its "Curcuma" (turmeric) hue, the yellow point facing the
+islet-tomb of Shaykh Marbat.[EN#46] Upon this part of the shore,
+I was told, are extensive ruins as yet unvisited by Europeans,
+the dangerous Juhaynah being the obstacle. To the south-east
+towered tall and misty forms, the Gháts of the
+Tihámat-Jahaníyyah. Northernmost, and prolonging the Libn, that
+miniature Shárr, is the regular wall of the Jebel el-Ward; then
+come the peaks and pinnacles of the Jibál el-Safhah; and lastly,
+the twin blocks El-Rál, between which passes the Egyptian Hajj
+when returning from El-Medínah. Faint resemblances of these
+features sprawl, like huge caterpillars, over the Hydrographic
+Chart, but all sprawl unnamed.
+
+By way of extra precaution we stood to the south instead of the
+south-east, thus lengthening to one hundred and twenty knots the
+normal hundred (dir. geog. sixty-eight) separating El-Wijh from
+the Jebel Hassáni. Moreover, we caught amidships a fine lumpy
+sea, that threatened to roll the masts out of the stout old
+corvette. As the Sinnár, which always reminded me of her
+Majesty's steamship Zebra, is notably the steadiest ship in the
+Egyptian navy, the captain was asked about his ballast. He
+replied, "I have just taken command, but I don't think there is
+any; the engine (El-‘iddah) is our Saburra"--evidently he had
+never seen the hold. This state of things, which, combined with
+open ports, foundered her Majesty's sailing frigate Eurydice,
+appears the rule of the Egyptian war-navy. I commend the
+consideration to English sailors.
+
+The steering also was detestable; and the man at the wheel could
+not see the waves--a sine quâ non to the mariner in these
+latitudes, who "broaches to" whenever he can. A general remark:
+The Egyptian sailor is first-rate in a Dahabiyyah (Nile-boat),
+which he may capsize once in a generation; and ditto in a Red Sea
+Sambúk, where he is also thoroughly at home. The same was the
+case with the Sultan of Maskat's Arabo-English navy: the Arabs
+and Sídís (negroes) were excellent at working their Mtepe-craft;
+on frigates they were monkeys, poor copies of men. Our European
+vessels are beyond and above the West Asiatic and the African. He
+becomes at the best a kind of imitation Jack Tar. He will not, or
+rather he cannot, take the necessary trouble, concentrate his
+attention, fix his mind upon his "duties." He says "Inshallah;"
+he relies upon Allah; and he prays five times a day, when he
+should be giving or receiving orders. The younger generation of
+officers, it is true, drinks wine, and does not indulge in
+orisons whilst it should be working; but its efficiency is
+impaired by the difficulties and delay in granting pensions. The
+many grey beards, however carefully dyed, suggest an equipage de
+vétérans.
+
+The consequence of yawing and of running half-speed by night was
+that we reached Jebel Hassáni just before noon, instead of eight
+a.m., on the 25th. The island, whose profile slopes to the
+south-eastward, is a long yellow-white ridge, a lump of coralline
+four hundred feet high, bare and waterless in summer: yet it
+feeds the Bedawi flocks at certain seasons. It is buttressed and
+bluff to the south-west, whence the strongest winds blow; and it
+is prolonged by a flat spit to the south-east, and by a long tail
+of two vertebrae, a big and a little joint, trending north-west.
+Thus it gives safe shelter from the Wester to Arab
+barques;[EN#47] and still forms a landmark for those navigating
+between Jeddah, Kusayr, and Suez. Its parallel runs a few miles
+north of the Dædalus Light (north lat. 24° 55' 30") to the west;
+and it lies a little south of El-Haurá on the coast, and of
+El-Medínah, distant about one hundred and thirty direct miles in
+the interior. If Ptolemy's latitudes are to be consulted, Jebel
+Hassáni would be the Timagenes Island in north lat. 25° 40'; and
+the corresponding Chersónesus Point is represented by the
+important and well-marked projection "Abú Madd," which intercepts
+the view to the south.
+
+After rounding the southern spit, we turned to north-east and by
+east, and passed, with a minimum of seven fathoms under keel,
+between Hassáni the Giant and the dwarf Umm Sahr, a flat sandbank
+hardly visible from the shore. This is the only good approach to
+the secure and spacious bay that bore the southernmost Nabathæan
+port-town: there are northern and north-western passages, but
+both require skilful pilots; and every other adit, though
+apparently open, is sealed by reefs and shoals. With the blue and
+regular-lined curtain of Abú el-Ghurayr in front, stretching down
+coast to Ras Abú Madd, we bent gradually round to the north-east
+and east. We then left to starboard the settlement El-Amlij, a
+long line of separate ‘Ushash, the usual Ichthyophagan huts,
+dull, dark-brown wigwams. They were apparently deserted; at
+least, only two women appeared upon the shore, but sundry
+Katírahs and canoes warned us that fishermen were about. We ran
+for safety a mile and three-quarters north of the exposed Ras
+el-Haurá; and at 1.30 p.m. (= twenty-one hours) we anchored, in
+nine fathoms, under the Kutá'at el-Wazamah. The pea-green
+shallows, which defended us to the north and south, had lately
+given protection to the Khedivíyyah[EN#48] steamer El-Hidayyidah,
+compelled by an accident to creep along-shore like a Sambúk.
+
+El-Haura' is not found either in the charts, or in Ptolemy's and
+Sprenger's maps. It lies in north lat. 25° 6', about the same
+parallel as El-Medínah; and in east long. (Gr.) 37° 13'
+30".[EN#49] Wellsted (II. x.) heard of its ruins, but never saw
+it: at least, he says, "In the vicinity of El-Haurá, according to
+the Arabs, are some remains of buildings and columns, but our
+stay on the coast was too limited to permit our examining the
+spot." He is, however, greatly in error when he adds, "Near this
+station the encampments of the Bili' (Baliyy) tribe to the
+southward terminate, and those of the Joheïnah commence." As has
+been seen, the frontier is nearly fifty miles further north. He
+notices (chap. ix.) the "White Village" to differ with Vincent,
+who would place it at El-Muwaylah; but he translates the word
+(ii. 461) "the bright-eyed girl," instead of Albus (Vicus). He
+quotes, however, the other name, Dár el-‘ishrin ("Twentieth
+Station"), so called because the Cairo caravan formerly reached
+it in a score of days, now reduced to nineteen. He seems,
+finally, to have landed in order to inspect "a ruined town on the
+main," and to have missed it.
+
+According to Sprenger, the "White Village, or Castle," was not a
+Thamudite, but a Nabathæan port. Here Æelius Gallius disembarked
+his troops from Egypt. Strabo (xvi. c. 4, § 24) shows that
+<Greek> was the starting-place of the caravans which, before
+the Nile route to Alexandria was opened, carried to Petra the
+merchandise of India and of Southern Arabia. Thence the imports
+were passed on to Phoenicia and Egypt:--these pages have shown
+why the journey would be preferred to the voyage northward. He is
+confirmed by the "Periplus," which relates (chap. xix.) that
+"from the port, and the castellum of Leukè Kóme, a road leads to
+Petra, the capital of the Malicha (El-Malik), King of the
+Nabathæans: it also serves as an emporium to those who bring
+wares in smaller ships from Arabia (Mocha, Múza, and Aden). For
+the latter reason, a Perceptor or toll-taker, who levies
+twenty-five per cent. ad valorem, and a Hekatontarches
+(centurion), with a garrison, are there stationed." As the Nabatæ
+were vassals of Rome, and the whole region had been ceded to the
+Romans (Byzantines) by a chief of the Beni Kudá' tribe, this
+Yuzbáshi or "military commandant" was probably a Roman.
+
+El-Haurá, like most of the ruined settlements upon this coast,
+shows two distinct "quarters;" a harbour-town and what may be
+called a country-town. The latter, whose site is by far the more
+picturesque and amene, lay upon a long tongue of land backing the
+slope of the sea-cliff, and attached to the low whitish hillocks
+and pitons rising down south. It is now a luxuriant orchard of
+emerald palms forming three large patches. Behind it swells a
+dorsum of golden-yellow sand; and the horizon is closed by ranges
+of hills and highlands, red and white, blue and black. Our eyes
+are somewhat startled by the amount of bright and vivid green:
+for some reason, unknown to us, the shore is far more riant than
+the northern section; and the land might be called
+quasi-agricultural. The whole coast seems to be broken with
+verdant valleys; from the Wady el-‘Ayn, with its numerous
+branches beautifying the north, to the Wady el-Daghaybaj in the
+south, supplying water between its two paps.
+
+On the evening of our arrival, we landed in a shallow bay bearing
+north-north-east (30° mag.) from the roads where the corvette lay
+at anchor; and walked a few yards inland to the left bank of the
+Wady el-Samnah, the unimportant Fiumara draining low hills of the
+same name. The loose sand is everywhere strewed with bits of
+light porous lava, which comes from the Harrat el-Buhayr, a bluff
+quoin to the north-west. About El-Haurá, I have said, the
+volcanic formations, some sixty miles inland on the parallel of
+El-Muwaylah, approach the coast.
+
+We were guided to the ruins by the shouts of sundry Arabs
+defending their harvest against a dangerous enemy, the
+birds--rattles and scarecrows were anything but scarce.
+Apparently the sand contains some fertilizing matter. A field of
+dry and stunted Dukhn (Holcus Dochna), or small millet, nearly
+covers the site of the old castle, whose outline, nearly buried
+under the drift of ages, we could still trace. There are two
+elevations, eastern and western; and a third lies to the north,
+on the right side of the Wady Samnah. Scatters of the usual
+fragments lay about, and the blocks of white coralline explained
+the old names--Whitton, Whitworth, Whitby. The Bedawin preserve
+the tradition that this was the most important part of the
+settlement, which extended southwards nearly four miles. The
+dwarf valley-mouth is still a roadstead, where two small craft
+were anchored; and here, doubtless, was the corner of the hive
+allotted to the community's working-bees. An old fibster, Hámid
+el-Fá'idi, declared that he would bring us from the adjacent
+hills a stone which, when heated, would pour forth metal like
+water--and never appeared again. It was curious to remark how
+completely the acute Furayj believed him, because both were Arabs
+and brother Bedawin.
+
+Next morning we set out, shortly after the red and dewy sunrise,
+to visit the south end of Leukè Kóme. The party consisted of
+twenty marines under an officer, besides our escort of ten negro
+"Remingtons:" the land was open, and with these thirty I would
+willingly have met three hundred Bedawin. Our repulse from the
+Hismá had rankled in our memories, and we only wanted an
+opportunity of showing fight. After rowing a mile we landed,
+south-east of the anchorage (127° mag.), at a modern ruin, four
+blocks of the rudest masonry, built as a store by a Yambú'
+merchant. Unfortunately he had leased the ground from the
+Fawá'idah clan, when the Hámidah claim it: the result was a
+"faction fight"--and nothing done.
+
+A few minutes' walking, over unpleasantly deep sand, placed us
+upon the Hajj-road. It is paved, like the shore, with natural
+slabs and ledges of soft modern sandstone; and, being foot-worn,
+it makes a far better road than that which connects Alexandria
+with Ramleh. The broad highway, scattered with quartz and basalt,
+greenstone, and serpentine, crossed one of the many branches of
+the Wady el-‘Ayn: in the rich and saltish sand grew crops of
+Dukhn, and the Halfá-grass (Cynosures durus) of the Nile Valley,
+with tamarisk-thickets, and tufts of fan-palm. On its left bank a
+lamp-black vein of stark-naked basalt, capped by jagged blocks,
+ran down to the sea, and formed a conspicuous buttress. The
+guides spoke of a similar volcanic outcrop above Point Abú Madd
+to the south; and of a third close to Yambá' harbour.
+
+An hour of "stravaguing" walk showed us the first sign of the
+ruins: wall-bases built with fine cement, crowning the summit of
+a dwarf mound to the left of the road; well-worked scoriæ were
+also scattered over its slopes. We now entered the date orchards
+conspicuous from the sea: on both sides of us were fences of
+thorn, tamped earth, and dry stone; young trees had been planted,
+and, beyond the dates, large fields of Dukhn again gave an
+agricultural touch to the scene. Flocks of sheep and goats were
+being grazed all around us; and the owners made no difficulty, as
+they would have done further north, in selling us half a dozen.
+
+We then entered the Wady Haurá, where the caravan camps. It is a
+cheery charming site for rich citizens, with its plain of rich
+vegetation everywhere, say the natives, undermined by water; its
+open sea-view to the west; its mound of clean yellow sand behind,
+extending to the rocky horizon; and its pure fresh breezes
+blowing from the Nejd with an indescribable sense of lightness
+and health and enjoyment. In fact, it has all the accessories of
+an "eligible position." At the third or southern palm patch, we
+found the only public work which remains visible in the great
+Nabathaean port. It was formerly a Káríz, the
+underground-aqueduct so common in Persia; and it conducted
+towards the sea the drainage of the Jebel Turham, a round knob
+shown in the Chart, which bears south-east (121° mag.) from the
+conduit-head. The line has long ago been broken down by the
+Arabs; and the open waters still supply the Hajj-caravan. The
+‘Ayn ("fountain") may be seen issuing from a dark cavern of white
+coralline: the water then hides itself under several filled-up
+pits, which represent the old air-holes; and, after flowing below
+sundry natural arches, the remains of the conduit-ceiling, it
+emerges in a deep fissure of saltish stone. From this part of its
+banks we picked up fair specimens of saltpetre. The lower course
+abounds in water-beetles, and is choked with three kinds of
+aquatic weeds. After flowing a few yards it ends in a shallow
+pool, surrounded by palms and paved with mud, which attracts
+flights of snipes, sandpipers, and sandgrouse.
+
+The turbulent "Dog's Sons"[EN#50] were mostly in the upper lands;
+but a few wretched fellows, with swords, old spears, and
+ridiculous matchlocks, assembled and managed to get up a squabble
+about the right of leading strangers into "our country"
+(Bilád-ná). The doughty Rájih ibn ‘Ayid, who, mounted upon a mean
+dromedary, affected to be chief guide, seemed to treat their
+pretensions as a serious matter, when we laughed them to scorn.
+He and all the other experts gave us wholly discouraging details
+concerning a ruin represented to lie, some hours off, in the
+nearest of the southern Harrah. According to them, the Kasr
+el-Bint ("Maiden's Palace") was in the same condition as
+El-Haurá; showing only a single pillar, perhaps the "columns" to
+which Wellsted alludes. We could learn nothing concerning the
+young person whose vague name it bears; except that she preferred
+settling on the mainland, whereas her brother built a
+corresponding castle upon the islet Jebel Hassáni.[EN#51] He is
+locally called Warakat ibn Naufal, a venerated name in the
+Fatrah, or "interval," between Jesus and Mohammed; he was the
+uncle of Khadijah the widow, and he is popularly supposed to have
+been a Christian. Here, as at other places, I inquired, at the
+suggestion of a friend, but of course in vain, about the human
+skeleton which Ibn Mujáwar, some six centuries ago, found
+embedded in a rock near the sea-shore.
+
+Such is the present condition of the once famous emporium Leukè
+Kóme. We returned along the shore to embark; and, shortly after
+noon, the old corvette of Crimean date again swung round on her
+heel, and resumed her wanderings, this time northwards. The run
+of eighteen hours and fifteen minutes was semicircular, but the
+sea had subsided to a dead calm. The return to El-Wijh felt like
+being restored to civilization; we actually had a salad of radish
+leaves--delicious!
+
+Our travel will now lie through the Baliyy country, and a few
+words concerning this ancient and noble tribe may here be given.
+Although they apparently retain no traditions of their origin,
+they are known to genealogists as a branch of the Beni Kudá',
+who, some fifteen centuries ago, emigrated from Southern Arabia,
+and eventually exterminated the Thamudites. I have noted their
+northern and southern frontiers: to the north-east they are
+bounded by the vicious Ma'ázah and the Ruwalá-‘Anezahs, and to
+the south-east by the Alaydán-‘Anezahs, under Shaykh Mutlak. Like
+their northern nomadic neighbours, they have passed over to
+Egypt, and even the guide-books speak of the "Billi" in the
+valley of the Nile.
+
+The Baliyy modestly rate their numbers at four thousand muskets,
+by which understand four hundred. Yet they divide themselves into
+a multitude of clans; our companion, the Wakíl Mohammed Shahádah,
+can enumerate them by the score; and I wrote down the
+twenty-three principal, which are common both to South Midian and
+to Egypt. The chief Shaykh, Mohammed ‘Afnán ibn Ammár, can reckon
+backwards seven generations, beginning from a certain Shaykh
+Sultán. About ten years ago he allowed the tribe to indulge in
+such dangerous amusements as "cutting the road" and plundering
+merchants. It is even asserted, privily, that they captured the
+fort of El-Wijh, by bribing the Turkish Topji ("head gunner"), to
+fire high--like the half-caste artilleryman who commanded the
+Talpúr cannoneers at Sir Charles Napier's Battle of "Meeanee." A
+regiment of eight hundred bayonets was sent from Egypt, and the
+Shaykh was secured by a Hílah, or "stratagem;" that is, he was
+promised safe conduct: he trusted himself like a fool, he was
+seized, clapped in irons, and sent to jail in the Citadel of
+Cairo. Here he remained some seven months in carcere duro, daily
+expecting death, when Fate suddenly turned in his favour; he was
+sent for by the authorities, pardoned for the past, cautioned for
+the future, and restored to his home with a Murátibah ("regular
+pension") of eight hundred piastres per mensem, besides rations
+and raiment. The remedy was, like cutting off the nose of a
+wicked Hindú wife, sharp but effective. Shaykh ‘Afnan and his
+tribe are now models of courtesy to strangers; and the traveller
+must devoutly wish that every Shaykh in Arabia could be subjected
+to the same discipline.
+
+The Baliyy are a good study of an Arab tribe in the rough. The
+Huwaytát, for example, know their way to Suez and to Cairo; they
+have seen civilization; they have learned, after a fashion, the
+outlandish ways of the Frank, the Fellah, and the Turk-fellow.
+The Baliyy have to be taught all these rudiments. Cunning,
+tricky, and "dodgy," as is all the Wild-Man-race, they lie like
+the "childish-foolish," deceiving nobody but themselves. An
+instance: Hours and miles are of course unknown to them, but they
+began with us by affecting an extreme ignorance of comparative
+distances; they could not, or rather they would not, adopt as a
+standard the two short hours' march between the Port and the
+inland Fort of El-Wijh. When, however, the trick was pointed out
+to them, they at once threw it aside as useless. No pretext was
+too flimsy to shorten a march or to cause a halt--the northerners
+did the same, but with them we had a controlling power in the
+shape of Shaykh Furayj. And like the citizens, they hate our
+manner of travelling: they love to sit up and chat through half
+the night; and to rise before dawn is an abomination to them.
+
+At first their manners, gentle and pliable, contrast pleasantly
+with the roughness of the half-breds, Huwaytát and Maknáwi, who
+have many of the demerits of the Fellah, without acquiring the
+merits of the Bedawi. As camel-men they were not difficult to
+deal with; nor did they wrangle about their hire. Presently they
+turned out to be "poor devils," badly armed, and not trained to
+the use of matchlocks. Their want of energy in beating the bushes
+and providing forage for their camels, compared with that of the
+northerners, struck us strongly. On the other hand, they seem to
+preserve a flavour of ancient civilization, which it is not easy
+to describe; and they certainly have inherited the instincts and
+tastes of the old metal-workers: they are a race of born miners.
+That sharpest of tests, the experience of travel, at last
+suggested to us that the Baliyy is too old a breed; and that its
+blue blood wants a "racial baptism," a large infusion of
+something newer and stronger.
+
+
+
+
+
+                Note on the "Harrahs" of Arabia.
+
+
+
+The learned Dr. J. G. Wetzstein, in the appendix to his
+"Reisebericht," etc.,[EN#52] records a conversation with A. von
+Humboldt and Carl Ritter (April, 1859), respecting the specimens
+which he had brought from the classical Trachonitis. Their
+appearance led the latter to question whether the latest
+eruptions of the Harrat Rájil, as it is called from an adjoining
+valley, may not have taken place within the historic period; and
+he referred to Psalm xviii. as seeming to note the occurrence,
+during David's reign, of such a phenomenon in or near Palestine.
+Humboldt deemed it probable that the Koranic legend (chap. iv.)
+of the Abyssinian host under Abraha destroyed by a shower of
+stones baked in hell-fire, referred, not to small-pox as is
+generally supposed, but to an actual volcanic eruption in Arabia.
+
+"With what interest would that great man have learnt," writes Dr.
+Wetzstein, "that, as I was turning over the leaves of Yákút's
+‘Geographical Lexicon,' only a few days ago, I found that the
+Arabians knew of the existence of twenty-eight different volcanic
+regions between Hauran and Bab el-Mandeb!" Later still, Dr. Otto
+Loth published an elaborate paper "On the Volcanic Regions
+(Harras) of Arabia, according to Yakut" (thirteenth century), in
+which these eruptive sites are nearly all identified and
+described.
+
+"Among the numerous volcanoes thus found to exist within the
+Arabian Peninsula," remarks Dr. Beke,[EN#53] "the only one
+recorded as having been in activity within the historic period is
+the Harrat-el-Nar (‘Fire Harra'), situate to the north-east of
+Medina, in the neighbourhood of Khaibur (Khaybar), in about 26°.
+30' north lat., and 40°. east long.; which, being traditionally
+said to have been in an active state six centuries before
+Mohammed, had actually an eruption in the time of the Prophet's
+successor, Omar. To the north-west of this ‘Fire Harra' lies that
+known as the ‘Harra of (the tribe of) Udhra' (Azra): again, to
+the north of this is the ‘Harra of Tabuk,' so called from the
+station of that name on the Hajj-road from Damascus to Mekka, the
+position of which is in about 28 deg. 15' north lat. and 37 deg.
+east long.; and beyond this last, further to the north, and
+consequently between it and the northernmost Harra of the Râdjil,
+or Trachonitis, is the Harra Radjlâ. . . . Its designation, which
+means ‘rough,' ‘pathless,' seems to indicate its peculiarly
+rugged surface, and to lead to the inference that it is an
+immense field of lava." He cites Irby and Mangles ("Travels in
+Egypt," pp. 115, 116; reprinted by Murray, London, 1868),
+describing their route between Kerak and Petra, on the east side
+of the Ghor or Wady ‘Arabah. "We noticed three dark volcanic
+summits, very distinguishable from the land. The lava that had
+streamed from them forms a sort of island in the plain."
+
+Hence my late friend concluded that his "true Mount Sinai" was
+the focus and origin of this volcanic region; and that the latter
+was the "great and terrible wilderness" (Deut. i. 19) through
+which the children of Israel were led on their way to mysterious
+Kadesh-Barnea. Thus, too, he explained the "pillar of the cloud
+by day," and the "pillow of fire by night" (Exod. xiii. 21).
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XVI.
+Our Last March--the Inland Fort--Ruins of the Gold-mines at Umm
+                  El-Karáyát and Umm El-Haráb.
+
+
+
+Again there were preliminaries to be settled before we could
+leave El-Wijh for the interior. Shaykh Mohammed ‘Afnán had been
+marrying his son; and the tale of camels came in slowly enough.
+On the day after our return from El-Haurá the venerable old man
+paid us a visit aboard Sinnár. He declares that he was a boy when
+the Wahhábi occupied Meccah and El-Medínah--that is, in 1803-4.
+Yet he has wives and young children. His principal want is a pair
+of new eyes; and the train of thought is, "I can't see when older
+men than myself can." The same idea makes the African ever
+attribute his sickness and death to sorcery: "Why should I lose
+life when all around me are alive?"--and this is the idea that
+lies at the bottom of all witch-persecution. Two pair of
+spectacles were duly despatched to him after our return to Cairo;
+and M. Lacaze there exhibited a capital sketch of the
+picturesque, white-bearded face, with the straight features and
+the nutcracker chin, deep buried in the folds of a huge red
+shawl.
+
+The son, Sulaymán, has been espoused to a cousin older, they say,
+than himself; and he seems in no hurry to conclude the marriage.
+He would willingly accompany us to Egypt, but he is the father's
+favourite, and the old man can do nothing without him. A youth of
+about eighteen, and even more handsome than his sire, he has the
+pretty look, the sloping shoulders, the soft snaky movements, and
+the quiet, subdued voice of a nice girl. During the first marches
+he dressed in the finery of the Bedawin--the brilliant
+head-kerchief, the parti-coloured sandals, and the loose cloak of
+expensive broadcloth. The "toggery" looked out of place as the
+toilettes of the Syrian ladies who called upon us in laces and
+blue satins amid the ruins of Ba'lbek. Although all the hired
+camels belonged, as is customary, to the tribe, not to the
+Shaykh, the latter was accompanied by the usual "Hieland tail;"
+by his two nephews, Hammád and Náji, the latter our head-guide,
+addicted to reading, writing, and lying; by his favourite and
+factotum, Abdullah, an African mulatto, Muwallid or "house-born;"
+and by his Wakíl ("agent"), a big black slave, Abdullah Mohammed,
+ready of tongue and readier of fist. Lastly, I must mention one
+‘Audah ‘Adayni, a Huwayti bred in the Baliyy country, a traveller
+to Cairo, passing intelligent and surpassing unscrupulous.
+Confidential for a consideration, he told all the secrets of his
+employers, and it is my firm conviction that he was liberally
+paid for so doing by both parties of wiseacres.
+
+The immediate objective of this, our last march, was the Badá
+plain, of which we first heard at Shaghab. I purposed
+subsequently to collect specimens of a traditional coal-mine, to
+which his Highness the Viceroy had attached the highest
+importance. Then we would march upon the Móchoura of the
+ancients, the mediaeval El-Marwah or Zú Marwah, the modern
+Marwát-cum-Abá'l-Marú. Finally, we would return to El-Wijh, viâ
+the Wady Hamz, inspecting both it and the ruins first sighted by
+MM. Marie and Philipin.
+
+On Friday, March 29th, I gave a breakfast, in the wooden
+barracks, to the officers of the Sinnár and the officials of the
+port. After which, some took their opium and went to sleep; while
+others, it being church-day, went to Mosque. We ran out of
+El-Wijh at 1.45 p.m., our convoy consisting of fifty-eight
+camels, forty-four of which were loaded; seven were dromedaries,
+and an equal number carried water. All had assured us that the
+rains of the two past years had been wanting: last winter they
+were scanty; this cold season they were nil. In truth, the land
+was suffering terribly from drought. Our afternoon was hot and
+unpleasant: about later March the Hawá el'-Uwwah, a violent
+sand-raising norther, sets in and lasts through a fortnight. It
+is succeeded, in early April, by the calms of El-Ni'ám ("the
+Blessings"), which, divided into the Greater and the Less, last
+forty days. After that the summer--Jehannum!
+
+From the raised and metalled bank, upon which the Burj stands, we
+descended to the broad mouth of the Wijh valley, draining the low
+rolling blue-brown line of porphyritic hillocks on the east. To
+our right lay the sparkling, glittering white plain and pool,
+El-Melláhah, "the salina." After an hour and a quarter of sandy
+and dusty ride, we passed through a "gate" formed by the
+Hamírat-Wijh, the red range which, backing the gape of the valley
+and apparently close behind the town, strikes the eye from the
+offing. Here the gypsum, ruddy and mauve, white and black, was
+underlaid by granite in rounded masses; and the Secondary
+formation is succeeded by the usual red and green traps. Though
+this part of our route lies in El-Tihámah, which, in fact, we
+shall not leave, we are again threading the Wady Sadr of the
+northern Shafah-range. A pleasant surprise was a fine vein of
+sugary quartz trending north-south: at that period we little
+suspected the sub-range to the south--perhaps also the
+northern--of being, in places, one mighty mass of "white stone."
+
+After covering six miles in an hour and three-quarters,
+exaggerated by the guides to three, we suddenly sighted the
+inland fort. Its approach is that of a large encamping-ground,
+and such, indeed, it is; the Egyptian pilgrim-caravan here halts
+on the fourth day from El-Muwaylah. The broken, untidy environs,
+strewed with bones and rubbish, show low mounds that mean ovens;
+stone rings, where tents are pitched; and the usual graves,
+amongst which a reverend man, Shaykh Sálih, rests in a manner of
+round tower. The site is, in one point at least, admirably
+well-chosen, a kind of carrefour where four valleys and as many
+roads meet; and thus it commands the mouths of all the gorges
+leading inland.
+
+Riding up to the fort, we were welcomed by its commandant,
+Lieutenant Násir Ahmed, a peculiarly good specimen of his arm,
+the infantry. His garrison consists of thirteen regulars, whose
+clean uniforms show discipline, and whose hale and hearty
+complexions testify to the excellence of the water and the air.
+The men are paid annually by the treasurer of the Hajj-caravan.
+They are supposed to be relieved after seven years; but they have
+wives and families; and, like the British soldier in India half a
+century ago, they are content to pass their working lives in
+local service. The commandant showed us over his castle, which
+was in excellent order; and brewed coffee, which we drank in the
+cool porch of the single gate. He then led us about the
+neighbourhood, and ended with inviting the Sáyyid, Furayj, and
+the Wakíl Mohammed Shahádah to a copious feast.
+
+The fort is the usual square, straight-curtained work of solid
+masonry, with a circular bastion at each angle, and a huge arched
+main-entrance in the western façade. It is, in fact, one of the
+buildings that belong to the solid, sturdy age of Sultán Selim,
+and of the Sinnán Pasha so well known about Damascus. An
+inscription, with an illegible date, bears the name of Ahmed ibn
+Taylún, the founder of the Taylunide dynasty, in A.D. 868--884:
+this is another proof that the Mamlúk Soldans were lords of the
+soil; and that, even in the ninth century, South Midian was a
+province, or a dependency, of Egypt. Moreover, we picked up, to
+the north-east of the work, old and well-treated scoriæ,
+suggesting a more ancient settlement. Perhaps it was the locale
+preferred by the proprietors of the slaves who worked the inner
+mines, hidden from view and from the sea-breeze by the hills.
+
+The castle being perfectly commanded by the heights behind, the
+circular towers to the east have crests raised in that direction,
+giving them a spoon-shape, and a peculiar aptitude for arresting
+every cannon-ball coming from the west. The Bedawin, however,
+have no great guns; and apparently this shelter has been added
+since Wellsted's day.[EN#54] To the curtains are attached the
+usual hovels, mat, palm-leaf, and walls of dry stone or mud,
+which here, as at Palmyra, inevitably suggest wasp-nests. The
+northern side is subtended by three large cisterns, all
+strengthened at the inner angles by the stepped buttresses first
+noticed when we were exploring Magháir Shu'ayb.
+
+Up the valley and behind the fort, or to the north-east, lie the
+palm-plantations, the small kitchen-gardens, and the far-famed
+wells which, dug by Sultán Selim and repaired by Ibrahim Pasha in
+A.D. 1524 (?), supply the Hajj-caravan. The sandy bed, disposed
+east-west, is streaked, dotted, and barred with walls and
+outcrops of the hardest greenstone porphyry; and those which run
+north-south must arrest, like dykes, the flow of water
+underground. One of these reefs is laboriously scraped with
+Bedawi Wusúm, and with Moslem inscriptions comparatively modern.
+The material is heavy, but shows no quartz; whereas the smaller
+valleys which debouch upon the northern or right bank of the main
+line, display a curious conformation of the "white stone,"
+contorted like oyster shells, and embedded in the trap.
+
+Of the six wells, revetted with masonry and resembling in all
+points those of Ziba, four, including El-Tawílah, the deepest,
+supply brackish water; and the same is the case with a fifth
+inside the fort, close to the chapel of his Holiness, Shaykh
+Abubakr. The water, however, appeared potable; and perhaps
+cleaning out and deepening might increase the quantity. The sweet
+element drunk by the richards of El-Wijh comes from the Bir
+el-Za'faráníyyah ("of Saffron"), and from its north-eastern
+neighbour, El-‘Ajwah ("the Date-paste"). The latter measures four
+or five fathoms; and the water appears under a boulder in situ
+that projects from the southern side. The reader will now agree
+with me that El-Wijh is not too drouthy for a quarantine-ground.
+
+The plots of green meat lie about the water, sheltered from the
+burning sun by a luxuriant growth of date-trees. The Egyptian is
+the best man in the world for dabbling in mud; and here, by
+scraping away the surface-sand, he has come upon a clayey soil
+sufficiently fertile to satisfy his wants. The growth is confined
+to tobacco, potatoes, and cabbages, purslain (Portulaca,
+pourpier), radishes, the edible Hibiscus, and tomatoes, which are
+small and green. Lettuces do not thrive; cucumbers and
+water-melons have been tried here and up country; and--man wants
+little in Midian.
+
+We set out early on the next day (5.30 a.m., March 30th) in
+disorderly style. The night had been cool and comfortable, dry
+and dewless; but the Shaykhs were torpid after the feast, and the
+escort and quarrymen had been demoralized by a week of sweet
+"do-nothing." Striking up the Wady el-Wijh, which now becomes
+narrow and gorge-like, with old and new wells and water-pits
+dotting the sole, we were stopped, after half an hour's walk, by
+a "written rock" on the right side of the bed. None of the guides
+seemed to know or, at any rate, to care for it; although I
+afterwards learnt that Admiral M'Killop (Pasha), during his last
+visit to El-Wijh, obtained a squeeze of the inscriptions.
+Wellsted (II. x.) erroneously calls this valley "Wádí el-Moyah,"
+the name of a feature further south--thus leading me to expect
+the find elsewhere. Moreover, he has copied the scrawls with a
+carelessness so prodigious, that we failed at first to recognize
+the original. He has hit upon the notable expedient of massing
+together in a single dwarf wood-cut (Vol. II. p. 189) what covers
+many square feet of stone; and I was fool enough to republish his
+copy.[EN#55]
+
+A tall, fissured rock, of the hardest porphyritic greenstone,
+high raised from the valley-sole, facing north-west, and
+reducible to two main blocks, is scattered over with these
+"inscriptions," that spread in all directions. Most of them are
+Arab Wusum, others are rude drawings of men and beasts, amongst
+which are conspicuous the artless camel and the serpent; and
+there is a duello between two funny warriors armed with sword and
+shield. These efforts of art resemble, not a little, the "Totem"
+attempts of the "Red Indians" in North and South America. There
+are, however, two scrapings evidently alphabetic, and probably
+Nabathæan, which are offered to the specialists in epigraphy: six
+appear in Wellsted's illustration, especially that with a long
+line above it, near the left and lower corner of the cut. M.
+Lacaze and I copied the most striking features in our carnets; he
+taking the right or southern side and leaving the other block to
+me. But the results did not satisfy us; and on April 10th I sent
+him with M. Philipin to make photographs. The latter, again, are
+hardly as satisfactory as they might be, because the inscriptions
+have not been considered the central points of interest. We shall
+pass during our present journey many of these Oriental "John
+Joneses" and "Bill Browns:" they will suggest the similar
+features of Sinaitic Wady Mukattib, which begot those monstrous
+growths, "The One Primaeval Language" and "The Voice of Israel
+from Mount Sinai."[EN#56] From the "written rock" the caravan
+travelled westward up an easy watercourse, "El-Khaur,"
+distinguished as El-Shimálí ("the Northern"): it winds round by
+the north, and we shall descend it to-morrow. The mule-riders
+left the Wady el-Wijh, which extends some two hours eastward, and
+struck to the east-south-east. The bridle-path, running up the
+left bank of an ugly rocky torrent, the Wady Zurayb, presently
+reaches a plateau undulating in low rises. Burnt with heat,
+almost bare of trees, and utterly waterless, it is the model of a
+mining country: elevate it from five hundred to nine thousand
+feet, and it would be the living (or dead) likeness of a Peruvian
+cerro. The staple material, porphyritic trap, shows scatters of
+quartz and huge veins, mostly trending north-south: large
+trenches made, according to the guides, by the ancients, and
+small cairns or stone piles, modern work, were also pointed out
+to us.
+
+Crossing the heads of sundry watercourses, we fell into the Wady
+Umm el-Karáyat:[EN#57] it begins, as is here the rule, with a
+gravelly bed, nice riding enough; it then breaks into ugly rocky
+drops and slides, especially at the hill shoulders, where
+thorn-trees and other obstacles often suggest that it is better
+to dismount; and, finally, when nearing the mouth, it becomes a
+matured copy of its upper self on an enlarged scale. Presently we
+turned to the left over a short divide, and stared with
+astonishment at the airy white heap, some two hundred feet high,
+which, capped and strewed with snowy boulders, seemed to float
+above our heads. The Wady-bed at our feet, lined along the left
+bank with immense blocks of similar quartz, showed the bases of
+black walls--ruins. "Behold Umm el-Karáyát!" exclaimed Nájí, the
+guide, pointing with a wave of the arm, his usual theatrical
+gesture, to the scene before us. We could hardly believe our
+eyes: he had just assured us that the march from the fort is four
+hours, and we had ridden it in two hours and fifteen minutes (=
+six miles and a quarter).
+
+Dismounting at once, and ordering the camp to be pitched near the
+ruins, we climbed up the south-eastern face of the quartz-hill,
+whose appearance was a novelty to us. Instead of being a regular,
+round-headed cone, like the Jebel el-Abyaz for instance, the
+summit was distinctly crateriform. The greater part of the day
+was spent in examining it, and the following are the results.
+This Jebel el-Marú showed, for the first time during the whole
+journey, signs of systematic and civilized work. In many parts
+the hill has become a mere shell. We found on the near side a
+line of air-holes, cut in the quartz rock, disposed north-south
+of one another; and preserving a rim, sunk like that of a
+sarcophagus, to receive a cover. Possibly it was a precaution
+against the plunder which ruined Brazilian Gongo Soco. The Arabs
+have no fear of these places, as in Wellsted's day, and Abdullah,
+the mulatto, readily descended into one about twelve feet below
+the surface. Messrs. Clarke and Marie explored the deepest by
+means of ropes, and declared that it measured sixty feet. They
+had to be ready with their bayonets, as sign of hyenas was
+common; and the beast, which slinks away in the open is apt, when
+brought to bay in caverns, to rush past the intruder, carrying
+off a jawful of calf or thigh.
+
+This pit had two main galleries, both choked with rubbish,
+leading to the east and west; and the explorers could see light
+glimmering through the cracks and crevices of the roof--these
+doubtless gave passage to the wild carnivore. In other parts the
+surface, especially where the earth is red, was pitted with
+shallow basins; and a large depression showed the sinking of the
+hollowed crust. Negro quartz was evidently abundant; but we came
+to the conclusion that the rock mostly worked was, like that of
+Shuwák, a rosy, mauve-coloured schist, with a deep-red fracture,
+and brilliant colours before they are tarnished by atmospheric
+oxygen. It abounds in mica, which, silvery as fish-scales,
+overspreads it in patches; and the precious metal had probably
+been sought in the veinlets between the schist and its
+quartz-walling. In two pieces, specks, or rather paillettes, of
+gold were found lightly and loosely adhering to the "Marú ;" so
+lightly, indeed, that they fell off when carelessly pocketed
+Veins of schist still remained, but in the galleries they had
+been followed out to the uttermost fibril.
+
+Reaching the crateriform summit, we found that the head of the
+cone had either "caved in," or had been carried off bodily to be
+worked. Here traces of fire, seen on the rock, suggested that it
+had been split by cold affusion. A view from the summit of this
+burrowed mound gave us at once the measure of the past work and a
+most encouraging prospect for the future. We determined that the
+Marwah or "quartz-hill" of Umm el-Karáyát was the focus and
+centre of the southern mining region, even as the northern
+culminates in the Jebel el-Abyaz. Further experience rejected the
+theory, and showed us half a dozen foci and centres in this true
+quartz-region. The main hill projects a small southern spur, also
+bearing traces of the miner. The block of green trap to the
+south-west has a capping and a vein-network of quartz: here also
+the surface is artificially pitted. Moreover, there are detached
+white-yellow pitons to the north-east, the east, and the south;
+whilst a promising hillock, bearing nearly due north, adjoins the
+great outcrop. All have rounded conical summits and smooth sides,
+proving that they are yet virgin; and here, perhaps, I should
+prefer to begin work.
+
+At our feet, and in north lat. 26° 13', lies the settlement, in a
+short gravelly reach disposed north-west to south-east; and the
+bed is enclosed by a rim of trap and quartz hills. The ruins lie
+upon a fork where two gorges, running to the east and the
+north-east, both fall into the broad Wady el-Khaur, and the
+latter feeds the great Wady el-Miyáh, the "Fiumara of the
+Waters," of which more presently. The remains on the upper
+(eastern) branch-valley show where the rock was pulverized by the
+number of grinding implements, large and small, coarse and fine,
+all, save the most solid, broken to pieces by the mischievous
+Bedawi. Some are of the normal basalt, which may also have served
+for crushing grain; others are cut out of grey and ruddy
+granites: a few are the common Mahrákah or "rub-stones," and the
+many are handmills, of which we shall see admirable specimens
+further on. One was an upper stone, with holes for the handle and
+for feeding the mill: these articles are rare. I also secured the
+split half of a ball, or rather an oblate spheroid, of serpentine
+with depressions, probably where held by finger and thumb; the
+same form is still used for grinding in the Istrian island of
+Veglia. This is one of the few rude stone implements that
+rewarded our careful search.
+
+The north-eastern, which is the main Wady, has a sole uneven with
+low swells and falls. It was dry as summer dust: I had expected
+much in the way of botanical collection, but the plants were not
+in flower, and the trees, stripped of their leaves, looked "black
+as negroes out of holiday suits." Here lie the principal ruins,
+forming a rude parallelogram from north-east to south-west. The
+ground plan shows the usual formless heaps of stones and pebbles,
+with the bases of squares and oblongs, regular and irregular,
+large and small. There were no signs of wells or aqueducts; and
+the few furnaces were betrayed only by ashen heaps, thin scatters
+of scoriæ, and bits of flux--dark carbonate of lime. Here and
+there mounds of the rosy micaceous schist, still unworked, looked
+as if it had been washed out by the showers of ages. The general
+appearance is that of an ergastulum like Umm Ámil: here perhaps
+the ore was crushed and smelted, when not rich enough to be sent
+down the Wady for water-working at the place where the inland
+fort now is.
+
+The quarrymen, placed at the most likely spots, were ordered to
+spall rock for specimens: with their usual perversity, they
+picked up, when unwatched, broken bits of useless stuff; they
+spent the whole day dawdling over three camel-loads, and they
+protested against being obliged to carry the sacks to their
+tents. Meanwhile Nájí, who had told marvellous tales concerning a
+well in the neighbouring hills, which showed the foundations of
+houses in its bowels, was directed to guide Lieutenant Amir. He
+objected that the enormous distance would be trying to the
+stoutest mule, and yet he did not blush when it was reached after
+a mile's ride to the southwest (240° mag.). It proved to be a
+long-mouthed pit, sunk in the trap hill-slope some four fathoms
+deep, but much filled up; and, so far from being built in, it had
+not even the usual wooden platform. Eastward of it, and at the
+head of the Wady Shuwaytanah, "the Devilling," lay a square ruin
+like a small Mashghal of white quartz: here also were three
+stones scribbled with pious ejaculations, such as Yá Allah! and
+Bismillah, in a modern Kufic character.
+
+Umm el-Karáyát, "the Mother of the Villages," derives her title,
+according to the Baliyy, from the numerous offspring of minor
+settlements scattered around her. We shall pass several on the
+next day's march, and I am justified in setting down the number
+at a dozen. The Wady el-Kibli, the southern valley, was visited
+by Lieutenants Amir and Yusuf on April 8th, when we were encamped
+below it at Abá'l-Marú[EN#58]. After riding about six miles to
+the north-north-west, down the Wady el-Mismáh and up the Wady
+el-‘Argah, they reached, on the left bank of the latter, the
+ruins known as Marú el-Khaur. The remains of the daughter are
+those of the "mother." There are two large heaps of quartz to the
+north and to the south-east of the irregular triangle, whose
+blunted apex faces northwards: the south-eastern hill shows an
+irregular Fahr ("pit") in the reef of white stone, leading to a
+number of little tunnels.
+
+I lost all patience with Wellsted,[EN#59] whose blunders
+concerning the Umm el-Karáyát are really surprising, even for a
+sailor on camel-back. He reaches the ruins after ten miles from
+the fort, when they lie between twelve and thirteen from El-Wijh.
+He calls the porphyritic trap "dark granite." He makes the grand
+quartz formation "limestone, of which the materials used for
+constructing the town (coralline!) appear to have been chiefly
+derived." He descends the "caves" with ropes and lights; yet he
+does not perceive that they are mining shafts and tunnels, puits
+d'air, adits for the workmen, and pits by which the ore was
+"brought to grass." And the Hydrographic Chart is as bad. It
+locates the inland fort six miles and three-quarters from the
+anchorage, but the mine is thrust eastwards ten miles and a
+quarter from the fort; the latter distance being, as has been
+seen, little more than the former. Moreover, the ruins are placed
+to the north, when they lie nearly on the same parallel of
+latitude as El-Wijh. Ahmed Kaptán fixed them, by solar
+observations, in north lat. 26° 13', so that we made only one
+mile of southing. It ignores the porphyritic sub-range in which
+the "Mother of the Villages" lies: and it brings close to the
+east of it the tall peaks of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah' which, from
+this point, rise like azure shadows on the horizon. Finally, it
+corrupts Umm el-Karáyát to Feyrabat. "Impossible, but true!"
+
+The night at the ruins was dry and cool, even cold; disturbed
+only by the coughing of the men, the moaning of the camels, and
+the bleating of the sheep. We would willingly have spent here
+another day, but water and forage were absolutely wanting; and
+the guides assured us that even greater marvels, in the shape of
+ruins and quartz-reefs, lay ahead. We set out shortly after five
+a.m. (March 31st): the morning was pearly and rosy; but puffs of
+a warmer wind announced the Dufún (local Khamsin), which promised
+us three days of ugly working weather. Leaving Umm el-Karáyát by
+the upper or eastern valley-fork, we soon fell into and descended
+its absorbent, the broad (northern) Wady el-Khaur. Upon the right
+bank of the latter rose the lesser "Mountain of Quartz," a cone
+white as snow, looking shadowy and ghostly in the petit jour, the
+dim light of morning. For the next two hours (= seven miles) we
+saw on both sides nothing but veins and outcrops of "Marú,"
+worked as well as unworked. All was bare and barren as the
+gypsum: the hardy ‘Aushaz (Lycium), allied to the tea-tree, is
+the only growth that takes root in humus-filled hollows of the
+stone.
+
+Presently the quartz made way for long lines and broad patches of
+a yellow-white, heat-altered clay, often revetted with iron, and
+passably aping the nobler rock: from one reef I picked up what
+appeared to be trachyte, white like that of Shaghab. The
+hill-casing of the valley forms no regular line; the heaps of
+black, red, and rusty trap are here detached and pyramidal, there
+cliffing as if in presence of the sea. The vegetation improved as
+we advanced; the trees were no longer black and heat-blasted; and
+we recognized once more the dandelion, the thistle, the senna,
+the Aristida grass, and other familiar growths. Tents, shepherds,
+and large flocks of goats and kids showed that water was not
+distant; and, here in Baliyy-land, even the few young women
+seemed to have no fear of the white face.
+
+After a slow, dull ride in the burning and sickly wind, we
+crossed the head of our former route, Wady Zurayb the Ugly, and
+presently entered the Wady el-Kubbah ("of the Cupola,"), where
+our immediate destination rose before us. It is a grisly black
+saddleback, banded with two perpendicular stripes of dark stone
+that shines like specular iron; and upon its tall northern end,
+the pommel, stands a small ruin, the oft spoken of "Dome."
+Sketches of paths wind up the western flank; but upon this line,
+we were assured, no ruins are seen save a few pits. So we rounded
+the block by the north, following the broad Wady to the Máyat
+el-Kubbah, water-pits in the sand whose produce had not been
+libelled when described as salt, scanty, and stinking. The track
+then turned up a short, broad branch-Wady, running from south to
+north, and falling into the left bank of the "Dome Valley:" a few
+yards brought us to a halt at the ruins of El-Kubbah. We had
+pushed on sharply during the last half of the way, and our
+morning's ride had lasted four hours (= thirteen miles).
+
+The remains lie in the uneven quartzose basin at the head of the
+little lateral watercourse: they are built with good cement, and
+they evidently belong to the race that worked the "Mother of the
+Villages;" but there is nothing to distinguish them except the
+ruins of a large Sákiyah ("draw-well"), with its basin of
+weathered alabaster. We were perplexed by the shallow conical
+pits in the porphyritic trap, to the east and west of the "Dome
+Hill;" the ground is too porous for rain cisterns, and the depth
+is not sufficient for quarrying. The furnaces showed the normal
+slag; but the only "metals" lying around them were poor
+iron-clay, and a shining black porphyry, onyxed with the whitest
+quartz. There were, however, extensive scatters of Negro, which
+had evidently been brought there; and presently we found large
+heaps of rosy-coloured, washed-out schist.[EN#60] These explained
+the raison d'être of this dreary and dismal hole.
+
+Meanwhile the juniors ascended the rocky "Kubbah" hill, which
+proved to be a small matter of 120 feet (aner. 29.34) above the
+valley-sole (aner. 29.46). The "Dome" was nothing but a truncated
+circle of wall, porphyry and cement, just large enough to hold a
+man; the cupola-roof, if there ever had been one, was clean gone;
+and adjoining it yawned a rock-cut pit some fifteen feet deep. I
+came to the conclusion that here might have been a look-out
+where, possibly, the "bale-fire" was also lit. The
+"ascensionists" brought back a very healthy thirst.
+
+We rested till noon in the filmy shade of the thorn-trees. The
+caravan was at once sent forward to reach the only good water,
+lying, said the guides, many a mile beyond. We had made up our
+minds for a good long march; and I was not a little vexed when,
+after half an hour, we were led out of the Wady el-Kubbah, whose
+head, our proper line, lies to the north, into its eastern
+influent, the Wady el-Dasnah. Here, after an afternoon "spell" of
+forty-five minutes (= two miles and a half), and a total of four
+hours and forty-five minutes (= fifteen miles and a half), a day
+nearly half wasted, we found the tents pitched. The heat had
+strewed the Wady with soldiers and quarrymen; and the large pit
+in the bed, supplying "water sweet as the Nile,', showed a swarm
+of struggling blacks, which the Egyptian officers compared with
+Aráfít or "demons;" we with large pismires. A sentinel was placed
+to prevent waste and pollution at the Máyat el-Dasnah, whose
+position is in north lat. 26° 23'.
+
+April Fools' day was another that deserved to be marked with a
+white stone. I aroused the camp at 3.30 a.m., in order that the
+camels might load with abundance of water: we were to reach the
+springs of Umm Gezáz, but a presentiment told me that we might
+want drink. At that hour the camp was a melancholy sight: the
+Europeans surly because they had discussed a bottle of cognac
+when they should have slept; the good Sayyid without his coffee,
+and perhaps without his prayers; Wakíl Mohammed sorrowfully
+attempting to gnaw tooth-breaking biscuit; and the Bedawin
+working and walking like somnambules. However, at 5.10 a.m. we
+struck north, over a low divide of trap hill, by a broad and
+evidently made road, and regained the Wady el-Kubbah: here it is
+a pleasant spectacle rich in trees, and vocal with the cooing of
+the turtle-dove. After an hour's sharp riding we reached its
+head, a fair round plain some two miles across, and rimmed with
+hills of red, green, and black plutonics, the latter much
+resembling coal. It was a replica of the Sadr-basin below the
+Hismá, even to the Khuraytah or "Pass" at the northern end. Here,
+however, the Col is a mere bogus; that is, no raised plateau lies
+beyond it.
+
+We crossed a shallow prism and a feeding-basin: an ugly little
+gorge then led to the important Wady Sirr. We are now in the
+hydrographic area of the Wady Nejd,[EN#61] which, numbering
+influents by the dozen, falls into the Salbah (Thalbah) of Sharm
+Dumaghah. The Sirr, though still far from its mouth, is at least
+three miles broad; and the guides speak of it as the Asl
+el-Balawíyyah, or "Old Home of the Baliyy." The view from its bed
+is varied and extensive. Behind us lies the Tihámat-Balawíyyah,
+the equivalent of the Gháts of North Midian, from the Zahd to the
+Shárr. The items are the little Jebel ‘Antar, which, peeping over
+the Fiumara's high left bank, is continued south by the lower
+Libn. The latter attaches to the higher Libn, whose triad of
+peaks, the central and highest built of three distinct
+castellations, flush and blush with a delicate pink-white cheek
+as it receives the hot caresses of the sun. We are now haunted by
+the Libn, which, like its big brother the Shárr, seems everywhere
+to accompany us.
+
+Beyond the neutral ground, over which we are travelling, appear
+in front the pale-blue heights bordering the Wady Nejd to the
+north-west, and apparently connected with the Jebelayn el-Jayy in
+the far north (30° mag.). To the north-east the view is closed by
+the lumpy Jebel el-Kurr (the Qorh of Arabian geographers?);
+followed southwards by the peaked wall of the Jebel el-Ward, and
+by El-Safhah with its "Pins." For the last eighteen miles we had
+seen no quartz, which, however, might have veined the
+underground-rock. The sole of the Sirr now appeared spread with
+snow, streaked and patched with thin white paint; the stones were
+mostly water-rolled, the discharge of valleys draining from afar.
+The ground was unpleasantly pitted and holed; the camels were
+weak with semi-starvation and the depressing south-wester;
+Lieutenant Amir put his dromedary to speed, resulting in a
+nose-flattening fall; and the Sayyid nearly followed suit.
+
+This is our second day of Khamsin; yet on the northern slope of
+the great Fiumara we meet the cool land-wind. Either it or the
+sea-breeze generally sets in between seven and eight a.m., when
+the stony, sandy world has been thoroughly sunned. The short
+divide beyond the far bank of the Sirr is strewn with glittering
+mica-schist that takes the forms of tree-trunks and rotten wood;
+and with dark purple-blue fragments of clay-slate looking as if
+they had been worked. A counterslope of the same material, which
+makes excellent path-metal placed us in the Wady Rubayyigh ("the
+Little Rábigh" or "Green-grown Spring"), a short and
+proportionally very broad branch draining to the Sirr. Here large
+outcrops of quartz mingled with the clay slate. A few yards
+further it abutted upon a small gravelly basin with ruins and a
+huge white reef of "Mará," which caused a precipitate
+dismounting. We had marched only four hours (= thirteen miles);
+but the loss of time has its compensations. Our Arabs, who
+consider this a fair day's work, will now, in hopes of a halt,
+show us every strew of quartz and every fragment of wall. They
+congratulated us upon reaching a part of their country absolutely
+unvisited by Europeans.
+
+The site of our discovery was the water-parting of the Wady
+Rubayyigh with the Wady Rábigh, both feeders of the Sirr; this to
+the north, that to the south. The ruins, known as Umm el-Haráb,
+"Mother of Desolation," are the usual basement-lines: they lie in
+the utterly waterless basin, our camping-ground, stretching west
+of Mará Rubayyigh, the big white reef. This "Mother" bears nearly
+north of Umm el-Karáyát, in north lat. 26° 33' 36" (Ahmed
+Kaptán): her altitude was made upwards of a thousand feet above
+sea-level (aner. 28.92)
+
+At Umm el-Haráb we saw for the first time an open mine,
+scientifically worked by the men of old. They chose a pear-shaped
+quartz-reef; the upper dome exposed, the converging slopes set
+and hidden in green trap to the east and west, and the invisible
+stalk extending downwards, probably deep into Earth's bowels.
+They began by sinking, as we see from certain rounded apertures,
+a line of shafts striking north-north-east (45°--50° mag.) to
+south-south-west across the summit, which may measure one hundred
+and twenty yards. The intervening sections of the roof are now
+broken away; and a great yawning crevasse in the hill-top gives
+this saddleback of bare cream-coloured rock, spangled with white
+where recently fractured, the semblance of a "comb" or cresting
+reef.
+
+We descended into this chasm, whose slope varies from a maximum
+of 45° to a minimum of 36° at the south. The depth apparently did
+not exceed thirty feet, making allowance for the filling up of
+centuries; but in places the hollow sound of the hammer suggested
+profounder pits and wells. I should greatly doubt that such
+shallow sinking as this could have worked out any beyond the
+upper part of the vein. Here it measures from six to eight feet
+in diameter, diminishing to four and a half and even three below.
+The sloping roof has been defended from collapse by large pillars
+of the rock, left standing as in the old Egyptian quarries; it
+shows the clumsy but efficient practice that preceded timbering.
+The material worked was evidently the pink-coloured and
+silver-scaled micaceous schist; but there was also a whitish
+quartz, rich in geodes and veinlets of dark-brown and black dust.
+The only inhabitants of the cave, bats and lizards (Gongylus
+ocellatus, L., etc.), did not prevent M. Lacaze making careful
+study of the excavation; the necessity of brown shadows, however,
+robs the scene of its charm, the delicate white which still
+shimmers under its transparent veil of shade. Similar features
+exist at El-Muwaylah and El-Aujah, in the wilderness of Kadesh:
+but those are latomiæ; these are gold mines.[EN#62]
+
+Another sign of superior labour is shown by the quartz-crushing
+implements. Here they are of three kinds: coarse and rough
+basaltic lava for the first and rudest work; red granite and
+syenitic granite for the next stage; and, lastly, an admirable
+handmill of the compactest grey granite, smooth as glass and hard
+as iron. Around the pin-hole are raised and depressed concentric
+circles intended for ornament; and the "dishing" towards the rim
+is regular as if turned by machinery. We have seen as yet nothing
+like this work; nor shall we see anything superior to it. All are
+nether millstones, so carefully smashed that one can hardly help
+suspecting the kind of superstitious feeling which suggested
+iconoclasm. The venerable Shaykh ‘Afnán showed a touching
+ignorance concerning the labours of the ancients; and, when
+lectured about the Nabat (Nabathæans), only exclaimed, "Allah,
+Allah!"
+
+In the evening we ascended the porphyry hills to the north of the
+little camping-basin; and we found the heights striped by two
+large vertical bands of quartz. The eastern vein, like the Jebel
+el-Marú, has a north-east to south-west strike (45° mag.); the
+western runs east-west with a dip to south. From the summit we
+could see that the quartz-mountain, as usual an exaggerated vein,
+is hemmed in on both sides by outcrops and hills of trap, black,
+green, and yellow, which culminate eastward in the Jebel el-Guráb
+(Juráb). We had a fine bird's-eye view of the Wady Rábigh, and of
+our next day's march towards the Shafah Mountains: the former was
+white with quartz as if hail-strewn. Far beyond its right bank
+rose an Ash'hab, or "grey head," which seemed to promise
+quartzose granite: it will prove an important feature. Before
+sleeping, I despatched to El-Wijh two boxes of micaceous schist
+and two bags of quartz, loads for a pair of camels.
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Chapter XVII.
+The March Continued to El-Badá–Description of the Plain Badais.
+
+
+
+After the exciting scenes of the last three days, this stage was
+dull riding, and consequently, I fear, it will be dull reading as
+well as writing. We set off afoot betimes (5.10 a.m.) in the
+still warm morning that augured Khamsín: the third day was now
+telling heavily on man and beast. A walk of ten minutes led down
+the rough line of the little water-course draining the Marú
+Rubayyigh to the Wady Rábigh. At a re-entering angle of the
+junction, a shallow pit was sunk; the sand became moist and red,
+and presently it was underlaid by a rubble of porphyritic trap.
+Nothing more!
+
+We then crossed the Wady Rábigh, another of the short broad
+valleys which distinguish this section of South Midian. The bed
+sides, especially the right, are heaps and mounds of snowy
+quartz, with glittering crowns of block and boulder: all prove to
+be veins in the grey granite, whose large coarse elements are
+decomposed by weather. The dark and rusty walls of the valley
+also discharge the white stone in shunts and shoots: here and
+there they might be mistaken for Goz ("sand-banks") heaped up by
+the wind, except that these are clad in thin vegetation, whereas
+the "Maru'" is mostly mother-naked. We halted here for rest and
+to examine these features: despite the Khamsín, the Great Gaster
+became querulous; hunger was now the chief complaint, and even
+the bon ordinaire had lost much of its attraction. A harmless
+snake was killed and bottled; its silver robe was beautifully
+banded with a line, pink as the circles of the "cobra coral,"
+which ran along the whole length of the back. It proved to be a
+new species; and Dr. Gunther named it Zamenis elegantissimus.
+
+Beyond the Rábigh, we ascended a lateral valley, whence a low
+divide led to the Wady el-Bahrah ("of the Basin"), another feeder
+of the Sirr. It was also snow-white, and on the right of the path
+lay black heaps, Hawáwít, "ruins" not worth the delay of a visit.
+Then began a short up-slope with a longer counterslope, on which
+we met a party of Huwaytát, camel-men and foot-men going to buy
+grain at El-Wigh. Another apparition was a spear-man bestriding a
+bare-backed colt; after reconnoitering us for some time, he
+yielded to the temptations of curiosity. It afterwards struck us
+that, mounted on our mules, preceded and followed by the Shaykhs
+riding their dromedaries, we must have looked mighty like a party
+of prisoners being marched inland. The horseman was followed by a
+rough-coated, bear-eared hound of the kind described by
+Wellsted[EN#63] as "resembling the English mastiff"--he did not
+know how common is the beast further north. The Kalb gasúr
+(jasur) or "bold dog," also called Kalb el-hámi, or "the hot"
+(tempered), is found even amongst the Bedawin to the east of the
+Suez Canal; but there the half-bred is more common than the
+whole-blood. It is trained to tend the flocks; it never barks,
+nor bites its charges; and it is said to work as well as the
+shepherd-dog of Europe.
+
+The Wady Mulaybij shows fine specimens of mica dorí in the
+quartz-vein streaking the slate: it deceived all the caravan,
+save those who tested it with their daggers. The bed, after
+forming a basin, narrows to a sandy gut, smooth and pleasant
+riding; and, after crossing several valley-heads, the path
+debouches upon the Wady Abál-Gezaz. This "Father of Glass,"
+though a day and a half's march from the sea, is even broader
+than the great Sirr to which it is tributary. Its line, which
+reminded us of the Dámah, is well marked by unusually fine
+vegetation: and the basin bears large clumps of fan-palm,
+scattered Daum-trees, the giant asclepiad El-‘Ushr,[EN#64]
+thickets of tamarisk and scatters of the wild castor-plant, whose
+use is unknown to the Arabs. Water wells up abundantly from a
+dozen shallow pits, old and new, in the sand of the southern or
+left bank. Here the flow is apparently arrested by a tall
+buttress of coarse granite, red with orthose, and sliced by a
+trap-dyke striking north-south.
+
+Our day's work had been only four slow hours; but we were
+compelled to await the caravan, which did not arrive till after
+noon. It had passed round by the Wady Rábigh, into and up the
+"Father of Glass;" in fact, it had described an easy semicircle;
+while we had ridden in a series of zigzags, over rough and
+difficult short cuts. A delay was also necessary for our mappers
+to connect this march with their itinerary of the central region.
+Already the Wady Mulaybij had shown us the familiar peak and
+dorsum of Jebel Raydán; and we had "chaffed" Furayj about his
+sudden return home. From our camp in the Abá'l-Gezáz, the Zigláb
+block of Shaghab bore nearly north (350° mag.); and the adjoining
+Jebel el-Aslah, also a blue cone on the horizon, rose about two
+degrees further north.
+
+After the big mess-tent had been duly blown down, and the usual
+discipline had been administered for washing in the
+drinking-pool; we crossed to the left of the Wady by way of an
+evening stroll, and at once came upon an atelier of some
+importance. The guides seemed to ignore its existence, so we
+christened it Mashghal Alá'l-Gezáz. On the slope of a trap-hill
+facing the Wady el-Ghami's, the southern valley which we had last
+crossed, stood a square of masonry scattered round with fragments
+of pottery, glass, and basalt. Below it, on the "mesopotamian"
+plain, lay the foundations of houses still showing their cemented
+floors. The lowlands and highlands around the settlement looked
+white-patched with mounds, veins, and scatters of quartz. The
+evening was stillness itself, broken only by the cries of the
+Katás, which are now nesting, as they flocked to drink; and the
+night was cool--a promise, and a false promise, that the Khamsín
+had ended on its usual third day.
+
+The next morning (April 3rd) showed us El-Bada', the whole march
+lying up the Wady Abá'l-Gezáz, which changes its name with every
+water. The early air was delightfully fresh and brisk, and the
+cattle stepped out as if walking were a pleasure: yet the Arabs
+declared that neither camels nor mules had found a full feed in
+the apparently luxuriant vegetation of the Fiumara-bed. The tract
+began badly over loose sandy soil, so honeycombed that neither
+man nor beast could tread safely: the Girdi (Jirdi), or "field
+rat," is evidently nocturnal like the jerboa, during the whole
+journey we never saw a specimen of either. A yellow wolf was
+descried skulking among the bushes, and a fine large hare was
+shot; porcupine-quills were common, and we picked up the mummy of
+a little hedgehog. The birds were swift-winged hawks and owls,
+pigeons and ring-doves; crows again became common, and the
+water-wagtail was tame as the Brazilian thrush, João de Barros:
+it hopped about within a few feet of us, quite ignoring the
+presence of Frenchmen armed with murderous guns. I cannot discern
+the origin of the pseudo-Oriental legend which declares that the
+"crow of the wilderness" (raven) taught Cain to bury his brother
+by slaying a brother crow, and scraping a grave for it with beak
+and claw. The murderous bird then perched upon a palm-tree, whose
+branches, before erect, have ever drooped, and croaked the truth
+into Adam's ear: hence it has ever been of evil augury to
+mankind. The hoopoe, which the French absurdly call coq de
+montagne, also trotted by the path-side without timidity; and the
+butcher-bird impudently reviewed the caravan from its
+vantage-ground, a commanding tree. The large swift shot screaming
+overhead; and the cries of the troops of Merops, with
+silver-lined wings, resembled those of the sand-grouse.
+
+After some five miles the "Father of Glass" changed his name to
+Abú Daumah (of the "one Theban Palm"). Porphyritic trap lay on
+both sides of us. To the right rose the Jebel ‘Ukbal, whose grey
+form (El-Ash'hab) we had seen from the heights above Umm
+el-Haráb: the whole range of four heads, forming the
+south-western rim of the Badá saucer, is known as El-‘Akábil.
+Below these blocks the Wady-sides were cut into buttresses of
+yellow clay, powdered white with Sabkh, or "impure salt." Charred
+circlets in the sand showed where alkali had been burned: the
+ashes, packed in skins, are shipped at El-Wijh for Syria, where
+they serve to make soap. The Bedawin call it Aslah (Athlah); the
+Egyptians Ghassálah ("the washer"), because, when rubbed in the
+hands, its succulent shoots clean the skin. Camels eat it,
+whereas mules refuse it, unless half-starved. This plant
+apparently did not extend all up the Wady. The water, where there
+is any, swings under the left bank; an ample supply had been
+promised to us, with the implied condition that we should camp at
+this Mahattat el-‘Urbán ("Halting place of the Arabs"), after a
+marching day of two hours! Seeing that we rode on, the Baliyy
+declared that they had searched for the two principal pools, and
+that both were dry, or rather had been buried by the Bedawin.
+But, with characteristic futility, they had allowed me to
+overhear their conversation; and the word was passed to the
+soldiers, who at once filled themselves and their water-skins.
+
+Hitherto we had been marching south of east. Presently, where the
+pretty green Wady el-Surám falls into the left bank, we turned a
+corner, and sighted in front, or to the north, the great plain of
+Badá. The block, El-‘Akábil, had projected a loop of some ten
+miles to be rounded, whereas a short cut across it would not have
+exceeded three. And now the Wady Abá Daumah abruptly changed
+formation. The red and green traps of the right side made way for
+grey granite, known by its rounded bulging blocks on the sides
+and summit, by its false stratification, by its veins of quartz
+that strewed the sand, and by its quaint weathering--one rock
+exactly resembled a sitting eagle; a second was a turtle, and a
+third showed a sphinx in the rough. The Badá plain is backed by a
+curtain so tall that we seemed, by a common optical delusion, to
+be descending when we were really ascending rapidly.
+
+Anxiety to begin our studies of the spot made the ride across the
+basin, soled with rises comfortably metalled, and with falls of
+sand unpleasantly loose and honeycombed, appear very long. The
+palm-clump, where men camp, with its two date-trees towering over
+the rest, receded as it were. At last, after a total of four
+hours and forty-five minutes (= sixteen miles), we dismounted at
+the celebrated groves, just before the ugly Khamsín arose and
+made the world look dull, as though all its colours had been
+washed out.
+
+The dates form a kind of square with a sharp triangle to the
+south, upon the left bank of the thalweg, which overflows them
+during floods. The enceinte is the normal Arab "snake-fence" of
+dry and barked branches, which imperfectly defends the nurseries
+of young trees and the plots of Khubbayzah ("edible mallows")
+from the adjoining camping-place of bald yellow clay. The wells,
+inside and outside the enclosure, are nine; three stone-revetted,
+and the rest mere pits in the inchoate modern sandstone. The
+trees want thinning; the undergrowth is so dense as to be
+impenetrable; but the heads are all carefully trimmed, the first
+time we have seen such industry in Midian. The shade attracts
+vipers, chiefly the Echis: and I was startled by hearing the gay
+warble of the Bulbul--a nightingale in Arabia!
+
+The next day was devoted to inspecting this far-famed site, with
+the following results. We have already seen a Bada' <Arabic> and
+a Badí'a <Arabic>, whilst there is a Badí'ah <Arabic>[EN#65]
+further north. We are now at a Badá <Arabic> which fulfils all
+the conditions required by the centre and head-quarters of
+"Thamuditis." The site of the Bújat Badá, "the Wide Plain of
+Badá," as it is distinguished by the Arabs, represents,
+topographically speaking, a bulge in the Wady Nejd, before it
+becomes the Wady Abú Daumah, between the Shafah Mountains to the
+east and the Tihámah range seawards. The latitude is 26° 45' 30"
+= 0° 31' 30" north of El-Wijh [Footnote: Ahmed Kaptán's
+observation of Polaris. The <Greek> (Bades) of Ptolemy is
+in north lat. 25° 30'.]. From its centre, a little south of our
+camping-place, the Jebel Zigláb of Shaghab, distant, according to
+Yákút, one march, bears 32°, and the Aslah (Athlah) cone 30°
+(both mag.): it lies therefore south of Shuwák, with a little
+westing. The altitude is upwards of twelve hundred feet above
+sea-level (aner. 28.72). The size of the oval is about nine
+statute miles from north to south, where the main watercourse
+breaks; and twelve miles from east to west, giving an area of
+some 108 square miles. The general aspect of the basin suggests
+that of El-Haurá; the growth is richer than the northern, but not
+equal to that of the southern country. The ruins belong to the
+Magháir Shu'ayb category, and the guides compare the Hawáwít with
+those of Madáin Sálih.
+
+Such is the great station on the Nabathæan overland highway
+between Leukè' Kóme and Petra; the commercial and industrial,
+the agricultural and mineral centre, which the Greeks called
+<Greek> the Romans, Badanatha (Pliny, vi. 32); and the
+mediæval Arab geographers, Badá Ya'kúb, in the days when the
+Hajj-caravan used to descend the Wadys Nejd and the "Father of
+Glass." Now it is simply El-Badá: the name of the "Prophet"
+Jacob, supposed to have visited it from Egypt or Syria, being
+clean forgotten.
+
+The rolling plain is floored with grey granite, underlying
+sandstones not unlike coral-rag, and still in course of
+formation. Through this crust outcrop curious hillocks, or rather
+piles of hard, red, and iron-revetted rock, with a white or a
+rusty fracture--these are the characteristics of the basin. The
+lower levels are furrowed with their threads of sand, beds of
+rain-torrents discharged from the mountains; and each is edged by
+brighter growths of thorn and fan-palm. The fattening Salíb grass
+is scattered about the water; the large sorrel hugs the
+Fiumara-sides; the hardy ‘Aushaz-thorn (Lycium), spangled with
+white bloom and red currants, which the Arabs say taste like
+grapes, affects the drier levels; and Tanzubs, almost all timber
+when old, become trees as large as the Jujube.
+
+The Bújat is everywhere set in a regular rim of mountains. The
+Shafah curtain to the north is fretted with a number of peaks,
+called as usual after their Wadys;[EN#66] the west is open with a
+great slope, the Wady Manab, whose breadth is broken only by the
+"Magráh" Naza'án, a remarkable saddleback with reclining cantle.
+It is distant a ride of two hours, and we have now seen it for
+three marches. A little south of east yawns the gorge-mouth of
+the Wady Nejd, the upper course of the Abá'l-Gezáz: a jagged
+black curtain, the Jebel Dausal, forms its southern jaw. Further
+south the Tihámah Mountains begin with the peaky Jebel el-Kurr,
+another remarkable block which has long been in sight. Its
+neighbour is the bluff-headed Jebel el-Wásil of Marwát; whilst
+the trap-blocks, already mentioned as the Jibál el-‘Akábil,
+finish the circle.
+
+The better to understand the shape of the ruins, we will ascend
+the irregular block which rises a few furlongs to the north-east
+of the palm-orchard. It has only three names: ‘Araygat Badá
+("Veinlet of Badá"); Zeba'yat Badá, "the Low-lying (Hill) of
+Badá;" and Shahíb el-Búm, "the Ash-coloured (Hill) of the Owl." I
+will prefer the latter, as we actually sighted one of those dear
+birds on its western flank. It is an outcrop of grey granite,
+pigeon-holed by weather, and veined by a variety of dykes. Here
+we find greenstone breccia'd with the blackest hornblende; there
+huge filons of hard, red, heat-altered clays, faced with iron,
+whilst the fracture is white as trachyte; and there filets of
+quartz, traversing large curtains and sheets of light-coloured
+argils. This was evidently the main quarry: the sides still show
+signs of made zigzags; and the red blocks and boulders, all round
+the hill, bear the prayers and pious ejaculations of the
+Faithful. The characters range between square Kufic, hardly
+antedating four centuries, and the cursive form of our day. Some
+are merely scraped; others are deeply and laboriously cut in the
+hard material, a work more appropriate for the miner than for the
+passing pilgrim.
+
+From the ruined look-out on the summit the shape of the city
+shows a highly irregular triangle of nine facets, forming an apex
+at the east end of our "Owl's Hill:" the rises and falls of the
+ground have evidently determined the outline. The palm-orchard,
+whose total circumference is five hundred and thirty-six metres,
+occupies a small portion of its south-eastern corner; and our
+camping-place, further east, was evidently included in the
+ancient enceinte. The emplacement, extending along the eastern
+bank of the main watercourse, is marked by a number of mounds
+scattered over with broken glass and pottery of all kinds: no
+coins were found, but rude bits of metal, all verdigris, were
+picked up north of the palm-orchard. Here, too, lay queer
+fish-bones, with tusks and teeth, chiefly the jaws of Scaridæ and
+Sparidæ (seabreams).[EN#67]
+
+Descending the Shahíb el-Búm, and passing a smaller black and
+white block appended to its south-south-western side, we now
+cross to the left bank of the main drain. Here lies the broken
+tank, the normal construction of El-Islam's flourishing days. It
+is a square of thirty-two metres, whose faces and angles do not
+front the cardinal points. At each corner a flight of steps has
+been; two have almost disappeared, and the others are very shaky.
+The floor, originally stone-paved, is now a sheet of hard silt,
+growing trees and bush: dense Tanzub-clumps (Sodada decidua),
+with edible red berries, sheltering a couple of birds'-nests,
+suggested a comparison between the present and the past. At the
+east end is the Makhzan el-Máyah, or "smaller reservoir," an
+oblong of 7.80 by 6.60 metres: the waggon-tilt roof has
+disappeared, and the fissures show brick within the ashlar. Along
+the eastern side are huge standing slabs of the coarse new
+sandstone with which the tank is lined: these may be remains of a
+conduit. Around the cistern lies a ruined graveyard, whose
+yawning graves supplied a couple of skulls. A broken line of
+masonry, probably an aqueduct, runs south-south-east (143° mag.)
+towards the palms: after two hundred metres all traces of it are
+lost.
+
+The mining industry could not have been a prominent feature at
+Badá, or we should have found, as in Shaghab and Shuwák, furnaces
+and scoriæ. Yet about the tank we lit upon large scatters of
+spalled quartz, which, according to the Baliyy, is brought from
+the neighbouring mountains. Some of it was rosy outside: other
+specimens bore stains of copper; and others showed, when broken,
+little pyramids of ore. Tested in England, it proved to be pure
+lead, a metal so rare that some metallurgists have doubted its
+existence: the finds have been mostly confined to auriferous
+lands. The blow-pipe soon showed that it was not galena (the
+sulphide), but some of it contained traces of silver. Without
+knowing the rarity of these specimens, certain American officers
+at the Citadel, Cairo, compared them with the true galenas of the
+Dár-Forian mines, called Mahattat el-Risás (the "Deposit of
+Lead"), in the Wady Gotam, three days north-east of the capital
+El-Fashr. The African metal is rich. Large quantities, analyzed
+by Gastinel Bey, gave fifty per cent. of lead, and of silver
+fifty dollars per ton; but the distance from any possible market
+will reserve these diggings for the use of the future. Some were
+sanguine enough to propose smelting the metal at Khartúm, where
+Risás is ever in demand; and accordingly, for a time Dar-For was
+"run," by a mild "ring," against Midian.
+
+The plain, I have said, is everywhere broken by piles of stone
+forming knobby hills. Leaving the outlined sphinx to the right,
+we ascended a second block, which rises on the west of the chief
+watercourse, further down than the "Owl's Hill." This Tell
+el-Ahmar ("Red Hill"), alias Ja'dat Badá (the "Curved Hill of
+Bada'"), is a quoin of grey granite bluff to the south-west. The
+north-eastern flank shows the normal revetment of ruddy and black
+heat-altered grit, which gives a red back to the pale-sided,
+drab-coloured heap. Over the easy ascent is run a zigzag path;
+half-way, up it passes piles of stone that denote building, and
+it abuts at the summit upon one of those "look-outs" which are
+essentially Arab.
+
+Again, to the south-east of the palms is the Huzaybat Badá, the
+"(Isolated) Hillock of Badá," a low ridge of naked grey granite,
+much scaled and pigeon-holed. On the plain to its north stretch
+regular lines of stone, probably the remnants of a work intended
+to defend the city's eastern approach. South of the Huzaybah
+appear the usual signs of an atelier: these workshops are
+doubtless scattered all around the centre; but a week, not a day,
+would be required to examine them. On the very eve of our
+departure the guides pointed northwards (350° mag.) to a
+"Mountain of Marú," called El-Arayfát, and declared that it
+contained a Zaríbat el-Nasárá, or "enclosure made by the
+Nazarenes." I offered a liberal present for specimens; all,
+however, swore that the distance ranged from two to three hours
+of dromedary, and that no mounted messenger could catch us unless
+we halted the next day.
+
+The Bedawin, still relegated to the upper country, were sending
+their scouts to ascertain if the water-supply was sufficient in
+Badá plain. The adjacent valleys were dotted with she-camels and
+their colts. The adult animal here sells for twelve to thirty
+dollars. During the cotton-full in Egypt, and the cotton-famine
+of the United States, they fetched as many pounds sterling at the
+frontier; and the traders of El-Wijh own to having made two
+hundred per cent., which we may safely double. I asked them why
+they did not import good stallions from the banks of the Nile;
+and the reply was that of the North Country--the experiment had
+ended in the death of the more civilized brutes. This is easily
+understood: the Baliyy camel seems to live on sand.
+
+The camp was visited by a few Bedawi stragglers, and the reports
+of their immense numbers were simply absurd. The males were not
+to be distinguished, in costume and weapons, from their
+neighbours; and the "females" were all dark and dressed in
+amorphous blue shirts. At last came an old man and woman of the
+Huwaytát tribe, bringing for sale a quantity of liquefied butter.
+They asked a price which would have been dear on the seaboard;
+and naively confessed that they had taken us for pilgrims,--birds
+to be plucked. But sheep and goats were not to be found in the
+neighbourhood: yesterday we had failed to buy meat; and to-day
+the young Shaykh, Sulaymán, was compelled to mount his dromedary
+and ride afar in quest of it. The results were seven small sheep,
+which, lean with walking, cost eleven dollars; and all were
+slaughtered before they had time to put on fat.
+
+During our stay a pitiable object, with a hide- bandaged lower
+leg, often limped past the tents; and, thinking the limb broken,
+I asked the history of the accident. Our hero, it appears, was a
+doughty personage, famed for valour, who had lately slipped into
+the Juhayni country with the laudable intention of "lifting" a
+camel. He had, indeed, "taken his sword, and went his way to rob
+and steal," under the profound conviction that nothing could be
+more honourable--in case of success. He was driving off the
+booty, when its master sallied out to recover the stolen goods by
+force and by arms. Both bared their blades and exchanged cuts,
+when the Baliyy found that his old flamberge was too blunt to do
+damage. Consequently he had the worse of the affair; a slicing of
+the right hand forced him to drop his "silly sword." He then
+closed with his adversary, who again proved himself the better
+man, throwing the assailant, and at the same time slashing open
+his left leg. The wounded man lay in the "bush" till he gathered
+strength to "dot and go one" homewards. Amongst these tribes the
+Diyat, or "blood-money," reaches eight hundred dollars;
+consequently men will maim, but carefully avoid killing, one
+another.
+
+The evening of our halt, with its lurid haze and its ominous
+brooding stillness, was distinguished by a storm, a regular Arab
+affair, consisting of dust by the ton to water by the drop. This
+infliction of the "fearful fiend, Samiel, fatal to caravans,"
+began in the west. A cloud of red sand advanced like a
+prairie-fire at headlong speed before the mighty rushing wind,
+whose damp breath smelt of rain; and presently the mountain-rim
+was veiled in brown and ruddy and purple earth-haze. A bow in the
+eastern sky strongly suggested, in the apparent absence of a
+shower, refraction by dust--if such thing be possible. We were
+disappointed, by the sinister wind, in our hopes of collecting a
+bottle of rain-water for the photographer; nor did the storm,
+though it had all the diffused violence of a wintry gale,
+materially alter the weather. The next two nights were brisk and
+cool, but the afternoons blew either the Khamsín ("south-wester")
+or the Azyab ("south-easter").
+
+The only Bedawi tradition concerning the Bada' plain is the
+following. Many centuries ago, some say before the Apostle, the
+Baliyy held the land, which was a valley of gardens, a foretaste
+of Irem; the people were happy as the martyrs of Paradise, and
+the date-trees numbered two thousand. The grove then belonged to
+a certain Ibn Mukarrib, who dwelt in it with his son and a slave,
+not caring to maintain a large guard of Arabs. Consequently he
+became on bad terms with the Ahámidah-Baliyy tribe, who began
+systematically to rob his orchard. At last one of a large
+plundering party said to him, "O Ibn Mukarrib! wilt thou sell
+this place of two thousand (trees), and not retreat (from thy
+bargain)?" He responded "Buy!" (i.e. make an offer). The other,
+taking off his sandal, exclaimed. "With this!" and the
+proprietor, in wrath, rejoined, "I have sold!"
+
+Ibn Mukarrib then arose and went forth, with his son and the
+slave, to the place whence came the water (that fed the palms):
+this he closed up, and fared towards the north. One day it so
+happened that the three were sitting under the shade of a
+Marakh-tree and eating its berries. Quoth the sire to the son,
+"Say, which is the sweeter, the eating of the Marakh fruit or the
+dates of our orchard?" And the youth rejoined, "O my father! far
+sweeter is the eating of the fruit of our palm-yard;" when his
+sire at once arose and slew him with the sword (to wipe away the
+disgrace of such want of manliness).
+
+Then Ibn Mukarrib turned to the slave, and asked him the question
+which he had asked of his son. Whereupon the slave replied in
+this quatrain:
+
+      "Eating wild grain in the house of respect;
+      And not eating dates in the house of contempt:
+      And walking in honour but a single day;
+      And not sitting in disgrace for a thousand years!"
+
+Ibn Mukarrib, pleased with these words, forthwith adopted the
+slave; both marched to the north and dwelt there till the end of
+their days. The palm-trees, deprived of irrigation, all died; and
+Bújat-Badá, the beautiful, became a wilderness. About twenty
+years ago, the wells were reopened and the dates were replanted.
+So much for the past: as for the future, we may safely predict
+that, unless occupied by a civilized people, the Badá plain will
+again see worse times. Nothing would be easier than to rebuild
+the town, and to prepare the basin for irrigation and
+cultivation; but destruction is more in the Bedawi line.
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Chapter XVIII.
+   Coal a "Myth"--March to Marwát--Arrival at the Wady Hamz.
+
+
+
+Before leaving Badá I was careful to make all manner of inquiries
+concerning stone-coal; and the guides confirmed the suspicions
+which had long suggested themselves. His Highness the Viceroy had
+laid great stress upon the search: the first question to me on
+return was whether the fuel had been found; and a shade of
+disappointment appeared when the answer distinctly declared it a
+myth.
+
+This coal, it appears, is an old story. My learned friend
+Sprenger wrote to me (June 13, 1877): "It is likely that west of
+Marwa, on the way to Hawrá (which lies on the sea-shore), coal is
+found: I confess that the prospect of discovering much coal in
+Arabia does not appear to me very great; still it would be worth
+while to make inquiries." Subsequently (December 8, 1877), he
+gave up all hopes of the pure mineral, but he still clave to
+bituminous schist. El-Mukaddasi (p. 103),[EN#68] treating of the
+marvels of the land, has the following passage unconnected with
+those which precede and succeed it:--"A fire arose between
+El-Marwat and El-Haurá, and it burned, even as charcoal (el-Fahm)
+burns." Probably Sprenger had read, "and it (the stone) burned as
+charcoal burns," suggesting that the houses and huts were built
+of inflammable material, like the bituminous schist of the
+Brazil; and that the Arabs were surprised to find them taking
+fire. Evidently, however, the text refers to an eruption in one
+of the many Harrahs or volcanic districts. El-Mukaddasi describes
+the "houses artful (farihín, alluding to the Thamúdites in the
+Koran, xxvi. 149), and made of admirable stone (alabaster?); over
+the doors were knots (‘Ukúd), and ornaments (Turúh), and carvings
+(Nukúsh)."
+
+Landing at El-Wijh, I at once consulted our intelligent friend,
+the Wakíl Mohammed Shahádah. He had sent for a camel-load of the
+stuff, which, he declared, would not burn, although it had burned
+his money. He then travelled in person to the Jebel el-Muharrak
+("Burnt Mountain"), five short marches inland from El-Badá plain,
+and behind its northern curtain, the Jibál el-Shafah. According
+to him, El-Muharrak is part of the great Harrah; and the
+unexplored Jaww, which lies north (?) of it, is a prolongation of
+the Hismá plateau, here belonging to the Balawíyyah or
+Baliyy-land. The mountain is tall and black, apparently
+consisting of the "coal." Near its summit lies the Bir el-Shifá'
+("Well of Healing"), a pit of cold sulphur-water, excellent for
+the eyes; and generally a "Pool of Bethesda," whither Arabs flock
+from afar. At Abá'l-Gezáz, Mohammed destroyed all our surviving
+hopes by picking up a black stone which, he declared, belonged to
+El-Muharrak. It was schist, with a natural fracture not unlike
+coal, and weathered into the semblance of wood: unfortunately it
+was hard as iron, and it did not contain an atom of bitumen.
+
+At Badá old Shaykh ‘Afnán, whose tents are now pitched one day
+ahead of us, was taken into consultation upon the subject. He
+confirmed these statements of the Wakíl, adding that the Shafah
+Mountains are a mere ridge, not the seaward walls of a plateau,
+and that the land east of them is exactly that which we have
+already traversed. He had bathed in the sulphur-water; he spoke
+of brimstone being picked up on the hill-flanks, and he had heard
+of El-Kohl (stibium, collyrium, antimony) being found about
+El-Muharrak.[EN#69]
+
+These details, apparently authentic, did not tempt me to waste
+precious time upon El-Muharrak. I do not yet despair, as has been
+said, of finding coal in Arabia; but we must hardly expect
+volcanic ground to yield it.
+
+Our preparations for a march southwards were made under
+difficulties. The Baliyy evidently like the prospect of some £6
+per diem; and do not like the idea of approaching the frontier,
+where their camels may be stolen. Every silly, childish pretext
+was used to suggest delay. We ought not to move without seeing
+the "Nazarenes' Ruin" at El-‘Arayfát. Again, I had sent a certain
+Salim, a cousin of the Shaykh, with orders for fresh supplies
+from El-Wijh: he was certain to miss us if we marched. Still
+again, old ‘Afnán's dromedary had a thorn in the foot--u. s. w.
+
+Nevertheless, an order was given for the return march on April
+5th.
+
+No matter how philosophical the traveller may be, I defy him not
+to feel some emotion when, his Desert work being duly done, he
+throws his leg over the saddle, and turn the animal's head
+homewards--towards London. Such was our pleasant predicament;
+for, though the détour would be considerable, and the delay still
+more so, I could distinguish the bourne at the far end of the
+very long perspective.
+
+We were now in excellent marching order, not, however, including
+the mules, of which two had broken down with sore backs, and the
+others were breaking fast. The réveillé sounded at 3 to 3.30
+p.m.; the "general" followed at four; and the start took place
+immediately afterwards. The camels are wretched animals, that
+work equally badly full and fasting: when hungry, they break
+their halters to graze along the path; and when gorged they are
+too lazy to go beyond a saunter of two miles an hour. Yet they
+can work well when pushed: the man Sa'lim came up with us on the
+evening of the fourth day, after a forced march of thirty-two
+hours.
+
+We took the track which crosses the Bújat-Badá to the south-east.
+For a short way it was vilely rat-eaten; presently it issued upon
+good, hard, stony ground; and, after four miles, it entered the
+Wady el-Marwát. This gorge, marked by the Jebel Wásil, a round
+head to the north, is a commonplace affair of trap and white
+clay; broad, rough, and unpicturesque. The sole shows many piles
+of dry stone, ruins of "boxes," in which the travelling Arab
+passes the night, whilst his camels are tethered outside. The
+watercourse heads in a Khuraytah, the usual rock-ladder; we
+reached it after eleven miles' riding. Nájí, the sea-lawyer of
+the party, assured us that we had not finished a third of the
+way, when two-thirds would have been nearer the truth.
+
+The Wady sides and head showed traces of hard work, especially
+where three veins of snowy quartz had been deeply cut into. The
+summit of the Col, some 2100 feet above sea-level, carried a fine
+reef of "Marú," measuring eight feet at the widest, and trending
+332° (mag.) Around it lay the usual barbarous ruins, mere
+basements, surrounded by spalled stone: from this place I carried
+off a portable Kufic inscription. The view down the regular and
+tree-dotted slope of the Wady el-Marwát, as far as the flats of
+Badá, was charming, an Argelèz without its over-verdure.
+
+From the Col two roads lead to our day's destination. The short
+cut to the right was reported stony: as most of our mules were
+casting their irons and falling lame, I avoided it by the advice
+of Furayj, thereby giving huge offence to old ‘Afnán. We followed
+the long slope trending to the Wady el-Kurr, which drains the
+notable block of that name. Seeing the Wakíl, and the others in
+front, cutting over the root to prevent rounding a prodigiously
+long tongue-tip, I was on the qui vive for the normal dodge; and
+presently the mulatto Abdullah screamed out that the Nakb must be
+avoided, as it was all rock. We persisted and found the path
+almost as smooth as a main road. The object was to halt for the
+night at a neighbouring water-hole in the rocks; and, when their
+trick failed, the Baliyy with a naive infantine candour, talked
+and laughed over their failure, sans vergogne and within earshot.
+
+Despite the many Zawábahs ("dust-devils"), this was one of our
+finest travelling days. After the usual ante-meridian halt, we
+pushed on down the valley, meeting only a few donkey-drivers. At
+2.15 p.m. (seven hours = twenty miles and a half), we reached the
+beautiful ‘Ayn el-Kurr, some ten direct miles east of the Wady
+Rábigh; and the caravan was only one hour behind us. This Wady is
+a great and important affluent of the Wady el-Miyáh already
+mentioned. The reach where we camped runs from north to south;
+and the "gate" of porphyritic trap, red, green, yellow, and white
+with clay, almost envelops the quartz-streaked granite. The walls
+are high enough to give shade between eight a.m. and 2.15 p.m.;
+and the level sole of the cleanest sand is dotted, near the right
+side, with holes and pools of the sweetest water. Here "green
+grow the rushes," especially the big-headed Kasbá (Arundo donax);
+the yellow-tipped Namas or flags (Scirpus holoschænus) form a
+dense thicket; the ‘Ushr, with its cork-like bark which makes the
+best tinder, is a tree, not a shrub; and there are large natural
+plantations of the saffron-flowered, tobacco-like Verbascum, the
+Arab's Uzn el-Humár ("Donkey's Ear"). Add scattered clusters of
+date-trees, domineering over clumps of fan-palm; and, lastly,
+marvellous to relate, a few hundred feet of greensward, of
+regular turf--a luxury not expected in North-Western Arabia--a
+paradise for frogs and toads (Bufo vulgaris), grasshoppers, and
+white pigeons; and you will sympathize with our enjoyment at the
+‘Ayn el-Kurr. In such a place extensive ruins of the "Old Ones"
+were to be expected. Apparently there is no trace of man beyond
+Wasm on the rocks; a few old Bedawi graves in a dwarf Wady
+inflowing from the west; a rude modern watercourse close above
+its mouth, and Arab fences round the trimmed dates and newly set
+palm shoots.
+
+During the afternoon the Shaykhs came to us with very long faces.
+At this season, and as long as the Baliyy are in the Shafah
+uplands, the almost deserted frontier districts, which we are
+about to enter, suffer from the Gaum, or razzia, of the
+neighbouring ‘Anezah and the Juhaynah;--the two tribes, however,
+not mixing. The bandits, numbering, they say, from fifty to
+sixty, mounted on horses and dromedaries, only aspire to plunder
+some poor devil-shepherd of a few camels, goats, and muttons.
+They never attack in rear; they always sleep at night, save when
+every moment is precious for "loot"-driving; and their weapons,
+which may be deadly in the narrows, are despicable in the open
+country.
+
+I suspected at first that this was another "dodge" to enhance the
+services of our Arabs, but the amount of risk we were to run was
+soon found out by consulting Furayj. He said that we must march
+in rear of the caravan for a day or two; and that such attacks
+were possible, but only once in a hundred cases. There might have
+been treachery in camp; the Egyptian officers suggested that a
+Baliyy scout could have been sent on to announce the approach of
+a rich caravan. Accordingly, I ordered an evening review of our
+"Remingtons;" and chose a large mark purposely, that the Bedawi
+lookers-on might not have cause to scoff. The escort redeemed
+many a past lâche, by showing that their weapons had been kept
+bright and clean, and by firing neatly enough. The Baliyy, who
+had never seen a breech-loader, were delighted; but one of our
+party so disliked the smell of powder, that he almost quarrelled
+with me for bringing him into such imminent deadly risk. He was
+hardly to be blamed; his nerves had been terribly shaken by a
+viper killed in his tent.
+
+Next morning (April 6th) saw the most unpleasant of our marches.
+The young Shaykh Sulaymán, accompanied by his cousin Sálim, set
+out in the dark as éclaireurs: they were supposed to lead eight
+or ten of the best matchlock-men, whereas I doubt whether the
+whole camp contained that total. Presently it appeared that they
+were alone, and the farce was hardly kept up through the next
+day. At 5.15 a.m. we followed them, marching militairement, as my
+friend Sefer Pasha had strongly advised at Cairo. It is no joke
+to follow starveling beasts whose best speed seldom attains two
+miles and a half per hour. However, the effect was excellent:
+never had there been so little straggling; never had the
+halting-places been reached in such good time and good order.
+
+A pleasant surprise awaited us in the grandest display of quartz
+that we had yet seen. The descent of the Wady el-Kurr seemed to
+be as flat, stale, and profitless as possible, when "Mará"
+appeared on the left side in mounds, veins, and strews. Presently
+we turned south, and passed the brackish well, El-Hufayrah ("the
+Little Pit"), in a bay of the left bank, distant about eight
+miles from our last camp. Here the whole Wady, some two miles
+broad, was barred with quartz, in gravel of the same rock, and in
+veins which, protruding from the dark schist, suggested that it
+underlies the whole surface. Nothing more remarkable than the
+variety of forms and tints mingling in the mighty mass--the
+amorphous, the crystallized, the hyaline, the burnt; here mottled
+and banded, there plain red and pink, green and brown, slaty and
+chocolate, purple, kaolin-white; and, rarest of all,
+honeycomb-yellow. The richest part was at the Majrá el-Kabsh
+("Divide of the Ram"), where we alighted and secured specimens.
+
+From this point the Wady el-Kurr flows down the right side of its
+valley, and disappears to the west; while the far side of the
+Majrá shows the Wady Gámirah (Kámirah), another influent of the
+Wady el-Miyáh. Various minor divides led to the Wady el-Laylah,
+where ruins were spoken of by our confidant, ‘Audah, although his
+information was discredited by the Shaykhs. Quartz-hills now
+appeared on either side, creamy-coated cones, each capped by its
+own sparkle whose brilliancy was set off by the gloomy traps
+which they sheeted and topped. In some places the material may
+have been the usual hard, white, heat-altered clay; but the
+valley-sole showed only the purest "Marú." The height of several
+hills was nearly double that of the northern Jebel el-Abyaz; and
+the reef-crests were apparently unworked.
+
+After the march had extended to seven hours (= 18 miles), there
+were loud complaints about its length, the venerable ‘Afnán
+himself begging us to spare his camels--which, being interpreted,
+meant spoiling our pockets. I therefore gave orders to camp in
+the broad and open Wady Laylah. We were far from water, but the
+evening was pleasant, and the night was still more agreeable.
+
+At five a.m. next day (April 7th) we rode up the Wady Laylah,
+which gave us another surprise, and an unexpected joy, in the
+shifting scenery of the Jibál el-Safhah. The "Mountains of the
+Plain," so called because they start suddenly from a dead level,
+are a section of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah range; yet they are
+worthy links of a chain which boasts of a Shárr. Rising hard on
+our left, beyond the dull traps that hem in the Wadys, these
+blocks, especially the lower features, the mere foot-hills,
+assume every quaintest nuance of hue and form. The fawn-grey
+colour, here shining as if polished by "slickensides," there dull
+and roughened by the rude touch of Time, is a neutral ground that
+takes all the tints with which sun and moon, mist and cloud,
+paint and glaze the world: changeable as the chameleon's, the
+coating is never the same for two brief hours. The protean shape,
+seen in profile and foreshortened from the north or south,
+appears a block bristling with "Pins" and points, horns and
+beaks. Viewed from the east the range splits into a double line,
+whose ranks have never been "dressed" nor sized; whilst a
+diagonal prospect so alters their forms and relations that they
+apparently belong to another range.
+
+The background, lying upon the most distant visible plane, is the
+white-streaked and regular wall of the Jebel el-Ward, which we
+have already seen from the sea. Its northern foot-ranges are the
+pale-white and jagged ‘Afayr, whose utter isolation makes it
+interesting; and the low and long, the dark and dumpy Jebel
+Tufayyah. It is separated by a broad valley from its southern
+neighbour, the Jebel el-Ughlub, or El-Ghalab as some call it.
+This typical block consists chiefly of a monstrous "Parrot's
+Beak" of granite, continued by a long dorsum to the south. Its
+outliers number four. These are, first, the Umm Natash, two sets
+of perpendicular buttresses pressed together like sausages or
+cigars. Then comes the Talát Muhajjah, a broken saddleback, whose
+cantle from the south-east appears split into a pair of
+steeple-like boulders--an architect of Alexander the Great's day
+would have easily cut and trimmed them into such towers as the
+world has never seen. Follows the Umm el-Natákah, bristling like
+the fretful porcupine, and apparently disdaining to receive the
+foot of man; while the last item, the Jebel el-Khausilah, has
+outlines so thoroughly architectural that we seem to gaze upon a
+pile of building.
+
+About five miles behind or south of El-Khausilah runs the Wady
+Hamz. Thus the two blocks, El-Ward and El-Ughlub, form the Safhah
+proper. The line is continued, after a considerable break, by the
+two blue and conical peaks in the Tihámat-Jahaníyyah, known as
+the Jebelayn el-Rál. They are divided and drained to the Wady
+Hamz by the broad Wady el-Sula'; and the latter is the short cut
+down which the Egyptian Hajj, returning northwards from
+El-Medínah, debouches upon the maritime plain of South Midian.
+
+The Wady Laylah, draining both the Shafah and the Tihámah ranges,
+including the block El-Ward, assumes, as usual, various names: we
+shall follow it till it is received into the mighty arms of the
+Wady Hamz, some three miles from the sea. After riding eight
+hours, we sighted the long line of Daum-palms which announce the
+approach to El-Birkah, "the Tank." Here the huge Fiumara,
+sweeping grandly from north-east to south-west, forms a charming
+narrow and a river-like run about a mile and a half
+long--phenomenal again in sun-scorched Arabia. The water,
+collecting under the masses of trap which wall in the left bank,
+flows down for some distance in threads, à ciel ouvert, and
+finally combines in a single large blue-green pool on the right
+side. A turquoise set in enamel of the brightest verdure, it
+attracts by its dense and shady beds of rushes a variety of
+water-fowl--one of our Bedawin killed a black-headed duck with a
+bullet, which spoilt it as a specimen. About the water-run are
+dwarf enclosures, and even water-melons were sown; unhappily the
+torrent came down and carried all away.
+
+We halted near the upper spring at 8.20 a.m., after the usual
+accident which now occurred daily about that hour. On this
+occasion Lieutenant Yusuf's shoe stuck in the stirrup when he was
+dismounting from an unsteady mule; the animal threw him, and he
+had a somewhat narrow escape from being dragged to death. Man and
+beast would have lingered long over the pleasures of watering and
+refection, but I forced them onwards at nine a.m., whilst the hot
+sun-rays were still tempered by the cool land-breeze. The threads
+of water and the wet ground extended some two kilometres beyond
+the Birkat. Further on was another fine "gate," whose eastern or
+right jamb was the Jibál el-Tibgh, fronting the Wady M'jirmah.
+The narrows showed two Arab wells, with the usual platform of dry
+trunks that make a footing round the mouth. There was no break in
+the continuity of the quartz: the black trap enclosed, here
+sheets, there veins, and there almonds in puddings.
+
+At the halting-place a "cerastes" (Echis carinata, Merr.), so
+called from the warty hollows over the eyes (?), was brought to
+me in a water-bag; the bearer transferred it to the spirit-bottle
+by neatly thrusting a packing-needle through the head. The pretty
+specimen of an amiable, and much oppressed, race did not show an
+atom of vice. I cannot conceive what has caused the absurd
+prejudice against snakes, even the most harmless. Perhaps we must
+trace it to the curious resemblance of the profile, with the
+flattened forehead, the steely bright eye, the formidable biting
+apparatus, and the vanishing chin, to the genus woman, species
+Lorette. It is hard to imagine that this little beast, which some
+one called a "Cleopatra's hasp," could be fatal: its small bag
+can hardly contain a couple of drops. Yet the vox populi is
+distinctly against me.
+
+The Shaykhs were anxious to push on for another half-hour, where,
+they declared, a rain-hole is found in the next ravine, the Sha'b
+el-Kahafah. But we had been privily told of another further down
+the valley, at the Sha'b el-Hárr; and, although we much wanted a
+bottleful for photography, we determined to run the risk. The
+result is curious, showing how jealously water-secrets are kept
+in these lands. The next thing I heard was that the water had
+waxed salt; then it had dried up; and, lastly, it was in the best
+condition, the truth being that there was none at all.
+Consequently we were compelled to send back four camels and two
+cameleers from our next camping-ground to the Kahafah. Venerable
+‘Afnán made many a difficulty, and an uncommon favour, of risking
+the plundering of the dromedaries and the lives of his caterans
+by a razzia. The fellows set off after nightfall towards the
+upper ravine, distant some two hours' slow march: they must there
+have had a pleasant, refreshing sleep; and they did not return,
+doubtless by order, till late next morning. This gave the Shaykhs
+a good opportunity of fearing greatly for the safety of their
+people, and of delaying our march as much as possible.
+
+Resuming the road at 2.30 p.m., we entered the western
+prolongation of the Wady el-Birkah. Here it becomes the Wady
+Abá'l-‘Agág (‘Ajáj), and preserves that name till it anastomoses
+with the Hamz. There have been some wells in the bed; but all are
+now filled up, and water must be carried from El-Birkah. We
+camped at a noble reach, garnished with a mimic forest of old
+tamarisks, whose small voices, united in chorus, passably
+imitated the mighty murmur of the sea. Our day's march had
+covered a score of miles; hard work, considering the condition of
+the mules.
+
+After a splendid night, we set out London-wards at five a.m.,
+April 8th, delayed, as has been said, by the politiké of the
+Shaykhs. Moreover, one of the party, whose motto should have been
+halt's maul, had remarked that the camels appeared fewer than
+before--another reason for stopping to count them. Half an hour
+placed us at a lower and a grander carrefour, abounding in fuel
+and seducing with tamarisk-shade: its water is known as the Máyat
+el-Badí'ah. Presently the hilly encasement of the Wady el-‘Ajáj
+ended with El-‘Adrá, a red butte to the left, and the Jebel
+el-Yakhmúm on the right. This knob was copiously veined with
+quartz, of which a prodigious depôt, explored on the next day,
+exists in the heights behind it. The Wady now flares out; we have
+done with the Tihámah Mountains, and we are again in maritime
+South Midian.
+
+Although we were standing some four hundred feet above the
+wassersspiegel, there was no view of the sea, and we had to cross
+a wave of ground before we pulled off our hats to Father Neptune,
+as he lay smiling in front of us. There was nothing monotonous in
+the scene. The mirage raised high in air the yellow mound of Ras
+Kurkumah ("Turmeric Head"), which bounded the water-line to the
+south. Nearer, but still far to the left, ran the high right bank
+of the Wady Hamz, sweeping with a great curve from north-east to
+west, till it stood athwart our path. Knobby hills were scattered
+over the plain; and on our right rose El-Juwayy, a black mound
+with white-sided and scarred head, whose peculiar shape, a crest
+upon a slope, showed us once more the familiar Secondary
+formation of North-Western Arabia. Thus the gypsum has been
+traced from the Sinaitic shore as far south as the Wady Hamz.
+
+We rode sharply forwards, impatient to see the classical ruins,
+leaving the caravan to follow us. The Girdi ("sand-rat") had
+ceased to burrow the banks; but the jerboa had made regular
+rabbit-warrens. At half-past seven we crossed a winding and
+broad-spreading track, the upper Hajj-road, by which the Egyptian
+Mahmal passes when returning from El-Medi'nah viâ the Wady Hamz.
+A few yards further on showed us a similar line, the route taken
+by the caravan when going to Meccah viâ Yambú', now distant five
+marches. The two meet at the Wady Wafdíyyah, to the north-east of
+the Abá'l-Marú range, which we shall visit to-morrow.
+
+Shortly after 10 a.m. we crossed the deepest vein of the Wady
+Hamz, urged the mules up the *stiff* left bank, and sprang from
+the saddle to enjoy a first view of the Gasr (Kasr) Gurayyim
+Sa'id.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Chapter XIX.
+   The Wady Hamz--the Classical Ruin--Abá'l-Marú, the Mine of
+  "Marwah"--Return to El-Wijh--Résumé of the Southern Journey.
+
+
+
+Before describing the Palace of Sa'íd the Brave, I must devote a
+few lines to a notice of the Wady Hamz. The Wady Hamz, which has
+been mentioned as the southern frontier of Egyptian Midian, and
+the northern limit of the Ottoman Hejaz, is the most notable
+feature of its kind upon the North-Western Arabian shore. Yet
+Wallin has unjustifiably described and inscribed it "Wady Nejd,"
+confusing it with a northern basin, whose mouth, the Salbah
+(Thalbah), we passed before reaching Sharm Dumayghah. He appears
+to identify it with the classical Wady el-Kura. Sprenger clean
+ignores the name, although he mentions its branches; and of
+course it is utterly neglected by the Hydrographic Chart. This
+main approach to the Arabian interior is not a fissure, like the
+vulgar Wadys, but rather an opening where the Gháts, or maritime
+chain, break to the north and south. Distant one long or two
+short marches from El-Wijh, its mouth is in north lat. 25° 55';
+and it is said to head fifteen days inland, in fact beyond
+El-Medínah, towards which it curves with a south-easterly bend.
+It receives a multitude of important secondary valleys; amongst
+which is the Wady el-‘Uwaynid, universally so pronounced. I
+cannot help thinking that this is El-‘Aúníd of El-Mukaddasi,
+which El-Idrísí (erroneously?) throws into the sea opposite
+Nu'ma'n Island. If my conjecture prove true, we thus have a
+reason why this important line has been inexplicably neglected.
+Another branch is the Wady el-‘Is, Sprenger's "Al-‘Ys" (pp. 28,
+29), which he calls "a valley in the Juhaynah country," and makes
+the northern boundary of that tribe.
+
+Ethnologically considered, the lower Wady Hamz is now the
+southern boundary of the Balawíyyah (Baliyy country), and the
+northern limit of the Jahaníyyah, or Juhaynah-land: the latter is
+popularly described as stretching down coast to Wady Burmah, one
+march beyond Yambú' (?). Higher up it belongs to the
+Alaydán-‘Anezahs, under Shaykh Mutlak--these were the Bedawin
+who, during our stay at the port, brought their caravan to
+El-Wijh. Both tribes are unsafe, and they will wax worse as they
+go south. Yet there is no difficulty in travelling up the Hamz,
+at least for those who can afford time and money to engage the
+escort of Shaykh Mutlak. A delay of twelve days to a fortnight
+would be necessary, and common prudence would suggest the normal
+precaution of detaining, as hostage in the seaboard settlement,
+one of his Alaydán cousins. Water is to be found the whole way,
+and the usual provisions are to be bought at certain places.
+
+The following notes upon the ruins of the Wady Hamz were supplied
+to me by the Baliyy Bedawin and the citizens of El-Wijh. Six
+stages up the lower valley, whose direction lies nearly
+north-east, lead to El-‘Ilá, Wallin's "Ela," which belongs to the
+‘Anezah. Thence a short day, to the north with easting, places
+the traveller at Madáin (not Madyan nor Medínat) Sálih--"the
+cities of Sálih." The site is described to be somewhat off the
+main valley, which is here broken by a Nakb (?); and those who
+have visited both declared that it exactly resembles Nabathæan
+Magháir Shu'ayb in extensive ruins and in catacombs caverning the
+hill-sides.
+
+Also called El-Hijr, it is made by Sprenger (p. 20) the capital
+of Thamuditis. This province was the head-quarters of the giant
+race termed the "Sons of Anak" (Joshua xi. 21); the Thamudeni and
+Thamudæ of Agatharkides and Diodorus; the Tamudæi of Pliny; the
+Thamyditæ of Ptolemy; and the Arabian Tamúd (Thamúd), who,
+extinct before the origin of El-Islam, occupied the seaboard
+between El-Muwaylah and El-Wijh. Their great centre was the plain
+El-Badá; and they were destroyed by a terrible sound from heaven,
+the Beth-Kol of the Hebrews, after sinfully slaughtering the
+miraculously produced camel of El-Sálih, the Righteous Prophet
+(Koran, cap. vii.). The exploration of "Sálih's cities" will be
+valuable if it lead to the collection of inscriptions
+sufficiently numerous to determine whether the Tamúd were
+Edomites, or kin to the Edomites; also which of the two races is
+the more ancient, the Horites of Idumæa or the Horites in
+El-Hijr.
+
+And now to inspect the Gasr. The first sensation was one of
+surprise, of the mental state which gave rise to the Italian's--
+
+      "Dear Columns, what do you here?
+      ‘Not knowing, can't say, Mynheer!'"
+
+And this incongruous bit of Greece or Rome, in the Arabian wild,
+kept its mystery to the last: the more we looked at it, the less
+we could explain its presence. Not a line of inscription, not
+even a mason's mark--all dark as the grave; deaf-dumb as "the
+olden gods."
+
+The site of the Gasr is in north lat. 25° 55' 15";[EN#70] and the
+centre of the Libn block bears from it 339° (mag.). It stands
+upon the very edge of its Wady's left bank, a clifflet some
+twenty-five feet high, sloping inland with the usual dark metal
+disposed upon loose yellow sand. Thus it commands a glorious view
+of the tree-grown valley, or rather valleys, beneath it; and of
+the picturesque peaks of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah in the
+background. The distance from the sea is now a little over three
+miles--in ancient days it may have been much less.
+
+The condition of the digging proves that the remains have not
+long been opened: the Baliyy state less than half a century ago;
+but exactly when or by whom is apparently unknown to them. Before
+that time the locale must have shown a mere tumulus, a mound
+somewhat larger than the many which pimple the raised valley-bank
+behind the building. A wall is said to have projected above
+ground, as at Uriconium near the Wrekin.[EN#71] This may have
+suggested excavation, besides supplying material for the Bedawi
+cemetery to the south-west. The torrent waters have swept away
+the whole of the northern wall, and the treasure-seeker has left
+his mark upon the interior. Columns and pilasters and bevelled
+stones have been hurled into the Wady below; the large
+pavement-slabs have been torn up and tossed about to a chaos; and
+the restless drifting of the loose yellow Desert-sand will soon
+bury it again in oblivion. The result of all such ruthless
+ruining was simply null. The imaginative Nájí declared, it is
+true, that a stone dog had been found; but this animal went the
+way of the "iron fish," which all at El-Muwaylah asserted to have
+been dug up at El-Wijh--the latter place never having heard of
+it. Wallin (p. 316) was also told of a black dog which haunts the
+ruins of Karáyyá, and acts guardian to its hidden treasures.
+Years ago, when I visited the mouth of the Volta river on the
+Gold Coast, the negroes of Cape Coast Castle were pleased to
+report that I had unearthed a silver dog, at whose appearance my
+companion, Colonel de Ruvignes, and myself fell dead. But why
+always a dog? The "Palace" is a Roman building of pure style;
+whether temple or nymphæum, we had no means of ascertaining. The
+material is the Rughám or alabaster supplied by the Secondary
+formation; and this, as we saw, readily crumbles to a white
+powder when burnt. The people, who in such matters may be
+trusted, declare that the quarries are still open at Abú
+Makhárír, under the hills embosoming Abá'l-Marú. We should have
+been less surprised had the ruin been built of marble, which
+might have been transported from Egypt; but this careful and
+classical treatment of the common country stone, only added to
+the marvel.
+
+It must have been a bright and brilliant bit of colouring in its
+best days--hence, possibly, the local tradition that the stone
+sweats oil. The whole building, from the pavement to the coping,
+notched to receive the roof-joists, is of alabaster, plain-white
+and streaked with ruddy, mauve, and dark bands, whose mottling
+gives the effect of marble. Perhaps in places the gypsum has been
+subjected to plutonic action; and we thought that the coloured
+was preferred to the clear for the bases of the columns. The
+exposed foundations of the eastern and western walls, where the
+torrent has washed away the northern enceinte, show that, after
+the fashion of ancient Egypt, sandstone slabs have been laid
+underground, the calcaire being reserved for the hypaethral part.
+The admirable hydraulic cement is here and there made to take the
+place of broken corners, and flaws have been remedied by
+carefully letting in small cubes of sound stone. There are also
+cramp-holes for metal which, of course, has been carried off by
+the Bedawin: the rusty stains suggest iron.
+
+The building is square-shaped, as we see from the western wall,
+and it evidently faced eastward with 25° (mag.) of southing. This
+orientation, probably borrowed from the Jews, was not thoroughly
+adopted in Christendom till the early fifth century, when it
+became a mos. The southern wall, whose basement is perfect, shows
+everywhere a thickness of 0.95 centimetre, and a total length of
+8 metres 30 centimetres. At 2 metres 87 centimetres from the
+south-western corner is a slightly raised surface, measuring in
+length 2 metres 15 centimetres. Mr. James Fergusson supposes that
+this projection, which directly fronts the eastern entrance, was
+the base of the niche intended for the image. On each side of the
+latter might have been a smaller colonette, which would account
+for the capital carried off by us to Egypt. Thus, adding 2 metres
+87 centimetres for the northern end swept into the valley, we
+have a length of 7 metres 89 centimetres; and the additional half
+thickness of the east wall would bring it to a total of 8 metres
+30 centimetres.
+
+The shrine was not in antis, and the site hardly admits of a
+peristyle; besides which, excavations failed to find it. That it
+might have had a small external atrium is made probable by the
+peculiarity of the entrance. Two rounded pilasters, worked with
+the usual care inside, but left rough in other parts because they
+could not be seen, were engaged in the enceinte wall, measuring
+here, as elsewhere, 0.95 centimetre in thickness. Nothing
+remained of them but their bases, whose lower diameters were 0.95
+centimetre, and the upper 0.65; the drums found elsewhere also
+measured 0.65. The interval between the lowest rings was 1 metre
+63 centimetres; and this would give the measure of the doorway,
+here probably a parallelogram. Lying on the sand-slope to the
+north, a single capital showed signs of double brackets, although
+both have been broken off:[EN#72] the maximum diameter across the
+top was 0.60 centimetre, diminishing below to 0.50 and 0.44,
+whilst the height was 0.40. The encircling wall was probably
+adorned with pilasters measuring 0.62 centimetre below, 0.45
+above, and 0.11 in height: they are not shown in the plan; and I
+leave experts to determine whether they supported the inside or
+the outside surface. Several stones, probably copings, are cut
+with three mortice-joints or joist-holes, each measuring 0.15
+centimetre, at intervals of 0.14 to 0.15.
+
+In the tossed and tumbled interior of this maison carrée the
+pavement-slabs, especially along the south-western side, appear
+in tolerable order and not much disturbed; whilst further east a
+long trench from north to south had been sunk by the treasure
+seeker. The breadth of the free passage is 1 metre 92
+centimetres; and the disposal suggested an inner peristyle,
+forming an impluvium. Thus the cube could not have been a heroön
+or tomb. Four bases of columns, with a number of drums, lie in
+the heap of ruins, and in the torrent-bed six, of which we
+carried off four. They are much smaller than the pilasters of the
+entrance; the lower tori of the bases measure 0.60 centimetre in
+diameter, and 0.20 in height (to 0.90 and 0.25), while the drums
+are 0.45, instead of 0.65. It is an enormous apparatus to support
+what must have been a very light matter of a roof. The only
+specimen of a colonette-capital has an upper diameter of 0.26, a
+lower of 0.17, and a height of 0.16.
+
+Although the Meccan Ka'bah is, as its name denotes, a "cube,"
+this square alabaster box did not give the impression of being
+either Arab or Nabathæan. The work is far too curiously and
+conscientiously done; the bases and drums, as the sundries
+carried to Cairo prove, look rather as if turned by machinery
+than chiselled in the usual way. I could not but conjecture that
+it belongs to the days of such Roman invasions as that of Ælius
+Gallus. Strabo[EN#73] tells us of his unfortunate friend and
+companion, that, on the return march, after destroying
+Negrán[EN#74] (Pliny, vi. 32), he arrived at Egra or Hegra
+(El-‘Wijh), where he must have delayed some time before he could
+embark "as much of his army as could be saved," for the opposite
+African harbour, Myus Hormus. It is within the limits of
+probability that this historical personage[EN#75] might have
+built the Gasr, either for a shrine or for a nymphæum, a
+votive-offering to the Great Wady, which must have cheered his
+heart after so many days of "Desert country, with only a few
+watering-places." Perhaps an investigation of the ruins at Ras
+Kurkumah and the remains of Madáin Sálih may throw some light
+upon the mystery. In our travel this bit of classical temple was
+unique.
+
+Mr. Fergusson, whose authority in such matters will not readily
+be disputed, calls the building a small shrine; and determines
+that it can hardly be a tomb, as it is hypæthral. The only
+similar temple known to him is that of "Soueideh" (Suwaydah), in
+the Haurán (De Vogüé, "Syrie Centrale," Plate IV.). The latter,
+which is Roman, and belonging to the days of Herod Augustus, has
+a peristyle here wanting: in other respects the resemblance is
+striking.
+
+M. Lacaze photographed, under difficulties such as bad water and
+a most unpleasant drift of sand-dust, the interior of the
+building, the stones lying in the Wady below, and the various
+specimens which we carried off for the inspection of his Highness
+the Viceroy. Meanwhile we "pottered about," making small
+discoveries. The exposed foundations of the north-western wall,
+where the slabs of grit rest upon the sands of the cliff,
+afforded signs of man in the shape of a jaw-bone, with teeth
+apparently modern; and above it, in the terreplein, we dug down
+upwards of a yard, without any result beyond unearthing a fine
+black scorpion. The adjoining Arab graveyard, adorned with the
+mutilated spoils of the classical building, gave two imperfect
+skulls and four fragments. We opened one of the many mounds that
+lie behind the Gasr, showing where most probably stood the ruined
+town; and we found the interior traversed by a crumbling wall of
+cut alabaster--regular excavation may some day yield important
+results. A little to the south-west lies a kind of ossuary, a
+tumulus slightly raised above the wavy level, and showing a
+central pit choked with camels' bones: at least, we could find no
+other.
+
+And here I was told the Arab legend by the Wakíl; who, openly
+deriding the Bedawi idea that the building could be a "Castle,"
+opined that it was a Kanísah, a "Christian or pagan place of
+worship." Gurayyim Sa'íd, "Sa'íd the Brave," was an African
+slave, belonging to an Arab Shaykh whose name is forgotten. One
+day it so happened that a razzia came to plunder his lord, when
+the black, whose strength and stature were equal to his courage
+and, let us add, his appetite, did more than his duty. Thus he
+obtained as a reward the promise of a bride, his master's
+daughter. But when the day of danger was past, and the slave
+applied for the fair guerdon, the Shaykh traitorously refused to
+keep his word. The Brave, finding a fit opportunity, naturally
+enough carried off the girl to the mountains; solemnly thrashed
+every pursuing party; and, having established a "reign of
+terror," came to the banks of the Wady Hamz, and built the
+"Palace" for himself and his wife. But his love for
+butcher's-meat did not allow him to live happily ever after. As
+the land yielded little game, he took to sallying out every day
+and carrying off a camel, which in the evening he slew, and
+roasted, and ate, giving a small bit of it to his spouse. This
+extravagance of flesh-diet ended by scandalizing the whole
+country-side, till at last the owner of the plundered herds,
+Diyáb ibn Ghánim, one of the notables celebrated in the romance
+called Sírat Abu' Zayd,[EN#76] assembled his merry men, attacked
+the Gurayyim, and slew him. Wa' s' salám!
+
+Here Egypt ends. We have done our work--
+
+     "And now the hills stretch home."
+
+I must, however, beg the reader to tarry with me awhile. The next
+march to the north will show him what I verily believe to be the
+old gold-mine lying around El-Marwah. It acquires an especial
+interest from being the northernmost known to the mediaeval
+geographers.
+
+El-Mukaddasi (vol. I. p. 101), in an article kindly copied by my
+friend, the Aulic Councillor, Alfred Von Kremer, says, "Between
+Yambú' and El-Marwah are mines of gold;" adding ("Itinerary,"
+vol. i. p. 107) the following route directions: "And thou takest
+from El-Badr (‘the New Moon')[EN#77] to El-Yambú' two stages;
+thence to the Ras el-‘Ayn (?),[EN#78] one stage; again to the
+mine (subaudi, of gold), one stage; and, lastly, to El-Marwah,
+two stages. And thou takest from El-Badr to El-Jár[EN#79] one
+stage; thence to El-Jahfah (?), or to El-Yambu', two stages each.
+And thou takest from El-Jiddah (Jedda) to El-Jár, or to
+El-Surrayn (?), four stages each. And thou takest from El-Yasrib
+(Jatrippa or El-Medínah) to El-Suwaydíyyah (?), or to Batn
+el-Nakhil (?), two stages each; and from El-Suwaydíyyah to
+El-Marwah, an equal distance (i.e. four marches); and from the
+Batn el-Nakhil to the mine of silver, a similar distance. And if
+thou seek the Jáddat Misr,[EN#80] then take from El-Marwah to
+El-Sukyá[EN#81] (?), and thence to Badá Ya'kúb,[EN#82] three
+marches; and thence to El-‘Aúníd, one march." Hence Sprenger
+would place Zú'l-Marwah "four days from El-Hijr, on the western
+road to Medina;" alluding to the western (Syrian) road, now
+abandoned.
+
+And now for our march. On the finest possible morning (April
+9th), when the world was all ablaze with living light, I walked
+down the Wady Hamz. It has been abundantly supplied with water;
+in fact, the whole vein (thalweg) subtending the left bank would
+respond to tapping. The well El-Kusayr, just below the ruin,
+though at present closed, yielded till lately a large quantity:
+about half a mile to the westward is, or rather was, a saltish
+pit surrounded by four sweet. Almost all are now dry and filled
+up with fuel. A sharp trudge of three-quarters of an hour leads
+to the Bir el-Gurnah (Kurnah), the "Well of the Broad," in a
+district of the same name, lying between the ruin and the shore.
+It is a great gash in the sandy bed: the taste of the turbid
+produce is distinctly sulphurous; and my old white mule, being
+dainty in her drink, steadfastly refused to touch it. The
+distinct accents of the Red Sea told us that we were not more
+than a mile from its marge.
+
+We then struck north-east, over the salt maritime plain, till we
+hit the lower course of the Wady Umm Gilifayn (Jilifayn). It
+heads from the seaward base of the neighbouring hills; and its
+mouth forms a Marsá, or "anchorage-place," for native craft. A
+little to the north stands the small pyramidal Tuwayyil
+el-Kibrít, the "little Sulphur Hill," which had been carefully
+examined by MM. Marie and Philipin. A slow ride of eight miles
+placed us in a safe gorge draining a dull-looking, unpromising
+block. Here we at once found, and found in situ for the first
+time, the chalcedony which strews the seaboard-flat. This agate,
+of which amulets and signet-rings were and are still made, and
+which takes many varieties of tints, lies in veins mostly
+striking east-west; and varying in thickness from an inch to
+several feet. The sequence is grey granite below, the band of
+chalcedony, and above it a curious schistose gneiss-formation.
+The latter, composing the greater part of these hills, is striped
+dark-brown and yellow; and in places it looks exactly like rotten
+wood. The small specimens of chalcedony in my private collection
+were examined at Trieste, and one of them contained dendritic
+gold, visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately the engineer had
+neglected this most important rock, and only a few ounces of it,
+instead of as many tons, were brought back for analysis.
+
+A short and easy ascent led to a little counter-slope, the Majrá
+Mujayrah (Mukayrah), whose whitening sides spoke of quartz. We
+rode down towards a granite island where the bed mouths into the
+broad Wady Mismáh, a feeder of the Wady ‘Argah. Here, after some
+ten miles, the guide, Na'ji', who thus far had been very misty in
+the matter of direction, suddenly halted and, in his showman
+style, pointed to the left bank of the watercourse, exclaiming,
+"Behold Abá'l-Marú!" (the "Father of Quartz"). It was another
+surprise, and our last, this snowy reef with jagged crest, at
+least 500 metres long, forming the finest display of an exposed
+filon we had as yet seen; but--the first glance told us that it
+had been worked.
+
+We gave the rest of the day to studying and blasting the
+quartz-wall. It proved to be the normal vein in grey granite,
+running south-north and gradually falling towards the
+valley-plain. Here a small white outlier disappears below the
+surface, rising again in filets upon the further side. The dip is
+easterly: in this direction a huge strew of ore-mass and rubbish
+covers the slope which serves as base to the perpendicular reef.
+The Negro quartz, which must have formed half the thickness, had
+been carried bodily away. If anything be left for the moderns it
+is hidden underground: the stone, blasted in the little outlier,
+looked barren. Not the least curious part of this outcrop is the
+black thread of iron silicate which, broken in places, subtends
+it to the east: some specimens have geodes yielding brown powder,
+and venal cavities lined with botryoidal quartz of amethystine
+tinge. In other parts of the same hills we found, running along
+the "Mará," single and double lines of this material, which
+looked uncommonly like slag.
+
+The open Wady Mismáh showed, to the east of our camp, the ruins
+of a large settlement which has extended right across the bed: as
+the guides seemed to ignore its existence, we named it the
+Kharábat Abá'l-Marú. Some of the buildings had been on a large
+scale, and one square measured twenty yards. Here the peculiarity
+was the careful mining of a granitic hillock on the southern
+bank. The whole vein of Negro quartz had been cut out of three
+sides, leaving caves that simulated catacombs. Further west
+another excavation in the same kind of rock was probably the
+town-quarry. The two lieutenants were directed next morning to
+survey this place, and also a second ruin and reef reported to be
+found on the left bank, a little below camp.
+
+We have now seen, lying within short distances, three several
+quartz-fields, known as--Marwah, "the single Place or Hill of
+Maú'" (quartz); Marwát, "the Places of Quartz;" and Abá'l-Marú,
+the "Father of Quartz;" not to speak of a Nakb Abú Marwah[EN#83]
+further north. The conclusion forced itself upon me that the name
+of the celebrated Arab mine Zú'l Marwah or El-Marwah, the more
+ancient <Greek> (Mochura), which Ptolemy places in north
+lat. 24° 30', applied to the whole district in South Midian, and
+then came to denote the chief place and centre of work. To judge
+by the extent of the ruins, and the signs of labour, this focus
+was at Umm el-Karáyát (the "Mother of the Villages"), which, as
+has been shown, is surrounded by a multitude of miner-towns and
+ateliers. And the produce of the "diggings" would naturally
+gravitate to El-Badá, the great commercial station upon the
+Nabathæan "Overland."
+
+Thus El-Marwah would signify "the Place of Marú," or
+"Quartz-land," even as Ophir means "Red Land." A reviewer of my
+first book on Midian objects to the latter derivation; as
+Seetzen, among others, has conclusively shown that Ophir, the
+true translation of which is ‘riches,' is to be looked for in
+Southern Arabia." Connu! But I question the "true translation;"
+and, whilst owning that one of the Ophirs or "Red Lands" lay in
+the modern Yemen, somewhere between Sheba (Sabá) and Havilah
+(Khaulán), I see no reason for concluding that this was the only
+Ophir. Had it been a single large emporium on the Red Sea, which
+collected the produce of Arabia and the exports of India and of
+West Africa, the traditional site could hardly have escaped the
+notice of the inquiring Arabian geographers of our Middle Ages.
+The ruins of a port would have been found, and we should not be
+compelled theoretically to postulate its existence.
+
+                          * * * * * *
+
+And now nothing remained but to escape as quickly as possible
+from the ugly Wady Mismáh; with its violent, dusty wester, or
+sea-breeze, and its sun-glare which, reflected and reverberated
+by the quartz, burned the grass and made the trees resemble
+standing timber.
+
+April 10th saw the last of our marches, a hurry back to the
+stable, a sauve qui peut. The camel-men, reckless of orders,
+began to load and to slip away shortly after midnight. Ali Marie,
+who, as usual, had lost his head, when ordered to enjoin silence
+gave the vain and vague direction, "Tell the Arabs to tell the
+camels not to make so much noise." Even the bugler sounded the
+"general" of his own accord; and the mules, now become painfully
+intelligent, walked as if they knew themselves to be walking
+homewards. Our last stage lay over the upper skirts of the
+maritime plain which has already been noticed. At 10.15 am.,
+after riding five hours and thirty minutes (= seventeen miles),
+we found ourselves once more upon the seaboard. Our kind host,
+Captain Hasan Bey, came to meet us in his gig: the quarter-deck
+had been dressed with flags, as for a ball; and before twelve
+bells struck, we had applied ourselves to an excellent breakfast
+in the gun-room of our old favourite, the Sinnár. The auspicious
+day of course ended with a fantasia.
+
+
+
+
+
+                  Résumé of Our Last Journey.
+
+
+
+We had left the Sharm Yáhárr on March 21st, and returned to it on
+April 13th; a total of twenty-four days. Our actual march through
+South Midian, which had lasted thirteen days (March 29--April
+10), described a semicircle with El-Wijh about the middle of the
+chord. The length is represented by 170 miles in round numbers:
+as usual, this does not include the various offsets and the
+by-paths explored by the members; nor do the voyages to El-Wijh
+and El-Haurá, going and coming, figure in the line of route. The
+camels varied from fifty-eight to sixty-four, when specimens were
+forwarded to the harbour-town. The expenditure amounted to£92
+13s., including pay and "bakhshísh" to the Baliyy Shaykhs, but
+not including our friends the Sayyid, Furayj, and the Wakíl
+Mohammed Shahádah.
+
+This southern region differs essentially from the northern, which
+was twice visited, and which occupied us two months, mostly
+wasted. Had we known what we do now, I should have begun with the
+south, and should have devoted to it the greater part of our
+time. Both are essentially mining countries; but, whilst the
+section near Egypt preserves few traces of the miner, here we
+find the country carefully and conscientiously worked. The whole
+eastern counterslope of the outliers that project from the
+Ghát-section known as the mountains of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah, is
+one vast outcrop of quartz. The parallelogram between north lat.
+26 degrees, including the mouth of the Wady Hamz, and north lat.
+27°, which runs some fifteen miles north of the Badá plain, would
+form a Southern Grant, sufficiently large to be divided and
+subdivided as soon as judged advisable.
+
+If the characteristics of North Midian (Madyan Proper) are its
+argentiferous, and especially its cupriferous ores, South Midian
+worked chiefly gold and silver, both metals being mentioned by
+the mediaeval geographers of Arabia. Free gold in paillettes was
+noticed by the Expedition in the micaceous schists veining the
+quartz, and in the chalcedony which parts the granite from the
+gneiss. The argentiferous Negro quartz everywhere abounds, and
+near the ruins of Badá lie strews of spalled "Marú," each
+fragment showing its little block of pure lead. Saltpetre is
+plentiful, and a third "Sulphur hill" rises from the maritime
+plain north of the Wady Hamz.
+
+The principal ruins and ateliers number five; these, beginning
+from the north, are the Umm el-Karáyát, the Umm el-Haráb, the
+Bújat-Badá, the Kharábat Abá'l-Marú, and the old Nabathean port,
+E1-Haurá. Amongst them is not included the gem of our discovery,
+the classical shrine, known as Gasr Gurayyim Sa'íd, nor the minor
+ateliers, El-Kubbah, Abá'l-Gezáz, and the remains upon the Marwát
+ridge. Good work was done by the Egyptian Staff-officers in
+surveying the fine harbour of El-Dumayghah, so well fitted as a
+refuge for pilgrim-ships when doing quarantine; and I venture
+upon recommending, to the English and Egyptian Governments, my
+remarks concerning the advisability of at once re-transferring
+the station to El-Wijh. It is now at Tor; and, as has been said,
+it forms a standing menace, not only to the Nile Valley, but to
+the whole of Europe.
+
+Whilst abounding in wood, the Southern Country is not so well
+watered as are Central and Northern Midian On the other hand, the
+tenants, confined to the Baliyy tribe, with a few scatters of the
+despised Hutaym, are milder and more tractable than the Huwaytát.
+As I have remarked, they are of ancient strain, and they still
+conserve the instincts of their predecessors, or their
+forefathers, the old mining race. It will be necessary to defend
+them against the raids and incursions of the Juhaynah, or "Sons
+of Dogs," who border upon them to the south, and from the
+Alaydán-‘Anezah to the south-east; but nothing would be easier
+than to come to terms with the respective Shaykhs. And the sooner
+we explore the Jaww, or sandstone region in the interior, with
+its adjacent "Harrahs," the better for geography and, perhaps not
+less, for mineralogy. The great ruins of Madáin Sálih upon the
+Wady Hamz still, I repeat, await the discoverer.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Conclusion.
+
+
+
+The next day saw us at El-Wijh, dispensing pay and "bakhshísh" to
+the companions of our Desert march; and shipping the men and
+mules, with the material collected during the southern journey.
+The venerable Shaykh ‘Afnán and his Baliyy were not difficult to
+deal with; and they went their way homewards fully satisfied. We
+exchanged a friendly adieu, or rather an au revoir, with our
+excellent travelling companion, Mohammed Shahádah; and I
+expressed my sincere hopes to find him, at no distant time,
+governor of the restored Quarantine-station.
+
+On the morning of April 12th we set out betimes, and anchored for
+the night in one of the snug bays of Jebel Nu'man. The next day
+placed us at the Sharm Yáhárr, where the process of general
+distribution happily ended. Here the final parting took place
+with the gallant companions of our four months' travel. Shaykh
+Furayj, delighted with the gift, in addition to his pay, of a
+Styrian skean-dhu and an Austrian Werndl-carbine, at once set off
+to rejoin the tribe up-country; while the Sayyid steadfastly
+stayed with us to the last. These men had become our friends; and
+my sorrow at leaving them was softened only by the prospect of
+presently seeing them again.
+
+Immediately after my return to Cairo I strongly recommended the
+Sayyid for promotion, in these words:--"First and foremost is the
+Sayyid ‘Abd el-Rahím, the head of a noble family, settled for
+generations at El-Muwayláh, where he is now Kátib (‘accountant')
+to the Fort. He knows thoroughly the whole Land of Midian; he is
+loved and respected by all the Arabs, and both he and his are
+devoted to the Government of your Highness. Evidently it would be
+advantageous to promote such a man to the post of governor of the
+place--a post which will presently become of high importance, and
+which is actually held by an old officer, almost bed-ridden.
+
+"The second is Shaykh Mohammed Shahádah, of El-Wijh, a man of
+family and position; known far and wide, and made generally
+popular by his generous and charitable actions. He was formerly
+Wakíl, or ‘agent,' to the Fort el-Wijh, until that office was
+abolished. The port will presently have its custom-house; and I
+propose forwarding to her Britannic Majesty's Government my notes
+upon the subject of the Quarantine-station, which has imprudently
+been transferred from Arabia to Tor, in the Sinaitic Peninsula.
+Meanwhile it would, I venture to suggest, be most advantageous if
+Mohammed Shahádah were named governor of his native place."
+
+The Expedition, in its urgent desire to return northwards, was
+not seconded by weather. Despite an ugly gale, the Sinnár boldly
+attempted giving the slip to Arabia on April 16th, but she was
+beaten back before she reached El-Muwaylah. After another stormy
+day, we again got up steam; and, fighting hard against adverse
+winds and waves, greatly to the distress of the unfortunate mules
+and gazelles, we reached Suez on April 20th.
+
+At Suez my wife had been awaiting me for long weeks, preferring
+the simplicity of the Desert to the complex life of Cairo. Some
+delay was again necessary in order to telegraph our arrival, to
+apply for a special train, and to sort and pack in the
+travelling-cases our twenty-five tons of specimens. As often
+happens, the return to civilization was in nowise cheery.
+Everything seemed to go wrong. For instance, the Dragoman
+despatched to town from the New Docks in order to lay in certain
+comforts, such as beef and beer, prudently laid out the coin in a
+brand-new travelling suit intended for his own service. Such an
+apology for a dinner had not been seen during the last four
+months of wild travel--unpleasant when guests have been bidden to
+a feast! The night at the Docks, also, was a trifle mortuary,
+over-silent and tranquil: all hands, officers and men, who could
+not get leave to sleep ashore, simply took leave--I believe
+myself to have been for a time both captain and crew of the
+Sinnár. And, lastly, we heard that both our dog-companions, Juno
+and Páijí, had died of some canine epidemic.
+
+The next day ended our halt at Suez, with visits to slop-shops
+and a general discussion of choppes. The old hotel, under the
+charge of Mr. and Mrs. Adams, had greatly improved by the
+"elimination" of the offensive Hindi element; and my old friends
+of a quarter-century's standing received me with all their wonted
+heartiness. Sa'íd Bey was still a Bey, but none the less jovial
+and genial; Captain Ali Bey, who had commanded the Sinnár, was
+now acting commodore; and my only regret was having again missed
+Colonel Gordon (Pasha).
+
+April 22nd convinced us that, even in these prosaic regions, our
+misadventures and accidents had not reached their fated end. A
+special train had been organized by Hanafi Effendi for eight a.m.
+About ten miles from Suez one of the third-class carriages began
+"running hot;" and, before we could dismount, the axle-box of a
+truck became a young Vesuvius in the matter of vomiting smoke. I
+ordered the driver, who was driving furiously, to make half
+speed; but even with this precaution there were sundry stoppages;
+and at the Naffíshah station, where my Bolognese acquaintances
+still throve, we could not be supplied with a change of
+"rolling-stock." About Tell el-Kabír, the brake-van also waxed
+unsafely warm; but it reached Zagázig without developing more
+caloric. Briefly, we caught fire three times in one morning.
+
+These accidents must always be expected, where spare carriages
+are placed for months upon sidings to become tinder in the sun;
+and where the cracks and crevices of the woodwork fill up with
+the silicious sand of the Desert, an admirable succedaneum for
+flint and steel. One consolation, however, remained to us: the
+Dragoman, brand-new clothes and all, was left behind at Suez. His
+last chef d'œuvre of blundering has already been
+noticed[EN#84]--the barrel of Midianitish oysters sent to Admiral
+M'Killop (Pasha) had been so carelessly headed up, and so
+carefully turned topsy-turvy, that the result was, to use my
+friend's words, they could be nosed from the half-way station.
+The "Kyrios" had probably passed a Bacchanalian night with his
+Hellenic friends, and he subsequently made act of presence at
+Cairo with a very British-looking black eye. His accident at Suez
+was a bit of "poetical justice," which almost convinced one of
+the "moral government."
+
+A succulent breakfast à la fourchette, in the charming garden of
+our friend M. Vetter, of Zagázig, duly discussed, we again went
+"on board," amusing the lookers-on by our naive enjoyment of the
+Nile-valley: they had not been in Arabia, and they found the
+"emerald-green" dusty and yellow. We reached Cairo at 5.30 p.m.
+More troubles! Ten minutes after arrival we found ourselves in
+possession, in sole charge of the gare. The train was loaded with
+Government property, officers, soldiers and escort, mules, boxes
+and bags of specimens whose collecting had cost money. Yet
+station-master, agent, and employés at once went their ways,
+declining even to show the room allotted to our goods, although a
+telegram from the railway authorities had advised me that one had
+been made ready. The assistant-agent, when at last hunted up,
+declared, before vanishing once more, that the porters for whom
+we applied were busy loading cotton, and that we must e'en do the
+best we could for ourselves. So the waggons were shunted and
+unloaded by their tenants, and the minerals were deposited under
+a kind of shed whose key was not forthcoming. We failed to find
+even a light, till the local train from Suez was announced; and,
+when it began whistling, the officials, who had returned like
+rats from their holes, gave us peremptory directions to shunt
+again. This time, however, I had the game in my hands; and
+replied by taking due precautions against being turned out.
+
+At first the soldier-escort worked as well as could be expected;
+but the numbers fell off every quarter of an hour, till we were
+left with a very select party; the only recipients, by-the-by, of
+"bakhshísh." The Sub-Lieutenant Mohammed Effendi mounted a donkey
+the moment he stepped out of the R.R. carriage; and, utterly
+disregarding so vexatious a frivolity as asking leave, rode off
+to his home at Torah. His example was followed by the Sergeant
+Mabrúk ‘Awaz. And yet both these men had the impudence to call
+upon me at the hotel, and to apply for especial Shahádahs, or
+"testimonials" of good conduct. In short, we were detained at the
+station for three mortal hours, working with our own hands. If
+this be a fair specimen of European management in Egypt, and I am
+told that it has now become worse, much worse in every way, the
+sooner we return to Egyptian mismanagement the better. The latter
+is, at any rate, cheap and civil.
+
+On the next day the Viceroy graciously sent his junior Master of
+Ceremonies, his Excellency Tonino Bey, to welcome me back; and I
+was at once honoured with audiences at the Khedivial Palace,
+‘Abidin, and by Prince Husayn Kámil Pasha at Gizah (Jízah). The
+Khediv was pleased to express satisfaction with my past
+exertions, and ordered several measures to be carried out at
+once. Amongst them was a little exhibition of mineralogy and
+archaeology, maps and plans, sketches and croquis, at the
+Hippodrome.
+
+I need hardly say that his Highness at once saw the gist of the
+matter. Many concessions had been applied for, even from
+Australia; but the Viceroy determined that, before any could be
+granted, careful analyses of the specimens must be made, at his
+Highness's private expense, in London. M. Ferdinand de Lesseps,
+of world-wide fame, volunteered, in the most friendly way, to
+submit échantillons of the rocks to the Parisian Académie des
+Sciences, of which he is a distinguished member. The Viceroy was
+also pleased spontaneously to remind me of, and to renew, the
+verbal promise made upon my return from the first Expedition to
+Midian; namely, that I should be honoured with a concession, or
+that a royalty of five per cent. on the general produce of the
+mines should be the reward of discovery. The young Minister of
+Finance, Prince Husayn Kámil Pasha, after courteously
+congratulating me upon the successful result of our labours, put
+as usual the most pertinent of questions.
+
+The opening of our little Exposition was delayed by sundry
+difficulties. The Greek Easter set in with its usual severity
+about later April. A general shop-shutting, a carouse unlimited,
+catholic, universal; and, despite stringent police orders, a
+bombardment of the town by squibs and crackers, were the
+principal features of the fête. The 29th was the classical Shamm
+el-Nasin, or "the Smelling of the Zephyr," a local May-day
+religiously kept with utter idleness. Mr. W. E. Hayns and I
+utilized it by going a flint-hunting on the left bank of the
+Nile.[EN#85] Then the terrible "May coupon" gave immense trouble
+and annoyance to the rulers; who, so far from making merry with
+the lieges, had to work in person between five a.m. and midnight.
+After such exertion as this, rest was of course necessary.
+Subsequently, a grand review monopolized one day; another was
+spent by the Court in despatching the young Prince Fu'ád to
+Switzerland; and yet another was given to his Highness the Prince
+Hasan Pasha, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian auxiliaries, who,
+on the conclusion of the war, had returned to Cairo en route for
+Europe.
+
+ Briefly, it was not before May 9th that the Khediv, accompanied
+by the Prince héritier, Taufík Pasha, found leisure personally to
+open the Exhibition--the first, by-the-by, ever honoured with the
+Viceregal presence. Despite all my efforts, the rooms, which
+should have been kept clear till his Highness had passed through,
+were crowded at an early hour. The maps prepared at the Citadel
+by Lieutenants Amir and Yusuf, with the aid of three extra hands,
+were very imperfect, half finished at the last moment, and
+abounding in such atrocities as "Ouorh" for "El-Wijh." The
+engineer, M. Marie, when asked aloud, and with all publicity, by
+the Khediv whether he was sure that such and such specimens
+contained gold, shirked a direct reply, evasively declaring that
+"Midian is a fine mining country." He had pointed out to me the
+precious metal during our exploration of Umm el-Karáyat; but such
+is the wretched result of "knowing the people," instead of
+telling the truth like a man. And one of the many jealous, a mild
+Mephisto., whispered in the Viceregal ear, "There can't be much
+gold there, or ces messieurs would have said more about it."
+
+Despite these small contretemps the Exhibition[EN#86] was
+pronounced a success, and served, as such things do, for a nine
+days' wonder. Several travellers from England and Australia took
+the opportunity of inspecting the rocks; and I was much
+encouraged to find the general opinion so highly favourable.
+Locally there were dissidents, but this must be expected where
+interests differ.
+
+Meanwhile his Highness kept me hard at work. I was directed to
+draw up a concise general description of the province; to report
+upon the political and other measures by which the Midian country
+would be benefited; and, lastly, to suggest the means which, in
+my humble opinion, were best calculated for successfully working
+the mines. In former days the Viceroy would at once have
+undertaken the task, and probably would have sent down five
+thousand men to open the diggings. Now, however, the endless
+trickery of European adventurers and speculators has made a wise
+precaution absolutely necessary. During the last audience, his
+Highness ably and lucidly resumed the history of the past
+measures, and the steps which he proposed for the future. The
+first Khedivial Expedition had been simply one of exploration,
+sent to ascertain whether the precious metals really existed. The
+second was intrusted with the charge of laying down the probable
+limits of the mining formation; and of bringing back varied
+specimens, in quantities sufficient for scientific analysis. The
+third and next step would be to organize a Compagnie de
+Recherche, with the object of beginning a serious exploitation.
+The future thus settled, I was kindly and courteously dismissed,
+with a desire that I should take charge of the specimens, and
+personally superintend the work of assaying. Mr. Charles Clarke
+received pay and leave for three months, and was ordered to
+convey the boxes by "long sea."
+
+On May 10th we left Cairo in company with our friend Mr. Garwood,
+C.E. At Alexandria a great repose fell upon my spirit; it was
+like gliding into a smooth port after a storm at sea. All the
+petty troubles and worries of Cairo; the cancans, the intrigues,
+the silly reports of the envious and the jealous, with the buzz
+and sting of mosquitoes; the weary waiting; the visits of
+"friends" whose main object in life seemed to be tuer le ver; and
+the exigencies of my late fellow-travellers, who, after liberal
+pay and free living for four months, seemed determined to quarter
+themselves upon the Egyptian Government for the rest of their
+natural lives;--all these small cares, not the less annoying
+because they were small, disappeared like magic at the first
+glimpse of blue water. I had barely time to pass an afternoon at
+Ramleh, "the Sand-heap," with an intimate of twenty-five years'
+standing, Hartley John Gisborne, an old servant of the Egyptian
+"Crown," for whom new men and new measures have, I regret to see,
+made the valley of the Nile no longer habitable.
+
+The next Sunday placed us on board the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's
+screw-steamer Austria (Capitano Rossol). As usual, the commander
+and officers did all they could to make their voyagers
+comfortable; the Company did the contrary. At this spring season,
+true, the migratory host of unfeathered bipeds crowds northwards;
+even as in autumn it accompanies the birds southwards. But when
+berths are full, passengers should be refused; and if the
+commercial director prefers dead to live goods, travellers should
+be duly warned. The accommodation would have been tolerable in a
+second-class or third-class English steamer, which charges
+fifteen shillings to a sovereign per diem; here, however, we were
+paying between £2 and £3.
+
+The Alexandrian agent had been asked to lodge us decently. My
+wife found herself in a cabin occupied by two nurses. I was
+placed in a manner of omnibus, a loose box for six, of whom one
+was an Armenian and two were Circassians from Daghistán--good men
+enough, but not pleasant as bedroom fellows. No extra service had
+been engaged for an extra cargo of seventy-two; that is,
+forty-two first, and thirty second class. There were only three
+stewards, including the stewardess; and the sick were left to
+serve themselves. At least half a dozen were required; and, in
+such places as Trieste and Alexandria, a large staff of cooks and
+waiters can always be engaged in a few hours. On board any
+English ship some of the smartest and handiest seamen would have
+been converted into temporary attendants--here no one seemed to
+think of a proceeding so far out of the usual way. There was only
+one, instead of three or four cooks; and the unfortunate had to
+fill a total of one hundred and thirty-five mouths, the crew
+included, three times a day. The other tenant of the close and
+wretched little galley lay sick with spotted typhus; and, after
+barbarous neglect, he died on the day following our arrival at
+Trieste--I did not hear that the surgeon of the screw-steamer
+Austria had met with his deserts by summary dismissal from the
+service. The Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's was once famed for good
+living; over-economy and high dividends have now made the cuisine
+worse than the cheapest of tables d'hôte. Provisions as well as
+their preparation were so bad that Sefer Pasha, an invalid,
+confined himself to a diet of potatoes and eggs.
+
+Add the quasi-impossibility of obtaining a bath; the
+uncleanliness of the offices; the hard narrowness of the sofas;
+the small basins, or rather bowls, and the tiny towels like
+napkins; the clamorous pets of the small fry, cats and dogs; the
+crowding of second-class passengers on the quarter-deck; and the
+noise of the Armenian lady beating her maid, who objected to the
+process in truly dreadful language: throw in an engine which,
+despite the efforts of her energetic English engineer, Mr.
+Wilkinson, managed only nine instead of eleven and a half knots
+an hour; an ugly north-easter off Cape Matapan, bringing tropical
+downfalls of rain; and a muggy Scirocco off Istria, when we
+breathed almost as much water as air: and I think that the short
+entry in my journal, "horridly uncomfortable," was to a certain
+extent justified by the conduct of the poor Austria. Yet the
+Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's boasts a dividend of seven per cent. She
+shall see no more of my money: until she mend her ways I shall
+prefer the Genoese Rubattino.
+
+But, as the Persian poet has it, Ín níz bug'zared--"Even these
+things pass away." At Corfu we were cheered by once more meeting
+Sir Charles Sebright, who looked hale and hearty as of yore. When
+we reached Trieste, his Excellency Baron Pino von Friendenthall,
+accompanied by the most amiable of "better halves," came off in
+his galley, happily unconscious of typhus; and carried us away
+without the usual troubles and delays of landing in harbour
+bumboats. Friendly faces smiled a welcome; and, after an absence
+of some seven months, I found myself once more in the good town
+which has given us a home during the last five years.
+
+At Trieste I was delayed for some time, awaiting the report that
+the specimens collected by the Expedition had arrived at their
+destination, the warehouses of the London Docks. Mr. Clarke met
+with obstacles at Suez; and, consequently, did not reach England
+till June 20th, after twenty-three rough days. As her Majesty's
+Foreign Office had been pleased to accord me two months of leave
+to England, I determined to make the voyage by "long sea." Both
+suffering from the same complaint, want of rest and of
+roast-beef, as opposed to rosbif, we resolved to ship on board
+the English steamer Hecla, of the B. and N. A. R. M. S. P.
+Company, the old Cunard line, famous for never having lost a
+life, a ship, or a letter. We left Trieste on July 7, 1878, in
+charge of our excellent commander, Captain James Brown; and,
+after a cruise of twenty days, viâ Venice, Palermo, and
+Gibraltar--a comfortable, cheery, hygienic cruise in charming
+weather over summer seas--we found ourselves once more (July
+26th) in the city of the Liver.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Appendix I.
+
+ DATES OF THE THREE JOURNEYS (Northern, Central, and Southern)
+            made by the Second Khedivial Expedition.
+
+
+
+
+
+                         First Journey.
+
+
+
+(December 19, 1877, to February 13, 1878.)
+
+     December   6,  1877,     left Cairo.
+               10   1877,     left Suez.
+               14   1877,     reached El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yáhárr)
+                              on the "Day of 'Arafát."
+                      *     *     *     *     *
+     December  19,  1877,     landed    at   El-Muwaylah.
+               21   1877,     marched   upon Wady Tiryam.
+               22   1877,     marched   upon Wady Sharmá.
+               23   1877,     marched   upon Jebel el-Abyaz.
+               30   1877,     returned to Wady Sharmá.
+     January    7,  1878,     marched upon 'Aynúnah.
+                8   1878,     halted at 'Aynúnah.
+                9   1878,     halted at Wady el-'Usaylah.
+               10   1878,     reached Magháir Shu'ayb.
+               25   1878,     marched upon Makná.
+     February   3   1878,     embarked for the Marsá Dahab in the
+                              Sinaitic Peninsula.
+                4   1878,     to the anchorage of El-Nuwaybi'.
+                5   1878,     anchored at Pharaoh's Island.
+                6   1878,     halted at Pharaoh's Island.
+                7   1878,     steamed to El-'Akabah town.
+                8   1878,     ran down Gulf el-'Akabah.
+                9   1878,     anchored under Tírán Island.
+               10   1878,     halted at Tírán Island.
+     February  11,  1878,     ran from wrecking to Sináfir
+                              Island.
+               12   1878,     halted at Sinafir Island.
+               13   1878,     returned to El-Muwaylah (Sharm
+                              Yáhárr).
+
+
+
+
+
+                        Second Journey.
+
+
+
+(February 17, 1878, to March 8,1878.)
+
+     February  17,  1878 walked to ruins of Abú Hawáwít.
+               18   ,,   marched upon the Safh Jebel Malíh in the
+                         Wady Surr.
+               19   ,,   camped in the Sayl Wady el-Jimm.
+               20   ,,   marched upon El-Nagwah.
+               21   ,,   reached the head of the Wady Sadr.
+               23   ,,   camped below the Col, "El-Khuraytah."
+               24   ,,   reached the Hismá.
+               25   ,,   descended the two Passes and camped in
+                         the "Jayb el-Khuraytah."
+               26   ,,   marched upon the Majrá el-Ruways.
+               27   ,,   ,,   ,,   ,,   Wady Damah.
+               28   ,,   ,,   ,,   ,,   ruins of Shuwák.
+     March      1   ,,   halted at the ruins of Shuwák.
+                2   ,,   visited the ruins of Shaghab and camped
+                         at the Majrá el-Wághir.
+                3   ,,   visited the ruins El-Khandakí and camped
+                         at the plain El-Kutayyifah.
+                4   ,,   marched down the Wady Salmá and camped
+                         at the Má el-Badíah.
+                5   ,,   reached Zibá town.
+                6   ,,   halted at Zibá.
+                7   ,,   visited the turquoise-diggings of Zibá
+                         and camped at the Máyat el-Ghál.
+                8   ,,   returned to El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yáhárr).
+
+
+
+
+
+         Complementary Excursion to the Shárr Mountain.
+
+
+
+     March     13, 1878, camped in the Wady el-Káimah.
+               14   ,,   camped in the Wady el-Kusayb.
+               15   ,,   camped in the Safhat el-Wu'ayrah.
+               16   ,,   up the Shárr.
+               17   ,,   camped in the Wady Kuwayd.
+               18   ,,   returned to El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yáhárr).
+
+
+
+
+
+                         THIRD JOURNEY.
+
+
+
+March 21, 1878, to April 10, 1878.)
+
+     March     21,  1878,     left Sharm Yáhárr and made the
+                              Sharm Dumayghah.
+               22   ,,   halted at El-Dumayghah.
+               23   ,,   anchored in harbour of El-Wijh.
+               24   ,,   set out in the Sinnár southwards.
+               25   ,,   anchored at El-Haurá.
+               26   ,,   halted at El-Haurá.
+
+(On March 26th MM. Marie and Philipin marched from El-Wijh to the
+Wady Hamz, and rejoined head-quarters on the 28th.)
+
+     March     27,  1878 returned to El-Wijh.
+               29   ,,   left El-Wijh and camped at inner fort.
+               30   ,,   to Umm el-Karáyát (ruins and mine).
+               31   ,,   visited ruins of El-Kubbah; camped in
+                         Wady Dasnah.
+     April      1,  1878 to Umm el-Haráb (ruins and mine).
+                2   ,,   camped in the Wady Abá'l-Gezáz.
+                3   ,,   camped in the plain of Badá.
+                4   ,,   halted at the plain of Badá.
+                5   ,,   camped at the Ayn el-Kurr.
+                6   ,,   camped in the Wady Laylah.
+                7   ,,   camped in the Wady Abá'l-'Ajáj.
+                8   ,,   to the ruins of the Gasr Gurayyim Sa'íd
+                         (classical temple).
+                9   ,,   to the Abá'l-Marú (Marwah mine).
+               1O   ,,   return to El-Wijh.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RETURN TO EGYPT.
+
+
+
+     April     12,  1878 steamed northwards to Nu'man Island.
+               13   ,,   reached El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yáhárr).
+               18   ,,   left El-Muwaylah, night at sea.
+               19   ,,   in Gulf of Suez.
+               20   ,,   reached Suez.
+               22   ,,   reached Cairo.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          Appendix II.
+
+
+
+EXPENSES OF THE EXPEDITION TO MIDIAN, commanded by Captain R. F.
+                Burton, H.B.M. Consul, Trieste.
+
+Cairo, November 1, 1877.
+
+                                                  £    s.   d.
+Sum received from Egyptian Finance                1977 12   0
+
+Amounts Paid out by Order of Captain Burton.      £    s.   d.
+
+Hotel bills for five persons (thirty-six days)    149    6  9
+Advanced to members of Expedition up to date
+   (May 3rd)[EN#87]                                 74 12   3
+Cost of provisions for journey to Midian,
+     fourteen persons                              314  8   9
+Cost of tools, chemicals, instruments,
+     canteen, etc.                                 185 19   0
+Medicine chest from Dr. Lowe                        10 10   0
+
+Journey to Suez from Cairo, December 6th, 1878:--
+   Hotel bill for eleven persons (three days)       33  3   6
+   Tobacco for presents to Bedawin                   6   8  0
+   Sundries                                         13  10  6
+   Telegrams and post service                        3   9  0
+                                             __________________
+                                                  £791   7  9
+
+El-Muwaylah, December 16th, to return, February 13th:--
+   Journey to north[EN#88]                        316  14   3
+   Post service                                    14   8   0
+   Cost of sheep[EN#89]                            32  14   0
+   Sundries[EN#90]                                 20   7   7
+   Five foot-soldiers' salaries                     7   4   0
+
+Eastern journey to the Hismá[EN#91]               187   6   6
+Post service                                        3   8   0
+Cost of sheep[EN#92]                               11  19   0
+Sundries                                            5  11   0
+Sambúk from Suez, as per contract                   9   4   0
+Soldiers from fort                                  3   0   0
+
+Journey to Shárr[EN#93]                            44  11   6
+Cost of sheep[EN#94]                                3   4   0
+Thirty pairs of boots for soldiers[EN#95]           6   0   0
+Sundries                                            1   0   0
+Journey to south[EN#96]                            92  13   0
+Cost of sheep[EN#97]                               15  16   0
+Post service                                        2   0   0
+Sundries[EN#98]                                    18   3   6
+Special payments:--
+   Sayyid 'Abd el-Rahím Effendi                    16   0   0
+   Bukhayt                                          1  12   0
+   Husayn                                           1  12   0
+   Shaykh Furayj                                    4   0   0
+   Shaykh Furayj salary for twenty-five days        5   0   0
+Expenses at Suez, unloading, etc., and hotel bills
+     for ten persons                               39  17   0
+Post and telegrams                                  1  16   0
+Suez to Cairo                                       1  12   6
+                                         _________________
+                                                £1658   1   7
+
+Expenses at Cairo up to date May 5, 1878:--
+   Unloading, cartage, and preparing for Exhibition 24  5   5
+Salaries of persons engaged from Cairo and Muwaylah:--
+   Anton Dimitri, Giorgi, and Petro[EN#99]         93  17   6
+   Magazine-man at El-Muwaylah[EN#100]              6   8   0
+   Sais from Suez, engaged through governor[EN#101] 9   0   0
+   Mr. Clarke's salary[EN#102]                    180   0   0
+                                          _________________
+                                                £1971  12   6
+In hand for small expenses not yet sent in
+     for payment                                    5  19   6
+                                              _________________
+                                                £1977  12   0
+                                             _________________
+Sent in May 6, 1878.
+
+(Signed)       CHAS. CLARKE.
+(Countersigned)     RICHARD F. BURTON.
+                    Commanding Expedition.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Appendix III.
+   PRESERVED PROVISIONS AND OTHER STORES, supplied by Messrs.
+            Voltéra Bros., of the Ezbekiyyah, Cairo.
+
+
+
+
+                                                  £    s.   d.
+95   okes potatoes, at 5d.                         1   19   7
+670  okes best rice, at 8 1/2d.                   23   14   7
+152  okes sugar, at 11 1/2d. per kilog.            8   19   6 1/2
+60   okes ground coffee, at 4s. 6d.               13   10   0
+120   tins milk, at 14s.                           7    0   0
+120  bottles pickles                               6    0   0
+15   tins butter (of 1 lb.), at 2s. 6d.            1   17   6
+60   okes oil, at 2s. 6d.                          7   10   0
+6    heads English cheese (60 1/4 lbs.) at 1s. 5d. 4   10   4 1/2
+160  okes dried French beans, at 10d.              6   13   4
+60   okes maccaroni and paste                      3    0   0
+54   okes onions, at 7d.                           1   11   6
+10   okes garlic, at 10d.                          0    8   4
+50   packets candles                               2   10   0
+5    okes cavendish tobacco, at 12s.               3    0   0
+6    okes tobacco (Turkish), at 24s.               7    4   0
+120  bottles soda-water, at 8d. per dozen          4    0   0
+20   bottles syrups, at 2s.                        2    0   0
+50   bottles vinegar                               2   10   0
+10   dozen beer, at 11s.                           5   10   0
+15   bars soap, at 1s. 6d.                         1    2   6
+20   pots mustard, at 1s. 6d.                      1   10   0
+6    bottles curry, at 1s. 6d.                     0    9   0
+20    lbs. table raisins                           0   16   0
+10   large bottles pepper, at 2s.                  1    0   0
+                                         _________________
+                                                 £118   6   3
+
+10   small packets salt, at 1s.                    0   10   0
+5    large packets salt at 1s. 6d.                 0    7   6
+6    bottles sauces, at s. 12d.                    0    7   0
+12   bottles lime-juice, at 2s. 6d.                1   10   0
+12   umbrellas, at 4s.                             2    8   0
+12   bottles blacking, at 1s.
+     (for tracing inscriptions)                    0   12   0
+6    lanterns, at 1s. 6d.                          0    9   0
+12   large tins sardines, at 1s. 6d.               0   18   0
+2    corkscrews, at 1s. 3d.                        0    2   6
+2    opening knives                                0    2   0
+101 1/4 okes of biscuits, at 1s.                   5    1   3
+1    case Mumm's champagne                         4    5   0
+1    case cognac, XX                               2    8   0
+1    case whisky                                   1   16   0
+1    tin plum-pudding                              0    2   6
+10   packets matches, at 1s. 2d.                   0   11   8
+8    barrels flour, at L3                         24    0   0
+4    okes Curani (Kora'ni) tobacco, at 16s.        3    4   0
+30   lbs. tea, at 4s.                              6    0   0
+24   tins green peas, at 1s.                       1    4   0
+18   tins haricots verts, at 1s.                   0   18   0
+18   tins haricots flageolets, at 1s.              0   18   0
+18   tins champignons, at 1s. 2d.                  1    1   0
+18   tins macedoine, at 1s.                        0   18   0
+8    tins carrots, at 1s.                          0    8   0
+16   tins asparagus (large), at 3s.                2    8   0
+53 1/2 lbs. ham, at 1s. 6d.                        4    0   3
+100  bottles 'Ráki, at 2s.                        10    0   0
+100   tins meats, at 1s. 6d.                       7   10   0
+4    dozen pints beer, at 8s.                      1   12   0
+7    empty tins for coffee, at 1s. 6d.             0   10   6
+17   empty bags                                    0   14   2
+4    okes packing rope, at 2s.                     0    8   0
+1/4  okes isinglass                                0    3   0
+2    bottles spices                                0    2   0
+10   nutmegs                                       0    1   0
+                                           _________________
+                                                  £205 16   7
+
+                                                  £    s.   d.
+1    packet starch                                 0    3   0
+1    oke twine                                     0    2   6
+2    okes nails, at 10d.                           0    1   8
+1    box cigarette papers                          0    8   0
+     Kitchen utensils                              0   13   6
+     Empty bags                                    0    2   0
+     Packing                                       2   10   0
+                                             _________________
+                              Total              £209  17   3
+                                             _________________
+
+
+
+
+
+                      Additional Supplies.
+
+
+
+                                                £  s.  d.
+50   bottles 'Ráki, at 2s.                      5  0   0
+95   okes potatoes, at 5d.                      1 19   7
+16   lbs. tea, at 4s.                           3  4   0
+50   tins preserved meats, at 1s. 6d.           3 15   0
+20   tins green peas, at 1s.                    1  0   0
+12   tins haricots verts, at 1s.                0 12   0
+12   tins champignon, at 1s. 2d.                0 14   0
+6    tins first size asparagus, at 4s.          1  4   0
+10   tins butter (1 lb.), at 2s. 8d             1  6   8
+36   lbs. English cheese, at 1s. 6d.            2 14   0
+60   okes maccaroni                             3  0   0
+126  okes onions, at 7d.                        3 13   6
+20   packets candles                            1  0   0
+50   boxes matches, at 1s. 2d. doz.             0  5   0
+5    bars soap, at 1s. 6d.                      0  7   6
+12   bottles sauces, at 1s. 2d.                 0 14   0
+6    large bottles pepper, at 2s.               0 12   0
+10   small packets salt, at 1s.                 0 10   0
+5    bottles lime-juice, at 2s. 6d.             0 12   6
+108  okes hard biscuits, at 1s.                 5  8   0
+2 1/2     okes snuff                            2 10   0
+16 lbs.   ginger-root, at 1s. 6d.               1  4   0
+2 doz.    whisky, at 36s.                       3 12   0
+2 doz.    Martel's cognac                       4  4   0
+6    bottles absinthe, 2s. 6d.                  0 15   0
+                                        _________________
+                                              £49 16   9
+
+5    bottles Oxley's essence of ginger, at 4s.  1  0   0
+5    bottles pyretic saline, at 3s. 6d.         0 17   6
+3    boxes seidlitz powders, at 2s.             0  6   0
+1    bottle aconite                             0  2   6
+4    iron tea and coffee kettles                1 14   0
+2    empty tins for tea                         0  3   0
+     Packing                                    1 10   0
+     Carts, 2s.; railway fare, 82s.             4  4   0
+                                        _________________
+                         Total                £59 13   9
+
+
+
+
+
+                          APPENDIX IV.
+                  BOTANY AND LIST OF INSECTS.
+
+
+
+
+
+SECTION I.
+
+
+
+PROFESSOR D. OLIVER'S LIST OF DRIED PLANTS presented by Captain
+Burton to the Herbarium, Royal Gardens, Kew, September, 1878.
+
+                               Núman North   Middle  South
+                               Isle.  Midian. Midian. Midian.
+
+Anastatica hierochuntina, L.
+  Kaff maryam ................   -      I       -       -
+Morettia parviflora, Boiss.
+  Eaten by cattle. Thagar;
+  Gaf'aa .....................   -      -       I   I
+Matthiola oxyceras, DC.
+  forma gracilis. Animals
+  eat. Hazá; Muhawwil    .....    -      -       I       -
+Malcolmia aegyptiaca, Spr.
+  Animals eat.      Tarbeh ......  -      I       -       -
+Zilla myagroides, F. Silla.
+  Camels eat. ...............    -      I       -       -
+Biscutella Columnae, Ten ....    -      -       I       -
+Diplotaxis Harra? Hárrah.
+  Eaten by cattle. ..........    -      -       I       -
+Diplotaxis acris, Boiss.
+  (Moricandia crassifolia,
+  Gay) ......................    -      I       -       -
+Sisymbrium erysimoides, Desf.
+  Salih. Eaten by camels
+  and sheep .................    -      I       I       I
+Farsetia Burtonae, Oliv.
+  sp. nov. Ghurayrá ........     -      I       I       -
+Schimpera arabica, H. and
+  St. .......................    -      I       -       -
+Enarthrocarpus lyratus, F.,
+  vel E. strangulatus,
+  Boiss .....................    -      I       -       -
+Capparis Sodada, Br. (Sodada
+  decidua, Forsk.). Tanzub.
+  Red berries eaten. ........    -      -       -       I
+Cleome chrysantha, Dcne.
+  Mashteh. Pounded and
+  drank for worms, etc. .....    -      -       -       I
+Cleome arabica, L. 'Ubaysd.
+  Eaten by animals. .........    -      -       -       I
+Papaver Decaisnei, H. and St.    -      -       I       -
+Ochradenus baccatus, Del.
+  Gurzi. A large tree;
+  eaten by cattle ...........    -      I       -       I
+Reseda (Caylusea) canescens,
+  L. Zanabán. Eaten by
+  cattle ....................    -      I       I       -
+Reseda, an R. stenostachya(?),
+  Boiss. Khizám. Eaten by
+  animals ...................    -      I       -       -
+Helianthemum Lippii, Pers.
+  Kazim. Cattle eat. ........    -      -       I       -
+Silene villosa, Forsk.
+  'Abaysá. Too much coated
+  with sand to serve as
+  food for animals ..........    -      I       -       -
+Gypsophila Rokejeka, Del. ...    -      -       I       -
+Polycarpaea fragilis, Del.
+  Makr ......................    I      -       -       -
+Portulaca oleracea, L. ......    -      -       -       I
+Hibiscus micranthus, L. fil.
+  forma. Khusiyat Ráshid.
+  Eaten by animals. .........    -      -       I       I
+Abutilon fruticosum, G. and
+  P. (Sida denticulata,
+  Fres.). ...................    -      -       -       I
+Abutilon muticum, Don .......    -      -       -       I
+Erodium laciniatum, Cav.
+  Garná. Eaten by cattle ...     -      I       I       I
+Monsonia nivea, Gay .........    -      I       -       -
+Geranium mascatense, Boiss.
+  Hiláwá. Eaten by man and
+  beast. ....................    -      -       I       -
+Erodium cicutarium, L. ......    -      I       -       -
+Tribulus terrestris, L.
+  Katbeh ....................    -      I       I       I
+Zygophyllum simplex, L. .....    -      -       I       -
+Zygophyllum album, L.
+  Gallúm. Camels eat. ......     I      -       -       -
+Zygophyllum coccineum, L.
+  forma (Z. propinqiuum,
+  Dcne.). Muráká.
+  Animals eat. ..............    -      I       -       -
+Fagonia cretica, L. van
+  (F. glutinosa, Del.).
+  Shikáá (North Midian);
+  Darmeh (Núman) ...........     I       I      -       -
+Fagonia mollis, Del.
+  Warágá; and young plant
+  of same = Zarag. Animals
+  eat. ......................    -       I      I       -
+Fagonia Bruguieri, DC.
+  Jamdeh. Animals eat. ......    -       I      -       -
+Dodonmaea viscosa, L. var.
+  (D. arabica, H. and
+  St.). Athab ...............    -       -      I       -
+Rhus oxyacanthoides, Dum.
+  'Ar'ar ....................    -       -      I       -
+Neurada procumbens, L.
+  Sáadán. Eaten by man and
+  beast. Mountain region. ...    -       I      -       I
+Trianthema pentandra, L. ....    -       -      -       I
+Trianthema(?). (Imperfect
+  specimen.) Rumayh. Eaten by
+  sheep and cattle. .........    -       -      -       I
+Aizoon canariense, L. Dááá.
+  Grain pounded and eaten. ..    -       -      -       I
+Gisekia pharnaceoides, L. ...    -       I      -       -
+Cucumis prophetarum, L.
+  Locality mislaid. .........
+Cotyledon umbilicus, L.
+  forma .....................    -       -      I       -
+Pimpinella arabica, Boiss.
+  Rujaylet el-Ghuráb (Little
+  Crow's-foot). Sheep eat.
+  Locality astray. ..........
+Pimpinella (Tragium
+  palmetorum? St. and H.).
+  Very young. ...............    -       I      I       -
+Ferula (? sp., leaf only).
+  Kalkh. Animals eat. High up
+  on SHÁRR. .................
+Grammosciadium scandicinum,
+  Boiss. sp. nov. ............   -       -       I      I
+Medicago laciniata, All. .....   -       -       I      -
+Taverniera aegyptiaca, Boiss.
+  (ex descr.). Shibrig. Eaten
+  by animals. ................   I       -       -      -
+Indigofera spinosa, Forsk.
+  Shibrig. Camels eat. Good
+  fodder. ....................   -       -       -      I
+Indigofera paucifolia, D. ....   -       I       -      -
+Indigofera (stunted specimen,
+  may be I. paucifolia).
+  'Afar. Animals eat. ........   -       I       -      -
+Tephrosia Apollinea, DC.
+  Dalsam; Táwil. Animals eat.    -       I       I      I
+Genista (Retama) monosperma,
+  Del. .......................   -       I       -      -
+Lotononis Leobordea, Bth.
+  Hurbat. Eaten by cattle. ...   -       I       I      -
+Trigonella stellata, Forsk.
+  (T. microcarpa, Fres.) .....   -       I       I      -
+Onobrychis(?), possibly
+  O. Ptolemaica. (Barren
+  specimen). .................   -       I       -      -
+Astragalus sparsus(?), Dcne. .   -       I       -      -
+Astragalus Sieberi, DC.
+  Ghákeh. Dry and pounded
+  root mixed with clarified
+  butter. Drunk as a
+  restorative. ...............   -       I       -      I
+Astragalus Forskahlei, Boiss.
+  Kidád. Camels eat. ........    -       I       -      -
+Cassia obovata, Coll. Senna ..   -       I       I      I
+Iphiona scabra, DC. Zafrah.
+  Camels eat. ................   -       I       -      -
+Pulicaria undulata, DC.
+  Rabul. Fine perfume. .......   -       I       -      -
+Blumea Bovei, DC.
+  (B. abyssinica, Sch.) ......   -       I       -      I
+Ifloga spicata, Forsk.
+  Zenaymeh. Animals eat. .....   -       -       -      I
+Asteriscus pygmaeus, C. and
+  Dur. .......................   -       -       -      I
+Anvillaea Garcini, DC.
+  (fide Boissier). Nukud.
+  Eaten by camels and sheep. .   -       -       I      -
+Anthemis, an A. deserti(?),
+  Boiss. Gahwán. Camels
+  eat: also called Gurrays,
+  pounded and eaten with
+  dates. .....................   -       I       I      I
+Matricaria (Chamaemelum)
+  auriculata (Boiss.) ........   -       -       I      -
+Senecio Decaisnei, DC.
+  Umm lewinayn ...............   -       -       I      I
+Senecio coronopifolius, Desf.    -       I       I      -
+Calendula aegyptiaca, Desf. .    -       -       I      -
+Calendula aegyptiaca(?) .....    -       I       -      -
+Calendula, an var.
+  aegyptiacae(?) ............    -       -       -      I
+Echinops spinosus, L.
+  Akhshir. Eaten by camels,
+  sheep, and asses. .........    -       -       I      I
+Zoegea purpurea, Fres.
+  Rubayyán. Cattle eat. ....     -       -       I      -
+Centaurea sinaica, DC.
+  Yemrár. Eaten by sheep,
+  asses, etc. ...............    -       I       -      I
+Picridium tingitanum, Desf.
+  forma. Huwwá; Tiz
+  el-Kalbeh; El-Haudán.
+  Eaten by man and animals. .    -       I       I      I
+Urospermum picroides, Desf. .    -       I       -      -
+Microrhynchus nudicaulis,
+  Less. 'Azid ...............    I       -       I      I
+Pterotheca bifida, F. and M.     -       I       I      -
+Picris, conf. P. Saha*ae,
+  C. and K. .................    -       -       -      I
+Picris cyanocarpa, Boiss. ...    -       -       I      -
+Callipeltis cucullaria,
+  Stev. 'Ikrish. Cattle eat.
+  North or Central Midian.
+Crucianella membranacea,
+  Boiss. ...................     -       -       I      -
+Galium capillare, Dcne .....     -       -       I      -
+Salvadora persica, L.
+  El-Arák .................      -       I       -      I
+Rhazya stricta, Dcne.
+  Harjal. Eaten only by
+  mules. Very fragrant. ....     -       I       -      -
+Daemia cordata, R. Br. .....     -       -       I      -
+Steinheilia radians, Dcne.
+  Faká ....................      -       I       -      -
+Convolvulus Hystrix, V.
+  Shibrim. Root used as a
+  purgative. Animals eat
+  upper part of plant. ....      -       -       -      I
+Cuscuta, conf.
+  C. brevistyla, A. Br. ...      -       -       I      -
+Withania somnifera, Dun.
+  Shajarat el-Dib .........      -       I       -      -
+Lycium europaeum, L.
+  'Aushaz. Eaten by
+  animals. ................      -       -       I      I
+Solanum coagulans(?),
+  Forsk. var. (A small
+  fragment only). .........      -       -       I      -
+Hyoscyamus pusillus,
+  L. Saykrán .............       -       I       I      -
+Heliotropium arbainense,
+  Fres. Rahháb. Cattle
+  eat. ....................      -       I       I      -
+Trichodesma africanum,
+  R. Br. Ahmim. Camels and
+  other animals eat. ......      -       -       I      -
+Echium longifolium(?), Del.
+  Kahlá. Animals eat. ....       -       -       I      -
+Anchusa Milleri, W. .......      -       -       I      -
+Anchusa Milleri(?) young
+  specimens. ..............      -       -       I      -
+Anchusa Milleri(?) young
+  specimens. ..............      -       I       -      -
+Gastrocotyle (Anchusa
+  hispida, Forsk.). Karir.
+  Camels eat. .............      -       -       -      I
+Arnebia hispidissima,
+  A. DC. Fayná. Animals
+  eat. ....................      -       I       I      -
+Lithospermum callosum, V. .      -       I       -      -
+Lindenbergia sinaica,
+  Bth. Mallih. Cattle eat.       -       -       -      I
+Verbascum (in bud), an
+  V. sinaiticum(?), Bth. .       -       -       -      I
+Verbascum, sp. nov. Sammá        -       -       I      -
+Herpestis Monniera,
+  Kth. Nafal. Animals eat.       -       I       -      -
+Veronica Anagallis, L. ...       -       -       -      I
+Linaria aegyptiaca, Dum. .       -       I       -      -
+Linaria macilenta, Dcne.
+  Zuraymat el-Himar.
+  Eaten by animals. ......       -       -       I      -
+Linaria (*§ Elatinoides),
+  sp. imperfect. .........       -       -       I      -
+Linaria simplex(?), DC. ..       -       I       I      -
+Linaria Haelava Chav.
+  (fide Boissier) ........       -       I       -      -
+Blepharis edulis, Pers.
+  (Acanthodium spicatum,
+  Del.). Shauk el-Jemel.
+  Camels fond of it. .....       -       I       -      I
+Lavandula coronopifolia,
+  Poir. Zayteh. All
+  animals eat. ...........       -       I       I      -
+Mentha lavandulacea, W.
+  Habag. Animals do not
+  eat. Pounded and mixed
+  with fresh dates, "good
+  for stomach". ..........       -       I       -      -
+Salvia aegyptiaca, L. ....       -       I       -      -
+Salvia deserti, Dcne. ....       -       -       I      -
+Salvia, an S. deserti(?).
+  Jáadeh. Pounded in
+  water and snuffed up
+  nose. ..................       -       -       I      -
+Otostegia, var. O.
+  scariosae(?), Bth. (vel
+  O. repanda, Bth.)
+  Ghasseh. Sheep eat. ....       -       -       I      I
+Statice axillaris, Forsk.
+  Annúm. Camels eat. ....        -       I       -      I
+Plantago Psyllium, L.
+  Nez'i'ah. Animals eat. .       -       I       I      -
+Plantago amplexicaulis,
+  Cav. Yanameh. Animals
+  eat. ...................       -       -       I      -
+Aerwa javanica, Jass.
+  Rayl. Cattle eat. ......       -       I       -      I
+Chenopodium murale, L.? ..       -       I       -      -
+Chenopodium murale, L.?
+  (Small seedlings.)
+  Nafal. Cattle eat. .....       -       -       -      I
+Atriplex dimorphostegia?
+  K. and K. Roghol.
+  Animals eat. ...........       -       I       -      -
+Echinopsilon lanatum, Moq.
+  Garay'á. ...............       -       I       -      I
+Suaeda sp.(?). (Small
+  fragment.) ..............      -       I       -      -
+Suaeda sp.(?). (Barren
+  fragments, insect
+  punctured?) 'Aslá.
+  Forage plant. ...........      I       -       I      -
+Suaeda monoica? Forsk.
+  Zuraygá. Forage plant. .       I       -       -      -
+Salsola(?), cf. S.
+  longifolia, F. Hamz.
+  Camels eat. .............      I       -       -      -
+Caroxylon(?) (barren
+  specimen), near C.,
+  foetidum. Akahrit.
+  Animals eat. ............      I       -       -      -
+Rumex vesicarius, L.
+  (R. roseus, Del.).
+  Hammáz. Animals eat. ...       -       -       I      -
+Emex spinosus, Camp. ......      -       I       -      -
+Crozophora tinctoria, Juss.
+  Hinaydieh. Not eaten. ...      -       -       -      I
+Euphorbia cornuta, Pers.
+  'Atir ...................      -       I       -      -
+Euphorbia scordifolia,
+  Jacq. Gharghir. Animals
+  eat. ....................      -       I       -      -
+Euphorbia (Anisophyllum)
+  granulata, Schf.
+  Rugaygeh. Animals eat. ..      -       -       -      I
+Euphorbia (Anisophyllum)
+  granulata, forma(?).
+  Lubayneh. Cattle eat. ...      -       -       -      I
+Juniperus phoenicea, L.
+  At four thousand feet on
+  Sharr. Trunk thicker
+  than a man's body.
+  Halibeh. ................      -       -       I      -
+Parietaria alsinifolia,
+  Del. ....................      -       -       I      -
+Forskahlea tenacissima, L.
+  Lissák. Animals eat. ...       -       -       I      -
+Asphodelus fistulosus, L.
+  (var. tenuifolius,
+  Bker.). Bo'rak. Only
+  eaten by animals when
+  very hungry. Asses eat. .      -       I       I      -
+Bellevalia flexuosa, Boiss.      -       I       -      -
+Dipcadi erythraeum, Webb ..      -       I       -      -
+Gagea reticulata, R. and S.      -       I       -      -
+Juncus maritimus, L. ......      -       -       -      I
+Scirpus Holoschoenus, L.
+  Namas. Sent to Egypt for
+  mats. ...................      -       -       -      I
+Cyperus conglomeratus,
+  Rottb. (Young specimens)       -       I       -      -
+Chloris villosa, Pers. ....      -       -       I      -
+AEluropus repens ..........      -       I       -      -
+Tricholaena micrantha,
+  Schrad. Ghazuiar. Eaten
+  by camels, etc. .........      -       -       I      I
+Panicum turgidum, Forsk.
+  Zarram. Good fodder. ....      -       I       -      I
+Arundo Donax, L. Kasbá ...       -       I       -      -
+Polypogon monspeliensis,
+  Desf. Kháfúr. Sheep
+  eat. ....................      -       -       -      I
+Stipa tortilis, Desf.
+  Pehmeh. Animals eat. ....      -       I       I      I
+Aristida caerulescens,
+  Desf. Shárib el-Kale.
+  Animals eat. ............      -       I       I      -
+Hordeum maritimum, L. .....      -       I       -      -
+Pappophorum, an P.
+  phleoides(?), R. and S.
+  Nejil. Sheep eat. .......      -       -       -      I
+Barren specimen.
+  Indeterminable. Grass ...      -       I       -      -
+Grass(?). Root and leaves.
+  Hashmil. Animals eat. ...      I       -       -      -
+Typha(?). Root and
+  fragments of leaves.
+  Birdi ...................      -       -       -      I
+Grass. Fragmentary. Záeh.
+  Cattle eat. .............      -       -       -      I
+Chara foetida, Braun.
+  'Ishnik .................      -       I       -      -
+A barren fragment of
+  undershrub, with opposite
+  fleshy leaves with
+  recurved margins. Ajid.
+  Eaten by animals.
+  Doubtful. ...............      I       -       -       -
+
+D. OLIVER.
+
+
+
+
+
+SECTION II.
+
+
+
+The spirit-specimens submitted to Mr. William Carruthers, of the
+British Museum, are described by him as follows:--
+
+1. Phallus impudicus, Linn. (in Arab. Faswat el-'Ajúz). The common
+"stinkhorn," extremely common in some districts of England, and obtruding
+on the notice of every one from its detestable odour. It is widely
+distributed over America and Africa, as well as Europe, but I find no
+record of its occurring in Asia.
+
+2. Tulostoma mammosum, Fr. Also British, but not so common. Widely
+distributed.
+
+3. Phelipoea lutea, Desf. A dark, fleshy broom-rape, with scaly leaves. We
+have one species of the same genus in England. They are parasitic on
+the roots of plants; and the Midianite species, which is found in North
+Africa, Egypt, and Arabia, grows on the roots of a Chenopodium.
+
+4. Cynomorium coccineum, Mich. A fleshy, leafless plant, also a root-
+parasite. It was called by old writers Fungus Melitensis, and was of much
+repute in medicine. It is known from the Himalayas to the Canary
+Islands, and is said by Webb, in his history of the Canaries, to be eaten in
+the Island of Lancerotte.
+
+5. Doemia cordata, R. Br. A spiny shrub, with roundish leaves and small
+sharp-pointed fruit, found in Egypt and Arabia.
+
+6. Capparis galeata, Fres., with large fruit, long and pear-shaped. This
+caper is well known; from Syria and Egypt.
+
+(Signed) W. CARRUTHERS.
+
+INSECTS COLLECTED IN MIDIAN BY CAPTAIN BURTON.
+(Identified by Mr. Frederick Smith, of the British Museum.)
+
+COLEOPTERA.
+
+Geodephaga
+
+l. Anthia 12 guttata.
+
+Melolonthidoe.
+
+2. Schizonycha reflexa.
+3. Pachydema.
+
+Dynastidoe.
+
+4. Heteronychus.
+
+Curculionidoe.
+
+5. Cleonus arabs.
+
+Heteromera.
+
+6. Mesostenanear punctipennis.
+7. Adesmia.
+8. Akis Goryi?
+9. Mylabris.
+
+Hemiptera.
+
+10. Nepa rubra.
+
+Mantidoe.
+
+11. Eremiaphila arenaria. 12. Blepharis mendica.
+
+Orthoptera.
+
+13. Acocera.
+14. Acridium peregrinum. 15. Poecilocera bufonia.
+
+Scorpionidea.
+
+16. Androctonus funestus.
+17.     "       leptochelys.
+18.     "       quinquestriatus.
+
+Arachnida.
+
+19. Galeodes arabs, in spirit.
+20. Clubiona Listeri, in spirit.
+
+(Signed) FREDK. SMITH.
+
+
+
+
+
+                          APPENDIX V.
+
+
+
+METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL
+(December 19, 1877, to April 17, 1878).
+
+
+
+METEOROLOGICAL NOTES ON TRAVELLING IN MIDIAN.
+
+Midian follows the rule of Syria--travel in the spring. The best time on the
+seaboard is during the months of March, April, and May. In the mountains and
+the Hismá plateau, April, May, and June are the most favourable. In Syria
+(Damascus) the autumn is dangerous: the finest travelling weather is in March
+to May. The second best season is between October and December.
+
+January and February are cold; the latter also (sometimes) rainy.
+
+March is stormy at first (El-'Uwweh), but afterwards gets warmer (El-Ni'ám).
+Dews now begin, and last some three months: they wet everything like a sharp
+shower, and make the air feel soppy.
+
+In July the first dates come in. Fevers are prevalent during this month, and
+also during August and September.
+
+October is a month of heat and drought.
+
+In November the first cold occurs.
+
+December is the coldest month.
+
+NOTES on TRAVELLING IN LOWER EGYPT.
+
+September is very bad--all should escape who can. Fruits everywhere; sun hot;
+air damp with irrigation water, white fogs and other horrors.
+
+October is a good month, the weather being neither too hot nor too
+cold.
+
+November is the month of the "second water" irrigation about Cairo.
+
+December is pleasant.
+
+January is cold and sometimes wet.
+
+February is stormy, and even foggy with sand-mist.
+
+March is windy, but on the whole a good month, except for Khamsin, which
+begins about March 20th.
+
+April begins to feel warm (April 29, 1878, Shamm el-Nasim).
+
+The winter presents a marvellous contrast to that of England, which
+can often show one hour and five minutes' sunlight in the twenty-four, or
+2.8 per cent. of its possible duration.
+
+THE TIDES
+
+In El-'Akabah are like Suez: first of month, flood, 6--12 a.m. and p.m.; ebb,
+the rest. But at Suez the tides rise one metre, and at times two metres; at
+El-'Akabah (February 7), one foot.
+
+For the instruments NOT used in this Expedition, see Chap. I. p. 11.
+
+The barometre aneroid sold by M. Ebner was partially repaired by M. Lacaze,
+and served for Mr. David Duguid's observations.
+
+My pocket set by Casella (maker to the Admiralty and Ordnance)
+consisted of--
+
+One watch aneroid (compensated, 1182).
+Two sets wet and dry bulb thermometers (one broken).
+One set maxima and minima thermometers, Nos. 12,877 and 12,906.
+Two pocket hygrometers not numbered.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING FIRST MARCH BETWEEN DECEMBER
+19, 1877, AND FEBRUARY 18, 1878
+
+
+
+December 19, 1877, compared ship's (Mukhbir) mercurial barometer, 758
+millimetres, with my aneroid by Casella (29.85) = 765 millimetres; difference
+in
+ship's, + 007 millimetre.
+
+January 31, 1878, returned on board Mukhbir at Makná. Ship's mercurial
+barometer, 773 millimetres; my aneroid by Casella, 764 millimetres; difference
+in ship's, + 009 millimetre.
+
+Date.   Time.  Aneroid Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hygr. Remarks.
+               Inches. Milli.  (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+Dec. 19. 7a.m.    29.85 765    76    -     -    58     On deck of gunboat
+                                                       Mukhbir, at Sharm
+                                                       Yahárr, steaming to El-
+                                                       Muwaylah. Morning ugly.
+                                                       Strong land-breeze,
+                                                       turned to Azyab ("south-
+                                                       easter"). Waves rising.
+                                                       Dark-blue clouds to
+                                                       windward.
+
+         Noon.    29.80 757    77    -     -    54     In big tent on shore,
+                                                       open east and west. Wind
+                                                       high. Everything feels
+                                                       damp; looks gloomy;
+                                                       mountains almost hidden
+                                                       by clouds. Landscape
+                                                       that of Europe. No sun
+                                                       nor sunshine all day.
+
+         3p.m.    29.09 -      86    -     -    51     In my small tent.
+                                                       Clearing to windward
+                                                       (north). Wind veering to
+                                                       north. Moon nearly full.
+                                                       High fleecy clouds. Sea
+                                                       high. No sun all day.
+
+Azyab (the wet wind) generally lasts two or three days; veers round by west to
+north. Much rain has already fallen (Arab lies). Land green (all brown); grass
+plentiful (not a blade to be seen). Rains here December 15th to February 15th;
+downfall one hour to four hours, then clears. On December 8th, violent rain
+for one hour; filled all the torrents (Sayl).
+
+Dec. 20. 7a.m.    29.80 758    63    -     -    40     In small tent open to
+                                                       east. Morning clear. Few
+                                                       fleecy clouds: cool and
+                                                       bright. "Misri" from
+                                                       north-west; cold and
+                                                       rain.
+
+         3p.m.    29.92 759    78    -     -    32     Hot in tents, cool in
+                                                       breeze. "Misri" high and
+                                                       strong sea. At 1.10 p.m.
+                                                       heavy clouds; expected
+                                                       rain--few heavy drops.
+
+AT EL-MUWAYLAH AND RAS WADY TIRYAM.
+
+Dec. 21. 6.35a.m. 30.02 763    71    -     -    35     Inside tent. Full moon
+                                                       and clear. Dawn, 6 a.m.;
+                                                       night, 6.30. Speckled
+                                                       clouds.
+
+         Noon.    30.48 764    76    -     -    48     Under umbrella. Air
+                                                       clear. Mottled clouds on
+                                                       mountains. Sea horizon.
+                                                       Low white bank of
+                                                       clouds.
+
+         3p.m.    30.05 763    77    -     -    39     "Misri." High cirri from
+                                                       west. Big black cloud
+                                                       over sea. Suspected
+                                                       rain: Arabs said no.
+                                                       Cloud dispersed.
+
+AT RAS WADY TIRYAM.
+
+Dec. 22. 7a.m.    30.01 760    57    -     -    32     Cold night. Clear
+                                                       morning. Cold sunrise.
+                                                       Dry north-wester.
+                                                       Instruments on paper,
+                                                       resting on the sand.
+                                                       Very dry.
+
+         Noon.    30.14 -      82    -     -    22     Very dry. Straight
+                                                       streaks of cirri
+                                                       everywhere.
+
+         4p.m.    30.00 763    72    -     -    17     At Wady Sharmá, on sand
+                                                       protected from west
+                                                       wind. Bright moon,
+                                                       showed halo.
+
+Kayhak 14 begins the Coptic winter, properly speaking evening of 13th; after
+sunset 1 hour 51 minutes. Sea-breeze and land-winds regular to-day and
+throughout the month.
+
+AT WADY SHARMÁ.
+
+Dec. 23. 7a.m.    29.90 760    58    -     -    19     Instruments on box
+                                                       standing on sand. Moon
+                                                       with halo at night. Red
+                                                       sunrise, grey clouds.
+                                                       Mountains blue-grey,
+                                                       brightly defined. Before
+                                                       dawn moon two halos,
+                                                       large and small. Fleecy
+                                                       clouds. Nine a.m. clear,
+                                                       sun hot.
+
+         2.30p.m. 29.15 740    78    -     -    25     Under rock in upper Wady
+                                                       Sharmá. Streaky cirri.
+                                                       Sun hot; air cool.
+                                                       Little sea-breeze, kept
+                                                       off by hills.
+
+Arrived at the "White Mountain," and stayed there a week.
+
+         4p.m.    29.12 740    75    -     -    28     At Jebel el-Abyaz, on
+                                                       box behind tent
+                                                       sheltered from wind. Air
+                                                       quite still; streaky
+                                                       cirri. Camp Jebel el-
+                                                       Abyaz, say, 800 feet
+                                                       above sea. Felt very
+                                                       dry.
+
+AT JEBEL EL-ABYAZ.
+
+Dec. 24  7a.m.    29.10 738    61    -     -    29     In mess tent on mess
+                                                       table. Cold. Mottled
+                                                       clouds east and zenith.
+                                                       Grey bank to sea
+                                                       reddened by sunrise,
+                                                       like storm clouds. Rain
+                                                       here from Azyab ("south-
+                                                       east"). Sunrise at
+                                                       Cairo, 6.55 a.m.
+
+         Noon.    29.00 737    64    63    55   33     Suspended instruments.
+                                                       Grey day: cold breeze
+                                                       from east. Cold comes
+                                                       only from wind; when no
+                                                       breeze, very mild.
+                                                       Getting greyer and
+                                                       colder. Very like rain--
+                                                       heavey clouds.
+
+         3.10p.m. 29.00 737    64    64    52   28     Wind west, cold and raw.
+                                                       Air grey and cold.
+                                                       Evening cold; clouds
+                                                       dispersed, sun came out.
+                                                       Wind to west, inclining
+                                                       to north.
+
+Small thermometer shows higher than Casellás because in brass case; not so
+well exposed to air.
+
+Dec. 25. 7a.m.    29.10 739    50    50    45   29    Morning cool and clear.
+
+         Noon.    29.20 -      72    68    55   21     Very clear, still, and
+                                                       hot. Slight breeze from
+                                                       sea (west). Sun strong.
+                                                       Swarms of flies. Dry
+                                                       bulb in sun, 73 degrees;
+                                                       wet, 60 degrees.
+
+         3p.m.    29.16 741    72    69    54   15     Cool and gentle breeze
+                                                       from sea, dispersing the
+                                                       swarms of flies. At
+                                                       times "sand-devil" from
+                                                       north-west.
+
+All this day's observations taken on writing table in large tent. Night cold:
+cold severest after two a.m. and before sunrise. Sky at night perfectly clear.
+Wind from north turning to east, a Barri ("land-breeze"). Height of Jebel el-
+Abyaz above tents, by aneroid = 350 feet (29.20 - 28.85 = 0.35).
+
+Dec. 26. 7.15a.m. 29.21 743    48    46    43   22     In tent. Sky perfectly
+                                                       clear.
+
+         Noon.    29.26 -      76    77    55   6      Sun very hot. Air quite
+                                                       still. Fleecy clouds
+                                                       from west over the sun.
+
+         4.45p.m. 29.23 743    73    69    55   8      Sun cooler. Air
+                                                       perfectly clear.
+
+Dec. 27. 7a.m.    29.16 740    50    49    43 5 3      In tent. Morning cold
+                                                       and clear: few flecks of
+                                                       cloud to east. Air feels
+                                                       intensely dry.
+
+         12.30p.m.29.23 743    77    74    58   9      Fine cirri high up. Sky
+                                                       blue. Sun veiled at
+                                                       times. Very little wind,
+                                                       a breath from north.
+
+         3.20p.m. 59.16 742    80    77    56   6      Sky with filmy white
+                                                       clouds, thicker at west.
+                                                       Sun hidden; very hot at
+                                                       noon (rain-sun?). Not a
+                                                       breath of air. Sense of
+                                                       intense dryness. Ink
+                                                       evaporates at once. Cool
+                                                       breeze started up
+                                                       shortly after 3.30 p.m.
+                                                       from west, then clouds
+                                                       thickened. Thermometer
+                                                       fell 4 degrees.
+
+Cool evening; quite clear. Fevers and feverish colds begin to show themselves
+in camp. Minimum thermometer during night--No. 1, 45 degrees; No. 2, 46
+degrees; French, 15-1/2 degrees (Centigrade).
+
+Dec. 28  7a.m.    29.10 739    55    53    46   10     In tent. Still. Neither
+                                                       warm nor cold. Mottled
+                                                       clouds.
+
+         Noon.    29.13 740    78    72    58   4      Clouds thin. Sun very
+                                                       hot (rain-sun?). Light
+                                                       breeze from north-west.
+
+         3p.m.    29.10 739    79    72    58   -      Feels intensely dry.
+                                                       Hot, close. Heavy
+                                                       clouds, and purple to
+                                                       west. Gusts from west.
+
+No wind. Morning and evening very mild. At eight p.m. dark cloud moving from
+south-west to mountains. Drops of rain; then stars. Minimum thermometers
+during night, both 48 degrees. None of the maximum will act.
+
+Dec. 29. 7a.m.    29.10 738    58    58    54   9      In tent. Cool, clear.
+                                                       Blue-pink in west. Light
+                                                       sea-breezes from west.
+                                                       Must be awfully hot in
+                                                       summer. In closed tent
+                                                       at eleven a.m., 92
+                                                       degrees.
+
+         Noon.    29.13 -      77    75    60   10     Nice breeze from sea
+                                                       (west), bending to
+                                                       north.
+
+         4p.m.    29.00 739    82    79    59   5     Warm and quite still.
+
+Mean of nineteen aneroid observations at Jebel el-Abyaz = 29.13.
+
+MARCH FROM JEBEL EL-ABYAZ TO WADY SHARMÁ.
+
+Dec. 30. 7a.m.    29.10 739    56    -     -    7      Clear, still. No speck
+                                                       of cloud. Moon Náim
+                                                       (sleeping = *[figure]).
+
+         5p.m.    29.88 758    66    -     -    8      Air quite clear. Camped
+                                                       at Sharmá. Change to
+                                                       shore pleasant and soft.
+
+Noon on journey; sun very hot. Evening still. Violent weather at night; cold
+and comfortless. Abated somewhat after sunrise.
+
+AT SHARMÁ, IN BIG TENT OPEN NORTH AND SOUTH.
+
+Dec. 31. 7a.m.    29.88 758    59    -     -    7      Wind cold and dusty. Sky
+                                                       perfectly clear. A few
+                                                       light mist-clouds on
+                                                       mountain-wall.
+
+         Noon.    29.94 760    75    73    58   6      Wind still. Sun much
+                                                       warmer.
+
+         3p.m.    29.90 -      74    71    58   3     Wind cool; some dust.
+
+Clouds about sunset sailing out of Suez Gulf, forming archipelago of sky
+islets. Dark bank to south. Minimum thermometer at night = 42 degrees.
+
+AT SHARMÁ, IN BIG TENT OPEN NORTH AND SOUTH (about 100 feet
+above sea-level).
+
+Jan. 1.  7a.m.    29.90 759    53    50    45   10     Clear, fine, quite
+                                                       still. Nice breeze began
+                                                       about nine a.m.
+
+         Noon.    29.97 -      71    69    57   4      Cold. North wind high.
+                                                       Light clouds to west;
+                                                       the rest clear.
+
+         3p.m.    29.94 760    73    72    61   4      Clouds to west from Suez
+                                                       sea.
+
+High wind fell before midnight. Cold--sat in tent. Flies troublesome
+everywhere. Minimum at night, 42-43 degrees.
+
+AT WADY SHARMÁ, IN BIG TENT.
+
+Jan 2.   7a.m.    29.98 761    53    -     -    10
+
+         3p.m.    30.00 762    76    72    58   3      Cool breeze from north.
+                                                       No signs of clouds. Sun
+                                                       hot and air cool.
+
+Evening no wind, no clouds. At night high cold wind from east, seems to pierce
+clothes. Lasted till morning and sun well up. Minimum thermometer, No. 1 = 45
+degrees; No. 2 = 46 degrees.
+
+Jan. 3.  7a.m.    29.92 760    58    57    47   3      Dawn comfortless. Cold.
+                                                       Fire in tent. Sand
+                                                       blowing. Air highly
+                                                       electrical.
+
+         Noon.    29.90 762    77    76    61   2      Wind still. Hot sun.
+
+         3p.m.    29.91 759    76    74    58   4      Hot sun. Gentle breeze.
+                                                       Warm in tent.
+
+Night very cold. Minimum thermometers, No. 1 = 40 degrees; No. 2 = 41 degrees.
+
+Jan. 4.  "        29.83 -      52    50    -    5
+
+         Noon.    29.93 760    81    80    60   3      Decidedly hot. No
+                                                       breeze.
+
+         3p.m.    29.90 -      78    75    63   0     Very hot and still.
+
+In evening few fleecy clouds to south-west. Appearance of Azyab. Minimum
+thermometers at night, No. 1 = 36 degrees; No. 2 = 38 degrees.
+
+AT WADY SHARMÁ.
+
+Jan. 5.  7a.m.    29.90 -      48    45    43   6      Pink clouds south-west
+                                                       and south-east. Cirri
+                                                       everywhere.
+
+         Noon.    29.87 761    79    79    67   3      Hot and still. Clear;
+                                                       few cirri.
+
+         3p.m.    29.96 760    74    71    60   0      Cool wind. Cold in
+                                                       shade. Cirri to south,
+                                                       at times over the sun.
+
+Very cold at night. Saw new moon; set in fire. Planets veiled in mist. Moon
+Káim (points upwards = *[figure]).
+
+Jan. 6.  7.20a.m. 29.94 760    53    51    46   8      Still, clear. Light
+                                                       breeze about 10.30 a.m.
+
+         Noon.    29.80 761    82    -     -    4
+
+         4p.m.    29.96 761    76    -     -    3      Clear and hot. Sunset,
+                                                       red cirri. Water very
+                                                       cold. Moon clear.
+
+Jan. 7   "        29.98 758    52    -     -    18     At Sharmá. Cool and raw.
+                                                       Few clouds to south and
+                                                       south-west.
+
+         Noon.    30.08 764    78    -     -    26     At 'Aynúnah, in big
+                                                       tent. Fresh wind from
+                                                       north. Air much damper;
+                                                       more pleasant.
+
+AT 'AYNÚNAH.
+
+Jan. 8.  7a.m.    30.11 763    55    -     -    22     Morning still--windless
+                                                       Breath from east. Warm
+                                                       and pleasant.
+
+         Noon.    30.02 767    77    74    61   13     Quite clear and dry.
+                                                       Gusts of wind. Flies
+                                                       very bad, even in the
+                                                       waste.
+
+         3p.m.    30.15 767    77    76    63   7
+
+Cold high wind at night.
+
+LEFT 'AYNÚNAH.
+
+Jan. 9.  7a.m.    30.04 -      63    -     -    10     Outside tent. Light
+                                                       clouds everywhere at
+                                                       dawn. Morning warm and
+                                                       close.
+
+         Noon.    29.91 759    80    -     -    48     At El-'Usaylah. Sky
+                                                       covered with clouds. Sun
+                                                       coming out.
+
+         4p.m.    29.87 758    53    -     -    23     In tent at El-'Usaylah.
+                                                       No wind.
+
+Cool pleasant night. Rain in Mount Sinai(?).
+
+Jan. 10. 6.45a.m. 29.85 -      56    -     -    15     Observations in open.
+                                                       Cold north wind. Clear
+                                                       and cirri.
+
+         3p.m.    29.30 745    77    -     -    1      At Magháir Shúayb, under
+                                                       a tree.
+
+Night cold. High wind; shook the tents.
+
+AT MAGHÁIR SHÚAYB.
+
+Jan. 11. 7a.m.    29.37 747    60    -     -    20    In open, on box.
+
+         Noon.    29.40 748    82    -     -    8     In tent.
+
+         3p.m.    29.38 747    84    -     -    -4    Still. Air hot.
+
+As a rule, at Magháir Shúayb we had land-breezes; cold from north and east.
+Seabreezes during day, after noon.
+
+Jan. 12. 7a.m.    29.35 746    59    -     -    3      In tent. Cool. Cirri. At
+                                                       two a.m. cool fresh wind
+                                                       from north.
+
+         Noon.    29.46 747    83    -     -    -5     In tent. Hot sun. Light
+                                                       clouds.
+
+         3p.m     29.30 746    83    81    64   -9     In tent. No sun, no
+                                                       wind. Thin clouds.
+
+Night warm; wind towards morning. Mosquitoes in tamarisks of Wady. Minimum
+thermometer, 52 degrees.
+
+Jan. 13. 7a.m.    29.38 745    65    -     -    -4     Outside tent, on box.
+                                                       Cloudy; little wind. elt
+                                                       warm. Sun came out
+                                                       strong at ten a.m.
+
+         Noon.    29.27 744    87    87    67   -9     In big tent. Heat like
+                                                       summer. Flies
+                                                       troublesome, travel on
+                                                       our backs.
+
+         3p.m.    29.20 743    85    85    65   -15    Very hot. Thin clouds.
+                                                       Sea-breeze.
+
+Very hot and sultry weather: Arabs say portends rain. Wind (generally) from
+north in morning; afternoon from sea.
+
+Jan. 14. 7a.m.    29.01 740    63    63    55   0      In tent. Land-breeze set
+                                                       in. Expected heavy rain,
+                                                       and pitched camp higher
+                                                       up.
+
+         2.30p.m. 29.15 -      81-1/279    68   0     Taken by Mr. Clarke.
+
+Rain began 2.30 a.m. (Jan. 15), small drops, then heavy, lull, and again
+heavy; ended about 4.30 a.m. A little wind from south-west rose after rain.
+
+The last rain was on December 7-10, 1877; violent storms accompanied it.
+
+Jan. 15. "        29.00 -      71-1/270    66   30     By Mr. Clarke at Magháir
+                                                       Shúayb. Sky all covered
+                                                       ; little clear to west.
+                                                       Mist all over north.
+                                                       Things feel damp.
+
+         Noon.    29.06 737    76    73    65   30     All cloudy. After rain,
+                                                       sultry heat of noon
+                                                       quite disappeared.
+
+         3p.m.    29.06 738    75    73    65   25     Still cloudy. Cool.
+
+Cold nights and mornings.
+
+Jan. 16. 7a.m.    29.20 -      48    45    42   18     No rain. Cold. Little
+                                                       wind. Cloudy. No wind.
+
+         Noon.    29.05 -      69    65    54   3      Sun hot. Cool breeze
+                                                       from north as usual. No
+                                                       clouds.
+
+         3p.m.    29.25 -      69    65    52   12
+
+Night fine and clear. Stars and moon very bright.
+
+Jan. 17. 7a.m.    29.30 -      42    42    39   17     Clear morning. Very
+                                                       cold. Land breeze.
+
+         Noon.    29.36 745    69    66    54   18     Fine stiff breeze from
+                                                       north-east.
+
+         3p.m.    29.34 745    73    70    59   16     Fine breeze falling.
+
+Fine clear night, moon nearly full. No clouds. Not cold. Cool at night and
+towards morning. Wind rose about four a.m.
+
+Jan. 18. 7.30a.m. 29.28 745    55    55    50   26     In tent. Cool, clear.
+                                                       Gentle land-wind.
+
+         Noon.    29.30 -      79    79    63   16    Same weather.
+
+         3p.m.    29.25 -      81    79    62   8      Night cool. Hardly any
+                                                       wind.
+
+Jan. 19. 7a.m.    29.15 -      53    52    45   16     In tent. Cold wind from
+                                                       north.
+
+         Noon.    29.17 -      81    79    63   9      Sun hot. Cool breeze
+                                                       from north. Sky clear.
+
+         3p.m.    29.15 -      80    77    60   5
+
+Remarkably warm pleasant night.
+
+Jan. 20. 7a.m.    29.05 -      50    48    45   19     In tent. No wind. Air
+                                                       sharp.
+
+         Noon.    29.10 -      79    75    63   12     Light wind (south-west).
+                                                       Sun hot. Sky clear.
+
+         3p.m.    29.10 -      73    73    60   8     Cool and pleasant.
+
+Curious moonrise. Thin clouds like volcanic smoke, separated into cirri like
+sheep-skin: all said sign of heat. Night still and warm. Few stratified clouds
+to west.
+
+Jan. 21. 8a.m.    29.13 740    56    54    50   20     In tent. Cold raw wind
+                                                       (El-Ayli) from north-
+                                                       east. High clouds. Worse
+                                                       near Gulf.
+
+         Noon.    29.20 743    68    66    55   16     High cold wind,
+                                                       continuous. Bright sun.
+                                                       Sky intensely blue and
+                                                       clear.
+
+         4.15p.m. 29.22 744    66    65    53   8      Cool. High wind.
+
+Strong wind at night; fell about midnight; gusts at times. Very cold. Bad
+weather at Sharm Yahárr. Fortuna ("strong wind") began January 21st, ended
+January 23rd: the next gale was on night of January 28th. As a rule, the
+people say; black clouds show that the wind will increase; light clouds the
+contrary.
+
+Jan. 22. 7a.m.    29.32 745    50    49    45   15     Cold and cloudy. El-Ayli
+                                                       continues.
+
+         Noon.    29.36 748    66    62    52   11     High cold north-easter
+                                                       rose about 11.30. Sun
+                                                       warm. Air cold.
+
+Heavy purple clouds to north and west. Night still; occasional gusts. Eight
+p.m. quite still. Mukhbir delayed by bad weather.
+
+Jan. 23. 7.20a.m. 29.39 748    50    50    45   19     Gusts and calm. Nimbi to
+                                                       west. High north wind
+                                                       set in.
+
+         Noon.    29.40 747    66    64    54   14     Cold in shade, hot in
+                                                       sun. High wind.
+
+         4p.m.    -     -      66    65    52   9      Wind still high. Dust.
+
+Night alternately gusty and still. Warm. Mukhbir steamed back to her
+anchorage, Sharm Yáhárr.
+
+Jan 24.  7a.m.    29.29 745    55    52    47   15     Gentle breeze from
+                                                       north. No clouds--sign
+                                                       of no wind.
+
+         1.30p.m. -     -      83    78    68   10     The normal hot,
+                                                       windless, cloudless day.
+
+         3p.m.    -     -      78    74    62   7      Pleasant sea-breeze. Sun
+                                                       hot; air coolish.
+
+Night warm and pleasant.
+
+MAGHáIR SHÚAYB TO MAKNÁ (March).
+
+Jan. 25. 7a.m.    29.30 -      61     -     -   15     On box. Fine, and
+                                                       perfectly clear.
+
+         Noon.    29.45 -      78     -     -   -      On road to Wady Makná,
+                                                       riding mule. Sea-breeze
+                                                       about noon, strong.
+                                                       Shortly after noon heavy
+                                                       clouds (from north and
+                                                       west) hid the sun.
+
+         3p.m.    30.06 -      71     -     -   23     Arrived at Makná, on
+                                                       box.
+
+Warm pleasant night. Appearance of rain. Wind from north. Moon clouded.
+
+AT MAKNÁ.
+
+Land and sea breezes regular. Morning and evening cool. Noon hot. Evaporation
+immense. Healthy near shore; feverish up the valley. Damp air from
+neighbourhood of Mount Sinai.
+
+Jan. 26. 7a.m.    30.02 -      68    -     -    21     Cloudy. Heavy white
+                                                       waves on water. Wind
+                                                       west; dangerous for
+                                                       ships.
+
+         12.30p.m.30.07 -      80    77    62   21     Sun hot; sky clear.
+                                                       Light fleecy clouds on
+                                                       Sinai.
+
+         3.30p.m. 30.04 743    82    80    70   18     Air and sun hot. Clear.
+                                                       Sea-breeze. No gale.
+
+Rain probably during the day in Sinai. Muttali, or "fort," of Makná showed
+aneroid 760 (29).
+
+Jan. 27. 7a.m.    30.02 -      60    59    55   35     In tent. Fine clear;
+                                                       nice land-breeze. Rush
+                                                       of wind at two a.m. Wind
+                                                       at four a.m. Loud noise
+                                                       of reef.
+
+         1.30p.m. 30.04 -      80    76    68   28     In big tent, opening to
+                                                       south. Quite clear and
+                                                       bright. No clouds.
+                                                       Slight sea-breeze.
+
+         3p.m.    30.02 -      80    79    70   26    Hot and still.
+
+Night glorious. No wind. Only sigh and sound of reef.
+
+Jan. 28. 7a.m.    29.98 -      58    58    53    30    Perfectly still and
+                                                       clear. Light land-
+                                                       breeze.
+
+         12.45p.m.30.00 -      80    78    66    20    Weather breaking. Clouds
+                                                       forming everywhere. High
+                                                       horizontal cirri. North
+                                                       wind, whistling over
+                                                       country.
+
+         3p.m.    29.98 -      80    79    67    20    Packed up wet and dry
+                                                       bulbs.
+
+At sunset high streaky cirri of red colour: all said wind. Same as at Magháir
+Shúayb (January 21-23). At eleven p.m. El-Ayli (north wind from 'Akabat-
+Aylah?) came down upon us with a rush. Gravel like drops of rain. Tents at
+once on the ground. Sky still clear--stars shining.
+
+Jan. 29. 7.15a.m.30.02  -      62    -     -   19      In tent-hut. Wind
+                                                       violent. Cold and raw
+                                                       between moonrise and
+                                                       sunrise.
+
+         Noon.    30.04 -      81    -     -   13      In tent-hut. Wind (El-
+                                                       Ayli) gusty and violent.
+                                                       Sky quite clear.
+
+They say this gale denotes end of Zamharir ("great cold"). Wind fell about
+three p.m. Mild at sunset. Wind then increased, and became very violent at
+night (l0-11 p.m.); seems to beat down from above. Summit of quartz-hills, 2
+obs. = 29.40
+
+Jan. 30  7a.m.    30.06 -      62    -     -    19     In tent-hut. Mountains
+                                                       perfectly clear. Fleecy
+                                                       clouds to north and
+                                                       south, sailing from west
+                                                       to east.
+
+         3p.m.    30.06 -      72    -     -    15     Clear and fine. Wind
+                                                       falling.
+
+Wind fell during afternoon and evening, but rose again at night; was at its
+worst about eleven p.m.
+
+Jan. 31. 7a.m.    30.06 -      67    -     -    22     In tent-but. Wind worse;
+                                                       signs of blowing
+                                                       everywhere. Light clouds
+                                                       north and south. Mottled
+                                                       clouds (cirri, mackerel-
+                                                       back). Gusts violent
+                                                       after sunrise.
+
+         Noon.    30.08 -      73    -     -    19     In cabin on board
+                                                       Mukhbir. Wind violent.
+                                                       Sky clear. White clouds,
+                                                       as yet wind increasing.
+                                                       Sand and dust but
+                                                       mountains clear.
+
+         3p.m.    30.09 -      78    -     -    22     On board Mukhbir. Wind
+                                                       violent. Sky covered
+                                                       with grey clouds.
+
+At sunset, gleams to west and round horizon; heavy to north. Hoped for rain,
+but none came. Fires alight all night. Very bad night; perhaps the worst yet
+seen. Chain dragging. At nine p.m. sky clear, but wind worse.
+
+AT MAKNÁ, ON BOARD "MUKHBIR."
+
+Feb. 1.  7a.m.    30.08 -      70    -     -    21     Wind worse than ever.
+                                                       Dark cirri to south.
+                                                       Mountains clear on all
+                                                       sides.
+
+         Noon.    30.06 -      74    70    63   21     Wind very bad, turning
+                                                       to east (?). Cirri
+                                                       everywere: to west
+                                                       formed ascending rays
+                                                       like sun, extending to
+                                                       zenith; to east were
+                                                       crosses and lozenges.
+
+         3p.m     30.04 -       -    70    65   -      Wind still bad. White
+                                                       clouds have thickened to
+                                                       south, and thinned to
+                                                       north. Bases of
+                                                       mountains blurred (by
+                                                       dust?); summits clear.
+
+At sunset wind lighter. Dark clouds to south, going westward from Suez. Cirri
+overhead, presently disappeared; also about the horizon. At night fine
+zodiacal light. Wind increased. Observations in main cabin throughout voyage.
+
+Feb. 2.  7a.m.    30.00 -      69    70    65   22     Perfectly clear. Wind
+                                                       worse.
+
+         Noon.    30.00 -      78    -     -    21     Clear sky; only cloud,
+                                                       thin white strata to
+                                                       north.
+
+         3p.m.    29.04 -      75    73    63   19     No clouds. Wind milder.
+                                                       Barometer falling (sign
+                                                       of wind ceasing?). Wind
+                                                       getting warmer, and
+                                                       bending east.
+
+Wind less in evening, and warmer; ceased about midnight; lasted from eleven
+p.m., January 28, to midnight, February 2 = five days and five nights.
+Zodiacal light.
+
+Feb. 3.  7a.m.    29.93 -      56    65    56   20     On deck (wet and dry
+                                                       bulbs in main cabin).
+                                                       Fresh breeze from east.
+                                                       Fleecy clouds south and
+                                                       east.
+
+         Noon.    29.96 -      74    -     -    25     On deck. Fine breeze
+                                                       from north.
+
+In evening cirri to west and east. Black dots in regular lines. Night at Minat
+Jinái. Very fine and clear; young moon and Venus. Deadly still. Zodiacal light
+seen every night in the 'Akabah Gulf: not outside it.
+
+Feb. 4.  7a.m.    29.92 -      74    70    67   24     En route to Nuwaybi',
+                                                       along Sinai shore.
+                                                       Morning grey; light
+                                                       clouds everywhere. Dull
+                                                       brassy sunrise. Water
+                                                       dark. Wind south, felt
+                                                       very damp. Sinai hills
+                                                       clouded over: cirri
+                                                       strata high up; nimbi in
+                                                       fragments below.
+
+         Noon.    29.86 -      74    73    68   28     Under awning on board;
+                                                       going north. Sickly sun.
+                                                       Cirri to east.
+
+         3p.m.    29.80 -      75    73    66   26     Main cabin South wind
+                                                       strong, increased after
+                                                       noon. Clear horizon
+                                                       then. Sea foaming: wind
+                                                       became very strong, and
+                                                       raised water about
+                                                       sunset, then fell.
+
+A regular day of south wind, blasts, mists, and gusts; calmed down in evening.
+Quiet night. All day cirri and strata high up from west. Wásit sand forming
+cloud.
+
+Feb. 5.  7a.m.    30.00 -      72    68    60   9      En route to Kaláh
+                                                       (Jezirat Faráun of
+                                                       maps), in main cabin.
+                                                       Wind north. Clouds on
+                                                       hill-tops and to north--
+                                                       effects of yesterday.
+                                                       East mountains misty;
+                                                       west clear. Mottle of
+                                                       clouds.
+
+         Noon.    29.94 -      73    70    61   7      On deck, steaming north.
+                                                       Dry and wet bulbs in
+                                                       main cabin. Clouds--
+                                                       light cumuli to north,
+                                                       east, and west; south
+                                                       clear. Wind north,
+                                                       light.
+
+         3p.m.    29.97 -      75    70    59   19     In main cabin off island
+                                                       El-Kaláh. Violent gusts
+                                                       from west, down valleys-
+                                                       -deflection of south
+                                                       wind, lasted only few
+                                                       minutes. Cloudy and
+                                                       clear.
+
+Night clear. Violent gusts from south, lasting a few minutes, then still.
+
+ON BOARD "MUKHBIR," OFF ISLAND EL-KALÁH.
+
+Feb. 6.  7a.m.    30.12 -      70    66    59   15     In main cabin. A regular
+                                                       raw and gloomy English
+                                                       morning. Clouds
+                                                       everywhere--drops of
+                                                       rain. Wind south,
+                                                       deflected west. Gusts at
+                                                       times. All felt damp and
+                                                       uncomfortable.
+
+         Noon.    30.10 -      70    65    59   26     In main cabin. Sky all
+                                                       covered with clouds.
+                                                       Wind from north, gusty.
+                                                       Barometer rising.
+
+         3p.m.    30.12 -      66    68    60   21     In main cabin. Sky
+                                                       covered; gleams of sun.
+                                                       Clear to south. Wind
+                                                       north, mild.
+
+A few drops of rain morning and evening. Pleasant quiet night.
+
+Feb. 7.  6a.m.    30.13 -      -     62    57   19     In main cabin. Still;
+                                                       fresh air; no wind.
+                                                       Heavy clouds from west,
+                                                       covering east-west
+                                                       mountains. West mottled;
+                                                       north and south clear.
+
+         3p.m.    30.10 -      71    66    62   25     In main cabin. Cool
+                                                       breeze. Hot sun. Cloudy
+                                                       and clear.
+
+Drops of rain at sunset. Wind west. Heavy rain twice at night; after midnight
+wetted deck. Rain at 'Akabah from west, with clouds and winds.
+
+FROM EL-'AKABAIT, GOING SOUTH.
+
+Rise of tide off El-'Akabah town, one foot.
+
+Feb. 8.  7a.m.    30.20 -      56    63    61   3      On deck. Dry and wet
+                                                       bulbs in main cabin. At
+                                                       sunrise heavy purple
+                                                       clouds drifting over
+                                                       plain, covering hills on
+                                                       both sides. Cold, raw,
+                                                       wet wind. Rain on Sinai
+                                                       to north-west and south-
+                                                       west. Saw rainbow. Wind
+                                                       gradually turning to
+                                                       east (favourable). Play
+                                                       of light and shade over
+                                                       plains and hills.
+
+         Noon.    30.15 -      65    64    57   22     In main cabin. Glorious
+                                                       day. Blue sky; bluer
+                                                       sea. Strong breeze.
+                                                       Cloudy and clear.
+
+         3p.m.    30.16 -      67    65    58   25     In main cabin. After
+                                                       noon wind gradually
+                                                       fell, and sky cleared;
+                                                       became much warmer.
+                                                       Steamer (five and a half
+                                                       knots) beat the sailing
+                                                       tender. North perfectly
+                                                       clear; south and east,
+                                                       fleecy clouds. Sun clear
+                                                       and warm.
+
+At sunset red cirri. Wind increased greatly. Waves following us, high and
+hollow. Bad night. Wind and water high. At midnight(?), rode with head to
+gale. February 9th, four a.m., turned south. Six a.m. stood for Makná (right
+angles, and nearly "turned turtle").
+
+ON BOARD "MUKHBIR."
+
+Feb. 9.  7a.m.    30.22 -      -     64    26   26     In main cabin, off Sharm
+                                                       Dabbah. Sky quite clear.
+                                                       North wind colder than
+                                                       ever, yet we are going
+                                                       south. Beginning of
+                                                       dangerous gale which
+                                                       lasted till February
+                                                       13th. Ugly hollow sea.
+
+         1p.m.    30.15 -      -     66    58   28     In main cabin. Out of
+                                                       'Akabah Gulf. Passed
+                                                       into a summer sea. Under
+                                                       lee of Tirán. On deck 63
+                                                       degrees (F.).
+
+         3p.m.    30.11 -      -     69    59   27     In main cabin, rounding
+                                                       south of Jezirat Tirán.
+                                                       Sky all clear, except
+                                                       wind cirri over 'Akabah
+                                                       Gulf and to west.
+
+At nine p.m. halo round moon, and far from it--bad sign! Before midnight gusts
+began. Increased at one a.m. (February 10). At four a.m. very violent north
+wind from El-'Akabah.
+
+Feb. 10  7a.m.    30.07 -      -     69    65   30     In cabin of Mukhbir,
+                                                       south of Tirán. Water
+                                                       ruffled. Clouds
+                                                       everywhere. Rain on the
+                                                       coast. Felt raw. Mottled
+                                                       sky.
+
+         Noon.    30.03 -      -     72    64   38     In cabin at Tirán. Sun
+                                                       out at nine a.m. Clouds
+                                                       and clear. Windy sky.
+                                                       Cirri to west and north-
+                                                       west. Dark clouds to
+                                                       leeward.
+
+         3p.m.    29.94 -      -     74    65   25     In cabin at Tirán. Rain-
+                                                       storm to south-west.
+                                                       Wind north. Sky cloudy
+                                                       and clear. Cool breeze,
+                                                       not high.
+
+At four p.m. a few large drops fell. Heavy rain at El-'Akabah and on east
+coast. Sand-veil over Sinaitic shore. Six p.m., wind gusty. Rain-clouds all
+over coast. Wind becoming warm. At 1.15 a.m. (February 11), terrible rush and
+fall of rain. Wind westing. Mild at first. Five a.m., hard Gharbi, threatening
+Azyab. All mist--could hardly see the shore.
+
+Feb. 11. 7a.m.    29.82 -      -     71    67   35     To windward of Tirán.
+                                                       Howling west wind. Sun
+                                                       like pale cheese.
+                                                       Aneroid falling. After
+                                                       seven a.m. the storm
+                                                       broke, and we narrowly
+                                                       escaped a wreck in two
+                                                       places, Tirán and
+                                                       Sináfir. Crisis of gale.
+
+         Noon.    29.80 -      -     70    60   30     In Sináfir port, main
+                                                       cabin. Wind west,
+                                                       bending to south on
+                                                       falling.
+
+         3p.m.    28.20 -      -     72    65   24     In main cabin. Mist and
+                                                       sand. English sun. Wind
+                                                       west and warm. Sea green
+                                                       and breaking.
+
+At five p.m. the sand-mist began to clear off. Wind died away, then turned
+north and north-north-east. Light scud over moon, going slowly. Patches of
+blue, and stars. Barometer rising fast. Perfectly still night till midnight,
+when it began to blow, about the setting of the moon. At Suez, during the
+gale, red dust prevented ships seeing one another; and at Cairo trees were
+uprooted.
+
+AT SINÁFIR ISLAND.
+
+Feb. 12  "        30.13 -      -     68    62   31     In main cabin. At 3.30
+                                                       a.m. a violent Ayli,
+                                                       like that of El-'Akabah,
+                                                       began to blow. Gusts and
+                                                       shivering water. Swept
+                                                       off all sand-fog.
+
+         Noon.    30.17 -      -     73    64   27     In main cabin. Howling
+                                                       wind. Sea less, because
+                                                       of ebb. Breeze fresh.
+                                                       Sky clear to south; few
+                                                       white clouds to north-
+                                                       east and west. Sun
+                                                       bright and warm.
+
+         3p.m.    30.14 -      -     75    65   24     In cabin. Wind violent
+                                                       as ever, and cold from
+                                                       north.
+
+During the night the wind blew from all possible directions; north-east, and
+at one time due west.
+
+LEFT SINÁFIR FOR SOUTH.
+
+Feb. 13. "        30.18 -      -     66    60   36     In main cabin. Howling
+                                                       north wind till four
+                                                       a.m., then milder.
+                                                       Hardly a speck of cloud.
+                                                       Fresh cool air from
+                                                       north. Sea very blue.
+                                                       All sail set. Mist-
+                                                       clouds on tallest peaks
+                                                       of coast-range. Wind
+                                                       diminished as we went
+                                                       south. Cirri everywhere,
+                                                       zenith and on horizon.
+
+         Noon.    30.12 -      -     69    59   26     On deck. Soft pleasant
+                                                       air; before cold and
+                                                       hard. Influence of
+                                                       El'Akabah. Thermometer
+                                                       on deck 69 degrees (F.).
+
+         3p.m     30.10 -      -     71    62   20     On board. Sky milky
+                                                       everywhere with cirri.
+                                                       Wind north-west, going
+                                                       west.
+
+Red sunset. Distant halo round moon--cleared off soon (a good sign), and not
+well marked. Light westerly gale (No. 2).
+
+AT SHARM YÁHÁRR.
+
+Feb. 14. 7a.m.    30.06 -      -     64    58   22     In cabin (open).
+                                                       Splendid morning. Wind
+                                                       west, set in hard before
+                                                       noon. Milk-and-water
+                                                       sky. Should have been
+                                                       kept at Sináfir.
+
+         Noon.    30.04 -      -     71    60   20     West wind increased. Sky
+                                                       clear; but SHÁRR
+                                                       Mountains cloudy--
+                                                       condensing moisture.
+
+         3p.m.    30.02 -      -     71    60   20     In cabin. North-west
+                                                       wind strong. Moved ship.
+                                                       Heavy black clouds on
+                                                       mountains.
+
+ON BOARD "MUKHBIR" AT SHARM YÁHÁRR.
+
+Feb 15.  "        30.10 -      -     66    58   30    In cabin.
+
+         Noon.    30.13 -      72    -     -    35    In cabin.
+
+         3p.m.    30.14 -      75    -     -    26     On deck. Clouds above
+                                                       the mountains.
+
+Cold north-west breeze at five p.m. Sea high. Aneroid observations at Sulphur
+Mountain--foot, 30.14; top, 29.90; difference .24 = 250 feet.
+
+Feb. 16. 7.30a.m. 30.23 -      -     63    55   20     In cabin. Aneroid
+                                                       unusually high. Clear
+                                                       and cloudy at mountains.
+                                                       Cool air and light
+                                                       breeze.
+
+         12.50p.m. 30.23-      -     64    55   20     Cool. Wind north. In
+                                                       cabin.
+
+         3p.m.    30.20 -      -     66    56   18     In cabin. Cool. No
+                                                       clouds.
+
+Splendid night. Not a sign of cloud. Cool. White streak on the water (milky
+sea, like that of Bombay, caused by fish?). Finest weather yet seen.
+
+ON BOARD "MUKHBIR."
+
+Feb. 17. 6a.m.    30.17 -      66    -     -    15     In cabin. Cool, clear,
+                                                       splendid. Forenoon warm
+                                                       and still. Sea glassy.
+
+         Noon.    30.16 -      74    -     -    20     In cabin. Sea-breeze
+                                                       came up strong at eleven
+                                                       a.m.
+
+         3p.m.    30.13 -      -     -     -    23     In cabin. Sky clouded
+                                                       all the afternoon--did
+                                                       not see the sun. Moon
+                                                       veiled--not a nice look.
+
+Night very cold (shivery). Wind Barri ("land-breeze").
+
+IN MESS-TENT, OPEN TO EAST.
+
+Feb. 18. 6.30a.m. 30.00 -      61    -     -    14     Cold and clear. Land-
+                                                       breeze.
+
+         Noon.    30.04 -      78    -     -    33     Sea-breeze setting;
+                                                       land-breeze stopped. Sky
+                                                       perfectly clear. Sun
+                                                       hot. No end of flies.
+
+         3p.m.    30.04 -      78    -     -    22     Fierce and violent west
+                                                       wind--a Gharbi, or
+                                                       exaggerated sea-breeze?
+                                                       Sky quite clear.
+
+Night quite still. Cold wind stopped at nine p.m. rather suddenly.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING SECOND MARCH TO THE HIMSÁ PLATEAU, SOUTH-EASTERN
+MIDIAN, BETWEEN FEBRUARY 19 AND MARCH 8, 1878.
+
+
+
+The distance traversed comprised 222-1/4 statute miles, mostly through
+unexplored country.
+
+On return compared aneroids:--
+French .............................. 763 millimetres.
+My Casella .......................... 762     "
+
+Difference .......................... .001    "
+
+Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Hygr.   Remarks.
+               Inches. (deg.)(deg.)
+
+Feb. 19. 6.20a.m. 30.07 65     23  In big tent at El-Muwaylah. Cool land-
+                                   breeze. Sky quite clear.
+
+         Noon.    29.82 74     23  At Wady Surr, under tree in sea-breeze.
+                                   Clear sky, few white clouds. Cold land-
+                                   breeze in Wady Surr at ten a.m.; cold sea-
+                                   breeze at eleven a.m.
+
+         3.40p.m. 29.60 76     20  At Safh Wady Malayh (Malih), in big tent.
+                                   Feels as if high up.
+
+Night perfectly still, except a gust about midnight.
+
+Feb. 20. 6.25a.m. 29.53 60     21       In big tent at Safh Wady Malayh. Clear and
+                                        fine.
+
+         11.20a.m.29.40 73     43  Under tree at base of western Gháts. Fine
+                                   cool sea-breeze.
+
+         3p.m.    29.44 78     17  At Sayl Wady el-Jimm ("water-gathering").
+                                   Hot sun. Cold sea-breeze.
+
+Night cold, with land-breeze.
+
+Feb. 21. 6.15a.m. 29.38 64     7   In big tent at Sayl Wady el-Jimm. Clouds
+                                   to north and east; air damp. High wind and
+                                   clouds.
+
+         12.45p.m.28.82 71     25  On march up Wady Sadr, under tree. Cold
+                                   sea-breeze. Sky quite clear; sun warm.
+                                   Awful east winds down these Wadys form the
+                                   Goz or sand-heaps.
+
+         3.30p.m. 28.86 76     7   In small tent at El-Nagwah, in Wady Sadr.
+                                   Sun hot; breeze cold.
+
+Night cold, but not so cold as we expected.
+
+Feb. 22. 6a.m.    28.86 56     8   In big tent at El-Nagwah.
+
+         11.50a.m.25.40 65     4   Under tree in Wady Sadr; say, 1600 feet
+                                   high. White clouds. West wind (sea-breeze
+                                   deflected to north) blowing. Here cold
+                                   comes from wind.
+
+         3p.m.    27.80 74     3   In big tent at Amwáh el-Rikáb, Wady Sadr.
+
+At four p.m. cold and clouds; cumuli and cirri. West wind deflected to north.
+At five p.m. thermometer in tent 66 degrees. Fire in tent. Night cold, clear,
+and still. A few gusts about midnight.
+
+AT HEAD OF WADY SADR.
+
+Feb. 23. 6.30a.m. 27.80 53     5   In big tent foot of Gháts. Weather lovely-
+                                   -clear, fine, and cold. At eight a.m. sun
+                                   warm, then cold wind.
+
+         1.30p.m. 26.88 72     5   In big tent. Cold easterly gale.
+
+         4p.m.    26.90 65     2   In small tent, same place.
+
+Violent wind at midnight. Cold; thermometer 38 degrees.
+
+Feb. 24. 6a.m.    26.95 48     0   At head of Wady Sadr.
+
+                  26.15 45     0   To summit of Khuraytat el-Jils (Pass).
+                                   Above the Pass, aneroid 26.25; below,
+                                   26.70: difference, .55 = 450 feet. Walked
+                                   down in twenty-six minutes.
+
+         11.30a.m.26.18 56     0        In the open, under shade. Perfectly clear
+                                        of clouds. Sun hot.
+
+         3p.m.    26.26 66     -2  In big tent on Hismá plateau (short
+                                   descent to camping-ground). Air clear; sun
+                                   hot.
+
+Very cold when sun sets. Gusts from east at night.
+
+ON HIMSÁ PLATEAU.
+
+Feb. 25. 6.30a.m. 26.30 42     3   In big tent.
+
+         12.30p.m.27.84 74     12  At foot of Khuraytat el-Jils. Still, no
+                                   wind; no clouds.
+
+         3.30p.m. 27.83 78     17  No wind; no clouds.
+
+Night splendidly clear and still. Felt warm.
+
+Feb. 26. 6a.m.    27.72 64     2   In big tent on Hismá plateau. Glorious
+                                   orange-coloured dawn. Mild north wind.
+                                   Moon in last quarter. At eight a.m. good
+                                   breeze from north; at eleven a.m. cool and
+                                   pleasant breeze from east.
+
+         Noon.    28.00 70     -8  On march in Shafah Mountains. Hot sun.
+                                   Cold wind.
+
+         3p.m.    28.30 85     -4  Camp Majrá el-Ruways. In small tent.
+                                   Strong west breeze in gusts.
+
+Night glorious at foot of the two Passes.
+
+Feb. 27. 6a.m.    28.10 65     -4  On ground outside tent at Majrá el-Ruways.
+                                   Sky overhead quite clear; a few flecks to
+                                   south, low clouds to east. At 8.30 a.m.
+                                   wind south. Sun at first hot; then sky
+                                   cloudy.
+
+         11.45a.m.28.48 80     3   At El-Rahabah, head of Wady Dámah, under
+                                   tree. Fine sea-breeze. High white strata
+                                   to north-east and south. No clouds
+                                   elsewhere.
+
+         5p.m.    28.56 76     -5  Under thorn-tree at Wady Dámah. Fleeting
+                                   cirro-cumuli.
+
+Night very cold. Not a sign of dew till we returned on board Mukhbir.
+
+Feb. 28. 6a.m.    28.50 44     -5  At Wady Dámah, on box in open. Clouds and
+                                   sea-breeze at 8.45 a.m.
+
+         1p.m.    28.29 70     19  Under tree at Shuwák ruin. Thermometer in
+                                   sun, 82 degrees. Bits of cumuli from
+                                   south. At two p.m. furious wind and dust
+                                   (sand-devils) scouring up valley from
+                                   south, also deflected to west by Pass
+                                   gorge. "Sand-devils" in Wadys Surr, Sadr,
+                                   Dámah, Shuwák, and Salmá.
+
+         3p.m.    28.19 71     16       In big tent.
+
+A few gusts during early part of night; the rest very still. Cold and clear.
+
+AT SHUWÁK RUIN.
+Mar. 1.  6.45a.m. 25.30 46     10  Very cold; hands chilled. Land-breeze at
+                                   eight a.m. At barrage (dam), aneroid
+                                   28.36.
+
+         Noon.    28.37 76     17  In small tent. Noon hot. Wind gusty--not
+                                   regular and strong as yesterday.
+
+         3p.m.    28.34 77     6   In small tent. Sky clear; air still and
+                                   sultry.
+
+Mar. 2.  6a.m.    28.30 58     11  In big tent at Shuwák. Air still. Clouds
+                                   to east. Afterwards sky mottled, windy
+                                   striae. At seven a.m. rainbow without
+                                   rain; thin cloud north of sun;
+                                   perpendicular streak, brilliant enough:
+                                   lasted twenty minutes.
+
+         9a.m.    28.75 66     -   At Shaghab ruin. Sea-breeze at eleven a.m.
+                                   Clear and cool. Day slightly cloudy; sun
+                                   partly hidden.
+
+         3p.m.    28.60 86     15  In big tent at Majrá el-Wághir. Mild sea-
+                                   breeze. Hot sun. High clouds.
+
+Night windless, except few occasional gusts. Stars veiled. Grand zodiacal
+light (now the regular thing). Cool and pleasant.
+
+Mar. 3.  6a.m.    28.55 66     14  At Majrá el-Wághir, outside tent. Sky
+                                   cloudy; mist to north, "mackerel's back"
+                                   to east. Sea-breeze at 9.30 a.m. in Wady
+                                   Dámah.
+
+         Noon.    29.13 75     26  Under tree in Wady Dámah. Cool wind from
+                                   south-west. A few clouds, getting
+                                   gradually darker to west and south-west.
+
+         4p.m.    29.20 78     15  At El-Kutayyifah (camp) under a tree. Cool
+                                   south-west wind.
+
+         6a.m.    29.30 63     16  Cold north wind. Sea-breeze at nine a.m,
+                                   In big tent at El-Kutayyifab.
+
+Mar. 4. 11.30a.m. 29.33 68     11  In shade of rock, Umm ámil.
+
+         4p.m.    29.63 80     10  In small tent at Má el-Badi'h, Wady Salmá.
+                                   Cold, stiff gale: dust-laden sea-breeze up
+                                   the ugly gorge.
+
+         5.45a.m. 29.50 60     13  At Má el-Badi'h, on box in open air. Air
+                                   clear; thin threads to south.
+
+Mar. 5. 12.30p.m. 30.06 84     -3  At Zibá, in big tent, open east and west,
+                                   fronting the bay.
+
+         2.45p.m. 30.00 82     4   At Zibá, in small tent.
+
+AT ZIBÁ, IN CAMP (our second halt).
+
+Mar. 6.  6a.m.    29.92 61     15  In big tent. Rather heavy clouds to east
+                                   and elsewhere. Sea-breeze began at ten
+                                   a.m.
+
+         Noon.    30.04 86     10  In big tent. Air dull and heavy. "Rain-
+                                   sun."
+
+         3.45p.m. 30.00 81     3   Sky quite clear.
+
+Storm at sunset. Heavy clouds rising over arch from west to north: all said
+meant wind. At seven p.m. violent gusty gale; nearly blew down tents. Rushing
+and furious rain from north-west. Gusts lasted long. Fell about eleven p.m.
+Rose again very violently at midnight; then blew itself out. Followed by cold
+air. Rain lasted about one hour; damped the ground, and left deep puddles in
+the rock-hollows.
+Never had thunder and lightning in Midian.
+
+Mar. 7.  6a.m.    31.12 58     15  At Zibá, on box. Cold and clear. A few
+                                   clouds to west.
+
+         11.30a.m.29.96 74     19  At Jebel el Ghál, in shade in the open.
+                                   Fine west wind.
+
+Night and morning cold. On summit of Jebel el-Ghál, aneroid 29.75.
+
+Mar. 8.  6a.m.    30.04 51     11  At Máyat el-Ghál (camp), on box.
+
+March 8th is the 30th (last day of) Imshir (February), 1094.
+March 9th is the 1st of Barmáhát (March). See Chap. I. p. 22.
+In the early days of Barmáhát they expect the Husum or violent wind which
+destroyed the tribe of Ad.
+After seven nights and eight days begins the Bard el-Agúz, or "old man's
+cold."
+On Barmáhát 12 (March 20) is the Intikál el-Shams, or "vernal equinox;" after
+which the weather becomes warmer.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD "MUKHBIR" IN SHARM YÁHÁRR, BETWEEN MARCH 8 AND
+MARCH 12, 1878.
+
+
+
+Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hygr. Remarks.
+               Inches. (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+Mar. 8.  12.40p.m.30.08 74     -     -     18   Main cabin, Mukhbir.
+
+Mar. 9.  7a.m.    30.10 20     69    62    -    In cabin.
+
+         12.30p.m.30.13 73     72    64    -    Quite clear. Fresh sea-breeze.
+
+         3p.m.    30.11 75     74    64    -      Clouds white and streaky
+                                                  everywhere.
+
+In the evening clouds on hills and mountains, especially the SHÁRR; elsewhere
+clear. Red sunset, grand. At night dew heavy on board Mukhbir; gunwales wet in
+morning. Moon with kind of half halo round her. Night very hot--sign of coming
+storm.
+
+At noon compared ship's (Mukhbir)
+mercurial barometer .........................  773 millimetres.
+With my aneroid by Casella ..................  765 millimetres.
+And (Mr. Duguid's) aneroide .................  765 millimetres.
+Difference .................................. -008 millimetres.
+On December 19, 1877, ship's difference ..... +007 millimetres.
+Difference .................................. +001 millimetres.
+
+Mar. 10. 6.30p.m. 30.12 73     69    61    -      In cabin. Clouds on SHÁRR like
+                                                  flights of birds, low-lying
+                                                  banks to south. Morning
+                                                  slightly muggy: no breeze.
+
+         Noon.    30.12 76     75    60    -      In cabin. Gentle sea-breeze.
+                                                  Sky quite clear.
+
+         3p.m.    30.11 76     76    66    -      Cool, pleasant sea-breeze.
+
+Fine night, pleasant and cool.
+
+Mar. 11. 6a.m.    30.10 73     68    65    -      In cabin. Splendid morning.
+
+         Noon.    30.10 -      80    64    -      In cabin. Glorious day; sea-
+                                                  breeze cool and fresh.
+
+         3.30p.m. 30.05 78     77    65    -      In cabin. Sea-breeze lively
+                                                  and strong.
+
+Mar. 12. 7a.m.    30.04 -      67    61    -      In cabin. Warmish. Splendid
+                                                  sunrise on SHÁRR; cold to
+                                                  north, warmer tints in centre,
+                                                  and glowing red-yellow flush
+                                                  to south.
+
+         3p.m.    30.03 78     77    70    -      In cabin. Fine cool sea-
+                                                  breeze.
+
+Tides high and low (March) pier shows difference of three feet in rise, about
+the midlength of Sharm Yáhárr.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING EXCURSION (SECOND MARCH) ON
+AND AROUND THE SHÁRR MOUNTAIN, BETWEEN WEDNESDAY,
+MARCH 18, AND MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1878.
+
+
+
+The distance traversed comprised 59 miles.
+
+On return compared aneroids:--
+French (left on board Mukhbir) .... 758 millimetres.
+My Casella ........................ 756   "
+Difference ........................ 002   "
+
+Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Hygr.   Remarks.
+               Inches. (deg.)(deg.)
+
+Mar. 13. 6.20a.m. 29.96 66     23  On deck of Mukhbir. Cool land-breeze; hot
+                                   at nine a.m. Sea-breeze at 10.45. At Wady
+                                   Sanawiyyah aneroid 29.60.
+
+         3p.m.    29.26 82     13  Under tree (acacia, but shady). Grand sea-
+                                   breeze from one to three p.m.
+
+Warm night under the SHÁRR, stones retaining heat. Moon misty. Very heavy dew,
+like rain; wetted boxes; saw for the first time inland. Will last for some
+three months, and must greatly assist vegetation.
+
+Mar. 14. 6a.m.    29.30 68     28  In big tent. All the sky clouded over as
+                                   if rain coming. Sea-breeze 10.30.
+
+         Noon.    29.60 88     28  Camp at Safh Wady Kusayb. Cloudy and
+                                   sultry all day. Little sun, except from
+                                   nine till eleven a.m. Rain-heat; seems to
+                                   threaten rain.
+
+         3p.m.    29.56 86     23  In big tent. Sultry-feels like storm.
+
+At night, violent storm of wind from north-east, with nasty warm gusts. The
+people call it Sabáh, probably for Sabá, the "Zephyr"--the Bád-i-Sabá of
+poetry; also El-Farawi, because it blows at night. Big tent down in a moment,
+as at Makná. N.B.--No windstorm on the coast. At foot of Abú Sháar Pass,
+aneroid 28.80; at foot of quartz-vein (wall), 28.50.
+
+Mar. 15. 6a.m.    29.50 76     1   In big tent at Safh Wady Kusayb, north-
+                                   east wind still blowing. No dew in
+                                   morning.
+
+         11.45a.m.29.22 93     -5  In Wady Surr. Curious windy cirri to west.
+                                   Wind blew itself out in Wady Surr.
+                                   Pleasant sea-breeze from south.
+
+         3p.m.    28.93 100    14  In big tent at Safhat el-Wúayrah, Wady
+                                   Surr. Cloudy. Wind from south, a deflected
+                                   sea-breeze.
+
+ASCENDING SHÁRR MOUNTAIN.
+
+Mar. 16. 6a.m.    29.86 70     2   On box outside tent. Morning grand; still,
+                                   clear, warm, and dry. At seven a.m., going
+                                   uphill, aneroid 28.20; at 7.35, half-way
+                                   up, 27.70.
+
+         9a.m.    26.83 63     3
+
+         Noon.    26.70 82     -   Under rock. Pleasant sea-breeze from
+                                   north-east. Sun hot; day quite clear.
+
+         3p.m.    26.76 86     3   Shade of rock, summit of outlier. Strong
+                                   wind from west.
+
+Mean of two observations on summit of outlier, 26.79 = 3,200 feet above sea-
+level.
+
+EN ROUTE TO THE COAST.
+
+Mar. 17. 9a.m.    28.36 80     3   Under tree. Very hot sun that tired all.
+                                   Breeze at 8.30 a.m.
+
+         11a.m.  28.76(?)93    -   Same place. At summit of Pass el-Kuwayd,
+                                   aneroid 28.13; in Wady Kuwayd, 28.20. Very
+                                   small descent to 28.50, say 400 feet.
+
+         3.40p.m. 28.65 90     -9  In big tent.
+
+ON THE RETURN MARCH TO SHARM YÁHÁRR.
+
+Mar. 18. 4.20am   28.63 73     -4  Complete change of climate. No Khamsin to-
+                                   day. Fine sea-breeze in puffes at 9:30
+                                   a.m.; came up strong about noon.
+
+         11.45am  29.43 91     5   Under tree in Wady el-Bayzá.
+
+On March 17th began what our Egyptians called the Khamsin, and the Arabs El-
+Dufún (Bedawin, Dafún) generically; and specifically Dufún el-Suráyyá ("of the
+Pleiades""). Sky dark without clouds. At night, yellow clouds over moon. Gusts
+alternately hot and cold. Highly electrical; few could sleep at night. Tents
+left open. It was followed by damp and gloomy weather, which the Arabs
+attribute to the Intikál el-Shams ("vernal equinox"). This began on March
+19th, and lasted till the 22nd. Aneroid falls lower than we have yet seen it.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "SINNÁR," BETWEEN MARCH 18 AND MARCH
+20, 1878.
+
+
+
+Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hygr.   Remarks.
+               Inches. (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+Mar. 18. 3p.m.    29.91 84     -     -     24     In main cabin. A few light
+                                                  clouds.
+
+Mar. 19. 7a.m.    29.83 -      70    64    -      Under deck awning. Morning
+                                                  still, calm, and muggy. Clouds
+                                                  everywhere. Presently cool
+                                                  land-breeze came up. Regular
+                                                  Khamsin at eight a.m.
+
+         Noon.    29.80 -      79    71    -      In captain's cabin. Cloudy and
+                                                  cool.
+
+         3p.m.    29.76 -      79    70    -      In captain's cabin. Afternoon
+                                                  sultry. Wind Azyab, and from
+                                                  south. Seems to threaten a
+                                                  storm. Heavy clouds from west
+                                                  and north-west.
+
+Mar. 20. 7a.m.    29.82 -      75    71    -      In captain's cabin. Sultry,
+                                                  "juicy" morning.
+
+         Noon.    29.75 -      76    70    -      Dark and cloudy. Cool wind
+                                                  from south-west.
+
+         4p.m.    29.80 -      76    68    -      In captain's cabin. Sultry
+                                                  air; no breeze; nasty and
+                                                  damp. Cloudy all over. A storm
+                                                  somewhere (Alexandria? Suez?).
+                                                  Swell on sea, breaking on
+                                                  south reef; comes from north-
+                                                  west. Weather looks like that
+                                                  of Europe.
+
+About eight p.m. a cool draught from north. No moon or stars. Expect it to end
+either in a gale or in heavy rain. It ended on morning of March 22nd, with a
+fine north wind; and at 9.10 p.m. with slight earthquake.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "SINNÁR," DURING VOYAGE FROM SHARM
+YÁHÁRR TO EL-WIJH, EL-HAURÁ, ETC., BETWEEN MARCH 21 AND MARCH 29, 1878.
+
+
+
+Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hydg.   Remarks.
+               Inches. (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+STEAMING SOUTH.
+
+Mar. 21. 7a.m.    29.76 -      75    71    -      In captain's cabin. Aneroid
+                                                  very low. Wind south-west.
+                                                  Ugly, gloomy weather.
+                                                  Mountains misty. Very slight
+                                                  roll in sea--became heavy in
+                                                  afternoon--mar vecchio (Bahr
+                                                  madfún). Bursts of half sun
+                                                  after nine a.m.
+
+         12.40p.m.29.84 -      77    71    -      Aneroid rising. At noon sea
+                                                  quite calm and oily. Shortly
+                                                  after, sea-breeze from west
+                                                  set in. About one p.m. made
+                                                  sail; rolling began. More sun.
+                                                  Sails down. At two p m.
+                                                  rolling heavy, cross sea (mar
+                                                  vecchio).
+
+         3.30p.m. 29.85 -      76    73    -      Damp increases.
+
+After five p.m. sky clearer and weather finer, but still dark to south. Stars
+veiled.
+
+IN MARSÁ DUMAYGHAH.
+
+Mar. 22. 6.15a.m. 29.92 -      73    66    -      In cabin. Morning cool. Wind
+                                                  north. Total change of
+                                                  weather. Sky clear, except
+                                                  cirri, and wind increased.
+                                                  White "horses" outside. All
+                                                  nature gay.
+
+         Noon.    30.01 -      79    65    -      In cabin. Damp disappeared.
+
+         3p.m.    30.90 -      74    64    -      Fine, strong, bright sea-
+                                                  breeze. North wind,
+                                                  threatening to blow hard.
+                                                  Cloudy and clear. Windy sky.
+
+At 9.10 p.m. earthquake from north to south; lasted twenty seconds; followed
+by strong north wind, which lasted only a short time. So end the Equinoctials.
+
+Mar. 23. 6a.m.    30.00 -      70    61    -      At Dumayghah. In cabin.
+                                                  Glorious morning; cool, calm,
+                                                  bright. Zephyr from north. At
+                                                  noon a few wind-clouds and
+                                                  cirri to north and west. Very
+                                                  heavy rolling (mar vecchio)
+                                                  from north-west. Long waves.
+
+         3p.m.    29.98 -      74    65    -      At El-Wijh. Pleasant, cool
+                                                  north wind. Afternoon cloudy
+                                                  and cold, as if wind came
+                                                  through rain.
+
+Cleared in the evening. Saw stars.
+
+AT EL-WIJH, IN PORT.
+
+Mar. 24. 5.45a.m. 29.94 -      71    68    -      In cabin. Grey, cloudy
+                                                  morning. No cold.
+
+         3p.m.    29.98 -      74    65    -      In cabin. Fine north breeze.
+                                                  Warm sun. Air cool. Wind-
+                                                  clouds to east; the rest blue.
+                                                  Sky wondrous clear.
+
+At 4.30 p.m. left El-Wijh, and steamed nearly due south-west. Fine breeze and
+long waves from north-west. Wind and waves fell. Rolled horridly from seven
+p.m. to midnight: no ballast; very bad steering: then turned south-east, and
+movement somewhat improved. Very heavy dew. Zodiacal light clear.
+
+IN CABIN AT SEA.
+
+Mar. 25. 7.30 a.m.30.04 -      73    68    -      Marvellous fine morning. Wind
+                                                  north. Glorious day.
+
+         12.15p.m.30.01 -      75    64    -      Near El-Haurá. Lovely day.
+                                                  Steady north breeze.
+
+         4p.m.    29.97 -      77    69    -
+
+NEAR EL-HAURÁ.
+
+Mar. 26  6a.m.    29.94 70     -     -     36     In cabin. Red morning, warm
+                                                  and still. Sea oily. Light
+                                                  mists. Venus throws shadow.
+                                                  Very heavy dew--all wet.
+
+         12.15p.m.29.91 -      74    70    -      Same place. Warm sun; cool
+                                                  breeze from north.
+
+         3.20p.m. 29.87 -      78    74    -      At sea. Cirri and wind-clouds
+                                                  to east and nearly everywhere.
+
+Weather fine, yet glass falling. Damp air. Hence (possibly) many have colds,
+coughs, and hoarseness. Wind-clouds, but clear to north. Dew very heavy.
+
+RETURNING NORTH TO EL-WIJH.
+
+Mar. 27. 7a.m.    29.87 -      73    68    -      In captain's cabin Dew-clouds
+                                                  everywhere. Air very damp.
+
+         11.45a.m.29.98 -      78    70    -      Air still and pleasant.
+
+         3p.m.    29.85 -      78    72    -      Day decidedly hot and damp.
+                                                  Aneroid very low.
+
+Mar. 28. 6.30a.m. 29.89 -      70-1/2 68   -      In cabin. Dew wetted tents and
+                                                  decks like heavy shower. Sky
+                                                  all dew; air feels soppy.
+                                                  Violent wind from north-west.
+                                                  Ship rolling.
+
+         1p.m.    29.97 -      70-1/2 67   -
+
+Mar. 29. 7a.m.    29.97 71     -     -     33     In cabin. Strong, cold north
+                                                  wind. Men coughing like cries
+                                                  of camels. Sky very clear.
+                                                  This kind of storm is called
+                                                  Hawwá el-'Uwwah ("last storm
+                                                  of March"), and blows fourteen
+                                                  days. Followed by El-Ni'ám el-
+                                                  Kabir ("greater"), and El-
+                                                  Saghir ("less"); continues
+                                                  forty days.
+
+         6p.m.    28.78 74     -     -     30     At Fort El-Wijh, two hours'
+                                                  journey up the valley.
+
+Fine day on seaboard--not much gale. Wind north-west. Night cool, but no dew.
+     Ship's barometer,   6 a.m.,   30.7 Wind north-west. Ther. (F.) 64 deg.
+     Ship's barometer,   noon,     30.7 Wind north-west. Ther. (F.) 76 deg.
+     Ship's barometer,   3 p.m.,   30.7 Wind north-west. Ther. (F.) 76 deg.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING THIRD MARCH, FROM EL-WIJH TO EL-BADÁ AND BACK,
+BETWEEN MARCH 30 AND APRIL 11, 1878.
+
+
+
+Compared ship's (Sinnár) mercurial barometer, 30.07 (64 deg. F.), with
+anerold, 30.01; difference, aneroid,--0.06.
+
+On return compared ship's (Sinnár) mercurial barometer, 29.99, with aneroid,
+29.86; difference, aneroid,--0.13.
+
+Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hydg.   Remarks.
+               Inches. (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+Mar. 30. 5.30a.m. 29.70 64     -     -     24     At Fort El-Wijh, on box before
+                                                  tent. Cold and cloudy morning.
+                                                  Moon and stars veiled.
+
+         Noon.    29.55 90     -     -     43     In camp at Umm el-Karáyát--
+                                                  deep valley. Puffs of sea-
+                                                  breeze from south. Strong sun.
+
+         3.15p.m. 29.50 86     -     -     29     In big tent at Umm el-Karáyát-
+                                                  -lat. 26 deg. 13'. Sun very
+                                                  hot. Fresh and strong sea-
+                                                  breeze from east (?).
+
+Cool and pleasant night. No sign of dew. Climate healthy. Garrison at Fort El-
+Wijh in excellent condition.
+
+Mar. 31. 5a.m.    29.44 45     -     -     19     In big tent at Umm el-Karáyát.
+                                                  Very clear, still morning.
+                                                  West pink. At sunrise wind,
+                                                  and hot and cold puffs (south-
+                                                  east and land-breeze).
+
+         11.10p.m.29.46 90     -     -     -3     At Wady el-Kubbah, under tree.
+                                                  Very hot. Wind shifting from
+                                                  east to west (sea-breeze).
+                                                  Stones in sun so hot that they
+                                                  cannot be held. At noon
+                                                  regular Khamsin; air sandy.
+
+Top of Jebel el-Kubbah, aneroid 29.34; in valley below, aneroid 29.46 (47?);
+height, 120 feet.
+
+         3p.m.    29.30 94     -     -     -20    At Máyat el-Dasnah. Hot west
+                                                  wind. Thermometer in big tent,
+                                                  unwalled.
+
+Night cool.
+
+April 1.  "       29.30 63     -     -     -12    At Máyat el-Dasnah. Morning
+                                                  pleasant, still, and quite
+                                                  clear. No sign of dew or
+                                                  Khamsin. Hygrometer
+                                                  exceedingly dry. Sun rose hot.
+                                                  Slight breeze from eight a.m.
+                                                  to 8.30 a.m., when the rocks
+                                                  and stones have become
+                                                  thoroughly heated. Very
+                                                  refreshing: cools head; stops
+                                                  perspiration.
+
+         9.30a.m. 28.96 83     -     -     -10    At foot of Marú Rábigh, in
+                                                  shade of rock.
+
+         12.30p.m.28.92 99     -     -     -8     At Marú Rábigh, under big tent
+                                                  awning. About noon a medley of
+                                                  winds; hot blasts of Khamsin
+                                                  from south-west, suddenly
+                                                  changed to north.
+
+         3p.m.    28.88 100    -     -     -25    At Marú Rábigh. Hot sun. Wind
+                                                  in puffs, mostly south-west.
+                                                  No sand in air. Stones in
+                                                  sunshine too hot to hold; yet
+                                                  there are flies.
+
+This is second day of Khamsin. Comes up about ten a.m.; wind either too much
+or too little. At 2.5 p.m. nearly blew tent down.
+
+April 2. 5.10a.m. 28.98 70     -     -     -6     At foot of Marú Rubayyigh in
+                                                  Wady Rábigh. Morning perfectly
+                                                  still. All appearance of
+                                                  Khamsin. Light horizontal
+                                                  striae to north.
+
+         Noon.    29.15 92     -     -     -18    At Abú Gezáz valley, under
+                                                  tree. Much bothered by small
+                                                  flies.
+
+         3.10p.m. 29.14 100    -     -     -25    In big tent, which was again
+                                                  blown down.
+
+Third day of Khamsin. All animals weak and worn out. Wind comes up later--
+11.30 a.m. to noon. Gives feeling of faintness and awful thirst. "Devils"
+(Zawábah) rose high in valley with electrical whirl. Evening lowering. Wind or
+rain clouds from west and north. Night still and cool. Threatening clouds east
+and west.
+
+April 3. 5a.m.    29.20 65     -     -     -13    At Abú Gezáz valley. Morning
+                                                  cool (sign Khamsin gone). Sun
+                                                  pleasant. Red wind-clouds to
+                                                  north and east. At six a.m.
+                                                  pleasant, cool land-breeze
+                                                  from south.
+
+         Noon.    28.80 90     -     -     -16    At El-Badá, under palm-tree.
+                                                  Wind west. Milky sky, all
+                                                  white.
+
+         3p.m.    28.75 95     -     -     -24    In big tent. Regular Khamsin--
+                                                  very nasty. Clouds to west.
+
+Night still. Neither warm nor cool. climate fine. Colds and coughs
+disappeared.
+
+AT EL-BADÁ.
+
+April 4. 5.30a.m. 28.70 68     -     -     -7     On box outside tent. Traces of
+                                                  dew. White clouds. Looked
+                                                  regularly like a Khamsin day.
+
+         Noon.    28.74 90     -     -     2      In big tent. No sun. Air
+                                                  muggy. White gleams. View
+                                                  poor; like rain. Strong blast
+                                                  from south-west. Heavy clouds
+                                                  west and north. Drops of rain
+                                                  fell three times between one
+                                                  p.m. and three p.m.
+
+         3p.m.    28.70 90     -     -     -8
+
+At four p.m. in west a dust like general or prairie fire. A few drops of rain
+fell at long intervals--could not catch any for photographs. Broad parallel
+veins of white, red, and black cloud rising from east to west. Puffs of cold
+wind came on, soon growing to blasts; then storm came down upon us. No thunder
+or lightning. Kind of "dust-bow" in west (no rain), half the arc. Wind then
+turned north and felt cold and rainy. Heavy cloud-bank to west. Forms of
+mountains crept out of the brown and purple mist, half dust, half rain. All
+enjoyed storm. No rain for two years has fallen here. Rainbows at El-'Akabah
+(double) and at Shuwák (single). Cool and pleasant night, with dew. Mean of
+six aneroid observations at El-Badá, 28.78. After leaving El-Badá mornings and
+evenings delightful; sun warm in day; nights cool and pleasant. Dust at times.
+
+April 5. 4.30a.m. 28.65 -      -     -     -8     In big tent at Badá. Dust
+                                                  "devils." Great change after
+                                                  rain. Very damp.
+
+         3p.m.    28.58 86     -     -     -3     At 'Ayn el-Kurr, under shade
+                                                  of rock. Strong north wind.
+
+Though all prophesied Azyab or "south-easter," this was perhaps the finest of
+all our days. Night cool. Cold wind at one a.m., of which all complained.
+
+April 6. 5.45a.m. 28.59 58     -     -     6      At 'Ayn el-Kurr, on box
+                                                  outside tent. White clouds to
+                                                  south. No wind. False sea-
+                                                  breeze at seven a.m.; true at
+                                                  ten a.m. Cloudy forenoon.
+
+         11.45a.m.28.90 84     -     -     -    In Wady el-Kurr.
+
+         3p.m.    28.87 87     -     -     -3     At Wady Laylah, in big tent.
+                                                  Afternoon windy as usual.
+                                                  Puffs from west (sea-breeze),
+                                                  cold. Sky quite clear.
+                                                  Mountains milky.
+
+Night cool, but not cold.
+
+April 7. 4.15a.m. 28.80 60     -     -     +5     In big tent at Wady Laylah.
+                                                  Morning especially bright.
+                                                  Lucifer like a little moon.
+                                                  Breeze at eight a.m.
+
+         Noon.    29.39 54     -     -     +2     Wady Birkat, under rock. Going
+                                                  down seawards fast. Cool west
+                                                  wind. Good sea-breeze. Sky and
+                                                  sun clear--sun not unpleasant.
+                                                  Hot in sheltered bends.
+
+         3.10p.m. 29.46 81     -     -      4     At Abál-Ajáj, under tamarisks.
+
+Dew at night.
+
+April 8. 5a.m.    29.55 60     -      -    27     Outside tent at Abál-Ajáj.
+                                                  Cool morning; warmer at eight
+                                                  a.m. before breeze set in.
+
+         Noon.    29.94 83     -     -     22     At the temple (El-Gasr), Wady
+                                                  Hamz. Sand-dust with sea-
+                                                  breeze, terrible at temple and
+                                                  around it. Eyes filled,
+                                                  clothes covered. Saw mirage--
+                                                  well defined for first time.
+
+         3p.m.    29.90 52     -     -     20     At Wady Hamz. Hygrometer damp
+                                                  on account of sea-breeze.
+
+April 9. 4a.m.    29.92 70     -     -     25     Still, clear, and beautiful,
+                                                  like all these mornings. Hot
+                                                  sun. Blue sea, glassy near the
+                                                  shore. Puffs of wind from
+                                                  east.
+
+         Noon.    29.90 96     -     -     -8     In big tent at Wady Mismáh.
+                                                  Cool breeze from north-cast.
+                                                  Heat strongly reflected from
+                                                  quartz. Vegetation dreadfully
+                                                  dry; plants look dead. Two bad
+                                                  years.
+
+         3p.m.    29.74 92     -     -     -18    In big tent at Abál-Marú.
+                                                  Another nasty afternoon. High
+                                                  west wind--sea-breeze, not
+                                                  Khamsin; tent almost blown
+                                                  down. Dust dreadful.
+
+Evening charming. Night admirably cool.
+
+April 10 4.20a.m. 29.74 -      -     -     0      In big tent at Abál-Marú.
+                                                  Splendid morning; few striae
+                                                  in east. Will be hot.
+
+         4.30p.m. 29.95 -      76    73    -      On board Sinnár, captain's
+                                                  cabin. Pleasant afternoon.
+                                                  Cool sea-breeze.
+
+ON BOARD "SINNÁR."
+
+April 11.6a.m.    29.86 -      70    66    -      In captain's cabin. Felt damp
+                                                  strongly after the Desert.
+
+         12.30p.m.29.87 -      78    74    -      All complaining of heat (white
+                                                  heat); damp is the cause. No
+                                                  sea-breeze to speak of.
+
+         3.15p.m. 29.83 -      79    75    -      White clouds everywhere.
+                                                  Curious wind-clouds, not a
+                                                  little like comets.
+
+Heavy dew. Streets of El-Wijh wet.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STREAMER "SINNÁR," EN ROUTE FROM EL-WIJH TO
+SUEZ, FROM APRIL 12 TO APRIL 17, 1878.
+
+
+
+Date.     Time.     Aneroid  Dry   Wet    Remarks.
+                    Inches.  Bulb. Bulb.
+
+April 12. 6.20 a.m.  29.89   78    73        En route to El-Muwaylah, captain's
+                                             cabin. Red sunrise. Clouds thin all
+                                             about horizon. Looks like regular
+                                             Khamsin day. Feels exceedingly damp.
+
+          12.20 p.m. 20.80   79    70        In dead calm. Sea oily, like mirror.
+                                             No winds. Thin white clouds
+                                             everywhere.
+
+          3.35 p.m.  29.78   81    76        In captain's cabin. Wretched day at
+                                             El-Wijh and ashore. Very muggy.
+
+At night a "bruch" (halo) of clouds round moon, and far from it.  Expect
+storm. "Bruchs" round moon on 13th, 14th, and 15th.
+
+April 13. Noon.      29.84   78    70        Anchored before El-Muwaylah. No dew
+                                             in morning, and clouds everywhere.
+                                             No sun seen. Very hot at noon. White
+                                             clouds everywhere. Smoke of steamer
+                                             hangs low. Mountains look very high.
+                                             Muggy. Fine drinkytite.
+
+          3 p.m.     29.80   83    73        At Sharm Yáhárr. Hot and sweaty.
+                                             Light west wind rose after noon;
+                                             soon fell.
+
+At night clouds and "bruch."  Clear to north, thick to south.
+
+April 14. 6.30 a.m.  29.82   78    72        At Sharm Yáhárr.  Nasty muggy
+                                             morning. Light north breeze set in.
+
+          12.40 p.m. 29.88   82    75
+
+          3 p.m.     29.85   83    76        Warm and cloudy.
+
+Weather threatening. The same storm that found us at Makná last year.
+
+April 15.  "         -       -     -         Water flooded pier, and waves broke
+                                             on shore.
+
+April 16.  "         -       -     -         Ran to El-Muwaylah. Had to return to
+                                             Sharm Yáhárr. Furious wind from west
+                                             (Gharbi) began about nine a.m.
+
+April 17. Noon.      29.98   77    65        In captain's cabin, Sharm Yáhárr.
+
+          3 p.m.     29.92   76    65
+
+Wind changed to north.  Weather became cool and pleasant. Gale still, but
+shows signs of abating.
+
+On April 18th weather somewhat abated. Stopped at El-Mawaylah to drop Sayyid
+'Abd el-Rahim; and steamed off for Suez, where we arrived on 20th.  Voyage
+very slow in teeth of north wind. Yet at Suez had had south wind for some
+days, and congratulated us upon the fact.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN BY MR. DAVID DUGUID, BETWEEN JANUARY 8 AND FEBRUARY 1, 1878.
+
+
+
+(He used the French aneroide and the Centigrade thermometer bought at Cairo.)
+
+Date.     Time.     Aneroid      Thermometer  Remarks.
+                    Millimetres. Centigrade.
+                                 (deg.)
+
+Jan. 8.   Noon.     768          25           At Sharmá camp.
+
+Jan. 9.   Noon.     768          25           Ditto.
+
+Jan. 10.  Noon.     761          26           Ditto.
+
+Jan. 11.  Noon.     763          19           Ditto.
+
+Jan. 12.  Noon.     763          19           Ditto.
+
+Jan. 13.  Noon.     760          30           Ditto. Very hot.
+
+Jan. 14.  Daylight  760          20
+           (?)      755          25           Very hot.
+          8 p.m.    758          23
+
+Jan. 15.   (?)      757          21
+           (?)      757          25           Hot.
+          Nightfall 759          20
+
+Jan. 16.  Daylight  762          18           Mr. Duguid marched from Sharmá to El-Muwaylah.
+
+Jan. 17.  Sunset.   768          25           On board Mukhbir at Sharm Yáhárr.
+
+Jan. 18.  Sunrise.  766          22           On board Mukhbir.
+           (?)      766          23           Ditto.
+          Sunset.   764          28           Ditto. Hot.
+
+ON BOARD.
+
+Jan. 19.  Sunrise.  763          21
+          Noon.     762          25
+          Sunset.   763          25
+
+Jan. 20.  Sunrise.  761          21
+          Noon.     762          25
+          Nightfall 762          28           Hot
+
+Jan. 21.  Sunrise.  763          23           Bad weather at Sharm Yáhárr.
+          Noon.     763          24
+          Sunset.   767          25
+
+Jan. 22.  Sunrise.  769          19           Mukhbir delayed by bad weather.
+          Noon.     768          24
+
+Jan. 24.  Noon.     767          24
+
+Mr. Duguid steamed out of Yáhárr for Makná. Anchored off Sináfir Island.
+
+Jan. 25.  Sunrise.  767          23           Reached Makná.
+          Noon.     766          24
+          Sunset.   765          25
+
+Jan. 26.  Sunrise.  764          23           On board Mukhbir.
+          Noon.     763          27
+          Sunset.   763          29
+
+Jan. 27.  Sunrise.  765          22           Ditto.
+          Noon.     763          23
+          Sunset.   763          27
+
+Jan. 28.  Sunrise.  763          21           Ditto.
+          Noon.     762          24
+          Sunset.   762          22
+
+Jan. 29.  Sunrise.  763          20           Ditto.
+          Noon.     762          22
+          Sunset.   762          23
+
+Jan. 30.  Sunrise.  766          20           Ditto.
+          Noon.     764          24
+          Sunset.   765          24
+
+Jan. 31.  Sunrise.  765          22           Ditto.
+          Noon.     764          23
+          Sunset.   764          23
+
+Feb. 1.   Sunrise.  765          21           Ditto.
+          Noon.     764          22
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "MUKHBIR," BY MR DAVID DUGUID (DURING OUR SECOND
+JOURNEY), BETWEEN FEBRUARY 18 AND MARCH 8, 1878.
+
+
+
+Date.     Time.     Aneroid      Thermometer   Remarks.
+                    Millimetres. Centigrade.
+                                 (deg.)
+
+Feb. 18.  7 a.m.     764           18          Clear sky. Light breeze.
+          Noon.      763           23          Same weather.
+          5 p.m.     764           23          Clear sky. Good breeze.
+
+Feb. 19.  7 a.m.     764           20          Clear sky. Light wind.
+          Noon.      764           23          Light wind. Few clouds in east.
+          5 p.m.     764           24          Clear sky. Light wind.
+
+Feb. 20.  7 a.m.     765           20          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+          Noon.      765           21          Clear sky. Light north-west wind.
+          5 p.m.     764           23          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+
+Feb. 21.  7 a.m.     765           20          White clouds all round. Light east wind.
+          Noon.      766           23          Few clouds to south. Light north-west wind.
+
+Feb. 22.  7 a.m.     765           20          Few clouds to east. Light west wind.
+          Noon.      764           22          Few clouds to east. Good north-west breeze.
+          5 p.m.     764           22          Few clouds to west. Light north wind.
+
+Feb. 23.  7 a.m.     764           19          Clouds to south-west. No wind.
+          Noon.      765           21          Clouds to east. Light north-west wind.
+          5 p.m.     765           22          Few clouds to east. Light north-west wind.
+
+Feb. 24.  7 a.m.     767           19          Clear sky. No wind.
+          Noon.      768           22          Clear sky. Light north wind.
+          5 p.m.     768           24          Same weather.
+
+Feb. 25   7 a.m.     769           20          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+          Noon.      769           22          Clear sky. Light west wind.
+          5 p.m.     768           24          Clear sky. No wind.
+
+Feb. 26.  7 a.m.     766           20          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+          5 p.m.     766           20          Same weather.
+
+Feb. 27.  7 a.m.     762           20          Few clouds to south. Light north-east wind.
+          Noon.      762           23          Clear sky. Light north wind.
+          5 p.m.     761           25          Clear sky. Light west wind.
+
+Feb. 28.  5.p.m.     764           23          Heavy clouds to west. Strong west wind.
+
+Mar. 1.   7 a.m.     767           20          Few clouds in south. Light north wind.
+          Noon.      767           23          Clear sky. Good north-west breeze.
+          5 p.m.     765           22          Few clouds to west. Light wind from west.
+
+Mar. 2.   7 a.m.     765           20          Clouds all round. Light east wind.
+          Noon.      765           23          Clouds all round. Light west wind.
+          5 p.m.     764           24          Clouds all round. Light north wind.
+
+Mar. 3.   7 a.m.     762           20          Few clouds to east. No wind.
+          Noon.      763           22          Few clouds to south. Good north-west breeze.
+          5 p.m.     763           23          Few clouds to north. Good west breeze.
+
+Mar. 4.   7 a.m.     767           21          Clear sky. Light breeze from east.
+          Noon.      768           23          Clear sky. Light breeze from west.
+          5 p.m.     767           24          Clear sky. Light breeze from north.
+
+Mar. 5.   7 a.m.     764           20          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+          Noon.      764           22          Clear sky. Good breeze from east.
+          5 p.m.     762           25          Light clouds all round. North-west wind.
+
+Mar. 6.   7 a.m.     763           20          Heavy clouds to east. Light east wind.
+          Noon.      763           23          A few clouds to east. Light west wind.
+          5 p.m.     762           24             Dark clouds all round.  Strong west wind. At ten
+                                        p.m. gale from west, with some flashes of
+                                        lightning.
+
+Mar. 7.   7 a.m.     766           19          Clouds to south. Wind north.
+          Noon.      767           23          Clear sky. Good breeze from north-west.
+          5 p.m.     766           24          Clear sky. Wind north.
+
+Mar. 8.   7 a.m.     763           19          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+          Noon.      763           23          Clear sky. Light west wind.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "MUKHBIR," BY MR. DAVID DUGUID (DURING OUR WEEK IN EL-
+SHÁRR), BETWEEN MARCH 13 AND MARCH 19, 1878.
+
+
+
+Date.     Time.     Aneroid      Thermometer    Remarks.
+                    Millimetres. Centigrade.
+                                 (deg.)
+
+Mar. 13.  6 a.m.     762           25           Clear sky. Good breeze. Wind west.
+          Noon.      761           26           Clear sky. Light breeze. Wind west.
+
+Mar. 14.  6 a.m.     762           21           Light clouds all over. Wind east. Light breeze.
+          Noon.      764           24           Same cloudy weather, but wind from east (?).
+          3 p.m.     763           26           Light clouds all round. Wind west and light.
+
+Mar. 15.  6 a.m.     762           21           A few clouds to south. Wind east and light.
+          Noon.      761           26             Light clouds all round. Moderate breeze from
+                                                  west.
+          3 p.m.     760           27-1/2       Same weather.
+
+Mar. 16.  6 a.m.     760           24           A few clouds to south. Light east wind.
+          Noon.      760           26           Clear sky. Wind south-west. Light breeze.
+          3 p.m.     759           29           Clear sky. Wind west. Very light breeze.
+
+Mar. 17.  6 a.m.     759           24           Clear sky. Light breeze from east.
+          Noon.      760           26           Clear sky. Wind west. Very light breeze.
+          3 p.m.     760           27           Same weather.
+
+Mar. 18.  6 a.m.     760           23           Same weather, by wind west.
+          Noon.       -             -           Clear sky. Wind west. Very light breeze.
+
+Mar. 19.  6 a.m.     759           23           Few clouds to north. Wind east, and very light.
+          Noon.      758           19           Clouds to north-west. Good breeze from west.
+          3 p.m.     758           29           Clouds all round. Wind south-west. Good breeze.
+
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "SINNÁR," BY CAPTAIN NÁSIR AHMED, BETWEEN MARCH 29 AND
+APRIL 10, 1878.
+
+
+
+Date.     Time.   Mercurial    Thermometer.   Remarks.
+                  Barometer.   Fahr.
+
+Mar. 29.  6 a.m.   30.7         64
+          Noon.    30.7         76
+          3 p.m.   30.7         76
+
+Mar. 30.  6 a.m.   30.00        61            White clouds to north-east. Wind north-east.
+          Noon.    30.05        77
+          3 p.m.   30.00        80            Air very damp from noon to sunset. Wind west.
+
+Mar. 31.  6 a.m.   29.9         63            Wind north-east. Never saw barometer so low.
+          Noon.    30.00        80            Dry and fine.
+          3 p.m.   29.98        82
+
+April 1.  6 a.m.   29.94        66            Wind east. Fine day.
+          Noon.    29.95        83
+          3 p.m.   29.92        83            Damp from noon to sunset.
+
+April 2.  6 a.m.   29.90        68            Wind east. Fine day.
+          Noon.    30.00        80            Damp.
+          3 p.m.   29.90        81            Red clouds at sunset.
+
+Gale of wind at El-Wijh from north-east, began at seven p.m. Ship under shelter. Rain for half
+an hour.
+
+April 3.  6 a.m.   30.00        69            Wind north.
+          Noon.    30.20        80            Damp.
+          3 p.m.   30.00        79            Wind north-west at sunset.
+
+April 4.  6 a.m.   30.00        73            Wind north-west.
+          Noon.    30.03        76            Wind north-west all day.
+          3 p.m.   30.00        77
+
+Storm on seaboard. Heavy clouds, wind, and gale all day from north-west. Sinnár rolling.
+
+April 5.  6 a.m.   29.93        66            Wind north-west.
+          Noon.    30.00        76            Wind north-west.
+          3 p.m.   30.00        75            Fine day.
+
+April 6.  6 a.m.   29.93        62            Wind north.
+          Noon.    30.00        74            Wind north-west.
+          3 p.m.   30.00        74            Same weather.
+
+April 7.  6 a.m.   29.94        64            Wind north.
+          Noon.    30.00        79            Fine day.
+          3 p.m.   30.00        76            Wind north-west from noon to sunset. Fine weather.
+
+April 8.  6 a.m.   30.02        61            Wind east.
+          Noon.    30.04        73            Fine day.
+          3 p.m.   30.04        78            From noon to sunset, fine but damp.
+
+April 9.  6 a.m.   30.04        68            Wind east.
+          Noon.    30.06        77
+          3 p.m.   30.06        81            Damp from noon to sunset.
+
+April 10. 6 a.m.   30.06        64            Wind north. Fine day. Damp and north-west wind
+                                       from noon to sunset.
+
+CAIRO.
+
+Reaching Cairo, I found Dr. T. E. Maclean from Thebes, with good instruments. He kindly compared
+mine with his, and gave me the following results:--The difference between my aneroid (Casella)
+and his is very slight, varying generally from 0.05 to -0.10. He advises me to neglect this
+slight difference. The dry bulb is, on the whole, a little higher than his; and we have not
+sufficient observations for the wet bulb. The pocket thermometer wants correction; it reads from
++1 deg. to +2 deg. 15'.
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF OBSERVATIONS.
+
+
+
+N&Z = Negretti and Zambra
+No obs. = No observation.
+
+Date.     Time.     N&Z's    My       Differ-   Casellás  Differ-  N&Z's     Casellás  Differ- N&Z's  Casellás  Differ-
+(1878)              standard Casella. ence for  portable  ence for dry bulb. dry bulb. ence.   wet    wet       ence for
+                    aneroid.          correc-   thermo-   correc-  No.                         bulb.  bulb.     correc-
+                    No.1140.          tions.    meter     tions.   39,518.                                      tions.
+                                                (deg.).
+
+April 28. 12.30p.m. No obs.  No obs.     -      91        -1.6       89.4      90.0     -0.6   71.75  71.0      +0.75
+          3p.m.     No obs.  No obs.     -      84        -2.1       81.9      82.5     -0.6   69.0   69.0       0.0
+          6.30p.m.  No obs.  No obs.     -      73        -2.5       70.5      71.0     -0.5   61.0   61.0       0.0
+
+April 29. 9a.m.     No obs.  No obs.     -      69        -2.4       66.6      67.0     -0.4   59.1   59.0      +0.1
+          11.30p.m. 29.796   29.850   -.054     77.5      -2.0       75.5      76.0     -0.5   63.5   64.0      -0.5
+          3p.m.     29.755   29.752   +.003     77.5      -1.5       76.0      76.0      0.0   62.75  62.0      -0.75
+
+April 30. 9a.m.     29.828   29.850   -.022     67.5      -2.15      65.0      66.0     -1.0   59.5   60.5      -1.0
+          12.30p.m. 29.822   29.850   -.028     76        -1.5       74.5      75.0     -0.5   63.75  63.5      +0.25
+          3p.m.     29.799   29.802   -.003     77        -2.0       75.0      73.5     -0.5   64.0   58.0      +1.5
+
+May 1.    9a.m.     29.959   30.100   -.141     66.5      -1.75      64.75     65.5     -0.75  57.5   58.0      -0.5
+          12.30p.m. 29.945   29.952   -.007     76        -2.5       73.5      74.5     -1.0   61.5   62.0      -0.5
+          3p.m.     29.984   29.902   +.082     77.5      -1.75      75.75     76.5     -0.75  61.75  61.5      +0.25
+
+May 2.    9a.m.     30.051   30.102   -.051     66        -1.25      64.75     65.0     -0.25  58.0   58.5      -0.5
+          12.30p.m. 29.978   30.000   -.022     78        -2.0       76.0      76.0      0.0   63.0   66.5      -2.5
+          3p.m.     29.936   29.950   -.014     78        -1.5       76.5      No obs.   -     63.75  No obs.    -
+
+May 3.    9a.m.     29.961   29.952   +.009     71.5      -1.5       70.0      No obs.   -     58.5   No obs.    -
+          12.30p.m. 29.880   29.900   -.020     83        -2.5       80.5      81.0     -0.5   63.23  62.0      +1.25
+          3p.m.     29.820   29.850   -.030     83        -1.1       81.9      82.5     -0.6   62.0   62.5      -0.5
+
+May 4.    9a.m.     29.716   29.750   -.024     71.5      -1.25      70.25     71.0     -0.75  63.25  63.0      +0.25
+          12.30p.m. 29.679   29.700   -.021     89.5      -1.25      87.75     88.0     -0.25  70.25  69.5      +0.75
+          3.30p.m.  29.617   29.650   -.033     89.5      -1.0       88.5      89.0     -0.5   70.0   69.0      +1.0
+
+May 5.    9.30a.m.  29.586   29.600   -.014     76.5      -1.5       75.0      No obs.    -    No obs.No obs.    -
+          12.30p.m. No obs.  No obs.   -        83        -2.0       81.0      82.0     -1.0   69.75  68.5      +1.25
+          3p.m.     29.603   29.602   -.001     82        -1.5       80.5      81.0     -0.5   69.0   67.0      +2.0
+
+May 6.    9a.m.     29.780   29.800   -.020     70        -1.75      68.25     69.0     -0.75  63.0   63.0       0.0
+          12.30p.m. 29.785   29.800   -.015     77        -2.0       75.0      76.0     -1.0   65.25  65.0      +0.25
+          3p.m.     29.778   29.800   -.022     79        -2.0       77.0      77.5     -0.5   67.5   66.0      +1.5
+
+May 7.    9a.m.     29.854   29.850   +.004     67        -2.0       65.0      66.0     -1.0   60.75  61.0      -0.25
+          12.30p.m. 29.822   29.802   -.020     80.5      -1.5       79.0      79.0      0.0   66.0   65.0      +1.0
+
+
+
+
+                           Endnotes:
+
+
+
+
+[EN#1] The word is explained in my "Itineraries," part ii. sect.
+3.
+
+[EN#2] See Appendix IV. "Botanical Notes."
+
+[EN#3] "Opens," i.e. the door for a higher price: it is the usual
+formula of refusing to sell.
+
+[EN#4] Chap. XVI.
+
+[EN#5] The Saturday Review, in a courteous notice of my first
+volume (May 25, 1878), has the following remarks:--"The Arabs
+talk of some (?) Nazarenes, and a 'King of the Franks,' having
+built the stone huts and the tombs in a neighbouring cemetery
+('Aynúnah). But there can be no local tradition worth repeating
+in this instance." Here we differ completely; and those will
+agree with me who know how immutable and, in certain cases,
+imperishable Arab tradition is. The reviewer, true, speaks of
+North Midian, where all the tribes, except the Beni 'Ukbah, are
+new. Yet legend can survive the destruction and disappearance of
+a race: witness the folk-traditions of the North-Eastern Italians
+and the adjacent Slavs. Here, however, in South Midian we have an
+ancient race, the Baliyy. And what strengthens the Christian
+legend is that it is known to man, woman, and child throughout
+the length and breadth of the land.
+
+[EN#6] In Sinai "Shinnár" is also applied to a partridge, but I
+am unable to distinguish the species--caccabis, Desert partridge,
+(Ammoperdix heyi, the Arab Hajl), or the black partridge
+(Francolinus vulgaris).
+
+[EN#7] Chap. IX. has already noticed Ptolemy's short measure.
+
+[EN#8] Chap. XVII.
+
+[EN#9] Helix desertorum (Forsk.) and Helix (sp. incert.)
+
+[EN#10] See "The Gold Mines of Midian,'' Chap. II.
+
+[EN#11] So in Moab the ruins of "Méron" or Mérou of the Greeks
+has degenerated into Umm Rasás, "the Mother of Lead."
+
+[EN#12] Their names will be given in Chap. XIII.
+
+[EN#13] A. G., p. 24. See "The Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. XI.
+Sprenger spells the word either with a Zád or a Zá: I have
+discussed the question in my "Itineraries," part ii. sect. 4.
+
+[EN#14] See the end of this Chapter for a list.
+
+[EN#15] See Chap. XIV.
+
+[EN#16] "Irwin's Voyage," 1777.
+
+[EN#17] This was probably a misprint originally, but it has been
+repeated in subsequent editions. Hence it imposed upon even such
+careful workmen as the late Lieutenant Henry Raper, "The Practice
+of Navigation," etc., p. 527, 6th edition.
+
+[EN#18] See an excellent description of the phenomenon in that
+honest and courageous work, "Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina
+on Foot," by Arthur J. Evans, B.A., F.S.A. London: Longmans,
+1877.
+
+[EN#19] There is, however, nothing to prevent its being eaten.
+
+[EN#20] See Chap. X.
+
+[EN#21] Chap. X.
+
+[EN#22] Not to be confounded with the luguminous "Tanúb"
+mentioned by Forskâl ("Flora," etc., p. 197).
+
+[EN#23] The word classically means the cypress or the
+juniper-tree: in Jeremiah, where it occurs twice (xvii. 6 and
+xlviii. 6), the Authorized Version renders it by "heath." It is
+now generally translated "savin" (Juniperus sabina), a shrub
+whose purple berries have a strong turpentine flavour. When shall
+we have a reasonable version of Hebrew Holy Writ, which will
+retain the original names of words either untranslatable or to be
+translated only by guess-work?
+
+[EN#24] In Cairo generally called Espadrilles, and sold for 1.25
+francs. Nothing punishes the feet at these altitudes so much as
+leather, black leather.
+
+[EN#25] The explorers laid this down at a few hundred feet. But
+they judged from the eye; and probably they did not sight the
+true culmination. Unfortunately, and by my fault, they were not
+provided with an aneroid.
+
+[EN#26] See Chap. V.
+
+[EN#27] For the usual interpretations see Chapter I. The
+Egyptians, like other nations, often apply their own names, which
+have a meaning, to the older terms which have become
+unintelligible. Thus, near Cairo, the old goddess, Athor el-Núbí
+("of the Gold"), became Asr el-Nabi ("the Footprint of the
+Apostle").
+
+[EN#28] "The Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. XI.
+
+[EN#29] See Chap. XI.
+
+[EN#30] Chap. XII.
+
+[EN#31] Chap XV.
+
+[EN#32] Chap. XV.
+
+[EN#33] Vol. ii. Chap. X. I have also quoted him in "The
+Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. VI.
+
+[EN#34] My "Pilgrimage" (Vol. I. Chap. XI.) called it "Sherm
+Damghah": it is the "Demerah" of Moresby and the "Demeg" of 'Ali
+Bey el-'Abbási (the unfortunate Spaniard Badia).
+
+[EN#35] See "The Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. VII.
+
+[EN#36] The old being the classical <Greek> (Iambia Vicus), in
+north lat. 24°. This is Yambú' el-Nakhil, in Ptolemy's time a
+seaport, now fifteen miles to the north-east (north lat. 24° 12'
+3"?) of the modern town. The latter lies in north lat. 24° 5' 30"
+(Wellsted, ii. II), and, according to the Arabs, six hours' march
+from the sea.
+
+[EN#37] Vol. I. pp. 364, 365.
+
+[EN#38] "The Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. IX.
+
+[EN#39] Chap. VI. describes one of the sporadic (?) outcrops near
+Tayyib Ism; and Chap. IX notices the apparently volcanic
+sulphur-mount near El-Muwaylah.
+
+[EN#40] See Chap. IX.
+
+[EN#41] "The Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. XII.
+
+[EN#42] See "The Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. VIII.
+
+[EN#43] "Pilgrimage," Vol. I. Chap. XI.
+
+[EN#44] In "The Gold Mines of Midian" (Chap. IV.) I unconsciously
+re-echoed the voice of the vulgar about "the harbour being bad
+and the water worse" at El-Wijh.
+
+[EN#45] This style of writing reminds me of the inch allah
+(Inshallah!) in the pages of a learned "war correspondent"--a
+race whose naive ignorance and whose rare self-sufficiency so
+completely perverted public opinion during the Russo-Turkish war
+of 1877-78.
+
+[EN#46] Not Shaykh Hasan el-Marábit--"Pilgrimage," Vol. I. Chap.
+XI.
+
+[EN#47] "Pilgrimage," Vol. I. Chap. XI., where it is erroneously
+called "Jebel Hasan;" others prefer Hasa'ni--equally wrong.
+Voyagers put in here to buy fish, which formerly was dried,
+salted, and sent to Egypt; and, during the Hajj season, the
+Juhaynah occupy a long straggling village of huts on the south
+side of the island.
+
+[EN#48] There are now no less than three lines of steamers that
+connect the western coast of Arabia with the north. The first is
+the Egyptian Company, successively called Mejidíyyah, Azízíyyah,
+and Khedivíyyah, from its chief actionnaire: the packets, mostly
+three-masted screws, start from Suez to Jeddah every fortnight.
+Secondly, the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd which, with the subvention
+of £1400 per voyage, began in 1870 to ply monthly between
+Constantinople, Port Sa'íd, Suez, Jeddah, and Hodaydah: it has
+been suspended since the beginning of the Russo-Turkish war.
+Thirdly, the British India Steam Navigation Company sends every
+three weeks a ship from London viâ the Canal to Jeddah, Hodaydah,
+and Aden. A fourth is proposed; Bymen's (Winan's?) steamers are
+establishing a London-Basrah (Bassorah) line, in whose itinerary
+will be Jeddah.
+
+[EN#49] The observation was taken on board the Sinnár, by the
+first lieutenant Násir Effendi Ahmed: of course I am not
+answerable for its correctness, although the latitude cannot be
+far out. Thus the difference of parallel between it and El-Wijh
+(north lat. 26° 14') would be sixty-eight direct geographical
+miles.
+
+[EN#50] Beni Kalb: so the Juhaynah were called in the Apostle's
+day.
+
+[EN#51] The site was probably near the Shaykh's tomb, where there
+are wells which in winter supply water.
+
+[EN#52] This is the volume which I have translated: see also Dr.
+Beke's papers in the Athenæum (February 8 and 15, 1873).
+
+[EN#53] See "Mount Sinai a Volcano" (Tinsleys). For a list of
+Yakut's volcanoes, see Dr. Beke, "Sinai in Arabia," Appendix, p.
+535.
+
+[EN#54] Vol. II. p. 187.
+
+[EN#55] "The Gold-Mines of Midian," p. 213.
+
+[EN#56] As regards these and similar graffiti see (Athenaeum,
+March 16, 1878) an excerpt from the last Comptes Rendues of the
+Acad. des Inscript. et B. Lettres, Paris. The celebrated M.
+Joseph Halévy attacked in their entirety (about 680) the
+rock-writings in the Safá desert, south-east of Damascus. The
+German savants, mostly attributing them to the Sabá tribes, who
+immigrated from Yemen about our first century, tried the
+Himyaritic syllabaries and failed. M. Halévy traces them to the
+Beni Tamúd (Thamudites), who served as mercenaries in the Roman
+army, and whose head-quarters we are now approaching. They
+contain, according to him, mostly proper names, with devotional
+formulae, similar to those of the Sinaitic inscriptions and the
+Kufic and later epigraphs which we discovered. For instance, "By
+A., son of B., in memory of his mother; he has accomplished his
+vow, may he be pardoned." The language is held to be intermediate
+between Arabic and the northern Semitic branches. Names of the
+Deity (El and Loo or La'?) are found only in composition, as in
+Abd-El ("Abdallah, slave of El"); and the significant absence of
+the cross and religious symbols remarked in the Syrian
+inscriptions, denotes the era of heathenism, which lasted till
+the establishment of Christianity, about the end of the third
+century. "At that time," M. Halévy says, "Christianity became the
+official religion of the Empire; doubt and scepticism penetrated
+amongst those Arabic tribes which were the allies of Rome, and
+amongst whom, for a certain time, a kind of vague Deism was
+prevalent until the day when they disappeared, having been
+absorbed by the great migrations which had taken place in those
+countries."
+
+[EN#57] Some call it so; others Umm Karáyát: I have preferred the
+former--"Mother of the Villages," not "of Villages"--as being
+perhaps the more common.
+
+[EN#58] See Chap. XIX.
+
+[EN#59] Vol. II. Chap. X.
+
+[EN#60] This rock, assayed in England, produced no precious
+metal. As has been said, gold was found in its containing walls
+of quartz.
+
+[EN#61] This is the valley confounded by Wallin and those who
+followed him (e.g. Keith Johnston) with the Wady Hamz, some forty
+miles to the south.
+
+[EN#62] See the illustration, "Desert of the Exodus," p. 306.
+
+[EN#63] Vol. II. Chap. X.
+
+[EN#64] Described in "The Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. XII.
+
+[EN#65] Chap. XVIII.
+
+[EN#66] The barbarous names, beginning from the west, are Jebels
+Sehayyir, 'Unká ("of the griffon"), Marákh (name of a shrub),
+Genayy (Jenayy), El-Hazzah, El-Madhanah, Buza'mah, and Urnuwah.
+
+[EN#67] Dr. C. Carter Blake examined the four brought home, and
+identified No. 1, superior pharyngeal bone and teeth (Scarus);
+No. 2, inferior bone and teeth of a large fish allied to Labrus
+or Chrysophrys; No. 3, left side, pre-maxillary, possibly same
+species; and No. 4, lower right mandible of Sphœrodon
+grandoculis, Rüppell.
+
+[EN#68] The MS. of this geographer was brought to light by
+Professor Sprenger, and Part I. has been published by Professor
+de Goeje in his "Bibliotheca Geographarum Arabicorum," here
+alluded to.
+
+[EN#69] We have seen (Chap. II.) that the Arabs of Midian mistake
+iron for antimony; and the same is the case in the Sinaitic
+Peninsula.
+
+[EN#70] Ahmed Kaptán's solar observation.
+
+[EN#71] Written in pleasant memory of two visits to Uriconium,
+the favourite "find" of poor Thomas Wright, under the guidance of
+our steadfast and hospitable friend, Mr. Henry Wace, of
+Brooklands, Shrewsbury.
+
+[EN#72] The capital was also transported to Cairo; it could not
+have been voluted as there were only two projections.
+
+[EN#73] Lib. xvi. c. iv. § 24. The MSS. differ in the name of the
+"village situated on the sea;" some call it Egra, others Negra,
+after the inland settlement; and the commentator Kramer remarks,
+Mire corrupta est h?c ultima libri pars.
+
+[EN#74] North lat. 26°, which would correspond with that of the
+Abá'l-Maru' ruins.
+
+[EN#75] My friend Sprenger strongly protests against Ælius
+Gallus, begging me to abandon him, as the Romans must long have
+held the whole coast to El-Haurá, their chief settlement.
+
+[EN#76] For a specimen of the superficiality which characterizes
+Lane's "Modern Egyptians," and of the benefits which, despite the
+proverbial difficulty of changing an old book into a new one, an
+edition, much enlarged and almost rewritten, would confer upon
+students, see Vol. III. Chap. XXI. Instead of a short abstract of
+all this celebrated story, we have only popular excerpts from the
+first volume.
+
+[EN#77] On the maritime road between Meccah and El-Medínah,
+celebrated for the apostolic battle which took place in A.H. 2.
+
+[EN#78] The names marked with interrogations are unknown to all
+the Arabs whom I consulted : they are probably obsolete.
+
+[EN#79] Identified by Niebuhr and Wellsted with certains ruins
+south of Yambú'. See Chap. IV.
+
+[EN#80] The straight path, the highway to Egypt or Cairo.
+
+[EN#81] Elsewhere called Sukyat Yezíd, a name now forgotten.
+
+[EN#82] I have remarked that the name of the Patriarch Jacob is
+no longer connected with the Badá plain.
+
+[EN#83] Schweinfurth (the Athenæum, July 6, 1878) speaks of a
+"Wadi Abu Marwa ('Quartz Valley')" south of the Galalah block.
+
+[EN#84] Chap. IX.
+
+[EN#85] A paper describing our "finds" was read before the
+Anthropological Section of the British Association Meeting at
+Dublin on August 21, 1878, and subsequently before the
+Anthropological Institute of London (December 10, 1878).
+
+[EN#86] The following was the announcement offered to the
+public:--
+
+"La collection minéralogique et archéologique rapportée par le
+Capitaine Burton, de sa seconde Expédition au pays de Midian, est
+exposée dans les salles de l'Hippodrome, avant d'être envoyée à
+l'Exposition Universelle de Paris, sous la direction de M. G.
+Marie, inge'nieur des mines.
+
+"La salle du sud renferme les croquis et les aquarelles faits par
+M. E. Lacaze.
+
+"La partie du nord commence avec Akabah, point extrême atteint
+par l'Expédition; elle contient les résultats du premier voyage
+de l'Expédition, c'est-à-dire: Shermá, Djebel el-Abiat, Aynouneh,
+Moghair-Schuaib, Mokna et Akabah.
+
+"Le mur de l'est contient tout ce qui se rapporte à la seconde
+exploration, c'est-à-dire l'Hismá et le grand massif du Shárr.
+
+"Le mur du sud contient les principaux points de vue pris au sud
+du pays de Midian: Wedje, la forteresse, la montagne de
+Omm-el-Karáyát, travaillée par les anciens, la mine de Omm
+el-Hárab, le temple antique, etc., etc.
+
+"Sur la table sont les médailles et la collection anthropologique
+fait par le Capitaine Burton.
+
+"La salle du nord contient la collection géologique et
+minéralogique faite par M. G. Marie; les minéraux sont classés
+suivant l'ordre des pays parcourus, c'est-à-dire en commencant à
+Akabah et finissant au Ouadi Hamz, frontière du Hedjaz.
+
+"Tout autour de la salle sont rangées les vingt caisses contenant
+des échantillons que Son Altesse le Khédive envoie en Angleterre
+pour y être analysés. Près de la porte de l'est sont placés les
+restes du temple de l'Ouadi Hamz, les moulins pour écraser le
+quartz, les briques réfractaires, et enfin les inscriptions
+Nabathéennes.
+
+"Dans les loges de l'Hippodrome, derrière les deux salles, sont
+déposés environ quinze tonnes d'échantillons, destinès a être
+analysés par une Commission locale, nommée par Son Altesse le
+Khédive."
+
+[EN#87] M. Marie, £35 12s.; Haji Wali, £23; M. Philipin, £12 4s.;
+M. Lacaze, £3 16s.
+
+[EN#88] Starting with a hundred camels and three Shaykhs.
+
+[EN#89] For all hands.
+
+[EN#90] Includes "bakhshísh."
+
+[EN#91]  Sixty-one camels, four Shaykhs.
+
+[EN#92]  For all hands.
+
+[EN#93] Fifty camels, three Shaykhs.
+
+[EN#94] For all hands.
+
+[EN#95] Got from Mukhbir.
+
+[EN#96] Fifty-eight camels, three Shaykhs.
+
+[EN#97] For all hands.
+
+[EN#98] Includes "bakhshísh."
+
+[EN#99] Six months' pay.
+
+[EN#100] Four months.
+
+[EN#101] Four months and a half.
+
+[EN#102] Employed on special service.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Land of Midian, (Revisited) By Richard F. Burton,
+Volume 2.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Land of Midian, Vol. 2, by Richard Burton
+
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+
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Land of Midian, Vol. 2
+
+Author: Richard Burton
+
+Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7113]
+[This file was first posted on March 11, 2003]
+Last Updated: December 18, 2018
+
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8559-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF MIDIAN, VOL. 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Etext produced by JC Byers and proofread by MaryAnn Short
+
+HTML file produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE LAND OF MIDIAN (Revisited)
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Richard F. Burton
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Vol. II. of Two Volumes.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      C. Kegan Paul &amp; Co.
+    </h4>
+    <h4>
+      London:
+    </h4>
+    <h3>
+      1879
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <b>CONTENTS</b>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_PART"> PART II. &mdash; The March Through Central and
+      Eastern Midian. (Continued.) </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter XI. &mdash; The Unknown Lands South of
+      the Hismá–Ruins of Shuwák and Shaghab. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter XII. &mdash;From Shaghab to Zibá&mdash;ruins
+      of El-Khandakí' and Umm Ámil&mdash;the Turquoise Mine–Return to
+      El-Muwaylah. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter XIII. &mdash; A Week Around and upon the
+      Shárr Mountain–Résumé of the March </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter XIV. &mdash; Down South&mdash;to
+      El-Wijh–Notes on the Quarantine&mdash;the Hutaym Tribe. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter XV. &mdash; The Southern Sulphur-hill&mdash;the
+      Cruise to El-Haurá&mdash;Notes on the </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter XVI. &mdash; Our Last March&mdash;the
+      Inland Fort&mdash;Ruins of the Gold-mines at Umm El-Karáyát and Umm
+      El-Haráb. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter XVII. &mdash; The March Continued to
+      El-Badá–Description of the Plain Badais. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter XVIII. &mdash; Coal a "Myth"&mdash;March
+      to Marwát&mdash;Arrival at the Wady Hamz. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter XIX. &mdash; The Wady Hamz&mdash;the
+      Classical Ruin&mdash;Abá'l-Marú, the Mine of </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> Résumé of Our Last Journey. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_CONC"> Conclusion. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_FOOT"> FOOTNOTES: </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_PART" id="link2H_PART"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PART II. &mdash; The March Through Central and Eastern Midian.
+      (Continued.)
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XI. &mdash; The Unknown Lands South of the Hismá–Ruins of Shuwák
+      and Shaghab.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We have now left the region explored by Europeans; and our line to the
+      south and the south-east will lie over ground wholly new. In front of us
+      the land is no longer Arz Madyan: we are entering South Midian, which will
+      extend to El-Hejáz. As the march might last longer than had been expected,
+      I ordered fresh supplies from El-Muwaylah to meet us in the interior viâ
+      Zibá. A very small boy acted dromedary-man; and on the next day he reached
+      the fort, distant some thirty-five and a half direct geographical miles
+      eastward with a trifling of northing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We left the Jayb el-Khuraytah on a delicious morning (6.15 a.m., February
+      26th), startling the gazelles and the hares from their breakfast graze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The former showed in troops of six; and the latter were still breeding, as
+      frequent captures of the long-eared young proved. The track lay down the
+      Wady Dahal and other influents of the great Wady Sa'lúwwah, a main feeder
+      of the Dámah. We made a considerable détour between south-south-east and
+      south-east to avoid the rocks and stones discharged by the valleys of the
+      Shafah range on our left. To the right rose the Jibál el-Tihámah, over
+      whose nearer brown heights appeared the pale blue peaks of Jebel Shárr and
+      its southern neighbour, Jebel Sa'lúwwah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At nine a.m. we turned abruptly eastward up the Wady el-Sulaysalah, whose
+      head falls sharply from the Shafah range. The surface is still Hismá
+      ground, red sand with blocks of ruddy grit, washed down from the plateau
+      on the left; and, according to Furayj, it forms the south-western limit of
+      the Harrah. The valley is honeycombed into man-traps by rats and lizards,
+      causing many a tumble, and notably developing the mulish instinct. We then
+      crossed a rough and rocky divide, Arabicè a Majrá, or, as the Bedawin here
+      pronounce it, a "Magráh,"<a href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1"
+      id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> which takes its name from the
+      tormented Ruways ridge on the right. After a hot, unlively march of four
+      hours (= eleven miles), on mules worn out by want of water, we dismounted
+      at a queer isolated lump on the left of the track. This Jebel
+      el-Murayt'bah ("of the Little Step") is lumpy grey granite of the coarsest
+      elements, whose false strata, tilted up till they have become
+      quasi-vertical, and worn down to pillars and drums, crown the crest like
+      gigantic columnar crystallizations. We shall see the same freak of nature
+      far more grandly developed into the "Pins" of the Shárr. It has evidently
+      upraised the trap, of which large and small blocks are here and there
+      imbedded in it. The granite is cut in its turn by long horizontal dykes of
+      the hardest quadrangular basalt, occasionally pudding'd with banded lumps
+      of red jasper and oxydulated iron: from afar they look like water-lines,
+      and in places they form walls, regular as if built. The rounded forms
+      result from the granites flaking off in curved laminæ, like onion-coats.
+      Want of homogeneity in the texture causes the granite to degrade into
+      caves and holes: the huge blocks which have fallen from the upper heights
+      often show unexpected hollows in the under and lower sides. Above the
+      water we found an immense natural dolmen, under which apparently the
+      Bedawin take shelter. After El-Murayt'bah the regular granitic sequence
+      disappears, nor will it again be visible till we reach Shaghab (March
+      2nd).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About noon we remounted and rounded the south of the block, disturbing by
+      vain shots two fine black eagles. I had reckoned upon the "Water of
+      El-Murayt'bah," in order to make an exceptional march after so many days
+      of deadly slow going. But the cry arose that the rain-puddle was dry. We
+      had not brought a sufficient supply with us, and twenty-two miles to and
+      from the Wady Dahal was a long way for camels, to say nothing of their
+      owners and the danger of prowling Ma'ázah. In front water lay still
+      farther off, according to the guides, who, it will be seen, notably
+      deceived us. So I ordered the camp to be pitched, after reconnoitering the
+      locale of the water; and we all proceeded to work, with a detachment of
+      soldiers and quarrymen. It was not a rain-puddle, but a spring rising
+      slowly in the sand, which had filled up a fissure in the granite about
+      four feet broad; of these crevices three were disposed parallel to one
+      another, and at different heights. They wanted only clearing out; the
+      produce was abundant, and though slightly flavoured with iron and sulphur,
+      it was drinkable. The thirsty mules amused us not a little: they smelt
+      water at once; hobbled as they were, all hopped like kangaroos over the
+      plain, and with long ears well to the fore, they stood superintending the
+      operation till it was their turn to be happy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our evening at the foot of El-Ruways was cheered, despite the flies, the
+      earwigs, and the biting Ba'úzah beetle, which here first put in an
+      appearance, by the weird and fascinating aspect of the southern
+      Hismá-wall, standing opposite to us, and distant about a mile from the
+      dull drab-coloured basin, El-Majrá. Based upon mighty massive foundations
+      of brown and green trap, the undulating junction being perfectly defined
+      by a horizontal white line, the capping of sandstone rises regular as if
+      laid in courses, with a huge rampart falling perpendicular upon the
+      natural slope of its glacis. This bounding curtain is called the Taur
+      el-Shafah, the "inaccessible part of the Lip-range." Further eastward the
+      continuity of the coping has been broken and weathered into the most
+      remarkable castellations: you pass mile after mile of cathedrals, domes,
+      spires, minarets, and pinnacles; of fortresses, dungeons, bulwarks, walls,
+      and towers; of platforms, buttresses, and flying buttresses. These Girágir
+      (Jirájir), as the Bedawin call them, change shape at every new point of
+      view, and the eye never wearies of their infinite variety. Nor are the
+      tints less remarkable than the forms. When the light of day warms them
+      with its gorgeous glaze, the buildings wear the brightest hues of red
+      concrete, like a certain house near Prince's Gate, set off by lambent
+      lights of lively pink and balas-ruby, and by shades of deep transparent
+      purple, while here and there a dwarf dome or a tumulus gleams sparkling
+      white in the hot sun-ray. The even-glow is indescribably lovely, and all
+      the lovelier because unlasting: the moment the red disc disappears, the
+      glorious rosy smile fades away, leaving the pale grey ghosts of their
+      former selves to gloom against the gloaming of the eastern sky. I could
+      not persuade M. Lacaze to transfer this vividity of colour to canvas: he
+      had the artist's normal excuse, "Who would believe it?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning saw the Expedition afoot at six a.m., determined to make
+      up for a half by the whole day's work so long intended. The track struck
+      eastward, and issued from the dull hollow, Majrá el-Ruways, by a made road
+      about a mile and a half long, a cornice cut in the stony flanks of a hill
+      whose head projected southwards into the broad Wady Hujayl ("the Little
+      Partridge"). This line seems to drain inland; presently it bends round by
+      the east and feeds the Wady Dámah. Rain must lately have fallen, for the
+      earth is "purfled flowers," pink, white, and yellow. The latter is the
+      tint prevailing in Midian, often suggesting the careless European
+      wheat-field, in which "shillock" or wild mustard rears its gamboge head
+      above the green. Midian wants not only the charming oleander and the
+      rugged terebinth, typical of the Desert; but also the "blood of Adonis,"
+      the lovely anemone which lights up the Syrian landscape like the
+      fisherman's scarlet cap in a sea-piece. This stage introduced us to the
+      Hargul (Harjal, Rhazya stricta), whose perfume filled the valley with the
+      clean smell of the henna-bloom, the Eastern privet&mdash;Mr. Clarke said
+      "wallflowers." Our mules ate it greedily, whilst the country animals, they
+      say, refuse it: the flowers, dried and pounded, cure by fumigation "pains
+      in the bones." Here also we saw for the first time the quaint
+      distaff-shape of the purple red Masrúr (Cynomorium coccineum, Linn.), from
+      which the Bedawi "cook bread." It is eaten simply peeled and sun-dried,
+      when it has a vegetable taste slightly astringent as if by tannin,
+      something between a potato and a turnip; or its rudely pounded flour is
+      made into balls with soured milk. This styptic, I am told by Mr. R. B.
+      Sharpe, of the British Museum, was long supposed to be peculiar to Malta;
+      hence its pre-Linnaean name (Fungus Melitensis).<a href="#linknote-2"
+      name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> Now it is
+      known to occur through the Mediterranean to India. Let me here warn future
+      collectors of botany in Midian that throughout the land the vegetable
+      kingdom follows the rule of the mineral: every march shows something new;
+      and he who neglects to gather specimens, especially of the smaller
+      flowers, in one valley, will perhaps find none of them in those adjoining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A denser row of trees lower down the Wady Hujayl led to the water of Amdán
+      (Mídán?), about an hour and a half from our last nighting-place; yesterday
+      it had been reported six hours distant. High towering on our left (north)
+      rose three huge buttresses of the Girágir. In front stood a marvellous
+      background of domes and arches, cones and ninepins, all decayed Hismá,
+      blurred and broken by the morning mist, which could hardly be called a
+      fog; and forming a perspective of a dozen distances. Now they curve from
+      north-east to south-west in a kind of scorpion's tail, with detached
+      vertebrae torn and wasted by the adjacent plutonic outcrops; and looking
+      from the west they suggest blood-red islets rising above the great gloomy
+      waves of trap and porphyry. This projection will remain in sight until we
+      reach Shuwák; and in places we shall see it backed by the basalts and
+      lavas of the straightlined Harrah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently turning sharp to the right (south-east), we struck across a
+      second divide, far more shallow than the first; and fell into the northern
+      basin of the great Dámah valley, also known as El-Rahabah, "the Open;"&mdash;the
+      Rehoboth ("spaces") of the Hebrews. Like yesterday's, the loose red sand
+      is Hismá; and it is also scattered with Harrah lava. After a four hours'
+      ride we halted to enable the caravan to come up. Our Shaykhs were bent
+      upon making twelve miles the average day's work; and their "little game"
+      was now to delay as much as possible. Here we again found flocks of sheep
+      and goats tended by young girls, who ran away like ostriches, and by old
+      women who did not: on the contrary, Sycorax enjoyed asking the news and
+      wrangling over a kid. The camels throughout this country seem to be always
+      under the charge of men or boys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here began our study of the great Wady Da'mah, whose fame as an Arabian
+      Arcadia extends far and wide, and whose possession has caused many a
+      bloody battle. We now see it at its best, in early spring morning, when
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+          "The landscape smiles
+     Calm in the sun, and silent are the hills
+     And valleys, and the blue serene of air."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      This notable feature is a Haddúdah ("frontier divider"), which in ancient
+      days separated the ‘Ukbíyyah ("Ukbah-land") to the north from the
+      Balawi'yyah ("Baliyy-land") south. The latter still claim it as their
+      northern limit; but the intrusive Egypto-Arabs have pushed their way far
+      beyond this bourne. Its present Huwayti owners, the Sulaymiyyín, the
+      Sulaymát, the Jeráfín, and other tribes, are a less turbulent race than
+      the northerns because they are safe from the bandit Ma'ázah: they are more
+      easily managed, and they do not meet a fair offer with the eternal Yaftah
+      ‘Allah&mdash;"Allah opens."<a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3"
+      id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The head of the Dámah, a great bay in the Hismá-wall to the east, is now
+      in sight of us; and we shall pass its mouth, which debouches into the sea
+      below Zibá. This tract is equally abundant in herds (camels), flocks, and
+      vegetation: in places a thin forest gathers, and the tree-clumps now form
+      a feature in the scenery. The sole, a broad expanse of loose red
+      arenaceous matter, the washings of the plateau, is fearfully burrowed and
+      honeycombed; it is also subject, like its sister the Sadr, to the frequent
+      assault of "devils," or sand-pillars. That it is plentifully supplied with
+      water, we learn from the presence of birds. The cries of the caravane, the
+      "knock-kneed" plover of Egypt, yellow-beaked and black-eyed, resounded in
+      the more barren belts. A lovely little sun-bird (Nectarinia oseœ?), which
+      the Frenchmen of course called colibri, with ravishing reflections of
+      green and gold, flashed like a gem thrown from shrub to shrub: this oiseau
+      mouche is found scattered throughout Midian; we saw it even about
+      El-Muwaylah, but I had unfortunately twice forgotten dust-shot. The
+      Egyptian Rakham (percnopter), yellow with black-tipped wings; a
+      carrion-eater, now so rare, and the common brown kite, still so common
+      near civilized Cairo, soared in the sky; while the larger vultures,
+      perching upon the rock-ridges, suggested Bedawi sentinels. The ravens,
+      here as elsewhere, are a plague: flights of them occupy favourite places,
+      and they prey upon the young lambs, hares, and maimed birds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We advanced another five miles, and crossed to the southern side of the
+      actual torrent-bed, whose banks, strewed with a quantity of dead
+      flood-wood entangling the trees, and whose flaky clays, cracked to the
+      shape of slabs and often curling into tubes of natural pottery, show that
+      at times the Hismá must discharge furious torrents. We camped close to the
+      Dámah at the foot of the Jebel el-Balawi; the water, known as Máyat
+      el-Jebayl ("of the Hillock"), lay ahead in a low rocky snout: it was
+      represented as being distant a full hour, and the mules did not return
+      from it till three had passed; but thirty minutes would have been nearer
+      the truth. The Nile-drinkers turned up their fastidious noses at the
+      supply, but Lieutenant Amir, who had graduated in the rough
+      campaigning-school of the Súdán, pronounced it "regular."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nighting-place on the Dámah was as pretty and picturesque as the Majrá
+      was tame and uncouth. While the west was amber clear, long stripes of
+      purpling, crimson, flaming cloud, to the south and the east, set off the
+      castled crags disposed in a semicircle round the Wady-head; and the
+      "buildings" appeared art-like enough to be haunted ground, the domain of
+      the Fata Morgana, a glimpse of the City of Brass built by Shaddaá, son of
+      ‘Ad. When the stars began to glitter sharp and clear, our men fell to
+      singing and dancing; and the boy Husayn Ganinah again distinguished
+      himself by his superior ribaldry. Our work was more respectable and
+      prosaic, firing a mule with a swollen back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within a mile or so of us stood some Bedawi tents, which we had passed on
+      the march: they were deserted by the men, here Sulaymát, who drive their
+      camels to the wilds sometimes for a week at a time. An old wife who
+      brought us a goat for sale, and who begged that Husayn, the Básh-Buzúk,
+      might pass the night with her, in order to shoot an especially
+      objectionable wolf, had a long tale to tell of neighbouring ruins. She
+      also reported that near the same place there is a well with steps, into
+      which the Arabs had descended some seven fathoms; presently they found
+      houses occupying the galleries at the bottom, and fled in terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lieutenant Amir was sent to sketch and survey the site next morning; and
+      he was lucky enough to be guided by one Sa'id bin Zayfullah, the Sulaymi,
+      whose prime dated from the palmy days of the great Mohammed Ali Pasha. He
+      acknowledged as his friends the grandfather, and even the father, of our
+      guide Furayj; but the latter he ignored, looking upon him as a mere Walad
+      ("lad"). Moreover, he remembered the birth of Shaykh Mohammed ‘Afnán,
+      chief of the Baliyy, which took place when he himself had already become a
+      hunter of the gazelle.<a href="#linknote-4" name="linknoteref-4"
+      id="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a> According to him, the remains are
+      still known as the Dár ("house") or Diyár ("houses") El-Nasárá&mdash;"of
+      the Nazarenes," that is, of the Nabathaeans. The former term is retained
+      here, as in Sinai, by popular tradition; and the latter is clean forgotten
+      throughout Midian.<a href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5"
+      id="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Riding down the Wady Dámah to the southwest, Lieutenant Amir came upon a
+      spring in a stone-revetted well near the left bank: this Ayn el-Bada' is
+      not to be confounded with the Badí' water, or with the Badá plain, both of
+      which we shall presently visit. A strew of broken quartz around it showed
+      the atelier, and specimens of scattered fragments, glass and pottery, were
+      gathered. The settlement-ruins, which the guide called El-Kantarah, lie
+      further down upon a southern influent of the main line: they are divided
+      into two blocks, one longer than the other. Lieutenant Amir made a careful
+      plan of the remains, and then pushed forward to Shuwák by the direct
+      track, westward of that taken by the caravan. He arrived in camp, none the
+      worse for a well-developed "cropper;" his dromedary had put its foot in a
+      hole, and had fallen with a suddenness generally unknown to the cameline
+      race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By way of geographical exercitation, we had all drawn our several plans,
+      showing, after Arab statement, the lay of Shaghab and Shuwák, the two
+      ruins which we were about to visit. Nothing could be more ridiculous when
+      the sketch-maps came to be compared. This was owing to the route following
+      the three sides of a long parallelogram; whilst the fourth is based upon
+      the Wady Dámah, causing considerable complication. And, the excursus
+      ended, all were convinced that we had made much southing, when our
+      furthest point was not more than five miles south of Zibá (north lat. 27°
+      20').
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We quitted the great valley at six a.m. (February 28th), and struck up the
+      Wady Shuwák, an influent that runs northwards to the Dámah's left bank. On
+      the stony ground above the right side of this Fiumara lay six circles of
+      stones, disposed in a line from north-east to south-west: they may have
+      been ruins of Hufrah ("water-pits"). As we rose the Nullah surface was
+      pied with white flowers, the early growth which here takes the place of
+      primroses. I had some difficulty in persuading our good friend Furayj, who
+      had not seen the country for fifteen years, to engage as guide one of the
+      many Bedawin camel-herds: his course seemed to serpentine like that of an
+      animal grazing&mdash;he said it was intended to show the least stony road&mdash;and,
+      when he pointed with the wave of the maimed right hand, he described an
+      arc of some 90°. The Sulaymi lad caught the nearest camel, climbed its
+      sides as you would a tree, and, when the animal set off at a lumbering
+      gallop, pressed the soles of his feet to the ribs, with exactly the action
+      of a Simiad; clinging the while, like grim Death, to the hairy hump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After some six miles we attempted a short cut, a gorge that debouched on
+      the left bank of the Shuwák valley. It showed at once a complete change of
+      formation: the sides were painted with clays of variegated colours,
+      crystallized lime and porphyritic conglomerates, tinted mauve-purple as if
+      by manganese. Further on, the path, striking over broken divides and long
+      tracts of stony ground, became rough riding: it was bordered by the usual
+      monotonous, melancholy hills of reddish and greenish trap, whose slaty and
+      schist-like edges in places stood upright. On the summit of the last Col
+      appeared the ruins of an outwork, a large square and a central heap of
+      boulder-stones. Straight in front rose the block that backs our
+      destination, the Jebel el-Sáni', or "Mountain of the Maker," the artificer
+      par excellence, that is, the blacksmith: it is so called from a legendary
+      shoer of horses and mules, who lived there possibly in the days before
+      Sultán Selim. It is remarkable for its twin peaks, sharp-topped blocks,
+      the higher to the east, and called by the Bedawin Naghar and Nughayr. The
+      guides spoke of a furnace near the summit of these remarkable cones;
+      excellent landmarks which we shall keep in sight during several marches.
+      At length, after ten miles of slow work, we saw before us, stretched as
+      upon a map, the broad valley with its pink sands; the Daum-trees, the huge
+      ‘Ushr or "Apple of Sodom," the fan-palm bush, and the large old Jujubes&mdash;here
+      an invariable sign of former civilization&mdash;which informed us that
+      there lay fair Shuwák.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dull gorge introduced us to what was then a novelty in Midian; but we
+      afterwards found it upon the cold heights of the Shárr, where it supplied
+      us with many a dainty dish. This was the Shinnár<a href="#linknote-6"
+      name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> (caccabis), a
+      partridge as large as a pheasant, and flavoured exactly like the emigrant
+      from Phasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The coat, the clock! clock! and the nimble running over the rocks, ever
+      the favourite haunt, denote the "perdix." The head is black, as in the C.
+      melanocephala of Abyssinia, and the legs and feet are red like the smaller
+      "Greek" caccabis that inhabits the Hismá; the male birds have no spurs,
+      and they are but little larger than their mates. There seems to be no
+      difficulty in keeping them; we bought a hen and chicks caged at El-Wijh,
+      but whether they lived or not I neglected to note. Here, too, we learned
+      the reason why the falcons and the hawks (Falco milvus, F. gentilis, etc.)
+      are so fierce and so well-fed. The tyrant of the air raises the partridge
+      or the quail by feinting a swoop, and, as it hurries away screaming aloud,
+      follows it leisurely at a certain distance. Finally, when the quarry
+      reaches the place intended&mdash;at least, the design so appears&mdash;the
+      falcon stoops and ends the chase. The other birds were ring-doves,
+      turtles, and the little "butcher" impaling, gaily as a "gallant Turk," its
+      live victim upon a long thorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shuwák, which lies in about north lat. 27° 15', can be no other than the
+      placed by Ptolemy (vi. 7) in north lat. 26° 15'; and, if so, we must add
+      one degree to his latitudes, which are sixty miles too low.<a
+      href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a>
+      According to Sprenger ("Alt. Geog.," p. 25), and do not fit into any of
+      the Alexandrian's routes; and were connected only with their ports
+      Rhaunathos (M'jirmah?) and Phoenicon Vicus (Zibá?). But both these cities
+      were large and important centres, both of agriculture and of mining
+      industry, forming crucial stations on the great Nabathæan highway, the
+      overland between Leukè Kóme and Petra. The line was kept up by the Moslems
+      until Sultán Selim's superseded it; and hence the modern look of the
+      remains which at first astonished us so much. The tradition of the
+      Hajj-passage is distinctly preserved by the Bedawin; and I have little
+      doubt that metal has been worked here as lately, perhaps, as the end of
+      the last century. But by whom, again, deponent ventures not to say, even
+      to guess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The site of Shuwák is a long island in the broad sandy Wady of the same
+      name, which, as has been remarked, feeds the Dámah. Its thalweg has
+      shifted again and again: the main line now hugs the southern or left bank,
+      under the slopes and folds of the Jebel el-Sáni'; whilst a smaller branch,
+      on the northern side, is subtended by the stony divide last crossed. At
+      the city the lay of the valley is from north-east to south-west, and the
+      altitude is about seventeen hundred feet (aner. 28.28). The head still
+      shows the castellations of the Hismá. Looking down-stream, beyond the
+      tree-dotted bed and the low dark hills that divide this basin from the
+      adjoining Wady to the south, we see the tall grey tops of the Jebel Zigláb
+      (Zijláb) and of the Shahbá-Gámirah&mdash;the "ashen-coloured (Peak) of
+      Gámirah"&mdash;the latter being the name of a valley. Both look white by
+      the side of the dark red and green rocks; and we shall presently find that
+      they mark the granite region lying south and seaward of the great trap
+      formations. We were not sorry to see it again&mdash;our eyes were weary of
+      the gloomy plutonic curtains on either side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Shuwák we allowed the camels a day of rest, whilst we planned and
+      sketched, dug into, and described the ruins. A difficulty about
+      drinking-water somewhat delayed us. The modern wells, like those of the
+      Haurán, are rudely revetted pits in a bald and shiny bit of clay-plain
+      below the principal block of ruins: only one in the dozen holds water, and
+      that has been made Wahsh ("foul") by the torrent sweeping into it heaps of
+      the refuse and manure strewed around. The lower folds of the Sáni' block
+      also supply rain-pools; but here, again, the Arabs and their camels had
+      left their marks. The only drinkable water lies a very long mile down the
+      southern (left) bank, above the old aqueduct, in a deep and narrow gorge
+      of trap. The perennial spring, still trickling down the rocks, was dammed
+      across, as remnants of cement show us, in more places than one. There are
+      also signs of cut basins, which the barrages above and below once divided
+      into a series of tanks. Up the rough steps of the bed the camel-men drove
+      their beasts; and the name of a Gujráti maker, printed upon a sack of
+      Anglo-Indian canvas, had a curious effect among such Bedawi surroundings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last we sank a pit some five feet deep in a re-entering angle of the
+      northern or smaller branch; we lined it with stone down-stream, where the
+      flow made the loose sand fall in, and we obtained an ample and excellent
+      supply. Doubtless it was spoiled, as soon as our backs were turned, by the
+      half-Fellah Jeráfín-Huwaytát, to whom the place belongs. The sea-breeze
+      during the day was high and dust-laden, but we passed a cool delicious
+      night upon the clean sweet sand, which does not stick or cling. At this
+      altitude there is no fear of bugs and fleas&mdash;the only dread is Signor
+      "Pediculus."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We will begin, with our surveyors, at the valley head, and note the ruins
+      as we stroll down. This section, Shuwák proper, is nearly a mile and a
+      half long, and could hardly have lodged less than twenty thousand souls.
+      But that extent by no means represents the whole; our next march will
+      prolong it along the valley for a total of at least four miles. The
+      material is various&mdash;boulders of granite and syenite; squares of trap
+      and porphyry; the red sandstones of the Hismá; the basalts of the Harrah;
+      and the rock found in situ, a brown and crumbling grit, modern, and still
+      in process of agglutination. The heaps and piles which denote buildings
+      are divided by mounds and tumuli of loose friable soil, white with salt,&mdash;miniatures
+      of Babylon, Nineveh, and Troy. On either flanks of the river-holm the
+      periodical torrents have done their worst, cutting up the once regular
+      bank into a succession of clay buttresses. On the right side we find a
+      large fort, half sliced away, but still showing the concrete flooring of a
+      tower. About the centre of the length are the remnants of a round Burj;
+      blocks of buildings, all levelled to the foundations, lie to the
+      north-west, and on the west appear signs of a square. Perhaps the most
+      interesting discovery is that of catacombs, proving a civilization
+      analogous to Magháir Shu'ayb, but ruder, because more distant from the
+      centre. The "caves" are hollowed in a long reef of loose breccia, which,
+      fronting eastward, forms the right bank of the smaller branch. They are
+      now almost obliterated by being turned into sheep-folds; the roofs have
+      fallen in, and only one preserves the traces of two loculi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The arrangements touching fuel and water in this great metal-working
+      establishment are on a large scale. The biggest of the Afrán ("furnaces")
+      lies to the north-west, near the right bank of the valley: all are of the
+      ordinary type, originally some five or six feet high, to judge from the
+      bases. They are built of fire-brick, and of the Hismá stone, which faces
+      itself into a natural latex. We dug deep into several of them; but so
+      careful had been the workmen, or perhaps those who afterwards ransacked
+      these places, that not the smallest tear of metal remained: we found only
+      ashes, pottery, and scoriae, as usual black and green, the latter worked
+      sub-aerially; many of them had projections like stalactite. Round the
+      furnaces are strewed carbonate of lime, stained black with iron, like that
+      of Sharmá; and a quantity of the chlorite-enamelled serpentine still used
+      in the Brazil as a flux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quartz was absent, and we were at a loss to divine what stone had been
+      worked. At last we observed near the catacombs sundry heaps of pinkish
+      earth, evidently washed out; and our researches in the South Country
+      afterwards suggested that this may have been the remains of the micaceous
+      schist, whose containing quartz was so extensively worked at Umm el-Haráb.
+      Moreover, a short study of Shaghab threw more light on the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Water also had been stored up with prodigious labour. We could easily
+      trace the lines of half a dozen aqueducts, mostly channelled with rough
+      cement, overlying a fine concrete; some of them had grooved stones to
+      divert the stream by means of lashers. The Fiskíyyah or "tanks," as
+      carefully built, were of all sizes; and the wells, which appeared to be
+      mediaeval, were lined with stones cut in segments of circles: we shall see
+      the same curve in Sultán Selim's work near Zibá. The greatest feat is an
+      aqueduct which, sanded over in the upper part, subtends the left side of
+      the valley. It is carefully but rudely built, and where it crosses a
+      gully, the "horizontal arch" is formed of projecting stone tiers, without
+      a sign of key. This magnum opus must date from the days when the southern
+      part of the Wady was nearly what it is now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About a mile and a quarter below our camp, the Wady, which broadens to a
+      mile, shows on the left bank a wall measuring a thousand metres long,
+      apparently ending in a tank of 110 feet each way. Around it are ruined
+      parallelograms of every size, which in ancient times may have been
+      workshops connected with the buildings in the island higher up. The
+      torrents have now washed away the continuation, if ever there was any;
+      and, though the lower remnants are comparatively safe upon their high
+      ledge, the holm is evidently fated to disappear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I did not learn till too late that a single day's march southwards from
+      the Wady Shuwák, along the old main line of traffic, leads to the Wady
+      Nejd, upon whose upper course is the plain of Badá; and which, after
+      assuming four different names, falls, as will be seen, into the sea about
+      thirty-five miles north of El-Wijh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We left Shuwák considerably posed, puzzled, and perplexed by what it had
+      shown us. A little pottery had been picked up, but our diggings had not
+      produced a coin or even a bit of glass. The evidences of immense labour
+      are the more astonishing when compared with the utter absence of what we
+      call civilization. The Greek and Latin inscriptions of the Hauranic cities
+      declare their origin: these, absolutely unalphabetic, refuse a single hint
+      concerning the mysterious race which here lived and worked, and worked so
+      nobly. And, finally, who were the Moslems that succeeded them in a later
+      day, when the Hajj-caravan, some three centuries and a half ago, ceased to
+      march by this road? How is it that the annalists say nothing of them? that
+      not a vestige of tradition remains concerning any race but the Nazarenes?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Shuwák to the Wady Dámah there are two roads, a direct and an
+      indirect; the latter passing by the ruins of Shaghab. The caravan begged
+      hard to take the former, but was summarily refused. At six a.m. we rode
+      down the Shuwák valley, again noting its huge constructions, and then
+      striking away from it to the left, we passed over a short divide of brown
+      hill, where the narrow Pass was marked only by Bedawi graves. The morning
+      showed a peculiar rainbow, if a bow may be called so when no rain
+      appeared; a perpendicular stripe, brilliant enough, and lasting at least
+      twenty minutes. The cloud behind it had no skirt, no droop in fact, no
+      sign of dissolution; and what made it the stranger was that this
+      "bull's-eye" lay north of, and not opposite to, but quite near, the rising
+      sun. We shall note another of these exceptional rainbows at El-Badá.<a
+      href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8" id="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After marching some seven miles to the south with westing, we saw inform
+      heaps to the left: half an hour afterwards, boulder-encircled pits of a
+      brighter green on the right, the Themáil el-Má ("artificial cisterns") of
+      the Arabs, announced that we were reaching Shaghab. The caravan punished
+      us by wasting five hours on the way, in order to force a halt; and by
+      camping at the wrong place, when I objected to the delay. It brought with
+      it, however, a fine young Beden (ibex), killed by one of the Bedawin; and
+      we determined to stuff, to bury, and to bake it, Arab fashion, under the
+      superintendence of the Básh-Buzúk Husayn. Unfortunately it was served to
+      us on the next day cold, whereas it should have been eaten at once, piping
+      hot. The meat was dark, with a beefy rather than a gamey flavour,
+      palatable, but by no means remarkable. There were loud regrets that a
+      cuisse de chevreuil had not been marinée; in fact, an infect odour of the
+      Quartier Latin everywhere followed us; and when a guide told us the
+      pattern lie, that we should not reach Umm ‘Amir before the fourth day, the
+      poor "Frogs" croaked, and croaked audibly as dismally. Their last bottle
+      of ordinaire was finished; Gabr, the Kázi, had come into camp, bearing a
+      long official Arabic document from Lieutenant Yusuf, but not a single
+      Journal de Genève; there was no news of a steamer being sent with rations
+      and forage from Suez: briefly, c'était embetant&mdash;to use the milder of
+      the two favourite synonyms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ruins of Shaghab are built upon a more complicated site than those of
+      Shuwák. The position is charming. The Wady Shaghab, flowing to the south,
+      here spreads out in a broad bulge or basin open to the west. Down-stream
+      we see a "gate" formed by the meeting of two rocky tongue-tips, both
+      showing large works. Beyond these narrows the valley bends to the
+      south-west and feeds the Wady Aznab, which falls into the sea south of the
+      Dámah. The mass of the ruined city lies upon the left bank, where a high
+      and artificial-looking remblai of earth masks an eastern influent, the
+      Wady el-Aslah (Athlah), or "of the Kali-plant." It drains the mountain of
+      the same name, and the Jebel Zigláb (Zijláb), the cones of pale granite
+      visible from Shuwák; and upon its broad mouth the old settlement stood à
+      cheval. A little north of west rises profiled the great Shárr, no longer a
+      ridge with a coping of four horns, but a tall and portly block, from whose
+      summit spring heads and peaks of airy blue-pink. Slightly east of north
+      the twins Naghar and Nughayr, combining to form the "Mountain of the
+      Maker" (Jebel el-Sáni'), tower in the shape of a huge pyramid. Lastly, a
+      regular ascent, the Majrá el-Wághir, fronts the city, sloping up to the
+      west-north-west, and discloses a view of the Jibál el-Tihámah: this broad
+      incline was, some three centuries ago, the route of the Hajj-caravan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We walked down the Shaghab valley-bed, whose sides, like those of the
+      Dámah, are chevaux de frise of dead wood. The characteristic rock is a
+      conglomerate of large and small stones, compacted by hard silicious paste,
+      and stained mauve-purple apparently by manganese: we had seen it on the
+      way to Shuwák; and the next day's march will pave the uplands with it. The
+      wells in the sole are distinctly Arab, triangular mouths formed and kept
+      open by laying down tree-trunks, upon which the drawer of water safely
+      stands. On the right bank up-stream no ruins are perceptible; those on the
+      left are considerable, but not a quarter the size of Shuwák. Here again
+      appear the usual succession of great squares: the largest to the east
+      measures 500 metres along the sides; and there are three others, one of
+      400 metres by 192. They are subtended by one of many aqueducts, whose
+      walls, two feet thick, showed no signs of brick: it is remarkable for
+      being run underground to pierce a hillock; in fact, the system is rather
+      Greek or subterranean, than Roman or subaerial. Further down are the
+      remains apparently of a fort: heaps of land-shells lie about it; they are
+      very rare in this region, and during our four months' march we secured
+      only two species.<a href="#linknote-9" name="linknoteref-9"
+      id="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still descending, we found the ancient or mediaeval wells, numbering about
+      a dozen, and in no wise differing from those of Shuwák. At the gorge,
+      where the Wady escapes from view, Lieutenant Amir planned buildings on the
+      lower right bank, and on the left he found a wall about half a mile long,
+      with the remains of a furnace and quartz scattered about it. This stone
+      had reappeared in large quantities, the moment we crossed the divide; the
+      pale grey of the Jebel Zigláb and its neighbours was evidently owing to
+      its presence; and from this point it will be found extending southwards
+      and seawards as far as El-Hejaz. He brought with him a hard white stone
+      much resembling trachyte, and fragments of fine green jasper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A cursory inspection of Shaghab removed some of the difficulties which had
+      perplexed us at Shuwák and elsewhere. In the North Country signs of
+      metal-working, which was mostly confined to the Wadys, have been generally
+      obliterated; washed away or sanded over. Here the industry revealed itself
+      without mistake. The furnaces were few, but around each one lay heaps of
+      Negro and copper-green quartz, freshly fractured; while broken handmills
+      of basalt and lava, differing from the rubstones and mortars of a softer
+      substance, told their own tale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Shaghab, then, the metalliferous "Marú" brought from the adjacent
+      granitic mountains was crushed, and then transported for roasting and
+      washing to Shuwák, where water, the prime necessary in these lands, must
+      have been more abundant. Possibly in early days the two settlements formed
+      one, the single of Ptolemy; and the south end would have been the
+      headquarters of the wealthy. Hence the Bedawin always give it precedence&mdash;Shaghab
+      wa Shuwák; moreover, we remarked a better style of building in the former;
+      and we picked up glass as well as pottery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a turkey buzzard (vulture) is the fittest emblem for murderous Dahome,
+      so I should propose for Midian, now spoiled and wasted by the Wild Man, a
+      broken handmill of basalt upon a pile of spalled Negro quartz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XII. &mdash;From Shaghab to Zibá&mdash;ruins of El-Khandakí' and
+      Umm Ámil&mdash;the Turquoise Mine–Return to El-Muwaylah.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Leaving Lieutenant Amir to map the principal ruins, we followed the
+      caravan up the Majrá el-Wághir, the long divide rising to the
+      west-north-west. The thin forest reminded me of the wooded slopes of the
+      Anti-Libanus about El-Kunaytarah: there, however, terebinths and holm-oaks
+      take the place of these unlovely and uncomfortable thorn-trees. They are
+      cruelly beaten&mdash;an operation called El-Ramá&mdash;by the Bedawi
+      camel-man, part of whose travelling kit, and the most important part too,
+      here as in Sinai, is the flail (Murmár or Makhbat) and the mat to receive
+      the leaves: perhaps Acacias and Mimosas are not so much bettered by
+      "bashing" as the woman, the whelp, and the walnut-tree of the good old
+      English proverb. After three miles we passed, on the left, ruins of long
+      walls and Arab Wasm, with white memorial stones perched on black. In front
+      rose the tall Jebel Tulayh, buttressing the right or northern bank of the
+      Dámah; and behind it, stained faint-blue by distance, floated in the
+      flickering mirage the familiar forms of the Tihámah range, a ridge now
+      broken into half a dozen blocks. I had ordered the caravan to march upon
+      the Tuwayl el-Súk; but, after one hour and fifteen minutes, we found the
+      tents pitched some three miles short of it, on a bleak and ugly wave of
+      the Wághir. The Shaykhs swore, by all holy things, that this was the
+      veritable Tuwayl; and a Bedawi, who declared that he knew where water lay
+      in the neighbourhood, refused to show it sans the preliminary "bakhshísh."
+      Mashallah! It is a noble race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early next morning (six a.m., March 3rd) we followed the right bank of the
+      Wady el-Khandakí, which runs north with westing. Beyond it lay the
+      foot-hills of gloomy trap leading to the Jebel el-Raydán, a typical
+      granitic form, a short demi-pique saddleback with inwards-sloping pommel
+      like the Pao d'Assucar of picturesque Rio de Janeiro. Here as elsewhere,
+      the granites run parallel with and seaward of the traps. The Tuwayl el-Súk
+      is nothing but an open and windy flat, where the Hajj-caravan used to camp
+      an adjoining ridge, the Hamrá el-Tuwayl, shows spalled quartz, Wasm and
+      memorial stones. The principal formation here is the mauve-purple
+      conglomerate before described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After riding nine miles we came unexpectedly upon a large and curious
+      ruin, backed by the broad Wady Dámah gleaming white in the sun. The first
+      feature noticed was a pair of parallel walls, or rather their foundations,
+      thirty-five feet apart, and nearly a kilometre in length: it looked like a
+      vast hangar. To the left lie three tracings of squares; the central is a
+      work of earth and stone, not unlike a rude battery; and, a few paces
+      further north, a similar fort has a cistern attached to its western
+      curtain. Heaps of rounded boulders, and the crumbling white-edged mounds
+      which, in these regions, always denote old habitations, run down the right
+      bank of the Wady el-Khandakí to its junction with the Dámah. For want of a
+      better name I called this old settlement Kharábát (the "Ruins of")
+      el-Khandakí, and greatly regretted that we had not time enough to march
+      down the whole line of the Dámah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour more placed us at the great Wady, whose general direction is
+      here west with a little southing, and which still merits its fame as an
+      Arabian Arcadia. The banks were thickly bordered with secular tamarisks
+      (T. orientalis), those hardy warriors with the Hebrew-Arabic name Asl
+      (Athl), that battle against wind and weather, as successfully at
+      Dovercourt (Essex) as at Haydarábád (Sind).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tint was the normal grey-green, not unlike that of the traps in
+      arrière plan. The clumps sheltered goats, sheep, and camels; and our mules
+      now revel every day on green meat, growing fatter and fatter upon the
+      Aristida grass, the Panicum, the Hordeum murinum, and the Bromus of many
+      varieties. Fronting us rose the twin granitic peaks of Jebel Mutadán, one
+      with a stepped side like an unfinished pyramid. They are separated from
+      the Dámah by a rough and stony divide; and ruins with furnaces are
+      reported to be found in their valley-drain, which feeds the great Wady
+      ‘Amúd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We halted, after some sixteen to seventeen miles, at the water El-Ziyayb,
+      slightly brackish but relished by our animals; and resumed our way in the
+      cool sea-breeze at one p.m., passing the Jebel Tulayh on the north bank.
+      The track then left the Dámah and turned up a short broad bed to the
+      north-west. On the right rose a block of syenite, ruddy with orthose, all
+      rounded lumps and twisted finials; it discharged a quantity of black sand
+      that streaked the gravel plain. At four p.m. we camped on a broad divide,
+      El-Kutayyifah, where an adjacent Sha'b, or "fold," supplied fresh
+      rain-water. The march had teen long (seven hours = twenty-two miles); and
+      Shaykhs and camel-men looked, the Sayyid said, as if they had "smelt
+      Jehannum."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This divide, also called the Jayb el Sa'lúwwah, with granites to the east,
+      and traps mixed with granites on the west, shows signs of labour. Hard by,
+      to the south-west, some exceptionally industrious Bedawi, of the
+      Jeráfín-Huwaytát, had laid out a small field with barley. In the evening
+      we walked westward to the hills that bound the slope; and came upon a
+      rock-cut road leading to an atalier, where "Marú" has been spalled from
+      the stone in situ. Some specimens had a light-bluish tinge, as if stained
+      by cobalt, a metal found in several slags; and there were veins of
+      crystalline amethyst-quartz, coloured, said the engineer by chlorure of
+      silver (?). The filons and filets cut the granite in all directions; and
+      the fiery action of frequent trap-dykes had torn the ground-rock to
+      tatters. The western side of El-Kutayyifah also showed modern ruins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guides reported, as usual when too late, that to the west-south-west
+      lies a Nakb, called Abú'l Marwah ("Father of the Quartz-place"), whose
+      waters flow viâ the Mutadán to the ‘Amúd valley. For some days I had cold
+      shudders lest this Pass, thus left unvisited, might be the Zúl-Marwah, the
+      classical "Móchoura," one of the objects of our Expedition. The alarm
+      proved, however, as will be seen, false. A Bedawi youth also volunteered a
+      grand account of three "written stones;" a built well surrounded by broken
+      quartz; and, a little off the road from El-Kutayyifah to Umm Ámil, the
+      remains of El-Dayr ("the Convent"). As Leake well knew, the latter is "a
+      name which is often indiscriminately applied by the Arabs to ancient
+      ruins." The lad said they were close by, but the Garíb ("near") and the
+      Gurayyib ("nearish") of the Midianite much resemble the Egyptian Fellah's
+      Taht el-Wish, "Under the face"&mdash;we should say "nose"&mdash;or Taht
+      el-Ka'b, "Under the heel." They may mean a handful of miles. As he refused
+      to guide us, we secured the services of an old shepherd, who, objecting to
+      sleep in camp, caused abundant trouble and delay next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this divide two roads lead to the ruins of Umm Ámil: one makes a
+      considerable detour up a branch-valley in order to avoid an ugly Pass on
+      the direct line. I again refused the camel-men permission to proceed by
+      the indirect route, well knowing that they would do their best to miss us.
+      On March 4th, at six a.m., a long descent and a similar rise led us to a
+      Col, which presently became a broad open plain, 2100 feet above sea-level
+      (aner. 28.85). Tents were scattered about the valleys; the lads tended
+      their goats, and we greatly admired one fellow who had fallen asleep in
+      the hot ascending steams. Here the old guide halted us, and declared that
+      on the top of the dark trap-block the left (south) was a Mashghal, or
+      "work-place," with a strew of quartz and nothing else. Thus ended the
+      "built well." Descending to a lower plane, bounded in front by low rolling
+      hills, I sent Lieutenant Amir to examine the "Convent" and the "written
+      stones." He came up with us at the halt; having been led over a rough
+      divide by an abominable path; and he had seen only a few ruined heaps and
+      three Arab Wusúm. Moreover, he had not dared to show disappointment before
+      the old shepherd, who would probably have bolted in fear, and left him to
+      find his own way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the caravan continued its course down the broad smooth Wady
+      Ruways, on whose left side was a large atelier, with broken walls and
+      spalled quartz of the Negro variety. Here we found, for the first time,
+      the handmills made of the hardest grey granite, so beautifully worked
+      further south; they explained the fine and carefully polished tube which
+      had been brought to the first Expedition at Zibá.<a href="#linknote-10"
+      name="linknoteref-10" id="linknoteref-10"><small>10</small></a> Several of
+      these articles were all but whole, an exception in this land of "‘clasts."
+      We then struck over the stony divide to the left, towards a fine landmark&mdash;a
+      Khitm, or "block," shaped like a seal cut en cabochon: its name is the
+      barbarous sounding Khurm el-Badaríyyah. During the ascent, which was easy,
+      we passed a second strew and scatter of the white stone broken into small
+      pieces. From the Col, reached at 9.45 a.m., a descent, vile for camels not
+      for mules, presently landed us in the Wady Umm Ámil. The left bank of the
+      hideous narrow gorge showed a line of wells or water-pits, made, said
+      Furayj, by the Mutakaddimín (veteres),&mdash;the Ancients who were
+      probably Mediævals. Crossing the torrent-gully we left on its right bank
+      the ruins of large works, especially the upper parallelogram. After a
+      thirteen miles' ride we halted at 10.40 a.m. under a rock on the left
+      side, opposite three couthless heaps of water-rolled stones surrounded by
+      fine quartz. By far the poorest thing we had yet seen, this "town" had
+      been grandiosely described to the first Expedition at Zibá. Many blessings
+      were heaped upon the head of Ámil and his mother: the name, however, as
+      the Sayyid suggested, is evidently a corruption of Mu'ámil&mdash;"the
+      workman, the employee."<a href="#linknote-11" name="linknoteref-11"
+      id="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a> I would conjecture that here the
+      slave-miners were stationed, Old Zibá being the master's abode: our
+      caravan entitled it El-Lomán&mdash;"the bagnio, the prison for galériens."
+      On the coast-town I procured some specimens of heavy red copper which had
+      been dug out of a ruined furnace; the metal is admirable, and it retrieves
+      to a certain extent the lost reputation of Umm Ámil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At noon we resumed a hot ride down the ugly, rocky watercourse, both of
+      whose banks showed long lines of ruins. Presently, crossing a divide
+      marked by two stone-heaps, we fell into the broader but equally
+      unpicturesque Wady Salmá. It is on about the same parallel as Ziba' (north
+      lat. 27° 20'); and more than the usual allowance for the error of low
+      latitude must be admitted if we would identify it with the Mediterranean
+      of Ptolemy (vi. 7), , in north lat. 260°, or fifteen miles south of Sóaka.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wady Salmá is the smallest and the northernmost of the three basins which
+      we have just visited; the central being the Dámah, and the southern Wady
+      Shaghab-Aslah-Aznab. Steaming southwards we shall note the mouths of all
+      these watercourses. We presently passed on the right bank the debouchure
+      of the Wady Ruways, and left there a guard to direct the caravan, in case
+      it should disobey orders, and march up to Umm Ámil. Here the valley gave
+      forage to a herd of milch-camels, apparently unguarded; each had her foal,
+      some newborn, others dating from January or February. After one hour and
+      forty-five minutes (= six miles) we camped on the fine sands that floor
+      the dull line hemmed in by tall masses of red and green trap. The adjacent
+      scatter of Arab wells in the bed is known as the Má el-Badí'ah. I
+      carefully inquired concerning ruins in the neighbourhood; and we climbed
+      the torrent-sides to command a (very limited) bird's-eye view of the
+      hills. According to the guides, there are no remains of the "old ones"
+      nearer than Umm Ámil
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Setting out early next morning (5.45 a.m., March 5th), after half an hour
+      down the Wady Salmá, we saw its lower course becoming a mere gorge,
+      constricted by two opposite rocks. On the left bank, above this narrow,
+      lies a group of Arab graves, which may have been built upon older
+      foundations. The right side here receives the Wady Haraymal ("Little
+      Peganum-plant"), the Haráímil of the broad-speaking Bedawin. As we struck
+      up its dull ascent, the southern form of the Shárr-giant suddenly broke
+      upon us, all glorious in his morning robes of ethereal gauzy pink. The
+      foreshortened view, from the south as well as the north, shows a compact
+      prism-formed mass which has been compared with an iceberg. The main peak,
+      Abú Shenázir, here No. 4 from the north, proudly bears a mural crown of
+      granite towers, which it hides from El-Muwaylah; and the southern end, a
+      mere vanishing ridge at this angle, but shown en face to the seaboard
+      abreast of it, breaks into three distinctly marked bluffs and heads.<a
+      href="#linknote-12" name="linknoteref-12" id="linknoteref-12"><small>12</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A divide then led upwards and downwards to the Wady Abá Rikayy, remarkable
+      only for warm pools, and crystal-clear runners, springing from the sole.
+      The fringings of white show the presence of salt; the shallows are covered
+      with the greenest mosses, and beetles chase one another over the depths
+      where the waters sleep. The lower course takes the name of Wady Kifáfí,
+      and discharges into the sea north of the Wady Salmá, with which it has
+      erroneously been united, as in Niebuhr's Selmá wa Kafâfa. According to the
+      Kátib Chelebi, who, over two centuries ago, made the "Kabr Shaykh
+      el-Kifáfí" the second pilgrim-station south of El-Muwaylah, a certain
+      Bedawi chief, El-Kifáfí, was killed with a spear, and his tomb became a
+      place of pious visitation. It is said still to exist between the Wadys
+      Salmá and Kifáfí. A third divide to the north led along the eastern flank
+      of the Jebel Abú Rísh, which exposes its head to the sea; and, reaching
+      the Col, we had the pleasure of once more greeting the blue cove that
+      forms the port of Zibá.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We then descended into the Wady Sidrah, whose left bank is formed by the
+      Safrá Zibá&mdash;"the Yellow (hill) of Zibá." This small outlying peak is
+      clad in the gaudiest of colours, especially a vivid citron-yellow, set off
+      by red and rusty surroundings, which are streaked with a dead
+      chalky-white. The citizens declare that it is absolutely useless, because
+      it does not supply sulphur. During our day's halt at Zibá, M. Marie
+      brought from it quartz of several kinds; the waxy, the heat-altered, and
+      the blue, stained with carbonate of copper. Possibly this metal may be
+      abundant at a lower horizon
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The "Valley of the (one) Jujube-tree," after narrowing to a stony gut,
+      suddenly flares out into the Wady Zibá, the vulgar feature of these
+      regions, provided with the normal "Gate" some three hundred yards broad.
+      Beyond it, the flat surrounding the head of the cove is remarkably well
+      grown with palms, clumps of the Daum, and scattered date-trees, of which
+      one is walled round. Hence I am disposed to consider Zibá the , or
+      Phoenicon Vicus, of Ptolemy: although he places it in north lat. 26° 20',
+      or between Sharm Dumayghah and El-Wijh, when it lies in north lat. 27°
+      20'. I have already protested against the derivation of the word&mdash;which
+      is written "Dhoba" by Wallin, "Deba" by Niebuhr, and "Zibber" by the
+      Hydrographic Chart&mdash;proposed by my learned friend Sprenger.<a
+      href="#linknote-13" name="linknoteref-13" id="linknoteref-13"><small>13</small></a>
+      His theory was probably suggested by El-Yákút (iii. 464), who, in the
+      twelfth century, describes "Dhabba" as "a village on the coast, opposite
+      to which is a settlement with flowing water, called Badá: the two are
+      separated by seventy miles." An older name for the station is Bir
+      el-Sultáni&mdash;the "Well of the Sultán" (Selim?): we shall presently
+      inspect these remains. Itineraries also give Kabr el-Tawáshi, "the
+      Eunuch's Tomb;" and this we still find near the palms at the head of the
+      inner baylet. It is a square measuring six paces each way, mud and
+      coralline showing traces of plaster outside. Like Wellsted (II. X.) we
+      failed to discover any sign of the Birkat ("tank") mentioned in a
+      guide-book which Burckhardt quotes; nor had the citizens ever heard of a
+      "reservoir."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The camping-ground of the pilgrims lies between the "Gate" and the
+      cove-head. Around the wells sat at squat a small gathering of the filthy
+      "Moghrebin" (Allah yakharrib-hum!). About 260 of these rufffians were
+      being carried gratis, by some charitable merchant, in a Sambúk that lay at
+      the harbour-mouth. A party had lately slaughtered a camel, of course not
+      their own property; and yet they wondered that the Bedawin shoot them.
+      They showed their insolence by threatening with an axe the dog Juno, when
+      she sportively sallied out to greet them; and were highly offended
+      because, in view of cholera and smallpox, I stationed sentries to keep
+      them at a distance. Had there been contagious disease among them, it would
+      have spread in no time. They haunted the wells, which were visited all day
+      by women driving asses from the settlement; even the single old beggar of
+      Zibá&mdash;unfailing sign of civilization&mdash;was here; and the black
+      tents of the Arabs, who grazed their flocks at the cove-head, lay within
+      easy shot of infection. On the evening of the next day, when the Sambúk
+      made sail, the shouting and screaming, the brawling, cudgelling, and
+      fighting, heard a mile off, reminded me of the foul company of Maghrabís
+      on board the Golden Wire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Sultán Selim's Well" has now grown to four, all large and masonry-lined.
+      That to the south-east is dry; travellers are confined to the western,
+      whose strong coping they have managed to tear down; whilst the northern
+      shows hard old kerb-stones, deeply grooved and rope-channelled like that
+      of Beersheba. We breakfasted at the head of the inner bay, whilst the
+      Sayyid rode forward to meet his brother Mahmúd, who had kindly brought us
+      the news from El-Muwaylah. Here we could see the townlet covering a low
+      point projecting into the Sharm; a few large and some small tenements
+      formed the body, whilst the head was the little Burj built, some fourteen
+      years ago, upon the tall sea-bank to the north. It bore, by way of
+      welcome, the Viceroy's flag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The camp was pitched upon the northern shore of the inner cove, behind the
+      new town, and sheltered by the tall sea-cliff: here stood Old Zibá, whose
+      stones, buried for ages under the sand, are now dug up to build its
+      successor. I thought better of the settlement and of the port after
+      visiting them a second time. We had looked forward to it even as to a
+      petit Paris: so Damascus and the Syrian cities appear centres of
+      civilization to Westerns coming from the East&mdash;not from the West. It
+      is far superior, especially in the article water, to El-Muwaylah; it
+      exports charcoal in large quantities, and it does a thriving business with
+      the Bedawi. Here are signs of a pier, and a mosque is to be built. The
+      fish is excellent and abundant; lobsters are caught by night near the
+      reef, and oysters in the bay when the tide is out. We succeeded, at last,
+      in having our batterie de cuisine properly tinned, and we replenished our
+      stores.<a href="#linknote-14" name="linknoteref-14" id="linknoteref-14"><small>14</small></a>
+      As at El-‘Akabah, "Hashísh" may be bought in any quantity, but no ‘Ráki&mdash;hence,
+      perhaps, the paleness and pastiness of the local complexion&mdash;and yet
+      our old acquaintance, Mohammed el-Musalmáni, is a Copt who finds it
+      convenient to be a Moslem. He aided us in collecting curiosities,
+      especially a chalcedony (agate) intended for a talisman and roughly
+      inscribed in Kufic characters, archaic and pointed like Bengali, with the
+      Koranic chapter (xcii.) that testifies the Unity, "Kul, Huw' Allah," etc.
+      As regards the port, Wellsted (Il. X.) is too severe upon it: "At Sherm
+      Dhobá the anchorage is small and inconvenient, and could only be made
+      available for boats or small vessels." Dredging the sand-bar and cutting a
+      passage in the soft coralline reef will give excellent shelter and, some
+      say, a depth of seventeen fathoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our first care was to walk straight into the sea, travelling clothes and
+      all. I then received the notables, including Mohammed Selámah of El-Wijh,
+      and at once began to inquire about the Jebel el-Fayrúz. The chief trader
+      pleaded ignorance: he was a stranger, a new-comer; he had never been out
+      of the settlement. The others opposed to me hard and unmitigated Iying:
+      they knew nothing about turquoises; there were no such stones; the mines
+      were exhausted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And yet I knew that this coast is visited for turquoises by Europeans; and
+      that the gem has been, and still is, sold at Suez and Cairo. Mr. Clarke
+      had many uncut specimens at Zagázig, embedded in a dark gangue, which he
+      called "porphyry," as opposed to the limestone which bears the silicate of
+      copper. Upon our first Expedition, we had noticed a splendid specimen, set
+      in a Bedawi matchlock; and the people of El-‘Akabah praised highly the
+      produce of the Jebel el-Ghál. Lastly, I happened to have heard that an
+      Arab lately brought to Zibá a turquoise which sold there for £3. Evidently
+      the mine, like the gold-sands before alluded to, would be carefully hidden
+      from us. This reticence explained how, on our first visit, the two
+      Staff-officers sent to prospect the diggings had been misdirected to a
+      block lying north of the townlet, the "Red Hills," alias the Jebel
+      el-Shegayg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after I left Egypt an Italian, Sig. F&mdash;, returned to Suez
+      from El-Muwaylah, with some fine pearls worth each from £20 to £30, and
+      turquoises which appeared equally good. He was then bound for Italy, but
+      he intended returning to Midian in a month or two. These are the men who
+      teach the ready natives the very latest "dodges;" such as stimulating the
+      peculiar properties of the pearl-oyster by inserting grains of sand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I also collected notes concerning the ruins of M'jirmah, of which we had
+      heard so many tales. The site, they said, is a branch of the Wady Azlam,
+      the first of the three marches between Zibá and El-Wijh, and seven and a
+      half hours' sail along the coast. This watercourse shows, above the modern
+      Hajj-station, the ruins of a fort built by Sultán Selim: Wellsted (II. X.)
+      also mentions a castle lying three miles inland. From the head of the
+      Sharm Dumayghah, seventy to seventy-two knots south of El-Muwaylah, Shaykh
+      Furayj pointed out to us the pale-blue peaks of the Jebel Zafar:<a
+      href="#linknote-15" name="linknoteref-15" id="linknoteref-15"><small>15</small></a>
+      in the upper part of its Wady, the ‘Amúd Zafar, a southern branch valley
+      of the Azlam, lies the ruin. He made it six hours' march from the
+      seaboard. It was an ancient gold-mine (?), whose house-foundations and a
+      "well with steps" still remain. "M'jirmah," which must not be confounded
+      with the "Umm Jirmah," an atelier that we shall visit to-morrow, has been
+      identified with the (Rhaunathi Pagus) of Ptolemy (north lat. 25° 40'). We
+      will return to this subject when steaming down coast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our day of rest ended, at seven p.m., with a heavy storm of wind and rain
+      from the north: the sun had been unusually hot for some days, and the sky
+      looked ugly in the evening. As usual, all assured us that the clouds
+      contained wind, not rain. Despite which, when the mess-tent had been
+      nearly blown down, owing to our men being unwilling to leave their warm
+      retreats, a heavy drenching downfall set in, and continued till eleven
+      p.m. After a short lull, wind and rain again raged at midnight; and then
+      the gale gradually blew itself out. The next two mornings were
+      delightfully brisk and bracing; and deep puddles dotted the rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On March 7th the caravan marched straight northwards, by the Hajj-road,
+      along the shore to its camping-ground, an affair of two hours, while M.
+      Marie and I set off for the turquoise mine. Furayj, who had never passed
+      that way, engaged as guide one Sulaym el-Makrafi; and this old
+      dromedary-rider's son had been sent on to bring into camp all the Fayruz
+      he could find. Crossing at six a.m. the broad pilgrim-track, we struck
+      eastward at a place where the Secondary gypsum subtends the old coralline
+      cliff. After three-quarters of an hour, we traversed the Wady Zahakán, the
+      southernmost Pass over the Shárr (proper); and presently we ascended a
+      branch that falls into the right bank. As we advanced, it became a
+      rock-walled, stonesoled tunnel; winding, contracting and widening, rising
+      and flattening, and generally interesting, compared with the dull flat
+      breadth of such features as the Wady Salmá. The overfalls of rock and the
+      unfriendly thorn-trees, selfishly taking up all the room, necessitate
+      frequent zigzags up and down the rocky, precipitous banks. After a number
+      of divides we entered the Wady Háskshah, which was wider and good for
+      riding; and at 8.30 a.m. we passed into the Wady Umm Jirmah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this broad basin we found none of the ruins so often reported; but
+      immense quantities of broken quartz showed the Mashghal or atelier. The
+      material was distinguished, from all the outcrops hitherto observed, by
+      its pretty pink, stained with oxide of iron: it appeared in large
+      ramifications mostly striking east-west, and in little pitons dotting the
+      valley sole and sides. A subsequent visit to Wady Umm Jirmah found many
+      furnaces surrounded by well-worked scoriae; of these, specimens were
+      secured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After another half-hour, we dismounted at the watershed of the Wady
+      el-Ghál, where the old guide lost no time in losing his head. The Jebel
+      el-Ghál, whose folds fall into its watercourse, is a detached block,
+      rising nearly due south of the "Sharp Peak," as the Chart calls Abú
+      Kusayb, the northernmost horn of the Shárr; while the Ghál cove, breaking
+      the sea-cliff, bears 270° (mag.) from the summit. The hill, which may
+      measure 250 feet above sea-level (aner. 29.75), is composed of porphyritic
+      trap and of the hardest felspars, veined with chocolate-coloured quartz,
+      the true gangue. While we examined the formation, Furayj and old Sulaym,
+      who became more and more "moony," ransacked the block in all directions,
+      and notably failed to find a trace of mining. Evidently Athor, the genius
+      of the "Turquoise Mountain," was not to be conquered by a coup de main; so
+      I determined to tire her out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After building a stone-man on the finial of the Jebel el-Ghál, and a short
+      rest in the north-western Wady, we remounted and struck seawards. Some
+      ugly divides led us, after half an hour, to a broad Fiumara, well grown
+      with palm-bush, the veritable Wady el-Ghál. From this point a total of
+      four miles, and a grand total of fourteen, led us to the camp: it had been
+      pitched at the Mahattat el-Gha'l, on the north bank, where the
+      "winter-torrent," falling into the cove, has broken through the sea cliff.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the best of news was in store for us. Lieutenant Yusuf, who had this
+      morning rejoined the Expedition, brought our mails from the Sambúk, which
+      I had ordered by letter at El-‘Akabah; and reported that his Highness's
+      frigate Sinnár, an old friend, would relieve the lively Mukhbir in taking
+      us to our last journey southwards. Rations for men and mules, and supplies
+      for ourselves, all were coming. We felt truly grateful to the Viceroy and
+      the Prince Minister for the gracious interest they had taken in the
+      Expedition; and we looked forward with excitement to the proper finish of
+      our labours. Without the third march, the exploration of Midian would have
+      been Abtar, as the Arabs say, "tail-less;" that is, lame and impotent in
+      point of conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I would not be beaten by the enemy upon the subject of the lapis
+      Pharanitis mine. During the course of the day, a Jeráfín Bedawi, Selím ibn
+      Musallim, brought in scoriae of copper and iron; and on the morrow I sent
+      him as guide to Lieutenant Yusuf, with an escort of two soldiers and eight
+      quarrymen on seven camels. After three days' absence (March 8&mdash;10)
+      the officer rejoined us and reported as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leaving the Mahattat el-Ghál, he rode up its watercourse, and then turned
+      southwards into the long Wady Umm Jirmah. After seven miles and a half (=
+      direct five and three-quarters), he came upon the Jebel el-Fayrúz. It is a
+      rounded eminence of no great height, showing many signs of work,
+      especially three or four cuttings some twenty metres deep. A hillock to
+      the north-west supplied the scoriæ before mentioned. Lieutenant Yusuf
+      blasted the chocolate-coloured quartzose rock in four places, filled as
+      many sacks, and struck the pilgrim-road in the Wady el-Mu'arrash, leaving
+      its red block, the Hamrá el-Mu'arrash, to the left. His specimens were
+      very satisfactory; except to the learned geologists of the Citadel, Cairo,
+      who pronounced them to be carbonate of copper! Dr. L. Karl Moser, of
+      Trieste, examined them and found crystals of turquoise, or rather
+      "johnite," as Dana has it, embedded in or spread upon the quartz. One
+      specimen, moreover, contained silver. So much for the Zibá or southern
+      turquoise-diggings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our journey ended on March 8th with a dull ride along the Hajj-road
+      northwards. Passing the creek Abú Sharír, which, like many upon this
+      coast, is rendered futile by a wall of coral reef, we threaded a long
+      flat, and after two hours (= seven miles) we entered a valley where the
+      Secondary formation again showed its débris. Here is the Mahattat el-Husan
+      ("the Stallion's Leap"), a large boulder lying to the left of the track,
+      and pitted with holes which a little imagination may convert into
+      hoof-prints. The name of the noble animal was El-Mashhúr; that of its
+      owner is, characteristically enough, forgotten by the Arabs: it lived in
+      the Days of Ignorance; others add, more vaguely still, when the Beni
+      ‘Ukbah, the lords of the land, were warring with the Baliyy. The gorge was
+      then a mere cutting, blocked up by this rock. El-Mashhúr "negotiated" it,
+      alighting upon the surface like a Galway hunter taking a stone wall; and
+      carried to Wady Tiryam its rider, whose throat was incontinently cut by
+      the foeman in pursuit. The legend is known to all, and the Bedawin still
+      scrape away the sands which threaten to bury the boulder: it has its
+      value, showing that in regions where the horse is now unknown, where, in
+      fact, nothing but a donkey can live, noble blood was once bred. The same
+      remark is made by Professor Palmer ("The Desert of the Exodus," p. 42)
+      concerning the Mangaz Hisán Abú Zená ("Leap of the Stallion of the Father
+      of Adultery"), two heaps of stone near the Sinaitic Wady Gharandal. There,
+      however, the animal is cursed, while here it is blessed: perhaps, also,
+      the Midianite tradition may descend from a source which, still older,
+      named the . Is this too far-fetched? And yet, peradventure, it may be
+      true.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We then fell into the Wady Jibbah; passed the Jebel el-Kibrít, examined M.
+      Philipin's work, and, led over a very vile and very long "short cut,"
+      found ourselves once more on board the Mukhbir.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            Note on the Supplies Procurable at Zibá.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The chief stores are:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rice (good Yemani), per Kis, or bag of five and a half Kaylah (each
+      twenty-one Ratl = eighteen pounds), four to six dollars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Durrah (Sorghum), per Ardebb (each = twelve Kaylah), seven and a half to
+      eight dollars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dukhn (millet), not common, per Ardebb, eight dollars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wheat, always procurable, per Ardebb, ten to twelve dollars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Barley, always procurable, per Ardebb, five to six dollars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ‘Adas (lentils, Revalenta Arabica), per Ardebb, ten to twelve
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Samn (liquified butter), per Ratl, seven and a half to eight dollars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Coffee (green), per pound, eighteen-pence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ‘Ajwah (pressed dates), 100 to 110 piastres per Kantar (= 100 Ratl).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eggs, thirty-five to the shilling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is generally possible to buy small quantities of Hummus (lupins or
+      chick-peas), Kharru'b (carob-pods), "hot" and coarse tobacco for the
+      Arabs, and cigarette-paper, matches, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XIII. &mdash; A Week Around and upon the Shárr Mountain–Résumé of
+      the March
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Through Eastern or Central Midian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For months the Jebel Shárr, the grand block which backs El-Muwaylah, had
+      haunted us, starting up unexpectedly in all directions, with its towering
+      heads, that shifted shape and colour from every angle, and with each
+      successive change of weather. We could hardly leave unexplored the
+      classical "Hippos Mons," the Moslem's El-Ishárah ("the Landmark"), and the
+      Bullock's Horns of the prosaic British tar.<a href="#linknote-16"
+      name="linknoteref-16" id="linknoteref-16"><small>16</small></a> The few
+      vacant days before the arrival of the Sinnár offered an excellent
+      opportunity for studying the Alpine ranges of maritime Midian. Their stony
+      heights, they said, contain wells and water in abundance, with palms,
+      remains of furnaces, and other attractions. Every gun was brought into
+      requisition, by tales of leopard and ibex, the latter attaining the size
+      of bullocks (!) and occasionally finding their way to the fort:&mdash;it
+      was curious to hear our friends, who, as usual, were great upon "le
+      shport," gravely debating whether it would be safe to fire upon le
+      léopard. I was anxious to collect specimens of botany and natural history
+      from an altitude hitherto unreached by any traveller in Western Arabia;
+      and, lastly, there was geography as well as mineralogy to be done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hydrographic Chart gives the Mountain a maximum of nine thousand<a
+      href="#linknote-17" name="linknoteref-17" id="linknoteref-17"><small>17</small></a>
+      feet, evidently a clerical error often repeated&mdash;really those
+      Admiralty gentleman are too incurious: Wellsted, who surveyed it, remarks
+      (II. X.), "The height of the most elevated peak was found to be 6500 feet,
+      and it obtained from us the appellation of ‘Mowilabh High Peak"'&mdash;when
+      there are native names for every head. We had been convinced that the
+      lesser is the true measure, by our view from the Hismá plateau, 3800 feet
+      above sea-level. Again, the form, the size, and the inclination of the
+      noble massif are wrongly laid down by the hydrographers. It is a compact
+      block, everywhere rising abruptly from low and sandy watercourses, and
+      completely detached from its neighbours by broad Wadys&mdash;the Surr to
+      the north and east, while southwards run the Kuwayd and the Zahakán. The
+      huge long-oval prism measures nineteen and a half by five miles (=
+      ninety-seven and a half square miles of area); and its lay is 320° (mag.),
+      thus deflected 40° westward of the magnetic north. The general appearance,
+      seen in profile from the west, is a Pentedactylon, a central apex, with
+      two others on each side, tossed, as it were, to the north and south, and
+      turning, like chiens de faïence, their backs upon one another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, the Chart assigns to its "Mount Mowilah" only two great
+      culminations&mdash;"Sharp Peak, 6330 feet," to the north; and south of it,
+      "High Peak, 9000." The surveyors doubtless found difficulty in obtaining
+      the Bedawi names for the several features, which are unknown to the
+      citizens of the coast; but they might easily have consulted the only
+      authorities, the Jeráfín-Huwaytát, who graze their flocks and herds on and
+      around the mountain. As usual in Arabia, the four several main "horns" are
+      called after the Fiumaras that drain them. The northernmost is the Abú
+      Gusayb (Kusayb) or Ras el-Gusayb (the "Little Reed"), a unity composed of
+      a single block and of three knobs in a knot; the tallest of the latter,
+      especially when viewed from the south, resembles an erect and reflexed
+      thumb&mdash;hence our "Sharp Peak." Follows Umm el-Furút (the "Mother of
+      Plenty"), a mural crest, a quoin-shaped wall, cliffing to the south: the
+      face, perpendicular where it looks seawards, bears a succession of scars,
+      upright gashes, the work of wind and weather; and the body which supports
+      it is a slope disposed at the natural angle. An innominatus, in the shape
+      of a similar quoin, is separated by a deep Col, apparently a torrent-bed,
+      from a huge Beco de Papagaio&mdash;the "Parrot's Bill" so common in the
+      Brazil. This is the Abú Shenázir or Shaykhánib (the "Father of Columns");
+      and, as if two names did not suffice, it has a third, Ras el-Huwayz ("of
+      the Little Cistern"). It is our "High Peak," the most remarkable feature
+      of the sea-façade, even when it conceals the pair of towering pillars that
+      show conspicuously to the north and south. From the beak-shaped apex the
+      range begins to decline and fall; there is little to notice in the fourth
+      horn, whose unimportant items, the Ras Lahyánah, the Jebel Maí'h, and the
+      Umm Gisr (Jisr), end the wall. Each has its huge white Wady, striping the
+      country in alternation with dark-brown divides, and trending coastwards in
+      the usual network.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The material of the four crests is the normal grey granite, enormous lumps
+      and masses rounded by degradation; all chasms and naked columns, with here
+      and there a sheet burnished by ancient cataracts, and a slide trickling
+      with water, unseen in the shade and flashing in the sun like a sheet of
+      crystal. The granite, however, is a mere mask or excrescence, being
+      everywhere based upon and backed by the green and red plutonic traps which
+      have enveloped it. And the prism has no easy inland slopes, as a first
+      glance suggests; instead of being the sea-wall of a great plateau, it
+      falls abruptly to the east as well as to the west. The country behind it
+      shows a perspective of high and low hills, lines of dark rock divided from
+      one another by Wadys of the usual exaggerated size. Of these minor heights
+      only one, the Jebel el-Sahhárah looks down upon the sea, rising between
+      the Dibbagh-Kh'shabríyyah block to the north, and the Shárr to the south.
+      Beyond the broken eastern ground, the ruddy Hismá and the gloomy Harrah
+      form the fitting horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this much for geography, we may view the monarch of Midianite
+      mountains in the beauty and the majesty of his picturesque form. Seen from
+      El-Muwaylah, he is equally magnificent in the flush of morning, in the
+      still of noon, and in the evening glow. As the rays, which suggested the
+      obelisk, are shooting over the southern crests, leaving the basement blue
+      with a tint between the amethyst and the lapis lazuli, its northern third
+      lies wrapped in a cloak of cold azure grey, and its central length already
+      dons a half-light of warmer hue. Meanwhile, the side next the sun is
+      flooded with an aerial aureole of subtle mist, a drift of liquid gold, a
+      gush of living light, rippling from the unrisen orb, decreasing in warmth
+      and brilliancy, paling and fading and waxing faint with infinite
+      gradations proportioned to the increase of distance. Again, after the
+      clear brooding sheen of day has set off the "stark strength and grandeur
+      of rock-form contrasted with the brilliancy and sprightliness of sea," the
+      sinking sun paints the scene with the most gorgeous of blazonings. The
+      colours of the pale rock-skeleton are so faint that there is nothing to
+      interfere with the perfect development of atmospheric effects: it is a
+      white sheet spread to catch the grand illumination, lambent lights of
+      saffron and peach-blossom and shades of purple and hyacinth. As
+      indescribably lovely is the after-glow, the zodiacal light which may have
+      originated the pyramid; the lively pink reflection from the upper
+      atmosphere; the vast variety of tints with which the greens and the reds,
+      the purples and the fiery crimsons of the western sky tincture the
+      receptive surface of the neutral-hued granites; and the
+      chameleon-shiftings of the dying day, as it sinks into the arms of night.
+      Nor less admirable are the feats of the fairy Refraction. The mighty
+      curtain seems to rise and fall as if by magic: it imitates, as it were,
+      the framework of man. In early morning the dancing of the air adds many a
+      hundred cubits to its apparent stature: it is now a giant, when at
+      midnight, after the equipoise of atmospheric currents, it becomes a dwarf
+      replica of its former self.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                           * * * * * *
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I had neglected to order overnight the camels from El-Muwaylah, a
+      penny-wise proceeding which delayed our departure. It was nearly nine a.m.
+      (March 13th) before we left the Mukhbir, whose unhappies still sighed and
+      yearned for the civilization and dissipation of Suez; landed at the head
+      of the Sharm Yáhárr, and marched up the Wady Hárr. We were guided by two
+      Jeráfín, Sulayman ibn Musallim and Farj ibn ‘Awayz; the former a model
+      hill-man, a sturdy, thick-legged, huge-calved, gruff-voiced, full-bearded
+      fellow, hot-tempered, good-humoured, and renowned as an ibex-hunter. His
+      gun, marked "Lazari Coitinaz," was a long-barrelled Spanish musket,
+      degraded to a matchlock: it had often changed hands, probably by theft,
+      and the present owner declared that he had bought it for seventy dollars&mdash;nearly
+      £15! Yet its only luxury was the bottom of a breechloader brass cartridge,
+      inlaid and flanked by the sharp incisors of the little Wabar, or mountain
+      coney. These Bedawin make gunpowder for themselves; they find saltpetre in
+      every cavern, and they buy from Egypt the sulphur which is found in their
+      own hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few minutes we left the Hárr, which drains the tallest of the
+      inland hillock-ranges, and the red block "Hamrá el-Maysarah;" and we
+      struck south-east into the Wady Sanawíyyah. It is a vulgar valley with a
+      novelty, the Tamrat Faraj. This cairn of brick-coloured boulders
+      buttressing the right bank has, or is said to have, the Memnonic property
+      of emitting sounds&mdash;Yarinn is the Bedawi word. The boomings and
+      bellowings are said to be loudest at sunrise and sunset. The "hideous hum"
+      of such subterraneous thunderings is alluded to by all travellers in the
+      Dalmatian Island of Melada, and in the Narenta Valley. The marvel has been
+      accounted for by the escape of imprisoned air unequally expanded, but "a
+      veil of mystery hangs over the whole."<a href="#linknote-18"
+      name="linknoteref-18" id="linknoteref-18"><small>18</small></a> The
+      valley-sides of dark trap were striped with white veins of heat-altered
+      argil; the sole with black magnetic sand; and patches of the bed were
+      buttercup-yellow with the Handán (dandelion), the Cytisus, and the Zaram
+      (Panicum turgidum) loved by camels. Their jaundiced hue contrasted vividly
+      with the red and mauve blossoms of the boragine El-Kahlá, the blue
+      flowerets of the Lavandula (El-Zayti), and the delicate green of the
+      useless<a href="#linknote-19" name="linknoteref-19" id="linknoteref-19"><small>19</small></a>
+      asphodel (El-Borag), which now gave a faint and shadowy aspect of verdure
+      to the slopes. Although the rise was inconsiderable, the importance of the
+      vegetation palpably decreased as we advanced inland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After four miles we reached the Wady-head, and wasted a couple of hours
+      awaiting the camels that carried our supplies. The path then struck over a
+      stony divide, with the Hamrá to the left or north, and on the other side
+      the Hamrá el-Mu'arrash, made familiar to us by our last march. The latter
+      ends in an isolated peak, the Jebel Gharghúr, which, on our return, was
+      mistaken for the sulphur-hill of Jibbah. Presently we renewed acquaintance
+      with the Wady el-Bayzá, whose lower course we had crossed south of Sharm
+      Yáhárr: here it is a long and broad, white and tree-dotted expanse,
+      glaring withal, and subtending all this section of the Shárr's sea-facing
+      base. We reached, after a total of eight miles, the Jibál el-Kawáim, or
+      "the Perpendiculars," one of the features which the Bedawin picturesquely
+      call the Aulád el-Shárr ("Sons of the Sha'rr"). The three heads, projected
+      westwards from the Umm Furút peak and then trending northwards, form a
+      lateral valley, a bay known as Wady el-Káimah. It is a picturesque feature
+      with its dark sands and red grit, while the profile of No. 3 head, the
+      Káimat Abú Rákí, shows a snub-nosed face in a judicial wig, the trees
+      forming an apology for a beard. I thought of "Buzfuz Bovill."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We camped early, as the Safh el-Shárr (the "Plain of the Shárr") and the
+      lateral valley were found strewed with quartzes, white, pink, and deep
+      slate-blue. The guides had accidentally mentioned a "Jebel el-Marú," and I
+      determined to visit it next morning. The night was warm and still. The
+      radiation of heat from the huge rock-range explained the absence of cold,
+      so remarkable during all this excursion&mdash;hence the African traveller
+      ever avoids camping near bare stones. Dew, however, wetted our boxes like
+      thin rain: the meteor, remarked for the first time on March 13th, will
+      last, they say, three months, and will greatly forward vegetation. It
+      seems to be uncertain, or rather to be influenced by conditions which we
+      had no opportunity of studying: at times it would be exceptionally heavy,
+      and in other places it was entirely absent. Before evening new
+      contract-boots, bought from the Mukhbir, were distributed to the soldiers
+      and all the quarrymen, who limped painfully on their poor bare feet:&mdash;next
+      day all wore their well-hidden old boots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early on March 14th we ascended the Wady el-Káimah, which showed a
+      singular spectacle, and read us another lecture upon the diversity of
+      formation which distinguishes this region. An abrupt turn then led over
+      rough ground, the lower folds of the Umm Furút, where a great granite
+      gorge, the Nakb Abú Shár, ran up to a depression in the dorsum, an
+      apparently practicable Col. Suddenly the rocks assumed the quaintest hues
+      and forms. The quartz, slaty-blue and black, was here spotted and streaked
+      with a dull, dead white, as though stained by the droppings of myriad
+      birds: there it lay veined and marbled with the most vivid of rainbow
+      colours&mdash; reds and purples, greens and yellows, set off by the pale
+      chalky white. Evident signs of work were remarked in a made road running
+      up to the Jebel el-Marú (proper), whose strike is 38° (mag.), and whose
+      dip is westward. It is an arête, a cock's-comb of snowy quartz some sixty
+      feet high by forty-five broad at the base; crowning a granitic fold that
+      descends abruptly, with a deep fall on either side, from the "Mother of
+      Plenty." This strangely isolated wall, left standing by the denudation
+      that swept away the containing stone, had been broken by perpendicular
+      rifts into four distinct sections; the colour became whiter as it neared
+      the coping, and each rock was crowned with a capping that sparkled like
+      silver in the sudden glance of the "cloud-compelling" sun. The sight
+      delighted us; and M. Lacaze here made one of his most effective croquis,
+      showing the explorers reduced to the size of ants. As yet we had seen
+      nothing of the kind; nor shall we see a similar vein till we reach
+      Abú'l-Marwah, near our farthest southern point. I expected a corresponding
+      formation upon the opposite eastern versant: we found only a huge crest, a
+      spine of black plutonic rock, intensely ugly and repulsive. As we rode
+      back down the "Valley of the Perpendiculars," the aspect of the Jebel
+      el-Marú was épâtant&mdash;to use another favourite camp-word. Standing
+      sharply out from its vague and gloomy background made gloomier by the
+      morning mists, the Col, whose steep rain-cut slopes and sole were
+      scattered with dark trees and darker rocks, this glittering wall became
+      the shell of an enchanted castle in Gustave Doré.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returning to our old camping-ground after a ride of three hours and thirty
+      minutes (= nine miles), we crossed two short divides, and descended the
+      Wady el-Kusayb, which gives a name to "Sharp Peak." Here a few formless
+      stone-heaps and straggling bushes represented the ruins, the gardens of
+      palms, and the bullrushes of the Bedawi shepherd lads.<a
+      href="#linknote-20" name="linknoteref-20" id="linknoteref-20"><small>20</small></a>
+      Our tents had been pitched in the rond-point of the Wady Surr, which
+      before had given us hospitality (February 19th), on a Safh or high
+      bouldery ledge of the left bank, where it receives the broad Kusayb
+      watercourse. The day had been sultry; the sun was a "rain sun," while the
+      clouds massed thick to the south-west; and at night the lamps of heaven
+      shone with a reddish, lurid light. The tent-pegs were weighted with
+      camel-boxes against the storm; nevertheless, our mess-tent was levelled in
+      a moment by the howling north-easter&mdash;warm withal&mdash;which,
+      setting in about midnight, made all things uncomfortable enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst the caravan was ordered to march straight up the noble Wady Surr,
+      we set off next morning at six a.m. up the Wady Malíh, the north-eastern
+      branch of the bulge in the bed. A few Arab tents were scattered about the
+      bushes above the mouth; and among the yelping curs was a smoky-faced tyke
+      which might have been Eskimo-bred:&mdash;hereabouts poor ‘Brahim had been
+      lost, and was not fated to be found. A cross-country climb led to the
+      Jebel Malíh, whose fame for metallic wealth gave us the smallest
+      expectations&mdash;hitherto all our discoveries came by surprise. A
+      careful examination showed nothing at all; but a few days afterwards
+      glorious specimens of cast copper were brought in, the Bedawi declaring
+      that he had found them amongst the adjoining hills. In the re-entering
+      angles of the subjacent Wady the thrust of a stick is everywhere followed
+      by the reappearance of stored-up rain, and the sole shows a large puddle
+      of brackish and polluted water. Perhaps the Malayh of the Bedawin may mean
+      "the salt" (Málih), not "the pleasant" (Malíh). Malíh, or Mallih, is also
+      the name of a plant, the Reaumuria vernice of Forskâl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Resuming our ride up the torrent-bed, and crossing to the Wady Daumah (of
+      the "Single Daum-palm"), we dragged our mules down a ladder of rock and
+      boulder, the left bank of the upper Surr. The great valley now defines,
+      sharply as a knife-cut, the northernmost outlines of the Shárr, whose
+      apex, El-Kusayb, towered above our heads. Thorn-trees are abundant;
+      fan-palm bush grows in patches; and we came upon what looked like a
+      flowing stream ruffled by the morning breeze: the guides declared that it
+      is a rain-pool, dry as a bone in summer. Presently the rocky bed made a
+      sharp turn; and its "Gate," opened upon another widening, the meeting
+      place of four Wadys, the northern being the Wady Zibayyib that drains
+      ruddy Abá‘l-bárid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a short halt to examine the rude ruins reported by Mr. Clarke,<a
+      href="#linknote-21" name="linknoteref-21" id="linknoteref-21"><small>21</small></a>
+      we resumed the ascent of the Surr, whose left bank still defines the
+      eastern edge of the Shárr. The latter presently puts forth the jagged
+      spine of black and repulsive plutonic rock, which notes the Sha'b Makhúl,
+      the corresponding versant of the Nakb Abú Sha'r. The Bedawin, who, as
+      usual, luxuriate in nomenclature, distinguish between the eastern and
+      western faces of the same block, and between the Wadys of the scarp and
+      the counter-scarp. For instance, the eastern front of the Ras el-Kusayb is
+      called Abú Kurayg (Kurayj). This is natural, as the formations, often of a
+      different material, show completely different features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little further on, the continuity of the right bank is broken by the
+      Wady el-Hámah. It receives the Wady Kh'shabríyyah, which, bifurcating in
+      the upper bed, drains the Dibbagh and the Umm Jedayl blocks; and in the
+      fork lie, we were told, the ruins of El-Fara', some five hours' march from
+      this section of the Surr. At the confluence of El-Hámah we found the
+      camels grazing and the tents pitched without orders: the two Shaykhs were
+      determined to waste another day, so they were directed to reload while we
+      breakfasted. Everything was in favour of a long march; the dusty, gusty
+      north-easter had blown itself out in favour of a pleasant southerly wind,
+      a sea breeze deflected from the west.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After marching three miles we camped at the foot of the ridge to be
+      ascended next morning: the place is called Safhat el-Mu'ayrah from a slaty
+      schistose hill on the eastern bank. The guides declared that the only
+      practicable line to the summit was from this place; and that the Sha'bs
+      (Cols) generally cannot be climbed even by the Arabs&mdash;I have reason
+      to believe the reverse. Musallim, an old Bedawi, brought, amongst other
+      specimens from the adjacent atelier, the Mashghal el-Mu'ayrah, a bright
+      bead about the size of No. 5 shot: in the evening dusk it was taken for
+      gold, and it already aroused debates concerning the proper direction of
+      the promised reward, fifty dollars. The morning light showed fine copper.
+      Here free metal was distinctly traceable in the scoriæ, and it was the
+      first time that we had seen slag so carelessly worked. Not a little
+      merriment was caused by the ostentatious display of "gold-stones," marked
+      by M. Philipin's copper-nailed boots. Sulaymán, the Bedawi, had killed a
+      Wabar, whose sadly mutilated form appeared to be that of the Syrian hill
+      coney: these men split the bullet into four; "pot" at the shortest
+      distance, and, of course, blow to pieces any small game they may happen to
+      hit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early on March 16th we attacked the Shárr in a general direction from
+      north to south, where the ascent looked easy enough. On the left bank a
+      porphyritic block, up whose side a mule can be ridden, is disposed in a
+      slope of the palest and most languid of greens, broken by piles of black
+      rock so regular as to appear artificial. This step leads to a horizontal
+      crest, a broken wall forming its summit: it is evidently an outlier; and
+      experience asked, What will be behind it? The more distant plane showed
+      only the heads of the Shenázir or "Pins," the two quaint columns which are
+      visible as far as the Shárr itself. This lower block is bounded, north and
+      south, by gorges; fissures that date from the birth of the mountain,
+      deepened by age and raging torrents: apparently they offered no passage.
+      In the former direction yawns the Rushúh Abú Tinázib, so called from its
+      growth&mdash;the Tanzub-tree<a href="#linknote-22" name="linknoteref-22"
+      id="linknoteref-22"><small>22</small></a> (Sodada decidua); and in the
+      latter the Sháb Umm Khárgah (Khárjah). I should have preferred a likely
+      looking Nakb, south of this southern gorge, but the Bedawin, and
+      especially Abú Khartúm, who had fed his camels and sheep upon the
+      mountain, overruled me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ascent of the outlier occupied three very slow hours, spent mostly in
+      prospecting and collecting. At nine a.m. we stood 3200 feet above
+      sea-level (aner. 26.79), high enough to make our tents look like bits of
+      white macadam. What most struck us was the increased importance of the
+      vegetation, both in quantity and quality; the result, doubtless, of more
+      abundant dew and rain, as well as of shade from each passing mist-cloud.
+      The view formed a startling contrast of fertility and barrenness. At every
+      hundred yards the growths of the plain became more luxuriant in the rich
+      humus filling the fissures, and, contrary to the general rule, the plants,
+      especially the sorrel (Rumex) and the dandelion (Taraxacum), instead of
+      dwindling, gained in stature. The strong-smelling Ferula looked like a
+      bush, and the Sarh grew into a tree: the Ar'ar,<a href="#linknote-23"
+      name="linknoteref-23" id="linknoteref-23"><small>23</small></a> a homely
+      hawthorn (hawthorn-leaved Rhus), whose appearance was a surprise, equalled
+      the Cratœgus of Syria; and the upper heights must have been a forest of
+      fine junipers (Habíbah = Juniperus Phœnicea), with trunks thick as a man's
+      body. The guides spoke of wild figs, but we failed to find them. Our
+      chasseurs, who had their guns, eagerly conned over the traces of ibex and
+      hyenas, and the earths, as well as the large round footprints, of un
+      léopard; but none of the larger animals were seen. The Bedawi matchlock
+      has made them wary; chance might give a shot the first day: on the other
+      hand, skill might be baffled for a month or two&mdash;I passed six weeks
+      upon the Anti-Libanus before seeing a bear. The noble Shinnár-partridge
+      again appeared; an eagle's feather lay on the ground; two white papillons
+      and one yellow butterfly reminded me of the Camarones Mountain; the wild
+      bee and the ladybird-like Ba'úzah stuck to us as though they loved us; and
+      we were pestered by the attentions of the common fly. The Egyptian symbol
+      for "Paul Pry" is supposed to denote an abundance of organic matter: it
+      musters strong throughout Midian, even in the dreariest wastes; and it
+      accompanies us everywhere, whole swarms riding upon our backs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only semblance of climbing was over the crest of brown, burnished, and
+      quartzless traps. Even there the hands were hardly required, although our
+      poor feet regretted the want of Spartelles.<a href="#linknote-24"
+      name="linknoteref-24" id="linknoteref-24"><small>24</small></a> Here the
+      track debouched upon an inverted arch, with a hill, or rather a tall and
+      knobby outcrop of rock, on either flank of the keystone. The inland or
+      eastward view was a map of the region over which we had travelled; a
+      panorama of little chains mostly running parallel with the great range,
+      and separated from it by Wadys, lateral, oblique, and perpendicular. Of
+      these torrent-beds some were yellow, others pink, and others faint sickly
+      green with decomposed trap; whilst all bore a fair growth of thorn-trees&mdash;Acacias
+      and Mimosas. High over and beyond the monarch of the Shafah Mountains,
+      Jebel Sahhárah, whose blue poll shows far out at sea, ran the red levels
+      of the Hismá, backed at a greater elevation by the black-blue Harrah. The
+      whole Tihámah range, now so familiar to us, assumed a novel expression.
+      The staple material proved to be blocks and crests of granite, protruding
+      from the younger plutonics, which enfolded and enveloped their bases and
+      backs. The one exception was the dwarf Umm Jedayl, a heap composed only of
+      grey granite. The Jebel Kh'shabríyyah in the Dibbagh block attracted every
+      eye; the head was supported by a neck swathed as with an old-fashioned
+      cravat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The summit of the outlier is tolerably level, and here the shepherds had
+      built small hollow piles of dry stone, in which their newly yeaned lambs
+      are sheltered from the rude blasts. The view westwards, or towards the
+      sea, which is not seen, almost justifies by its peculiarity the wild
+      traditions of built wells, of a "moaning mountain," and of furnaces upon
+      the loftiest slopes: it is notable that the higher we went, the less we
+      heard of these features, which at last vanished into thin air. Our
+      platform is, as I suspected, cut off from the higher plane by a dividing
+      gorge; but the depth is only three hundred feet, and to the south it is
+      bridged by a connecting ridge. Beyond it rises the great mask of granite
+      forming the apex, a bonier skeleton than any before seen. Down the
+      northern sheet-rocks trickled a thin stream that caught the sun's eye;
+      thus the ravine is well supplied with water in two places. South of it
+      rises a tempting Col, with a slope apparently easy, separating a dull mass
+      of granite on the right from the peculiar formation to the left. The
+      latter is a dome of smooth, polished, and slippery grey granite, evidently
+      unpleasant climbing; and from its landward slope rise abrupt, as if
+      hand-built, two isolated gigantic "Pins," which can hardly measure less
+      than four hundred feet in stature. They are the remains of a sharp
+      granitic comb whose apex was once the "Parrot's Beak." The mass, formerly
+      mammilated, has been broken and denticulated by the destruction of softer
+      strata. Already the lower crest, bounding the Sha'b Umm Khárgah, shows
+      perpendicular fissures which, when these huge columns shall be gnawed away
+      by the tooth of Time, will form a new range of pillars for the benefit of
+      those ascending the Shárr, let us say in about A.D. 10,000. Such are the
+      "Pins" which name the mountain; and which, concealed from the coast, make
+      so curious a show to the north, south, and east of this petrified glacier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After breaking their fast, M.M. Clarke, Lacaze, and Philipin volunteered
+      to climb the tempting Col. None of them had ever ascended a mountain, and
+      they duly despised the obstacles offered by big rocks distance-dwarfed to
+      paving-stones; and of sharp angles, especially the upper,
+      perspective-blunted to easy slopes. However, all three did exceeding well:
+      for such a "forlorn hope" young recruits are better than old soldiers.
+      They set out at eleven a.m., and lost no time in falling asunder; whilst
+      the quarrymen, who accompanied them with the water-skins, shirked work as
+      usual, lagged behind, sat and slept in some snug hollow, and returned,
+      when dead-tired of slumber, declaring that they had missed the "Effendis."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. Philipin took singly the sloping side of the connecting ridge; and,
+      turning to the right, made straight for the "Pins," below which was spread
+      a fleck of lean and languid green. The ascent was comparatively mild,
+      except where it became a sheet of smooth and slippery granite; but when he
+      reached a clump of large junipers, his course was arrested by a
+      bergschrund, which divides this block&mdash;evidently a second outlier&mdash;from
+      the apex of the Shárr, the "Dome" and the "Parrot's Beak." It was vain to
+      attempt a passage of the deep gash, with perpendicular upper walls, and
+      lower slopes overgrown with vegetation; nor could he advance to the right
+      and rejoin his companions, who were parted from him by the precipices on
+      the near side of the Col. Consequently, he beat a retreat, and returned to
+      us at 2.30 p.m., after three hours and thirty minutes of exceedingly
+      thirsty work: the air felt brisk and cool, but the sun shone pitilessly,
+      unveiled by the smallest scrap of mist. He brought with him an ibex-horn
+      still stained with blood, and a branch of juniper, straight enough to make
+      an excellent walking-stick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other two struck across the valley, and at once breasted the couloir
+      leading to the Col, where we had them well in sight. They found the ascent
+      much "harder on the collar" than they expected: fortunately the sole of
+      the huge gutter yielded a trickle of water. The upper part was, to their
+      naive surprise, mere climbing on all fours; and they reached the summit,
+      visible from our halting-place, in two hours. Here they also were
+      summarily stopped by perpendicular rocks on either side, and by the deep
+      gorge or crevasse, shedding seawards and landwards, upon whose further
+      side rose the "Parrot's Beak." The time employed would give about two
+      thousand feet, not including the ascent from the valley (three hundred
+      feet); and thus their highest point could hardly be less than 5200 feet.
+      Allowing another thousand for the apex, which they could not reach,<a
+      href="#linknote-25" name="linknoteref-25" id="linknoteref-25"><small>25</small></a>
+      the altitude of the Shárr would be between 6000 and 6500 feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadows were beginning to lengthen before the two reappeared, and the
+      delay caused no small apprehension; the Sayyid showed a kindly agitation
+      that was quite foreign to his calm and collected demeanour, when
+      threatened by personal danger. To be benighted amongst these cruel
+      mountains must be no joke; nor would it have been possible to send up a
+      tent or even mouth-munition. However, before the sun had reached the west,
+      they came back triumphant with the spoils of war. One was a snake (Echis
+      colorata, Günther), found basking upon the stones near the trickle of
+      water. It hissed at them, and, when dying, it changed colour, they
+      declared, like a chameleon&mdash;that night saw it safely in the
+      spirit-tin. They were loaded with juniper boughs, and fortunately they had
+      not forgotten the berries; the latter establish the identity of the tree
+      with the common Asiatic species. M. Lacaze brought back several Alpine
+      plants, a small Helix which he had found near the summit, and copious
+      scrawls for future croquis&mdash;his studies of the "Pins" and the "Dome"
+      were greatly admired at Cairo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere the glooms of night had set in, we found ourselves once more at the
+      tents. Only one man suffered from the ascent, and his sunstroke was
+      treated in Egyptian fashion. Instead of bleeding like that terrible,
+      murderous Italian school of Sangrados, the Fellahs tie a string tightly
+      round the head; and after sunset&mdash;which is considered de rigueur&mdash;they
+      fill the ears with strong brine. According to them the band causes a bunch
+      of veins to swell in the forehead, and, when pressed hard, it bursts like
+      a pistol-shot. The cure is evidently effected by the cold salt-and-water.
+      The evening ended happily with the receipt of a mail, and with the good
+      news that the Sinnár corvette had been sent to take the place of
+      El-Mukhbir, the unfortunate. Once more we felt truly grateful to the
+      Viceroy and the Prince who so promptly and so considerately had supplied
+      all our wants, and whose kindness would convert our southern cruise into a
+      holiday gîte, without the imminent deadly risk of a burst boiler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We set out in high spirits on the next morning (6.15 a.m., March 17th),
+      riding, still southwards, up the Surr: the stony, broken surface now
+      showed that we were fast approaching its source. Beyond the Umm Khárgah
+      gorge on the western bank, rose a tall head, the Ras el-Rukabíyyah; and
+      beyond it was a ravine, in which palms and water are said to be found. The
+      opposite side raised its monotonous curtain of green and red traps, whose
+      several projections bore the names of Jebel el-Wu'ayrah&mdash;the hill
+      behind our camping-ground&mdash;Jebel el-Maín, and Jebel Sháhitah. A
+      little beyond the latter debouched the Darb el-Kufl ("Road of Caravans"),
+      alias Darb el-Ashárif ("Road of the Sherifs"), a winding gap, the old line
+      of the Egyptian pilgrims, by which the Sulaymáyyán Bedawin still wend
+      their way to Suez. The second name, perhaps, conserves the tradition of
+      long-past wars waged between the Descendants of the Apostle and the Beni
+      ‘Ukbah.<a href="#linknote-26" name="linknoteref-26" id="linknoteref-26"><small>26</small></a>
+      The broad mouth was dotted with old graves, with quartz-capped
+      memorial-cairns, and, here and there, with a block bearing some tribal
+      mark. The Wady-sole grew a "stinkhorn" held to be poisonous, and called,
+      from its fetor, "Faswat el-‘Agúz" (Cynophallus impudicus): one specimen
+      was found on the tip of an ibex-horn, and the other had been impaled with
+      a stick. After two hours and thirty minutes (= seven miles) we sighted the
+      head of the Wady Surr proper, whose influents drain the southern
+      Khurayatah or Hismá Pass. Here the amount of green surface, and the number
+      of birds, especially the blue-rock and the insect-impaling "butcher,"
+      whose nests were in the thin forest of thorn-trees, argue that water is
+      not far off. The Ras Wady Surr is a charming halting-place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our Arabs worked hard to gain another day. The only tolerable Pass
+      rounding the southern Shárr was, they declared, the Wady Aújar, an
+      influent of the Wady Zahakán, near Zibá. The Col el-Kuwayd, now within a
+      few yards of us, is so terrible that the unfortunate camels would require,
+      before they could attempt it, at least twenty-four hours of preparatory
+      rest and rich feeding; and so forth. However, we pushed them on with
+      flouts and jeers, and we ourselves followed at eleven a.m.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Pass proved to be one of the easiest. It began with a gradual rise up
+      a short broad Wady, separating the southernmost counterforts of the Shárr
+      from the north end of the Jebel el-Ghuráb. This "Raven Mountain" is a line
+      of similar but lower formation, which virtually prolongs the great
+      "Landmark," down coast. The bottom was dotted with lumps of pure "Marú,"
+      washed from the upper levels. We reached the summit in forty minutes, and
+      the seaward slope beyond it was a large outcrop of quartz in situ, that
+      assumed the strangest appearance,&mdash;a dull, dead chalky-white, looking
+      as if heat-altered or mixed with clay. The rock-ladder leading to the
+      lower Wady Kuwayd, which has an upper branch of the same name, offered no
+      difficulty to man or beast; and the aneroid showed its height to be some
+      470 feet (28.13&mdash;28.50). The caravan, having preceded us, revenged
+      itself by camping at the nearest pool, distant nineteen and a half direct
+      geographical miles from our destination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This day was the first of the Khamsín or, as M. Loufti (?), a Coptic
+      student, writes it, "Khamasín," from Khama ("warm") and Sina ("air").<a
+      href="#linknote-27" name="linknoteref-27" id="linknoteref-27"><small>27</small></a>
+      The Midianites call it El-Daufún, the hot blasts, and expect it to blow at
+      intervals for a couple of months. This scirocco has been modified in
+      Egypt, at least during the spring, apparently by the planting of trees.
+      About a quarter-century ago, its regular course was three days: on the
+      first it set in; the second was its worst; and men knew that it would
+      exhaust itself on the third. Now it often lasts only a single day, and
+      even that short period has breaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The site of the camp made sleep well-nigh impossible&mdash;a bad
+      preparation for the only long ride of this excursion. Setting off at dark
+      (4.20 a.m., March 18th), we finished the monotonous Wady Kuwayd, which
+      mouths upon the rolling ground falling coastwards. The track then struck
+      to the north-west, across and sometimes down the network of Wadys that
+      subtends the south-western Shárr&mdash;their names have already been
+      mentioned. As we sighted the cool green-blue sea, its horizon-line
+      appeared prodigiously uplifted, as if the Fountains of the great Deep were
+      ready for another Deluge. I remembered the inevitable expressions of
+      surprise with which, young Alpinists and ballooners, expecting the rim of
+      the visible circle to fall away, see it rising around them in
+      saucer-shape. The cause is simply that which breaks the stick in water,
+      and which elevates the Sha'rr every morning&mdash;Refraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a march of seven hours (= twenty-two miles), we debouched, viâ the
+      Wady Hárr, upon our old Sharm, the latter showing, for the first time
+      since its creation, two war-steamers, with their "tender," a large Sambúk.
+      The boats did not long keep us waiting; and we were delighted to tread
+      once more the quarter-deck of the corvette Sinnár. Captain Ali Bey
+      Shukri's place had been taken by Captain Hasan-Bey, an Osmanli of Cavala
+      who, having been forty-eight years in the service, sighed for his pension.
+      He did, however, everything in his power to make us feel "at home;" and
+      the evening ended with a fantasia of a more pronounced character than
+      anything that I had yet seen.<a href="#linknote-28" name="linknoteref-28"
+      id="linknoteref-28"><small>28</small></a>
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Résumé of the March Through Eastern or Central Midian.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Our journey through Eastern or Central Midian lasted eighteen days
+      (February 19&mdash;March 8), with an excursion of six (March 13&mdash;18)
+      to its apex, the mighty Shárr, which I would add to our exploration of
+      Central Midian. Despite enforced slow marches at the beginning of the
+      first section, we visited in round numbers, according to my itinerary, 197
+      miles: Lieutenant Amir's map gives a linear length of 222 miles, not
+      including the offsets. The second part covered fifty-five miles, besides
+      the ascent of the mountain to a height of about five thousand feet: the
+      mapper also increased this figure to 59 2/3. Thus the route-line shows a
+      grand total of 252 to 281 2/3 in direct statute miles. The number of
+      camels engaged from Shaykhs ‘Alayán and Hasan was sixty-one; and the hire,
+      according to Mr. Clarke, represented £147 6s. 6d., not including the £40
+      of which we were plundered by the bandit Ma'ázah. The ascent of the Shárr
+      also cost £40, making a grand total of £187 6s. 6d.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The march to the Hismá gave us a fair idea of the three main formations of
+      Madyan, which lie parallel and east of one another:&mdash;1. The sandy and
+      stony maritime region, the foot-hills of the Gháts, granites and traps
+      with large veins and outcrops of quartz; and Wadys lined with thick beds
+      of conglomerate. 2. The Jibál el-Tihámah, the majestic range that bounds
+      the seaboard inland, with its broad valleys and narrow gorges forming the
+      only roads. 3. The Jibál el-Shafah, or interior ridge, the "lip" of
+      North-Western Arabia; in fact, the boundary-wall of the Nejd plateau.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The main object of this travel was to ascertain the depth from west to
+      east of the quartz-formations, which had been worked by the Ancients. I
+      had also hoped to find a virgin region lying beyond El-Harrah, the
+      volcanic tract subtending the east of the Hismá, or plateau of New Red
+      Sandstone. We ascertained, by inquiry, that the former has an extent
+      wholly unsuspected by Dr. Wallin and by the first Expedition; and that a
+      careful examination of it is highly desirable. But we were stopped upon
+      the very threshold of the Hismá by the Ma'ázah, a tribe of brigands which
+      must be subjected to discipline before the province of Madyan can be
+      restored to its former status.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This northern portion had been visited by Dr. Wallin; the other two-thirds
+      of the march lay, I believe, over untrodden ground. We brought back
+      details concerning the three great parallel Wadys; the Salmá, the Dámah,
+      that "Arabian Arcadia," and the ‘Aslah-Aznab. We dug into, and made
+      drawings and plans of, the two principal ruined cities, Shuwák and
+      Shaghab, which probably combined to form the classical ; and of the two
+      less important sites, El-Khandaki and Umm Ámil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roads of this region, and indeed of all Midian, are those of Iceland
+      without her bogs and snows: for riding considerations we may divide them
+      into four kinds:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. Wady&mdash;the Fiumara or Nullah; called by travellers "winter-brook"
+      and "dry river-bed." It is a channel without water, formed, probably, by
+      secular cooling and contraction of the earth's surface, like the fissures
+      which became true streams in the tropics, and in the higher temperate
+      zones. Its geological age would be the same as the depressions occupied by
+      the ocean and the "massive" eruptions forming the mountain-skeleton of the
+      globe. Both the climate and the vegetation of Midian must have changed
+      immensely if these huge features, many of them five miles broad, were ever
+      full of water. In modern days, after the heaviest rains, a thin thread
+      meanders down a wilderness of bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wady-formation shows great regularity. Near the mouth its loose sands
+      are comfortable to camels and distressing to man and mule. The gravel of
+      the higher section is good riding; the upper part is often made impassable
+      by large stones and overfalls of rock; and the head is a mere couloir.
+      Flaked clay or mud show the thalweg; and the honeycombed ground, always
+      above the line of highest water, the homes of the ant, beetle, jerboa,
+      lizard, and (Girdi) rat, will throw even the cautious camel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Ghadír&mdash;the basin where rain-water sinks. It is mostly a shining
+      bald flat of hard yellow clay, as admirable in dry as it is detestable in
+      wet weather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. Majrá&mdash;here pronounced "Maghráh"<a href="#linknote-29"
+      name="linknoteref-29" id="linknoteref-29"><small>29</small></a>&mdash;the
+      divide; literally, the place of flowing. It is the best ground of all,
+      especially where the yellow or brown sands are overlaid by hard gravel, or
+      by a natural metalling of trap and other stones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. Wa'r&mdash;the broken stony surface, over which camels either cannot
+      travel, or travel with difficulty: it is the horror of the Bedawi; and,
+      when he uses the word, it usually means that it causes man to dismount. It
+      may be of two kinds; either the Majrá proper ("divide") or the Nakb
+      ("pass"), and the latter may safely be left to the reader's imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The partial ascent of the mighty Shárr gave an admirable study of the mode
+      in which the granites have been enfolded and enveloped by the later
+      eruptions of trap. Nor less curious, also, was it to remark how, upon this
+      Arabian Alp, vegetation became more important; increasing, contrary to the
+      general rule, not only in quantity but in size, and changing from the date
+      and the Daum to the strong smelling Ferula, the homely hawthorn, and the
+      tall and balmy juniper-tree. There is game, ibex and leopard, in these
+      mountains; but the traveller, unless a man of leisure, must not expect to
+      shoot or even to sight it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XIV. &mdash; Down South&mdash;to El-Wijh–Notes on the Quarantine&mdash;the
+      Hutaym Tribe.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      There remained work to do before we could leave El-Muwaylah. The two
+      Shaykhs, ‘Alayán and Hasan el-‘Ukbi, were to be paid off end dismissed
+      with due ceremony; provisions were to be brought from the fort to the
+      cove; useless implements to be placed in store; mules to be embarked&mdash;no
+      joke without a pier!&mdash;and last, but not least, the ballastless
+      Mukhbir was to be despatched with a mail for Suez. The whole Expedition,
+      except only the sick left at the fort, was now bound southwards. The
+      Sayyid and our friend Furayj accepted formal invitations to accompany us:
+      Bukhayt, my "shadow," with Husayn, chef and romancer-general, were shipped
+      as their henchmen; and a score of soldiers and quarrymen represented the
+      escort and the working-hands. Briefly, the Sinnár, though fretting her
+      vitals out at the delay, was detained two days (March 19&mdash;20) in the
+      Sharm Yáhárr. Amongst other things that consoled us for quitting the snug
+      dock, was the total absence of fish. At this season the shoals leave the
+      coast, and gather round their wonted spawning-grounds, the deep waters
+      near the Sha'b ("reefs"), where they find luxuriant growths of seaweed,
+      and where no ships disturb them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bidding a temporary adieu to our old fellow voyagers on board the Mukhbir,
+      including the excellent engineer, Mr. David Duguid, we steamed out of the
+      quiet cove, at a somewhat late hour (6.30 a.m.) on March 21st; and,
+      dashing into the dark and slaty sea, stood to the south-east. For two days
+      the equinoctial weather had been detestable, dark, cloudy, and so damp
+      that the dry and the wet bulbs showed a difference of only 4°&mdash;5°.
+      This morning, too, the fire of colour had suddenly gone out; and the
+      heavens were hung with a gloomy curtain. The great Shárr, looming
+      unusually large and tall in the Scandinavian mountain-scene, grey of
+      shadow and glancing with sun-gleams that rent the thick veils of
+      mist-cloud, assumed a manner of Ossianic grandeur. After three hours and a
+      half we were abreast of Zibá, around whose dumpy tower all the population
+      had congregated. Thence the regular coralline bank, whose beach is the
+      Bab, runs some distance down coast, allowing passage to our ugly old
+      friend, Wady Salmá. The next important mouth is the Wady ‘Amúd, showing
+      two Sambúks at anchor, and a long line of vegetation like the palm-strips
+      of the ‘Akabah Gulf: this valley, I have said, receives the Mutadán, into
+      which the Abú Marwah gorge discharges.<a href="#linknote-30"
+      name="linknoteref-30" id="linknoteref-30"><small>30</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would appear that this "‘Amúd" represents the "Wady el-‘Aúníd," a name
+      utterly unknown to the modern Arabs, citizens and Bedawin, at least as far
+      south as El-Haurá. Yet it is famed amongst mediaeval geographers for its
+      fine haven with potable water; and for its flourishing city, where honey
+      was especially abundant. El-Idrísí settles the question of its site by
+      placing it on the coast opposite the island El-Na'mán (Nu'mán), but can
+      El-Idrísí be trusted? Sprenger (p. 24), induced, it would appear, by
+      similarity of sound, and justly observing that in Arabic the letters Ayn
+      and Ghayn are often interchanged, would here place the (Rhaunathi Vicus)
+      of Ptolemy (north lat. 25 degrees 40'). According to my friend, also, the
+      Ras Abú Masárib, the long thin point north of which the Wady Dámah,
+      half-way to the Wady Azlam, falls in, represents the (Chersónesi Extrema)
+      on the same parallel. I cannot help suspecting that both lie further south&mdash;in
+      fact, somewhere about El- Haurá.<a href="#linknote-31"
+      name="linknoteref-31" id="linknoteref-31"><small>31</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the maritime heights, known as the Jibál ("Mountains" of the)
+      Tihámat-Balawiyyah (of "the Baliyy tribe"), recede from the sea, and
+      become mere hills and hillocks; yet the continuity of the chain is never
+      completely broken. At noon we slipped into the channel, about a mile and a
+      half broad, which separates the mainland from the Jebel ("Mount") Nu'mán,
+      as the island is called: so the Arabs speak of Jebel (never Jezírat)
+      Hassáni.<a href="#linknote-32" name="linknoteref-32" id="linknoteref-32"><small>32</small></a>
+      The surface of the water was like oil after the cross seas on all sides,
+      the tail of an old gale which the Arab pilots call Bahr madfún ("buried
+      sea"), corresponding with the Italian mar vecchio. On our return
+      northwards we landed upon Nu'mán, whose name derives from the red-flowered
+      Euphorbia retusa; bathed, despite the school of sharks occupying the
+      waters around; collected botany, and examined the ground carefully. Like
+      the Dalmatian Archipelago, it once formed part of the mainland, probably
+      separated by the process that raised the maritime range. The rolling sandy
+      plateau and the dwarf Wadys are strewed with trap and quartz, neither of
+      which could have been generated by the new sandstones and the yellow
+      corallines. It has two fine bays, facing the shore and admirably defended
+      from all winds; the southern not a little resembles Sináfir-cove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The "top," or dwarf plateau, commands a fine view of the coast scenery;
+      the "Pins" of the Shárr; the Mutadán Mountain, twin ridges of grey white
+      granite, and, further south, the darker forms of Raydán and Zigláb. Here,
+      during springtide, the Huwaytát transport their flocks in the light craft
+      called Katirah, and feed them till the pasture is browsed down. We made
+      extensive inquiries, but could hear of no ruins. Yet the islet, some three
+      to four miles long by one broad, forming a natural breakwater to the
+      coast, is important enough to bear, according to Sprenger, a classical
+      name, the (Timagenis Insula) of Ptolemy. If this be the case, either the
+      Pelusian or his manuscripts are greatly in error. He places the bank in
+      north lat. 25° 45', whilst its centre would be in north lat. 27° 5'; and
+      the sixty miles of distance from the coast, evidently the blunder of a
+      copyist, must be reduced to a maximum of three.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Passing another old friend, the Aslah-Aznab, down whose head we had ridden
+      to Shaghab, about two p.m. we steamed along the mouth of the Wady Azlam,
+      the Ezlam of Wellsted,<a href="#linknote-33" name="linknoteref-33"
+      id="linknoteref-33"><small>33</small></a> which he unduly makes the
+      southern frontier of the Huwaytát, and the northern of the Baliyy tribes.
+      Beyond it is the gape of the once populous Wady Dukhán&mdash;of "the
+      (furnace?) Smoke"&mdash;faced by a large splay of tree-grown sand. Ruins
+      are reported in its upper bed. Beyond Marsá Zubaydah (not Zebaider), the
+      sea is bordered by the red-yellow coast-range; and the fretted sky line of
+      peaks and cones, "horses" and "hogs'-backs," is cut by deep valleys and
+      drained by dark "gates." The background presents a long, regular curtain
+      of black hill, whose white sheets and veins may be granite and quartz. We
+      were then shown the Mínat el-Marrah, one of the many Wady-mouths grown
+      with vegetation; and here the ruins El-Nabagah (Nabakah) are spoken of. At
+      four p.m. we doubled the Ras Labayyiz (not Lebayhad), a long flat tongue
+      projecting from the coast range, and defending its valley to the south. In
+      the Fara't or upper part, some five hours' march from the mouth, lie
+      important remains of the Mutakkadimín ("ancients"). The report was
+      confirmed by an old Arab Básh-Buzúk at El-Wijh; he declared that in his
+      youth he had seen a tall furnace, and a quantity of scoriæ from which
+      copper could be extracted, lying northwards at a distance of eighteen
+      hours' march and five by sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next important feature is the Wady Salbah, the Telbah of the Chart, up
+      whose inland continuation, the Wady el-Nejd, we shall travel. Here the
+      coast-range again veers off eastward; and the regular line is cut up into
+      an outbreak of dwarf cones, mere thimbles. Above the gloomy range that
+      bounds it southwards, appear the granitic peaks and "Pins" of Jebel Libn,
+      gleaming white and pale in the livid half-light of a cloudy sunset. After
+      twelve hours' steaming over seventy to seventy-two knots of reefy sea, we
+      ran carefully into the Sharm Dumayghah.<a href="#linknote-34"
+      name="linknoteref-34" id="linknoteref-34"><small>34</small></a> This
+      lake-like, land-locked cove is by far the best of the many good
+      dock-harbours which break the Midian coast. Its snug retreat gave
+      hospitality to half a dozen Juhayni Sambúks, fishers and divers for
+      mother-of-pearl, riding beyond sight of the outer world, and utterly safe
+      from the lighthouse dues of El-Wijh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I resolved to pass a day at these old quarters of a certain Háji
+      ‘Abdullah. The hydrographers have given enlarged plans of Yáhárr and
+      Jibbah, ports close to each other; while they have ignored the far more
+      deserving Sharm Dumayghah. Distant only thirty miles of coasting
+      navigation, a line almost clear of reefs and shoals, it is the natural
+      harbour for the pilgrim-ships, which ever run the danger of being wrecked
+      at El-Wijh; and it deserves more notice than we have hitherto vouchsafed
+      to it. The weather also greatly improved on the next day (March 22nd): the
+      cloud-canopy, the excessive moisture, and the still sultriness which had
+      afflicted us since March 19th, were in process of being swept away by the
+      strong, cool, bright norther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The survey of the Egyptian officers shows an oval extending from
+      north-west to south-east, with four baylets or bulges in the northern
+      shore. The length is upwards of a knot, and the breadth twelve hundred
+      yards. It may be described as the embouchure of the Wady Dumayghah, which
+      falls into its head, and which, doubtless, in olden times, when the land
+      was wooded, used to roll a large and turbulent stream. As is often seen on
+      this coast, the entrance is defended by a natural breakwater which appears
+      like a dot upon the Chart. Capped with brown crust, falling bluff inland,
+      and sloping towards the main, where the usual stone-heaps act as
+      sea-marks, this bank of yellowish-white coralline, measuring 310 metres by
+      half that width, may be the remains of the bed in which the torrents
+      carved out the port. The northern inlet is a mere ford of green water: my
+      "Pilgrimage" made the mistake of placing a fair-way passage on either side
+      of the islet. The southern channel, twenty-five fathoms deep and three
+      hundred metres broad, is garnished on both flanks with a hundred metres of
+      dangerous shallow, easily distinguished by green blazoned upon blue. The
+      bay is shoal to the south-east; the best anchorage for ships lies to the
+      north-west, almost touching land. A reef or rock is reported to be in the
+      middle ground, where we lay with ten fathoms under us: it was seen, they
+      say, at night, by the aid of lanterns; but next morning Lieutenants Amir
+      and Yusuf were unable to find it. Native craft usually make fast in three
+      fathoms to a lumpy natural mole of modern sandstone, north of the
+      entrance: a little trimming would convert it into a first-rate pier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this place we landed to prospect the country, and to gather information
+      from the Sambúk crews before they had time to hoist sail and be off. The
+      owners of the land are not Juhaynah, the "Wild Men" with whom the Rais of
+      the Golden Wire had threatened us in 1853. The country belongs to the
+      Baliyy; now an inoffensive tribe well subject to Egypt, mixed with a few
+      Kura'án-Huwaytát and Karáizah-Hutaym. The fishermen complained that no
+      fish was to be caught, and the strong tides, setting upon the stony flank
+      of the mole, had broken most of the shells, not including, however, the
+      oysters. The usual eight-ribbed turtle appeared to be common. On the sands
+      to the north, M. Lacaze picked up a large old and bleached skull, which
+      went into my collection; we failed to find any neighbouring burial-ground.
+      Striking inland, however, towards the dotted square, marked "Fort (ruin)"
+      in the Chart, we came upon an ancient cemetery to the north of the bay,
+      and concluded that these graves had been mistaken for remains of building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We then bent eastward towards the Jibál el-Salbah, and examined the two
+      dwarf valleys which, threading the heights, feed the Wady Dumayghah. That
+      to the south showed us a perfectly familiar formation; conglomerates of
+      water-rolled pebbles in the lower levels, and hills of the normal dark
+      porphyries, with large quartz-seams of many colours trending in every
+      direction. The mouth of the northern gorge was blocked by a vein of finely
+      crystallized carbonate of lime, containing geodes and bunches. The taste
+      is astringent, probably from the alumina; and it is based upon outcrops of
+      a sandy calcaire apparently fit for hydraulic cement. The only novelty in
+      the vegetation was the Fashak-tree, a creeper like a gigantic constrictor,
+      with sweet yellow wood somewhat resembling liquorice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Signs of Arab everywhere appeared, but there were no tents. Consequently
+      we were unable to ascertain the extent of the water-supply&mdash;an
+      important matter if this is to become the port of El-Wijh. The Sambúks
+      might bring it, but the people on shore would be dependent upon what they
+      can find. The Hajj-road, running some miles inland, is doubtless supplied
+      with it. Even, however, were the necessary wanting, the pilgrim-ships,
+      whilst taking refuge here, could easily transport it from the south.
+      Shaykh Furayj; pointed out to us the far northern blue peaks of the ‘Amúd
+      Zafar, in whose branch-Wady lie the ruins of M'jirmah. The day ended with
+      a sudden trembling of the ship, as if straining at anchor; but the crew
+      was again performing fantasia, and the earthquake or sea-quake rolled
+      unheededly away. Apparently the direction was from north to south: I noted
+      the hour, 9.10 p.m., and the duration, twenty seconds. According to the
+      Arabs the Zilzilah is not uncommon in Midian, especially about the vernal
+      equinox: on this occasion it ended the spell of damp and muggy weather
+      which began on March 19th, and which may have been connected with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The survey soundings were not finished till nearly eight a.m. (March
+      23rd), when the old corvette swung round on her heel; and, with the black
+      hills of Salbah to port, resumed her rolling, rollicking way southwards.
+      Her only ballast consisted of some six hundred conical shot, or twelve
+      tons for a ship of eight hundred. After one hour of steaming (= seven
+      miles) we passed the green mouth of the Wady ‘Antar, in whose Istabl
+      ("stable"), or upper valley-course, the pilgrimage-caravan camps. It
+      drains a small inland feature to the north-east, the true "Jebel ‘Antar,"
+      which the Hydrographic Chart has confounded with the great block,
+      applying, moreover, the term Istabl to the height instead of the hollow.
+      This Jebel Libn, along which we are now steaming, is a counterpart on a
+      small scale, a little brother, of the Shárr, measuring 3733 instead of
+      6000 to 6500 feet. We first see from the north a solid block capped with a
+      mural crown of three peaks. When abreast of us the range becomes a tall,
+      fissured, and perpendicular wall: this apical comb, bluff to the west,
+      reposes upon a base sloping, at the angle of rest, to the environing sandy
+      Wady. To complete the resemblance, even the queer "Pins" are not wanting;
+      and I should expect to find in it all the accidents of the giant of
+      El-Muwaylah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The complexion of the Libn, which the people pronounce "Libin," suggests
+      grey granite profusely intersected with white quartz: hence, probably, the
+      name, identical with Lebanon and Libanus&mdash;"the Milk Mountain." The
+      title covers a multitude of peaks: the Bedawin have, doubtless, their own
+      terms for every head and every hollow. The citizens comprehensively divide
+      the block into two, El-Áli ("the Upper") being its southern, and El-Asfal
+      ("the Lower") its northern, section. It is said to abound in water; and a
+      Nakhil ("date-grove") is described as growing near the summit. The Hutaym,
+      who own most of it, claim the lover and hero-poet, ‘Antar, as one of their
+      despised tribe&mdash;hence, probably, his connection with the adjoining
+      mountain and "the stable."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Jebel Libin" is the great feature of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah; for many
+      days it will appear to follow us, and this is the proper place for
+      assigning its rank and status to it. About El-‘Akabah, the northern head
+      of the Gháts or coast-range, we have prospected the single chain of Jebel
+      Shará'; the "Sa'ar of the tribes of the Shasu" (Bedawin)<a
+      href="#linknote-35" name="linknoteref-35" id="linknoteref-35"><small>35</small></a>
+      in the papyri, and the Hebrew Mount Seir, the "rough" or "rugged." Further
+      south we have noted how this tall eastern bulwark of the great Wady
+      el-‘Arabah bifurcates; forming the Shafah chain to the east, and westward
+      of it, in Madyan Proper, the Jibál el-Tihámah, of which the Shárr is
+      perhaps the culmination. We have noted the accidents of the latter as far
+      as Dumayghah Cove, and now we descry in the offing the misty forms&mdash;how
+      small they look!&mdash;of the Jebel el-Ward; the Jibál el-Safhah; the two
+      blocks, south of the Wady Hamz, known as the Jibál el-Rál; and their
+      neighbours still included in the Tihámat-Balawíyyah. Lastly, we shall
+      sight, behind El-Haurá, the Abú Ghurayr and a number of blocks which, like
+      the former, are laid down, but are not named, in the Chart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beyond El-Haurá the chain stretches southwards its mighty links with
+      smaller connections. The first is the bold range Jebel Radwah, the "Yambo
+      Hills" of the British sailor, some six thousand feet high and lying
+      twenty-five miles behind the new port.<a href="#linknote-36"
+      name="linknoteref-36" id="linknoteref-36"><small>36</small></a> Passing it
+      to left on the route to El-Medínah, I heard the fables which imposed upon
+      Abyssinian Bruce: "All sorts of Arabian fruits grew to perfection on the
+      summit of these hills; it is the paradise of the people of Yenbo, those of
+      any substance having country-houses there." This was hardly probable in
+      Bruce's day, and now it is impossible. The mountain is held by the Beni
+      Harb, a most turbulent tribe, for which see my "Pilgrimage."<a
+      href="#linknote-37" name="linknoteref-37" id="linknoteref-37"><small>37</small></a>
+      Their head Shaykh, Sa'd the Robber, who still flourished in 1853, is dead;
+      but he has been succeeded by one of his sons, Shaykh Hudayfah, who is
+      described with simple force as being a "dog more biting than his sire."
+      Between these ill-famed haunts of the Beni Harb and Jeddah rises the Jebel
+      Subh, "a mountain remarkable for its magnitude" (4500 feet), inhabited by
+      the Beni Subh, a fighting clan of the "Sons of Battle."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The largest links of these West-Arabian Gháts are of white-grey granite,
+      veined and striped with quartz; and they are subtended inland by the
+      porphyritic traps of the Jibál el-Shafah, which we shall trace to the
+      parallel of El-Hamz, the end of Egypt. I cannot, however, agree with
+      Wellsted (II. xii.) that the ridges increase in height as they recede from
+      the sea; nor that the veins of quartz run horizontally through the "dark
+      granite." The greater altitudes (three to six thousand feet) are visible
+      from an offing of forty to seventy miles; and they are connected by minor
+      heights: some of these, however, are considerable, and here and there they
+      break into detached pyramids. All are maritime, now walling the shore,
+      like the Tayyib Ism; then sheering away from it, where a broad "false
+      coast" has been built by Time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These western Gháts, then, run down, either in single or in double line,
+      the whole length of occidental Arabia; and, meeting a similar and equally
+      important eastern line, they form a mighty nucleus, the mountains of
+      El-Yemen. After carefully inspecting, and making close inquiries
+      concerning, a section of some five hundred miles, I cannot but think that
+      the mines of precious ores, mentioned by the mediæval Arabian geographers,<a
+      href="#linknote-38" name="linknoteref-38" id="linknoteref-38"><small>38</small></a>
+      lay and lie in offsets from the flanks either of the maritime or the
+      inland chain; that is, either in the Tihámah, the coast lowlands, or in
+      the El-Nejd, the highland plateau of the interior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What complicates the apparently simple ground is the long line of volcanic
+      action which, forming the eastern frontier of the plutonic granites and of
+      the modern grits, may put forth veins even to the shores of the ‘Akabah
+      Gulf and the Red Sea.<a href="#linknote-39" name="linknoteref-39"
+      id="linknoteref-39"><small>39</small></a> The length, known to me by
+      inquiry, would be about three degrees between north lat. 28° and 25°, the
+      latter being the parallel of El-Medínah; others make them extend to near
+      Yambú', in north lat. 24° 5'. They may stretch far to the north, and
+      connect, as has been suggested, with the Syrian centres of eruption,
+      discovered by the Palestine Exploration. I have already explained<a
+      href="#linknote-40" name="linknoteref-40" id="linknoteref-40"><small>40</small></a>
+      how and why we were unable to visit "the Harrah" lying east of the Hismá;
+      but we repeatedly saw its outlines, and determined that the lay is from
+      north-west to south-east. Further south, as will be noticed at El-Haurá,
+      the vertebrae curve seawards or to the south-west; and seem to mingle with
+      the main range, the mountains of the Tihámat-Jahaníyyah ("of the
+      Juhaynah"). Thus the formation assumes an importance which has never yet
+      been attributed to it; and the five several "Harrahs," reported to me by
+      the Bedawin, must be studied in connection with the mineralogical deposits
+      of the chains in contact with them. It must not be forgotten that a
+      fragment of porous basalt, picked up by the first Expedition near Makná,
+      yielded a small button of gold.<a href="#linknote-41" name="linknoteref-41"
+      id="linknoteref-41"><small>41</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreadfully rolled the Sinnár, as she ran close in-shore before the long
+      heavy swell from the north-west, and the old saying, Bon rouleur, bon
+      marcheur, is cold consolation to an active man made to idle malgré lui.
+      This section of the coast, unlike that to the north, is remarkably free
+      from reefs. A little relief was felt while sheltered by the short tract of
+      channel between the mainland and the shoals. But the nuisance returned in
+      force as, doubling the Ras Muraybit (not Marabat), we sighted the two
+      towers of El-Wijh, both beflagged, the round Burj of the fort, and the
+      cubical white-washed lighthouse crowning its rocky point. And we were
+      quiet once more when the Sinnár, having covered the thirty miles in four
+      hours and thirty minutes, cast anchor in the usual place, south-east of
+      the northern jaw. The main objection to our berth is that the prevailing
+      north wind drives in a rolling sea from the open west. The log showed a
+      total of 102 miles between the Sharms Yáhárr and El-Wijh, or 107 from the
+      latter to El-Muwaylah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "El-Wijh," meaning the face, a word which the Egyptian Fellah perverts to
+      "Wish," lies in north lat. 26° 14'. It is the northernmost of the townlets
+      on the West Arabian shore, which gain importance as you go south; e.g.,
+      Yambá', Jeddah, Mocha, and Aden. It was not wholly uncivilized during my
+      first visit, a quarter of a century ago, when I succeeded in buying opium
+      for feeble patients. Distant six stations from Yambá', and ten from
+      El-Medínah, it has been greatly altered and improved. The pilgrim-caravan,
+      which here did penance of quarantine till the last two years, has given it
+      a masonry pier for landing the unfortunates to encamp upon the southern or
+      uninhabited side of the cove. A tall and well-built lighthouse, now five
+      years old, boasts of a good French lantern, wanting only soap and decent
+      oil. Finally, guardhouses and bakehouses, already falling to ruins like
+      the mole, and an establishment for condensing water, still kept in working
+      order, are the principal and costly novelties of the southern shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The site of El-Wijh is evidently old, although the ruins have been buried
+      under modern buildings. Sprenger (p. 21) holds the townlet to be the port
+      of "Egra, a village" (El-Hajar, or "the town, the townlet"?) "in the
+      territory of Obodas," whence, according to Strabo (xvi. c. 4, § 24), Ælius
+      Gallus embarked his baffled troops for Myus Hormus.<a href="#linknote-42"
+      name="linknoteref-42" id="linknoteref-42"><small>42</small></a> Formerly
+      he believed El-Aúníd to be Strabo's "Egra," the haven for the north; as
+      El-Haurá was for the south, and El-Wijh for the central regions. Pliny
+      (vi. 32) also mentions the "Tamudæi, with their towns of Domata and Hegra,
+      and the town of Badanatha." It is generally remarked that "Egra" does not
+      appear in Ptolemy's lists; yet one of the best texts (Nobbe, Lipsia, 1843)
+      reads instead of the "Negran" which Pirckheymerus (Lugduni, MDXXXV.) and
+      others placed in north lat. 26°.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My learned friend writes to me&mdash;"El-Wijh, on the coast of Arabia, is
+      opposite to Qoçayr (El-Kusayr), where Ælius Gallus landed his troops. We
+      know that ‘Egra' is the name of a town in the interior, and it was the
+      constant habit to call the port after the capital of the country, e.g.,
+      Arabia Emporium = Aden. We have now only to inquire whether El-Wijh had
+      claims to be considered the seaport of El-Hijr." This difficulty is easily
+      settled. El-Wijh is still the main, indeed the only, harbour in South
+      Midian; and, during our stay there, a large caravan brought goods, as will
+      be seen, from the upper Wady Hamz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the influence of the quarantine, El-Wijh, the town on the northern
+      bank of its cove, has blossomed into a hauteville, dating from the last
+      dozen years. The ancient basseville, probably the site of many former
+      settlements, is now used chiefly for shops and stores. Another and a more
+      pretentious mosque has supplanted the little old Záwiyah ("chapel") with
+      its barbarous minaret, whose finial, a series of inverted crescents, might
+      be taken for a cross; while a Jámi' or "cathedral," begun in the upper
+      town, has stopped short through want of funds. Some of the best houses now
+      extend towards the northern point. As usual in Arab settlements, they are
+      long, tall claret-cases of coral-rag and burnt lime; flat-roofed,
+      whitewashed in front, and provided with wooden doors and shutters. Lastly,
+      on the slope still appears the smoky coffee-shed that witnessed the
+      memorable encounter between its surly proprietor and "Saad the Devil."<a
+      href="#linknote-43" name="linknoteref-43" id="linknoteref-43"><small>43</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stony ramps, stiff as those of Gibraltar, connect the low with the high
+      town, the cool breezy new settlement upon the crest of the northern cliff,
+      whose noble view of the Jebel Libn and the palm-scattered Wady el-Wijh
+      were formerly monopolized by the fort and its round tower. This work, only
+      sixty-five years old, now stands so perilously near the undermined edge of
+      the rock-cornice, that some day it will come down with a run. It is used
+      by the garrison, and serves as a jail; but lately a Bedawi prisoner, like
+      a certain Mamlúk Bey, jumped down the precipitous cove-face and effected
+      his escape. Behind it are the "Doctors' Quarters," empty and desolate,
+      because the sanitary officers have been removed. They are sheds of
+      white-washed boarding, brought from the Crimea, like those of the Suez
+      Canal; and comfortably distributed into Harem, kitchens, offices, and
+      other necessaries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inhabitants of El-Wijh may number twelve hundred, without including
+      chance travellers and the few wretched Bedawin, Hutaym and others, who
+      pitch their black tents, like those of Alexandrian "Ramleh," about and
+      beyond the town. The people live well; and the merchants are large and
+      portly men, who evidently thrive upon meat and rice. Flesh is retailed in
+      the bazar, and mutton is cheap, especially when the Bedawin are near; a
+      fine large sheep being dear at ten shillings. Water is exceptionally
+      abundant, even without the condenser's aid. The poorer classes and animals
+      are watered at the pits and the two regular wells near the valley's mouth,
+      half an hour's trudge from the town. The wealthy are supplied by the
+      inland fort, which we shall presently visit: the distance going and coming
+      would be about four slow hours, and the skinful costs five Khurdah, or
+      copper piastres = three halfpence. The inner gardens grow a small quantity
+      of green meat: water-melons are brought from Yambá(?): opium and Hashísh
+      abound, but no spirits are for sale since the one Greek Bakkál, or petty
+      shopkeeper, "made tracks." He borrowed from a certain Surúr Selámah, negro
+      merchant and head miser, 150 napoleons, in order to buy on commission
+      certain bales of cotton shipwrecked up coast; he left in pledge the keys
+      of his miserable store, which, by-the-by, la loi refuses to open; he was
+      never seen again, and poor rich Surur is in the depths of despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the small industries of El-Wijh is the pearl trade. Mr. Clarke
+      bought for £4 (twenty dollars) a specimen of good round form but rather
+      yellow colour; and presently refused £5 for it. Those of pear-shape easily
+      fetch thirty-six to forty dollars. Turquoises set in sealing-wax are sold
+      cheap by the returning Persian pilgrims: the Zib el-Bahr ("Sea-wolf"), an
+      Egyptian cruiser, had carried off the best shortly before our arrival. The
+      people speak of an ‘Akík ("carnelian") which, rubbed down in vinegar,
+      enters into the composition of a favourite philtre&mdash;we could not,
+      however, find any for sale. On our return, an ‘Anezah caravan of some
+      ninety camels, driven by a hundred or so of spearmen and matchlockmen,
+      came in loaded with valuable Samn or clarified butter: the fact suggests
+      that the time has come for establishing a Gumruk ("custom-house") at
+      El-Wijh. Another source of wealth will be El-Melláhah, "the salina," along
+      which we shall travel: every man who has a donkey may carry off what he
+      pleases, and sell to pilgrims and Bedawin the kilogramme for four piastres
+      copper (= one piastre currency = five farthings). This again should be
+      taken in hand by Government; and regular "salterns," like those of
+      Triestine Capodistria, would greatly increase the quantity. Nothing can be
+      better than the quality except rock-salt. There is another salina about
+      one hour down the coast, formed by a reef, near the Ras el-Ma'llah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The afternoon of arrival was spent in receiving visits. The Muháfiz or
+      "civil governor," Hasan Bey, calls himself a Circassian: he is a handsome
+      old man, whose straight features suggest the Greek slave, and who served
+      in the Syrian campaigns under Ibrahim Pasha. Forty years ago he left his
+      home; he has been here six years, and yet he knows absolutely nothing of
+      the interior. He ought to reside at the inland fort, but he prefers the
+      harbour-town; and he had not the common-sense to ride out with us. He
+      shows his zeal by inventing obstacles; for instance, he suggests that the
+      Bedawin should leave, during our journey, hostages at the fort: this is
+      wholly unnecessary, and means only piastres. The Yuzbáshi, or "military
+      commandant," Sid-Ahmed Effendi, has charge of the forty-five regulars,
+      half a company, who garrison the post and outpost. The chief merchant, who
+      afterwards volunteered to be our travelling companion, is Mohammed
+      Shahádah, formerly Wakil ("agent") of the fort, a charge now abolished by
+      a pound-foolish policy: he is an honest and intelligent, a charitable and
+      companionable man, who has travelled far and wide over the interior, and
+      who knows the tribes by heart. I strongly recommended him to his Highness
+      the Viceroy. His brothers, Bedawi and Ali Shahádah, are also open-handed
+      to the poor; very unlike their brother-in-law Surúr Selámah, formerly a
+      slave to the father of Mohammed Selámah whom we had met at Zibá. The list
+      of notables ends with the Sayyid Ibrahim El-Mara'í and with the sturdy Abd
+      el-Hakk, pearl and general merchant. All recognized our friend the Sayyid,
+      whom even the "gutter-boys" saluted by name; and, although the Arab manner
+      is blunt and independent, all showed perfect civility. It is needless to
+      say that our late work, and our future plans, were known to everybody at
+      El-Wijh as well as to ourselves; and that the tariffs of pay and hire,
+      established in the North Country, at once became the norm of the South.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our favourite walk at old "Egra" was to the quarantine-ground and the
+      lighthouse. The situation of the town is by no means satisfactory, and the
+      heavy dews of April, wetting the streets, cause frequent fevers. En
+      revanche, nothing can be more healthy or exhilarating than the air of the
+      tall plateau to the south of the cove. The quarantine-ground, with its
+      grand view of the mountains inland, ends seawards in the Pharos that
+      commands an horizon of blue water. The latter, according to the charts, is
+      one hundred and six feet above sea-level, and is theoretically visible for
+      fourteen miles; practice would reduce this radius to ten, and the least
+      haze to six and even five.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lighthouse-charges are strongly objected to by the skippers of Arab
+      fishing-boats, although very small in their case. Square-rigged vessels
+      pay per ton twenty parahs (tariff): thus it costs a ship of five hundred
+      tons £2 10s. (Turkish). The keeper. under Admiral M'Killop (Pasha), a
+      young Greek named "Gurjí," as "George" here sounds, is assisted by a
+      Moslem lad, Mohammed Effendi of Alexandria. They serve for three years,
+      and they look forward to the end of them. The former also superintends the
+      condensing establishment: this office is a sinecure, except during the
+      three months of pilgrim-passage. The machine can distil eighteen tons per
+      diem; and there is another water-magazine, an old paddle-wheeler moored to
+      the beach under the town. Behind the establishment lies the
+      pilgrim-cemetery. frequented by hyenas that prowl around the lighthouse,
+      threatening the canine guard. I found a new use for this vermin's brain:
+      it is administered by the fair ones at El-Wijh to jealous husbands, upon
+      whom, they tell me, it acts as a sedative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      El-Wijh has been heard of in England as the prophylactic against the
+      infected Hejaz. It is admirably suited for quarantine purposes, and it has
+      been abolished, very unwisely, in favour of "Tor harbour." The latter,
+      inhabited by a ring of thievish Syro-Greek traders; backed by a wretched
+      wilderness, alternately swampy and sandy, is comfortless to an extent
+      calculated to make the healthiest lose health. Moreover, its climate, says
+      Professor Palmer (p. 222), is very malarious: "owing to the low and marshy
+      nature of the ground, there is a great deal of miasma even in the winter
+      season." Finally, and worst of all, it is near enough to Suez for
+      infection to travel easily. A wealthy pilgrim has only to pay a few gold
+      pieces, his escape to the mountains is winked at; and thence he travels or
+      voyages comfortably to Suez and Cairo. Even without such irregularities,
+      the transmission of contaminated clothing, or other articles, would
+      suffice to spread cholera, typhus, and smallpox. Tor is, in fact, an
+      excellent medium for focussing and for propagating contagious disease; and
+      its vicinity to Egypt, and consequently to Europe, suggests that it should
+      at once be abolished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first I lent ear to the popular statement at El-Wijh; namely, that the
+      visiting doctors and the resident sanitary officers naturally prefer the
+      shorter to the longer voyage, and the nearer station to that further from
+      home. Moreover, inasmuch as, if inclined to be dishonest, they find more
+      opportunities in the north, it was their interest to transfer the
+      establishment to Tor. The local authorities, the people assured me, were
+      induced to report that the single fort-well had run dry; that the
+      condensers had proved a failure, and that the old steamer-magazine, into
+      which they had poured brine, was leaky and inefficient. But what was my
+      astonishment when, after return to Cairo, I was told that the change had
+      been strongly advocated by the English Government?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The objections to El-Wijh are two, both equally invalid. The port is
+      dangerous, especially when westerly winds are blowing: ships during the
+      pilgrimage-season must bank their fires, ever ready to run out. True; but
+      it has been shown that Sharm Dumayghah, the best of its kind, lies only
+      thirty knots to the north. The second, want of water, or of good water, is
+      even less cogent. We have seen that the seaboard wells supply the poorer
+      classes and animals; and we shall presently see the Fort-wells, which, in
+      their day, have watered caravans containing twenty to thirty thousand
+      thirsty men and beasts. So far from the condensers being a failure, the
+      tank still holds about twenty tons of distilled water, although it gives
+      drink to some thirty mouths composing the establishment. Finally, the old
+      steamer has done its duty well, and, like the proverbial Marine, is still
+      ready to do its duty again.<a href="#linknote-44" name="linknoteref-44"
+      id="linknoteref-44"><small>44</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus the expense of laying out the quarantine-ground at El-Wijh has been
+      pitifully wasted. That, however, is a very small matter; the neglect of
+      choosing a proper position is serious, even ominous. Unlike Tor, nothing
+      can be healthier or freer from fever than the pilgrims' plateau. From
+      El-Wijh, too, escape is hopeless: the richest would not give a piastre to
+      levant; because, if a solitary traveller left the caravan, a Bedawi bullet
+      would soon prevail on him to stop. This, then, should be the first long
+      halt for the "compromised" travelling northwards. When contagious disease
+      has completely disappeared, the second precautionary delay might be either
+      at Tor or, better still, at the "Wells of Moses" (‘Uyun Músá), near the
+      head of the Suez Gulf: here sanitary conditions are far more favourable;
+      and here supplies, including medical comforts, would be cheaper as well as
+      more abundant. Briefly, it is my conviction that, under present
+      circumstances, "Tor" is a standing danger, not only to Egypt, but to
+      universal Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The coast about El-Wijh is famed for shells; the numerous reefs and shoals
+      favouring the development of the molluscs. We were promised a heavy haul
+      by the citizens, who, however, contented themselves with picking up the
+      washed-out specimens found everywhere on the shore: unfortunately we had
+      no time to superintend the work. A caseful was submitted to the British
+      Museum, and a few proved interesting on account of their locality. The
+      list printed at the end of this chapter was kindly supplied to me by Mr.
+      Edgar A. Smith, superintendent of the Conchological Department.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will conclude this chapter with a short notice the Hutaym or Hitaym, a
+      people extremely interesting to me. They are known to travellers only as a
+      low caste. Wellsted (II. xii.) tells us that the "Huteimi," whom he would
+      make the descendants of the Ichthyophagi described by Diodorus Siculus and
+      other classics, are noticed by several Arabian authorities. "In one, the
+      Kitab el-Mush Serif<a href="#linknote-45" name="linknoteref-45"
+      id="linknoteref-45"><small>45</small></a> (Musharrif?), they are styled
+      ‘Hooteïn,' the descendants of ‘Hooter,' a servant of Moses." He also
+      relates a legend that the Apostle of Allah pronounced them polluted,
+      because they ate the flesh of dogs. Others declare that they opposed
+      Mohammed when he was rebuilding the Ka'bah; and thereby drew upon
+      themselves the curse that they should be held the "basest of the Arabs."
+      These tales serve to prove one fact, the antiquity of the race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hutaym, meaning the "Broken" (tribe), hold, in Midian and Egypt, the
+      position of Pariahs, like the Akhdám "serviles", or Helots, of Maskat and
+      El-Yemen. No clan of pure Arabs will intermarry with them; and when the
+      Fellahs say, Tatahattim (=tatamaskin or tatazalli), they mean, "Thou
+      cringest, thou makest thyself contemptible as a Hutaymi." Moreover, they
+      must pay the dishonouring Akháwat, or "brother-tax," to all the Bedawin
+      amongst whom they settle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hutaym are scattered as they are numerous. They have extended,
+      probably in ancient times, to Upper Egypt, and occupy parts of Nubia;
+      about Sawákin they are an important clan. They number few in the Sinaitic
+      Peninsula and in Midian, but they occupy the very heart of the Arabian
+      Peninsula. Those settled on Jebel Libn, we have seen, claim as their
+      kinsman the legendary ‘Antar, who was probably a negro of the noble
+      Semitic stock. A few are camped about El-Wijh; and they become more
+      important down coast. In the eastern regions bordering upon Midian, they
+      form large and powerful bodies, such as the Nawámisah and the Sharárát,
+      whose numbers and bravery secure for them the respect of their fighting
+      equestrian neighbours, the Ruwalá-‘Anezah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Like other Arabs, the Hutaym tribe is divided into a multitude of clans,
+      septs, and families, each under its own Shaykh. All are Moslems, after the
+      Desert pattern, a very rude and inchoate article. Wellsted knew them by
+      their remarkably broad chins: the Bedawi recognize them by their look; by
+      their peculiar accent, and by the use of certain peculiar words, as Harr!
+      when donkey-driving. The men are unwashed and filthy; the women walk
+      abroad unveiled, and never refuse themselves, I am told, to the higher
+      blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Arabs of Midian always compare the Hutaym with the Ghagar (Ghajar) or
+      Gypsies of Egypt; and this is the point which gives the outcasts a passing
+      interest. I have not yet had an opportunity of carefully studying the
+      race; nor can I say whether it shows any traces of skill in metal-working.
+      Meanwhile, we must inquire whether these Helots, now so dispersed, are not
+      old immigrants of Indian descent, who have lost their Aryan language, like
+      the Egyptian Ghajar. In that case they would represent the descendants of
+      the wandering tribes who worked the most ancient ateliers. Perhaps they
+      may prove to be congeners of the men of the Bronze Age, and of the
+      earliest waves of Gypsy-immigration into Europe.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                             NOTE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A list of the shells collected by the second Khedivial Expedition on the
+      shore of Midian and the Gulf of ‘Akabah, by Edgar A. Smith, Esq., British
+      Museum.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+I. Gastropoda.
+     1.  Conus textile, Linné.
+     2.  Conus sumatrensis, Hwass.
+     3.  Conus catus var., Hwass.
+     4.   Conus larenatus, Hwass.
+     5.   Conus hebræus, Linné.
+     6.   Conus ividus(?), Hwass.
+     6a.  Conus ceylanensis, Hwass.
+     7.   Terebra maculata, Linné.
+     8.   Terebra dimidiata, Linné.
+     9.   Terebra consobrina, Deshayes.
+     10.  Terebra (Impages) cærulescens, Lamarck.
+     11.  Pleurotoma cingulifera, Lamarck.
+     11a.      Murex tribulus, Linn.
+     12.  Murex (Chicoreus) inflatus, Lamarck.
+     13.  Cassidulus paradisiacus, Reeve.
+     14.  Nassa coronata, Lamarck.
+     15.  Nassa pulla, Linné.
+     16.  Engina (Pusiostoma) mendicaria, Lamarck.
+     17.  Cantharus (Tritonidea) sp. juv.
+     18.  Purpura hippocastanum, Lamarck.
+     19.  Sistrum arachnoides, Lamarck.
+     20.  Sistrum fiscellum, Chemnitz.
+     21.  Sistrum tuberculatum, Blainville.
+     22.  Harpa solida, A. Adams.
+     23.  Fasciolaria trapezium, Lamarck.
+     24.  Turbinella cornigera, Lamarck.
+     25.  Dolium (Malea) pomum, Linné.
+     26.  Triton maculosus, Reeve.
+     27.  Triton aquatilis, Reeve.
+     28.  Triton (Persona) anus, Lamarck.
+     29.  Natica (Polinices) mamilla, Linné.
+     30.  Natica albula(?), Récluz.
+     31.  Natica (Mamilla) melanostoma, Lamarck.
+     32.  Solarium perspectivum, Linné.
+     33.  Cypræa arabica, Linné.
+     34.  Cypræa pantherina, Linné.
+     35.  Cypræa camelopardalis, Perry.
+     36.  Cypræa carneola, Linné.
+     37.  Cypræa scurra, Chemnitz.
+     38.  Cypræa erosa, Linné.
+     39.  Cypræa tabescens(?), Solander.
+     40.  Cypræa caurica, Linné.
+     41.  Cypræa talpa, Linné.
+     41B.      Cypraea lynx, Linné.
+     42.       Cerithium tuberosum, Fabricius.
+     43.  Turritella torulosa(?), Kiener.
+     44.  Strombus tricornis, Lamarck.
+     45.  Strombus gibberulus, Linné.
+     46.  Strombus floridus, Lamarck.
+     47.  Strombus fasciatus, Born.
+     48.  Pterocera truncatum, Lamarck.
+     49.  Planaxis breviculus, Deshayes.
+     50.  Nerita marmorata, Reeve.
+     51.  Nerita quadricolor, Gmelin.
+     52.  Nerita rumphii Récluz.
+     53.  Turbo petholatus, Linné.
+     54.  Turbo chrysostoma var.(?), Linné.
+     55.  Trochus (Pyramis) dentatus, Forskâl.
+     56.  Trochus (Cardinalia) virgatus, Gmelin.
+     57.  Trochus (Polydonta) sanguinolentus, Chemnitz.
+     58.  Trochus (Clanculus) pharaonis, Linné.
+     59.  Trochus (Monodonta) sp.
+     60.  Patella variabilis(?), Krauss.
+     61.  Chiton sp.
+     62.  Bulla ampulla, Linné.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      II. Conchifera
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     63.  Dione florida, Lamarck.
+     64.  Dione sp.
+     65.  Tellina staurella, Lamarck.
+     66.  Paphia glabrata, Gmelin.
+     67.  Chama Ruppellii, Reeve.
+     68.  Arca (Barbatia) sp.
+     68a  Arca (Senilia) sp.
+     69.  Cardium leucostoma, Born.
+     70.  Venericardia Cumingii, Deshayes.
+     71.  Modiola auriculata, Krauss.
+     72.  Pectunculus lividus, Reeve.
+     73.  Pectunculus pectenoides, Deshayes.
+     74.  Avicula margaritifera, Linné.
+     75.  Tridacna gigas, Linné.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XV. &mdash; The Southern Sulphur-hill&mdash;the Cruise to El-Haurá&mdash;Notes
+      on the
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Baliyy Tribe and the Volcanic Centres of North&mdash;Western Arabia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the day of our arrival at El-Wijh I sent a hurried letter of invitation
+      to Mohammed ‘Afnán, Shaykh of the Baliyy tribe; inviting him to visit the
+      Expedition, and to bring with him seventy camels and dromedaries. His
+      tents being pitched at a distance of three days' long march in the
+      interior, I determined not to waste a precious week at the end of the cold
+      season; and the party was once more divided. Anton, the Greek, was left as
+      storekeeper, with orders to pitch a camp, to collect as much munition de
+      bouche as possible, and to prepare for this year's last journey into the
+      interior. MM. Marie and Philipin, with Lieutenant Yusuf, Cook Giorji, and
+      Body-servant Ali Marie, were directed to march along the shore southwards.
+      After inspecting a third Jebel el-Kibrít, they would bring back notices of
+      the Wady Hamz, near whose banks I had heard vague reports of a Gasr
+      (Kasr), "palace" or "castle," built by one Gurayyim Sa'íd. Meanwhile, the
+      rest of us would proceed in the Sinnár to El-Haurá, a roundabout cruise of
+      a hundred miles to the south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. Philipin lost time in shoeing very imperfectly his four mules; and M.
+      Marie, who could have set out with eight camels at any moment, delayed
+      moving till March 26th. The party was composed of a single Básh-Buzúk from
+      the fort, and two quarrymen: the Ras Káfilah was young Shaykh Sulaymán bin
+      ‘Afnán&mdash;of whom more presently&mdash;while his brother-in-law Hammád
+      acted guide. At 6.40 a.m. they struck to the south-east of the town, and
+      passed the two brackish pits or wells, Bir el-Isma'íl and El-Sannúsi,
+      which supply the poor of the port. Thence crossing the broad Wady el-Wijh,
+      they reached, after a mile's ride, Wady Melláhah, or "the salina." It is
+      an oval, measuring some eighteen hundred yards from north to south: the
+      banks are padded with brown slush frosted white; which, in places, "bogs"
+      the donkeys and admits men to the knee. Beyond it lie dazzling blocks of
+      pure crystallized salt; and the middle of the pond is open, tenanted by
+      ducks and waterfowl, and visited by doves and partridges. At the lower or
+      northern end, a short divide separates it from the sea; and the waves,
+      during the high westerly gales, run far inland: it would be easy to open a
+      regular communication between the harbour and its saltern. The head is
+      formed by the large Wady Surrah, whose many feeders at times discharge
+      heavy torrents. The walls of the valley-mouth are marked, somewhat like
+      the Hárr, with caverned and corniced cliffs of white, canary-yellow, and
+      light-pink sandstone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They then left to the right the long point Ras el-Ma'llah, fronting
+      Mardúnah Island. Here, as at El-‘Akabah and Makná, sweet water springs
+      from the salt sands of the shore; a freak of drainage, a kind of "Irish
+      bull" of Nature, so common upon the dangerous Somali seaboard. The tract
+      leads to the south-east, never further from the shore than four or five
+      miles, but separated by rolling ground which hides the main. For the same
+      reason the travellers were unable to sight the immense development of
+      granite-embedded quartz, which lurks amongst the hills to the inland or
+      east, and which here subtends the whole coast-line. They imagined
+      themselves to be in a purely Secondary formation of gypsum and
+      conglomerates, cut by a succession of Wady-beds like the section between
+      El-Muwaylah and ‘Aynúnah. Thus they crossed the mouths of the
+      watercourses, whose heads we shall sight during the inland march, and
+      whose mid-lengths we shall pass when marching back to El-Wijh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These exceedingly broad beds are divided, as usual, by long lines of
+      Nature-metalled ground. The first important feature is the Wady Surrah,
+      which falls into the Wady el-Wijh a little above the harbour-pier: its
+      proper and direct mouth, El-Gá'h (Ká'h), or "the Hall," runs along-shore
+      into the Melláhah. It drains the Hamíratayn, or "Two Reds;" the Hamírat
+      Surrah in the Rughám or Secondary formation, and the granitic mass Hamírat
+      el-Nabwah, where the plutonic outbreaks begin. Amongst the number of
+      important formations are:&mdash;the Wady el-Miyáh, which has a large
+      salt-well near the sea, and down whose upper bed we shall travel after
+      leaving Umm el-Karáyát; the Wady el-Kurr, whose acquaintance we shall make
+      in the eastern region; and the Wady el-‘Argah (‘Arjah). The latter is the
+      most interesting. Near its head we shall find knots of ruins, and the
+      quartz-reef Abá'l-Marú; while lower down the bed, on the north-east side
+      of a hill facing the valley, Lieutenant Yusuf came upon a rock scrawled
+      over with religious formulæ, Tawakkaltu ‘al' Allah ("I rely upon Allah"),
+      and so forth, all in a comparatively modern Arabic character. The
+      inscriptions lie to the left of the shore road, and to the right of the
+      pilgrim-highway; thus showing that miners, not passing travellers, have
+      here left their mark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After riding five hours and forty minutes (= seventeen miles) the party
+      reached the base of the third sulphur-hill discovered by the Expedition on
+      the coast of Midian. Also known as the Tuwayyil el-Kibrít, the
+      "Little-long (Ridge) of Brimstone," it appears from afar a reddish pyramid
+      rising about two miles inland of an inlet, which is said to be safe
+      navigation. Thus far it resembles the Jibbah find: on the other hand, it
+      is not plutonic, but chalky like those of Makná and Sinai, the crystals
+      being similarly diffused throughout the matrix. In the adjoining hills and
+      cliffs the Secondaries and the conglomerates take all shades of colour,
+      marvellous to behold when the mirage raises to giant heights the white
+      coast-banks patched with pink, red, mauve, and dark brown. Moreover, the
+      quarries of mottled alabaster, which the Ancients worked for
+      constructions, still show themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The travellers slept at the base of the Tuwayyil. Next morning M. Philipin
+      proceeded to collect specimens of the sulphur and of the chalcedony-agate
+      strewed over the plain, and here seen for the first time. M. Marie and
+      Lieutenant Yusuf rode on to the banks of the Wady Hamz; and, after three
+      hours (= nine miles), they came upon the "Castle" and unexpectedly turned
+      up trumps. I had carelessly written for them the name of a ruin which all,
+      naturally enough, believed would prove to be one of the normal barbarous
+      Hawáwít. They brought back specimens of civilized architecture; and these
+      at once determined one of the objectives of our next journey. The party
+      returned to El-Wijh on the next day, in the highest of spirits, after a
+      successful trip of more than fifty miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile I steamed southwards, accompanied by the rest of the party,
+      including the Sayyid, Shaykh Furayj, and the ex-Wakíl, Mohammed Shahádah,
+      who is trusted by the Bedawin, and who brought with him a guide of the
+      Fawá'idah-Juhaynah, one Rájih ibn ‘Ayid. This fellow was by no means a
+      fair specimen of his race: the cynocephalous countenance, the cobweb
+      beard, and the shifting, treacherous eyes were exceptional; the bellowing
+      voice and the greed of gain were not. He had a free passage for himself,
+      his child, and eight sacks of rice, with the promise of a napoleon by way
+      of "bakhshísh;" yet he complained aloud that he had no meat to break his
+      fast at dawn&mdash;an Arab of pure blood would rather have starved. He
+      shirked answering questions concerning the number of his tribe. "Many,
+      many!" was all the information we could get from him; and his Arabic
+      wanted the pure pronunciation, and the choice vocabulary, that usually
+      distinguish the Juhayni pilots. Arrived at his own shore, he refused to
+      make arrangements for disembarking his rice; he ordered, with bawling
+      accents and pointed stick, the sailors of the man-of-war to land it at the
+      place chosen by himself; and he bit his finger when informed that a sound
+      flogging was the normal result of such impudence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We set out at 4.30 p.m. (March 24th); and steamed due west till we had
+      rounded the northern head of El-Raykhah, a long low island which, lying
+      west-south-west of El-Wijh, may act breakwater in that direction. Then we
+      went south-west, and passed to port the white rocks of Mardu'nah Isle,
+      which fronts the Ras el-Ma'llah, capping the ugly reefs and shoals that
+      forbid tall ships to hug this section of the shore. It is described as a
+      narrow ridge of coralline, broken into pointed masses two to three hundred
+      feet high, whose cliffs and hollows form breeding-places for wild pigeons:
+      the unusually rugged appearance is explained by the fact that here the
+      "Jinns" amuse themselves with hurling rocks at one another. Before night
+      we had sighted the Ras Kurkumah, so called from its "Curcuma" (turmeric)
+      hue, the yellow point facing the islet-tomb of Shaykh Marbat.<a
+      href="#linknote-46" name="linknoteref-46" id="linknoteref-46"><small>46</small></a>
+      Upon this part of the shore, I was told, are extensive ruins as yet
+      unvisited by Europeans, the dangerous Juhaynah being the obstacle. To the
+      south-east towered tall and misty forms, the Gháts of the
+      Tihámat-Jahaníyyah. Northernmost, and prolonging the Libn, that miniature
+      Shárr, is the regular wall of the Jebel el-Ward; then come the peaks and
+      pinnacles of the Jibál el-Safhah; and lastly, the twin blocks El-Rál,
+      between which passes the Egyptian Hajj when returning from El-Medínah.
+      Faint resemblances of these features sprawl, like huge caterpillars, over
+      the Hydrographic Chart, but all sprawl unnamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By way of extra precaution we stood to the south instead of the
+      south-east, thus lengthening to one hundred and twenty knots the normal
+      hundred (dir. geog. sixty-eight) separating El-Wijh from the Jebel
+      Hassáni. Moreover, we caught amidships a fine lumpy sea, that threatened
+      to roll the masts out of the stout old corvette. As the Sinnár, which
+      always reminded me of her Majesty's steamship Zebra, is notably the
+      steadiest ship in the Egyptian navy, the captain was asked about his
+      ballast. He replied, "I have just taken command, but I don't think there
+      is any; the engine (El-‘iddah) is our Saburra"&mdash;evidently he had
+      never seen the hold. This state of things, which, combined with open
+      ports, foundered her Majesty's sailing frigate Eurydice, appears the rule
+      of the Egyptian war-navy. I commend the consideration to English sailors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steering also was detestable; and the man at the wheel could not see
+      the waves&mdash;a sine quâ non to the mariner in these latitudes, who
+      "broaches to" whenever he can. A general remark: The Egyptian sailor is
+      first-rate in a Dahabiyyah (Nile-boat), which he may capsize once in a
+      generation; and ditto in a Red Sea Sambúk, where he is also thoroughly at
+      home. The same was the case with the Sultan of Maskat's Arabo-English
+      navy: the Arabs and Sídís (negroes) were excellent at working their
+      Mtepe-craft; on frigates they were monkeys, poor copies of men. Our
+      European vessels are beyond and above the West Asiatic and the African. He
+      becomes at the best a kind of imitation Jack Tar. He will not, or rather
+      he cannot, take the necessary trouble, concentrate his attention, fix his
+      mind upon his "duties." He says "Inshallah;" he relies upon Allah; and he
+      prays five times a day, when he should be giving or receiving orders. The
+      younger generation of officers, it is true, drinks wine, and does not
+      indulge in orisons whilst it should be working; but its efficiency is
+      impaired by the difficulties and delay in granting pensions. The many grey
+      beards, however carefully dyed, suggest an equipage de vétérans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The consequence of yawing and of running half-speed by night was that we
+      reached Jebel Hassáni just before noon, instead of eight a.m., on the
+      25th. The island, whose profile slopes to the south-eastward, is a long
+      yellow-white ridge, a lump of coralline four hundred feet high, bare and
+      waterless in summer: yet it feeds the Bedawi flocks at certain seasons. It
+      is buttressed and bluff to the south-west, whence the strongest winds
+      blow; and it is prolonged by a flat spit to the south-east, and by a long
+      tail of two vertebrae, a big and a little joint, trending north-west. Thus
+      it gives safe shelter from the Wester to Arab barques;<a
+      href="#linknote-47" name="linknoteref-47" id="linknoteref-47"><small>47</small></a>
+      and still forms a landmark for those navigating between Jeddah, Kusayr,
+      and Suez. Its parallel runs a few miles north of the Dædalus Light (north
+      lat. 24° 55' 30") to the west; and it lies a little south of El-Haurá on
+      the coast, and of El-Medínah, distant about one hundred and thirty direct
+      miles in the interior. If Ptolemy's latitudes are to be consulted, Jebel
+      Hassáni would be the Timagenes Island in north lat. 25° 40'; and the
+      corresponding Chersónesus Point is represented by the important and
+      well-marked projection "Abú Madd," which intercepts the view to the south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After rounding the southern spit, we turned to north-east and by east, and
+      passed, with a minimum of seven fathoms under keel, between Hassáni the
+      Giant and the dwarf Umm Sahr, a flat sandbank hardly visible from the
+      shore. This is the only good approach to the secure and spacious bay that
+      bore the southernmost Nabathæan port-town: there are northern and
+      north-western passages, but both require skilful pilots; and every other
+      adit, though apparently open, is sealed by reefs and shoals. With the blue
+      and regular-lined curtain of Abú el-Ghurayr in front, stretching down
+      coast to Ras Abú Madd, we bent gradually round to the north-east and east.
+      We then left to starboard the settlement El-Amlij, a long line of separate
+      ‘Ushash, the usual Ichthyophagan huts, dull, dark-brown wigwams. They were
+      apparently deserted; at least, only two women appeared upon the shore, but
+      sundry Katírahs and canoes warned us that fishermen were about. We ran for
+      safety a mile and three-quarters north of the exposed Ras el-Haurá; and at
+      1.30 p.m. (= twenty-one hours) we anchored, in nine fathoms, under the
+      Kutá'at el-Wazamah. The pea-green shallows, which defended us to the north
+      and south, had lately given protection to the Khedivíyyah<a
+      href="#linknote-48" name="linknoteref-48" id="linknoteref-48"><small>48</small></a>
+      steamer El-Hidayyidah, compelled by an accident to creep along-shore like
+      a Sambúk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      El-Haura' is not found either in the charts, or in Ptolemy's and
+      Sprenger's maps. It lies in north lat. 25° 6', about the same parallel as
+      El-Medínah; and in east long. (Gr.) 37° 13' 30".<a href="#linknote-49"
+      name="linknoteref-49" id="linknoteref-49"><small>49</small></a> Wellsted
+      (II. x.) heard of its ruins, but never saw it: at least, he says, "In the
+      vicinity of El-Haurá, according to the Arabs, are some remains of
+      buildings and columns, but our stay on the coast was too limited to permit
+      our examining the spot." He is, however, greatly in error when he adds,
+      "Near this station the encampments of the Bili' (Baliyy) tribe to the
+      southward terminate, and those of the Joheïnah commence." As has been
+      seen, the frontier is nearly fifty miles further north. He notices (chap.
+      ix.) the "White Village" to differ with Vincent, who would place it at
+      El-Muwaylah; but he translates the word (ii. 461) "the bright-eyed girl,"
+      instead of Albus (Vicus). He quotes, however, the other name, Dár
+      el-‘ishrin ("Twentieth Station"), so called because the Cairo caravan
+      formerly reached it in a score of days, now reduced to nineteen. He seems,
+      finally, to have landed in order to inspect "a ruined town on the main,"
+      and to have missed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to Sprenger, the "White Village, or Castle," was not a
+      Thamudite, but a Nabathæan port. Here Æelius Gallius disembarked his
+      troops from Egypt. Strabo (xvi. c. 4, § 24) shows that was the
+      starting-place of the caravans which, before the Nile route to Alexandria
+      was opened, carried to Petra the merchandise of India and of Southern
+      Arabia. Thence the imports were passed on to Phoenicia and Egypt:&mdash;these
+      pages have shown why the journey would be preferred to the voyage
+      northward. He is confirmed by the "Periplus," which relates (chap. xix.)
+      that "from the port, and the castellum of Leukè Kóme, a road leads to
+      Petra, the capital of the Malicha (El-Malik), King of the Nabathæans: it
+      also serves as an emporium to those who bring wares in smaller ships from
+      Arabia (Mocha, Múza, and Aden). For the latter reason, a Perceptor or
+      toll-taker, who levies twenty-five per cent. ad valorem, and a
+      Hekatontarches (centurion), with a garrison, are there stationed." As the
+      Nabatæ were vassals of Rome, and the whole region had been ceded to the
+      Romans (Byzantines) by a chief of the Beni Kudá' tribe, this Yuzbáshi or
+      "military commandant" was probably a Roman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      El-Haurá, like most of the ruined settlements upon this coast, shows two
+      distinct "quarters;" a harbour-town and what may be called a country-town.
+      The latter, whose site is by far the more picturesque and amene, lay upon
+      a long tongue of land backing the slope of the sea-cliff, and attached to
+      the low whitish hillocks and pitons rising down south. It is now a
+      luxuriant orchard of emerald palms forming three large patches. Behind it
+      swells a dorsum of golden-yellow sand; and the horizon is closed by ranges
+      of hills and highlands, red and white, blue and black. Our eyes are
+      somewhat startled by the amount of bright and vivid green: for some
+      reason, unknown to us, the shore is far more riant than the northern
+      section; and the land might be called quasi-agricultural. The whole coast
+      seems to be broken with verdant valleys; from the Wady el-‘Ayn, with its
+      numerous branches beautifying the north, to the Wady el-Daghaybaj in the
+      south, supplying water between its two paps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the evening of our arrival, we landed in a shallow bay bearing
+      north-north-east (30° mag.) from the roads where the corvette lay at
+      anchor; and walked a few yards inland to the left bank of the Wady
+      el-Samnah, the unimportant Fiumara draining low hills of the same name.
+      The loose sand is everywhere strewed with bits of light porous lava, which
+      comes from the Harrat el-Buhayr, a bluff quoin to the north-west. About
+      El-Haurá, I have said, the volcanic formations, some sixty miles inland on
+      the parallel of El-Muwaylah, approach the coast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were guided to the ruins by the shouts of sundry Arabs defending their
+      harvest against a dangerous enemy, the birds&mdash;rattles and scarecrows
+      were anything but scarce. Apparently the sand contains some fertilizing
+      matter. A field of dry and stunted Dukhn (Holcus Dochna), or small millet,
+      nearly covers the site of the old castle, whose outline, nearly buried
+      under the drift of ages, we could still trace. There are two elevations,
+      eastern and western; and a third lies to the north, on the right side of
+      the Wady Samnah. Scatters of the usual fragments lay about, and the blocks
+      of white coralline explained the old names&mdash;Whitton, Whitworth,
+      Whitby. The Bedawin preserve the tradition that this was the most
+      important part of the settlement, which extended southwards nearly four
+      miles. The dwarf valley-mouth is still a roadstead, where two small craft
+      were anchored; and here, doubtless, was the corner of the hive allotted to
+      the community's working-bees. An old fibster, Hámid el-Fá'idi, declared
+      that he would bring us from the adjacent hills a stone which, when heated,
+      would pour forth metal like water&mdash;and never appeared again. It was
+      curious to remark how completely the acute Furayj believed him, because
+      both were Arabs and brother Bedawin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning we set out, shortly after the red and dewy sunrise, to visit
+      the south end of Leukè Kóme. The party consisted of twenty marines under
+      an officer, besides our escort of ten negro "Remingtons:" the land was
+      open, and with these thirty I would willingly have met three hundred
+      Bedawin. Our repulse from the Hismá had rankled in our memories, and we
+      only wanted an opportunity of showing fight. After rowing a mile we
+      landed, south-east of the anchorage (127° mag.), at a modern ruin, four
+      blocks of the rudest masonry, built as a store by a Yambú' merchant.
+      Unfortunately he had leased the ground from the Fawá'idah clan, when the
+      Hámidah claim it: the result was a "faction fight"&mdash;and nothing done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes' walking, over unpleasantly deep sand, placed us upon the
+      Hajj-road. It is paved, like the shore, with natural slabs and ledges of
+      soft modern sandstone; and, being foot-worn, it makes a far better road
+      than that which connects Alexandria with Ramleh. The broad highway,
+      scattered with quartz and basalt, greenstone, and serpentine, crossed one
+      of the many branches of the Wady el-‘Ayn: in the rich and saltish sand
+      grew crops of Dukhn, and the Halfá-grass (Cynosures durus) of the Nile
+      Valley, with tamarisk-thickets, and tufts of fan-palm. On its left bank a
+      lamp-black vein of stark-naked basalt, capped by jagged blocks, ran down
+      to the sea, and formed a conspicuous buttress. The guides spoke of a
+      similar volcanic outcrop above Point Abú Madd to the south; and of a third
+      close to Yambá' harbour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour of "stravaguing" walk showed us the first sign of the ruins:
+      wall-bases built with fine cement, crowning the summit of a dwarf mound to
+      the left of the road; well-worked scoriæ were also scattered over its
+      slopes. We now entered the date orchards conspicuous from the sea: on both
+      sides of us were fences of thorn, tamped earth, and dry stone; young trees
+      had been planted, and, beyond the dates, large fields of Dukhn again gave
+      an agricultural touch to the scene. Flocks of sheep and goats were being
+      grazed all around us; and the owners made no difficulty, as they would
+      have done further north, in selling us half a dozen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We then entered the Wady Haurá, where the caravan camps. It is a cheery
+      charming site for rich citizens, with its plain of rich vegetation
+      everywhere, say the natives, undermined by water; its open sea-view to the
+      west; its mound of clean yellow sand behind, extending to the rocky
+      horizon; and its pure fresh breezes blowing from the Nejd with an
+      indescribable sense of lightness and health and enjoyment. In fact, it has
+      all the accessories of an "eligible position." At the third or southern
+      palm patch, we found the only public work which remains visible in the
+      great Nabathaean port. It was formerly a Káríz, the underground-aqueduct
+      so common in Persia; and it conducted towards the sea the drainage of the
+      Jebel Turham, a round knob shown in the Chart, which bears south-east
+      (121° mag.) from the conduit-head. The line has long ago been broken down
+      by the Arabs; and the open waters still supply the Hajj-caravan. The ‘Ayn
+      ("fountain") may be seen issuing from a dark cavern of white coralline:
+      the water then hides itself under several filled-up pits, which represent
+      the old air-holes; and, after flowing below sundry natural arches, the
+      remains of the conduit-ceiling, it emerges in a deep fissure of saltish
+      stone. From this part of its banks we picked up fair specimens of
+      saltpetre. The lower course abounds in water-beetles, and is choked with
+      three kinds of aquatic weeds. After flowing a few yards it ends in a
+      shallow pool, surrounded by palms and paved with mud, which attracts
+      flights of snipes, sandpipers, and sandgrouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The turbulent "Dog's Sons"<a href="#linknote-50" name="linknoteref-50"
+      id="linknoteref-50"><small>50</small></a> were mostly in the upper lands;
+      but a few wretched fellows, with swords, old spears, and ridiculous
+      matchlocks, assembled and managed to get up a squabble about the right of
+      leading strangers into "our country" (Bilád-ná). The doughty Rájih ibn
+      ‘Ayid, who, mounted upon a mean dromedary, affected to be chief guide,
+      seemed to treat their pretensions as a serious matter, when we laughed
+      them to scorn. He and all the other experts gave us wholly discouraging
+      details concerning a ruin represented to lie, some hours off, in the
+      nearest of the southern Harrah. According to them, the Kasr el-Bint
+      ("Maiden's Palace") was in the same condition as El-Haurá; showing only a
+      single pillar, perhaps the "columns" to which Wellsted alludes. We could
+      learn nothing concerning the young person whose vague name it bears;
+      except that she preferred settling on the mainland, whereas her brother
+      built a corresponding castle upon the islet Jebel Hassáni.<a
+      href="#linknote-51" name="linknoteref-51" id="linknoteref-51"><small>51</small></a>
+      He is locally called Warakat ibn Naufal, a venerated name in the Fatrah,
+      or "interval," between Jesus and Mohammed; he was the uncle of Khadijah
+      the widow, and he is popularly supposed to have been a Christian. Here, as
+      at other places, I inquired, at the suggestion of a friend, but of course
+      in vain, about the human skeleton which Ibn Mujáwar, some six centuries
+      ago, found embedded in a rock near the sea-shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the present condition of the once famous emporium Leukè Kóme. We
+      returned along the shore to embark; and, shortly after noon, the old
+      corvette of Crimean date again swung round on her heel, and resumed her
+      wanderings, this time northwards. The run of eighteen hours and fifteen
+      minutes was semicircular, but the sea had subsided to a dead calm. The
+      return to El-Wijh felt like being restored to civilization; we actually
+      had a salad of radish leaves&mdash;delicious!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our travel will now lie through the Baliyy country, and a few words
+      concerning this ancient and noble tribe may here be given. Although they
+      apparently retain no traditions of their origin, they are known to
+      genealogists as a branch of the Beni Kudá', who, some fifteen centuries
+      ago, emigrated from Southern Arabia, and eventually exterminated the
+      Thamudites. I have noted their northern and southern frontiers: to the
+      north-east they are bounded by the vicious Ma'ázah and the
+      Ruwalá-‘Anezahs, and to the south-east by the Alaydán-‘Anezahs, under
+      Shaykh Mutlak. Like their northern nomadic neighbours, they have passed
+      over to Egypt, and even the guide-books speak of the "Billi" in the valley
+      of the Nile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Baliyy modestly rate their numbers at four thousand muskets, by which
+      understand four hundred. Yet they divide themselves into a multitude of
+      clans; our companion, the Wakíl Mohammed Shahádah, can enumerate them by
+      the score; and I wrote down the twenty-three principal, which are common
+      both to South Midian and to Egypt. The chief Shaykh, Mohammed ‘Afnán ibn
+      Ammár, can reckon backwards seven generations, beginning from a certain
+      Shaykh Sultán. About ten years ago he allowed the tribe to indulge in such
+      dangerous amusements as "cutting the road" and plundering merchants. It is
+      even asserted, privily, that they captured the fort of El-Wijh, by bribing
+      the Turkish Topji ("head gunner"), to fire high&mdash;like the half-caste
+      artilleryman who commanded the Talpúr cannoneers at Sir Charles Napier's
+      Battle of "Meeanee." A regiment of eight hundred bayonets was sent from
+      Egypt, and the Shaykh was secured by a Hílah, or "stratagem;" that is, he
+      was promised safe conduct: he trusted himself like a fool, he was seized,
+      clapped in irons, and sent to jail in the Citadel of Cairo. Here he
+      remained some seven months in carcere duro, daily expecting death, when
+      Fate suddenly turned in his favour; he was sent for by the authorities,
+      pardoned for the past, cautioned for the future, and restored to his home
+      with a Murátibah ("regular pension") of eight hundred piastres per mensem,
+      besides rations and raiment. The remedy was, like cutting off the nose of
+      a wicked Hindú wife, sharp but effective. Shaykh ‘Afnan and his tribe are
+      now models of courtesy to strangers; and the traveller must devoutly wish
+      that every Shaykh in Arabia could be subjected to the same discipline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Baliyy are a good study of an Arab tribe in the rough. The Huwaytát,
+      for example, know their way to Suez and to Cairo; they have seen
+      civilization; they have learned, after a fashion, the outlandish ways of
+      the Frank, the Fellah, and the Turk-fellow. The Baliyy have to be taught
+      all these rudiments. Cunning, tricky, and "dodgy," as is all the
+      Wild-Man-race, they lie like the "childish-foolish," deceiving nobody but
+      themselves. An instance: Hours and miles are of course unknown to them,
+      but they began with us by affecting an extreme ignorance of comparative
+      distances; they could not, or rather they would not, adopt as a standard
+      the two short hours' march between the Port and the inland Fort of
+      El-Wijh. When, however, the trick was pointed out to them, they at once
+      threw it aside as useless. No pretext was too flimsy to shorten a march or
+      to cause a halt&mdash;the northerners did the same, but with them we had a
+      controlling power in the shape of Shaykh Furayj. And like the citizens,
+      they hate our manner of travelling: they love to sit up and chat through
+      half the night; and to rise before dawn is an abomination to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first their manners, gentle and pliable, contrast pleasantly with the
+      roughness of the half-breds, Huwaytát and Maknáwi, who have many of the
+      demerits of the Fellah, without acquiring the merits of the Bedawi. As
+      camel-men they were not difficult to deal with; nor did they wrangle about
+      their hire. Presently they turned out to be "poor devils," badly armed,
+      and not trained to the use of matchlocks. Their want of energy in beating
+      the bushes and providing forage for their camels, compared with that of
+      the northerners, struck us strongly. On the other hand, they seem to
+      preserve a flavour of ancient civilization, which it is not easy to
+      describe; and they certainly have inherited the instincts and tastes of
+      the old metal-workers: they are a race of born miners. That sharpest of
+      tests, the experience of travel, at last suggested to us that the Baliyy
+      is too old a breed; and that its blue blood wants a "racial baptism," a
+      large infusion of something newer and stronger.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                Note on the "Harrahs" of Arabia.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The learned Dr. J. G. Wetzstein, in the appendix to his "Reisebericht,"
+      etc.,<a href="#linknote-52" name="linknoteref-52" id="linknoteref-52"><small>52</small></a>
+      records a conversation with A. von Humboldt and Carl Ritter (April, 1859),
+      respecting the specimens which he had brought from the classical
+      Trachonitis. Their appearance led the latter to question whether the
+      latest eruptions of the Harrat Rájil, as it is called from an adjoining
+      valley, may not have taken place within the historic period; and he
+      referred to Psalm xviii. as seeming to note the occurrence, during David's
+      reign, of such a phenomenon in or near Palestine. Humboldt deemed it
+      probable that the Koranic legend (chap. iv.) of the Abyssinian host under
+      Abraha destroyed by a shower of stones baked in hell-fire, referred, not
+      to small-pox as is generally supposed, but to an actual volcanic eruption
+      in Arabia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "With what interest would that great man have learnt," writes Dr.
+      Wetzstein, "that, as I was turning over the leaves of Yákút's
+      ‘Geographical Lexicon,' only a few days ago, I found that the Arabians
+      knew of the existence of twenty-eight different volcanic regions between
+      Hauran and Bab el-Mandeb!" Later still, Dr. Otto Loth published an
+      elaborate paper "On the Volcanic Regions (Harras) of Arabia, according to
+      Yakut" (thirteenth century), in which these eruptive sites are nearly all
+      identified and described.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Among the numerous volcanoes thus found to exist within the Arabian
+      Peninsula," remarks Dr. Beke,<a href="#linknote-53" name="linknoteref-53"
+      id="linknoteref-53"><small>53</small></a> "the only one recorded as having
+      been in activity within the historic period is the Harrat-el-Nar (‘Fire
+      Harra'), situate to the north-east of Medina, in the neighbourhood of
+      Khaibur (Khaybar), in about 26°. 30' north lat., and 40°. east long.;
+      which, being traditionally said to have been in an active state six
+      centuries before Mohammed, had actually an eruption in the time of the
+      Prophet's successor, Omar. To the north-west of this ‘Fire Harra' lies
+      that known as the ‘Harra of (the tribe of) Udhra' (Azra): again, to the
+      north of this is the ‘Harra of Tabuk,' so called from the station of that
+      name on the Hajj-road from Damascus to Mekka, the position of which is in
+      about 28 deg. 15' north lat. and 37 deg. east long.; and beyond this last,
+      further to the north, and consequently between it and the northernmost
+      Harra of the Râdjil, or Trachonitis, is the Harra Radjlâ. . . . Its
+      designation, which means ‘rough,' ‘pathless,' seems to indicate its
+      peculiarly rugged surface, and to lead to the inference that it is an
+      immense field of lava." He cites Irby and Mangles ("Travels in Egypt," pp.
+      115, 116; reprinted by Murray, London, 1868), describing their route
+      between Kerak and Petra, on the east side of the Ghor or Wady ‘Arabah. "We
+      noticed three dark volcanic summits, very distinguishable from the land.
+      The lava that had streamed from them forms a sort of island in the plain."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hence my late friend concluded that his "true Mount Sinai" was the focus
+      and origin of this volcanic region; and that the latter was the "great and
+      terrible wilderness" (Deut. i. 19) through which the children of Israel
+      were led on their way to mysterious Kadesh-Barnea. Thus, too, he explained
+      the "pillar of the cloud by day," and the "pillow of fire by night" (Exod.
+      xiii. 21).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XVI. &mdash; Our Last March&mdash;the Inland Fort&mdash;Ruins of
+      the Gold-mines at Umm El-Karáyát and Umm El-Haráb.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Again there were preliminaries to be settled before we could leave El-Wijh
+      for the interior. Shaykh Mohammed ‘Afnán had been marrying his son; and
+      the tale of camels came in slowly enough. On the day after our return from
+      El-Haurá the venerable old man paid us a visit aboard Sinnár. He declares
+      that he was a boy when the Wahhábi occupied Meccah and El-Medínah&mdash;that
+      is, in 1803-4. Yet he has wives and young children. His principal want is
+      a pair of new eyes; and the train of thought is, "I can't see when older
+      men than myself can." The same idea makes the African ever attribute his
+      sickness and death to sorcery: "Why should I lose life when all around me
+      are alive?"&mdash;and this is the idea that lies at the bottom of all
+      witch-persecution. Two pair of spectacles were duly despatched to him
+      after our return to Cairo; and M. Lacaze there exhibited a capital sketch
+      of the picturesque, white-bearded face, with the straight features and the
+      nutcracker chin, deep buried in the folds of a huge red shawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son, Sulaymán, has been espoused to a cousin older, they say, than
+      himself; and he seems in no hurry to conclude the marriage. He would
+      willingly accompany us to Egypt, but he is the father's favourite, and the
+      old man can do nothing without him. A youth of about eighteen, and even
+      more handsome than his sire, he has the pretty look, the sloping
+      shoulders, the soft snaky movements, and the quiet, subdued voice of a
+      nice girl. During the first marches he dressed in the finery of the
+      Bedawin&mdash;the brilliant head-kerchief, the parti-coloured sandals, and
+      the loose cloak of expensive broadcloth. The "toggery" looked out of place
+      as the toilettes of the Syrian ladies who called upon us in laces and blue
+      satins amid the ruins of Ba'lbek. Although all the hired camels belonged,
+      as is customary, to the tribe, not to the Shaykh, the latter was
+      accompanied by the usual "Hieland tail;" by his two nephews, Hammád and
+      Náji, the latter our head-guide, addicted to reading, writing, and lying;
+      by his favourite and factotum, Abdullah, an African mulatto, Muwallid or
+      "house-born;" and by his Wakíl ("agent"), a big black slave, Abdullah
+      Mohammed, ready of tongue and readier of fist. Lastly, I must mention one
+      ‘Audah ‘Adayni, a Huwayti bred in the Baliyy country, a traveller to
+      Cairo, passing intelligent and surpassing unscrupulous. Confidential for a
+      consideration, he told all the secrets of his employers, and it is my firm
+      conviction that he was liberally paid for so doing by both parties of
+      wiseacres.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The immediate objective of this, our last march, was the Badá plain, of
+      which we first heard at Shaghab. I purposed subsequently to collect
+      specimens of a traditional coal-mine, to which his Highness the Viceroy
+      had attached the highest importance. Then we would march upon the Móchoura
+      of the ancients, the mediaeval El-Marwah or Zú Marwah, the modern
+      Marwát-cum-Abá'l-Marú. Finally, we would return to El-Wijh, viâ the Wady
+      Hamz, inspecting both it and the ruins first sighted by MM. Marie and
+      Philipin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Friday, March 29th, I gave a breakfast, in the wooden barracks, to the
+      officers of the Sinnár and the officials of the port. After which, some
+      took their opium and went to sleep; while others, it being church-day,
+      went to Mosque. We ran out of El-Wijh at 1.45 p.m., our convoy consisting
+      of fifty-eight camels, forty-four of which were loaded; seven were
+      dromedaries, and an equal number carried water. All had assured us that
+      the rains of the two past years had been wanting: last winter they were
+      scanty; this cold season they were nil. In truth, the land was suffering
+      terribly from drought. Our afternoon was hot and unpleasant: about later
+      March the Hawá el'-Uwwah, a violent sand-raising norther, sets in and
+      lasts through a fortnight. It is succeeded, in early April, by the calms
+      of El-Ni'ám ("the Blessings"), which, divided into the Greater and the
+      Less, last forty days. After that the summer&mdash;Jehannum!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the raised and metalled bank, upon which the Burj stands, we
+      descended to the broad mouth of the Wijh valley, draining the low rolling
+      blue-brown line of porphyritic hillocks on the east. To our right lay the
+      sparkling, glittering white plain and pool, El-Melláhah, "the salina."
+      After an hour and a quarter of sandy and dusty ride, we passed through a
+      "gate" formed by the Hamírat-Wijh, the red range which, backing the gape
+      of the valley and apparently close behind the town, strikes the eye from
+      the offing. Here the gypsum, ruddy and mauve, white and black, was
+      underlaid by granite in rounded masses; and the Secondary formation is
+      succeeded by the usual red and green traps. Though this part of our route
+      lies in El-Tihámah, which, in fact, we shall not leave, we are again
+      threading the Wady Sadr of the northern Shafah-range. A pleasant surprise
+      was a fine vein of sugary quartz trending north-south: at that period we
+      little suspected the sub-range to the south&mdash;perhaps also the
+      northern&mdash;of being, in places, one mighty mass of "white stone."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After covering six miles in an hour and three-quarters, exaggerated by the
+      guides to three, we suddenly sighted the inland fort. Its approach is that
+      of a large encamping-ground, and such, indeed, it is; the Egyptian
+      pilgrim-caravan here halts on the fourth day from El-Muwaylah. The broken,
+      untidy environs, strewed with bones and rubbish, show low mounds that mean
+      ovens; stone rings, where tents are pitched; and the usual graves, amongst
+      which a reverend man, Shaykh Sálih, rests in a manner of round tower. The
+      site is, in one point at least, admirably well-chosen, a kind of carrefour
+      where four valleys and as many roads meet; and thus it commands the mouths
+      of all the gorges leading inland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Riding up to the fort, we were welcomed by its commandant, Lieutenant
+      Násir Ahmed, a peculiarly good specimen of his arm, the infantry. His
+      garrison consists of thirteen regulars, whose clean uniforms show
+      discipline, and whose hale and hearty complexions testify to the
+      excellence of the water and the air. The men are paid annually by the
+      treasurer of the Hajj-caravan. They are supposed to be relieved after
+      seven years; but they have wives and families; and, like the British
+      soldier in India half a century ago, they are content to pass their
+      working lives in local service. The commandant showed us over his castle,
+      which was in excellent order; and brewed coffee, which we drank in the
+      cool porch of the single gate. He then led us about the neighbourhood, and
+      ended with inviting the Sáyyid, Furayj, and the Wakíl Mohammed Shahádah to
+      a copious feast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fort is the usual square, straight-curtained work of solid masonry,
+      with a circular bastion at each angle, and a huge arched main-entrance in
+      the western façade. It is, in fact, one of the buildings that belong to
+      the solid, sturdy age of Sultán Selim, and of the Sinnán Pasha so well
+      known about Damascus. An inscription, with an illegible date, bears the
+      name of Ahmed ibn Taylún, the founder of the Taylunide dynasty, in A.D.
+      868&mdash;884: this is another proof that the Mamlúk Soldans were lords of
+      the soil; and that, even in the ninth century, South Midian was a
+      province, or a dependency, of Egypt. Moreover, we picked up, to the
+      north-east of the work, old and well-treated scoriæ, suggesting a more
+      ancient settlement. Perhaps it was the locale preferred by the proprietors
+      of the slaves who worked the inner mines, hidden from view and from the
+      sea-breeze by the hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The castle being perfectly commanded by the heights behind, the circular
+      towers to the east have crests raised in that direction, giving them a
+      spoon-shape, and a peculiar aptitude for arresting every cannon-ball
+      coming from the west. The Bedawin, however, have no great guns; and
+      apparently this shelter has been added since Wellsted's day.<a
+      href="#linknote-54" name="linknoteref-54" id="linknoteref-54"><small>54</small></a>
+      To the curtains are attached the usual hovels, mat, palm-leaf, and walls
+      of dry stone or mud, which here, as at Palmyra, inevitably suggest
+      wasp-nests. The northern side is subtended by three large cisterns, all
+      strengthened at the inner angles by the stepped buttresses first noticed
+      when we were exploring Magháir Shu'ayb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up the valley and behind the fort, or to the north-east, lie the
+      palm-plantations, the small kitchen-gardens, and the far-famed wells
+      which, dug by Sultán Selim and repaired by Ibrahim Pasha in A.D. 1524 (?),
+      supply the Hajj-caravan. The sandy bed, disposed east-west, is streaked,
+      dotted, and barred with walls and outcrops of the hardest greenstone
+      porphyry; and those which run north-south must arrest, like dykes, the
+      flow of water underground. One of these reefs is laboriously scraped with
+      Bedawi Wusúm, and with Moslem inscriptions comparatively modern. The
+      material is heavy, but shows no quartz; whereas the smaller valleys which
+      debouch upon the northern or right bank of the main line, display a
+      curious conformation of the "white stone," contorted like oyster shells,
+      and embedded in the trap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the six wells, revetted with masonry and resembling in all points those
+      of Ziba, four, including El-Tawílah, the deepest, supply brackish water;
+      and the same is the case with a fifth inside the fort, close to the chapel
+      of his Holiness, Shaykh Abubakr. The water, however, appeared potable; and
+      perhaps cleaning out and deepening might increase the quantity. The sweet
+      element drunk by the richards of El-Wijh comes from the Bir
+      el-Za'faráníyyah ("of Saffron"), and from its north-eastern neighbour,
+      El-‘Ajwah ("the Date-paste"). The latter measures four or five fathoms;
+      and the water appears under a boulder in situ that projects from the
+      southern side. The reader will now agree with me that El-Wijh is not too
+      drouthy for a quarantine-ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The plots of green meat lie about the water, sheltered from the burning
+      sun by a luxuriant growth of date-trees. The Egyptian is the best man in
+      the world for dabbling in mud; and here, by scraping away the
+      surface-sand, he has come upon a clayey soil sufficiently fertile to
+      satisfy his wants. The growth is confined to tobacco, potatoes, and
+      cabbages, purslain (Portulaca, pourpier), radishes, the edible Hibiscus,
+      and tomatoes, which are small and green. Lettuces do not thrive; cucumbers
+      and water-melons have been tried here and up country; and&mdash;man wants
+      little in Midian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We set out early on the next day (5.30 a.m., March 30th) in disorderly
+      style. The night had been cool and comfortable, dry and dewless; but the
+      Shaykhs were torpid after the feast, and the escort and quarrymen had been
+      demoralized by a week of sweet "do-nothing." Striking up the Wady el-Wijh,
+      which now becomes narrow and gorge-like, with old and new wells and
+      water-pits dotting the sole, we were stopped, after half an hour's walk,
+      by a "written rock" on the right side of the bed. None of the guides
+      seemed to know or, at any rate, to care for it; although I afterwards
+      learnt that Admiral M'Killop (Pasha), during his last visit to El-Wijh,
+      obtained a squeeze of the inscriptions. Wellsted (II. x.) erroneously
+      calls this valley "Wádí el-Moyah," the name of a feature further south&mdash;thus
+      leading me to expect the find elsewhere. Moreover, he has copied the
+      scrawls with a carelessness so prodigious, that we failed at first to
+      recognize the original. He has hit upon the notable expedient of massing
+      together in a single dwarf wood-cut (Vol. II. p. 189) what covers many
+      square feet of stone; and I was fool enough to republish his copy.<a
+      href="#linknote-55" name="linknoteref-55" id="linknoteref-55"><small>55</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A tall, fissured rock, of the hardest porphyritic greenstone, high raised
+      from the valley-sole, facing north-west, and reducible to two main blocks,
+      is scattered over with these "inscriptions," that spread in all
+      directions. Most of them are Arab Wusum, others are rude drawings of men
+      and beasts, amongst which are conspicuous the artless camel and the
+      serpent; and there is a duello between two funny warriors armed with sword
+      and shield. These efforts of art resemble, not a little, the "Totem"
+      attempts of the "Red Indians" in North and South America. There are,
+      however, two scrapings evidently alphabetic, and probably Nabathæan, which
+      are offered to the specialists in epigraphy: six appear in Wellsted's
+      illustration, especially that with a long line above it, near the left and
+      lower corner of the cut. M. Lacaze and I copied the most striking features
+      in our carnets; he taking the right or southern side and leaving the other
+      block to me. But the results did not satisfy us; and on April 10th I sent
+      him with M. Philipin to make photographs. The latter, again, are hardly as
+      satisfactory as they might be, because the inscriptions have not been
+      considered the central points of interest. We shall pass during our
+      present journey many of these Oriental "John Joneses" and "Bill Browns:"
+      they will suggest the similar features of Sinaitic Wady Mukattib, which
+      begot those monstrous growths, "The One Primaeval Language" and "The Voice
+      of Israel from Mount Sinai."<a href="#linknote-56" name="linknoteref-56"
+      id="linknoteref-56"><small>56</small></a> From the "written rock" the
+      caravan travelled westward up an easy watercourse, "El-Khaur,"
+      distinguished as El-Shimálí ("the Northern"): it winds round by the north,
+      and we shall descend it to-morrow. The mule-riders left the Wady el-Wijh,
+      which extends some two hours eastward, and struck to the east-south-east.
+      The bridle-path, running up the left bank of an ugly rocky torrent, the
+      Wady Zurayb, presently reaches a plateau undulating in low rises. Burnt
+      with heat, almost bare of trees, and utterly waterless, it is the model of
+      a mining country: elevate it from five hundred to nine thousand feet, and
+      it would be the living (or dead) likeness of a Peruvian cerro. The staple
+      material, porphyritic trap, shows scatters of quartz and huge veins,
+      mostly trending north-south: large trenches made, according to the guides,
+      by the ancients, and small cairns or stone piles, modern work, were also
+      pointed out to us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crossing the heads of sundry watercourses, we fell into the Wady Umm
+      el-Karáyat:<a href="#linknote-57" name="linknoteref-57" id="linknoteref-57"><small>57</small></a>
+      it begins, as is here the rule, with a gravelly bed, nice riding enough;
+      it then breaks into ugly rocky drops and slides, especially at the hill
+      shoulders, where thorn-trees and other obstacles often suggest that it is
+      better to dismount; and, finally, when nearing the mouth, it becomes a
+      matured copy of its upper self on an enlarged scale. Presently we turned
+      to the left over a short divide, and stared with astonishment at the airy
+      white heap, some two hundred feet high, which, capped and strewed with
+      snowy boulders, seemed to float above our heads. The Wady-bed at our feet,
+      lined along the left bank with immense blocks of similar quartz, showed
+      the bases of black walls&mdash;ruins. "Behold Umm el-Karáyát!" exclaimed
+      Nájí, the guide, pointing with a wave of the arm, his usual theatrical
+      gesture, to the scene before us. We could hardly believe our eyes: he had
+      just assured us that the march from the fort is four hours, and we had
+      ridden it in two hours and fifteen minutes (= six miles and a quarter).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dismounting at once, and ordering the camp to be pitched near the ruins,
+      we climbed up the south-eastern face of the quartz-hill, whose appearance
+      was a novelty to us. Instead of being a regular, round-headed cone, like
+      the Jebel el-Abyaz for instance, the summit was distinctly crateriform.
+      The greater part of the day was spent in examining it, and the following
+      are the results. This Jebel el-Marú showed, for the first time during the
+      whole journey, signs of systematic and civilized work. In many parts the
+      hill has become a mere shell. We found on the near side a line of
+      air-holes, cut in the quartz rock, disposed north-south of one another;
+      and preserving a rim, sunk like that of a sarcophagus, to receive a cover.
+      Possibly it was a precaution against the plunder which ruined Brazilian
+      Gongo Soco. The Arabs have no fear of these places, as in Wellsted's day,
+      and Abdullah, the mulatto, readily descended into one about twelve feet
+      below the surface. Messrs. Clarke and Marie explored the deepest by means
+      of ropes, and declared that it measured sixty feet. They had to be ready
+      with their bayonets, as sign of hyenas was common; and the beast, which
+      slinks away in the open is apt, when brought to bay in caverns, to rush
+      past the intruder, carrying off a jawful of calf or thigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This pit had two main galleries, both choked with rubbish, leading to the
+      east and west; and the explorers could see light glimmering through the
+      cracks and crevices of the roof&mdash;these doubtless gave passage to the
+      wild carnivore. In other parts the surface, especially where the earth is
+      red, was pitted with shallow basins; and a large depression showed the
+      sinking of the hollowed crust. Negro quartz was evidently abundant; but we
+      came to the conclusion that the rock mostly worked was, like that of
+      Shuwák, a rosy, mauve-coloured schist, with a deep-red fracture, and
+      brilliant colours before they are tarnished by atmospheric oxygen. It
+      abounds in mica, which, silvery as fish-scales, overspreads it in patches;
+      and the precious metal had probably been sought in the veinlets between
+      the schist and its quartz-walling. In two pieces, specks, or rather
+      paillettes, of gold were found lightly and loosely adhering to the "Marú
+      ;" so lightly, indeed, that they fell off when carelessly pocketed Veins
+      of schist still remained, but in the galleries they had been followed out
+      to the uttermost fibril.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reaching the crateriform summit, we found that the head of the cone had
+      either "caved in," or had been carried off bodily to be worked. Here
+      traces of fire, seen on the rock, suggested that it had been split by cold
+      affusion. A view from the summit of this burrowed mound gave us at once
+      the measure of the past work and a most encouraging prospect for the
+      future. We determined that the Marwah or "quartz-hill" of Umm el-Karáyát
+      was the focus and centre of the southern mining region, even as the
+      northern culminates in the Jebel el-Abyaz. Further experience rejected the
+      theory, and showed us half a dozen foci and centres in this true
+      quartz-region. The main hill projects a small southern spur, also bearing
+      traces of the miner. The block of green trap to the south-west has a
+      capping and a vein-network of quartz: here also the surface is
+      artificially pitted. Moreover, there are detached white-yellow pitons to
+      the north-east, the east, and the south; whilst a promising hillock,
+      bearing nearly due north, adjoins the great outcrop. All have rounded
+      conical summits and smooth sides, proving that they are yet virgin; and
+      here, perhaps, I should prefer to begin work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At our feet, and in north lat. 26° 13', lies the settlement, in a short
+      gravelly reach disposed north-west to south-east; and the bed is enclosed
+      by a rim of trap and quartz hills. The ruins lie upon a fork where two
+      gorges, running to the east and the north-east, both fall into the broad
+      Wady el-Khaur, and the latter feeds the great Wady el-Miyáh, the "Fiumara
+      of the Waters," of which more presently. The remains on the upper
+      (eastern) branch-valley show where the rock was pulverized by the number
+      of grinding implements, large and small, coarse and fine, all, save the
+      most solid, broken to pieces by the mischievous Bedawi. Some are of the
+      normal basalt, which may also have served for crushing grain; others are
+      cut out of grey and ruddy granites: a few are the common Mahrákah or
+      "rub-stones," and the many are handmills, of which we shall see admirable
+      specimens further on. One was an upper stone, with holes for the handle
+      and for feeding the mill: these articles are rare. I also secured the
+      split half of a ball, or rather an oblate spheroid, of serpentine with
+      depressions, probably where held by finger and thumb; the same form is
+      still used for grinding in the Istrian island of Veglia. This is one of
+      the few rude stone implements that rewarded our careful search.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The north-eastern, which is the main Wady, has a sole uneven with low
+      swells and falls. It was dry as summer dust: I had expected much in the
+      way of botanical collection, but the plants were not in flower, and the
+      trees, stripped of their leaves, looked "black as negroes out of holiday
+      suits." Here lie the principal ruins, forming a rude parallelogram from
+      north-east to south-west. The ground plan shows the usual formless heaps
+      of stones and pebbles, with the bases of squares and oblongs, regular and
+      irregular, large and small. There were no signs of wells or aqueducts; and
+      the few furnaces were betrayed only by ashen heaps, thin scatters of
+      scoriæ, and bits of flux&mdash;dark carbonate of lime. Here and there
+      mounds of the rosy micaceous schist, still unworked, looked as if it had
+      been washed out by the showers of ages. The general appearance is that of
+      an ergastulum like Umm Ámil: here perhaps the ore was crushed and smelted,
+      when not rich enough to be sent down the Wady for water-working at the
+      place where the inland fort now is.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The quarrymen, placed at the most likely spots, were ordered to spall rock
+      for specimens: with their usual perversity, they picked up, when
+      unwatched, broken bits of useless stuff; they spent the whole day dawdling
+      over three camel-loads, and they protested against being obliged to carry
+      the sacks to their tents. Meanwhile Nájí, who had told marvellous tales
+      concerning a well in the neighbouring hills, which showed the foundations
+      of houses in its bowels, was directed to guide Lieutenant Amir. He
+      objected that the enormous distance would be trying to the stoutest mule,
+      and yet he did not blush when it was reached after a mile's ride to the
+      southwest (240° mag.). It proved to be a long-mouthed pit, sunk in the
+      trap hill-slope some four fathoms deep, but much filled up; and, so far
+      from being built in, it had not even the usual wooden platform. Eastward
+      of it, and at the head of the Wady Shuwaytanah, "the Devilling," lay a
+      square ruin like a small Mashghal of white quartz: here also were three
+      stones scribbled with pious ejaculations, such as Yá Allah! and Bismillah,
+      in a modern Kufic character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Umm el-Karáyát, "the Mother of the Villages," derives her title, according
+      to the Baliyy, from the numerous offspring of minor settlements scattered
+      around her. We shall pass several on the next day's march, and I am
+      justified in setting down the number at a dozen. The Wady el-Kibli, the
+      southern valley, was visited by Lieutenants Amir and Yusuf on April 8th,
+      when we were encamped below it at Abá'l-Marú<a href="#linknote-58"
+      name="linknoteref-58" id="linknoteref-58"><small>58</small></a>. After
+      riding about six miles to the north-north-west, down the Wady el-Mismáh
+      and up the Wady el-‘Argah, they reached, on the left bank of the latter,
+      the ruins known as Marú el-Khaur. The remains of the daughter are those of
+      the "mother." There are two large heaps of quartz to the north and to the
+      south-east of the irregular triangle, whose blunted apex faces northwards:
+      the south-eastern hill shows an irregular Fahr ("pit") in the reef of
+      white stone, leading to a number of little tunnels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lost all patience with Wellsted,<a href="#linknote-59"
+      name="linknoteref-59" id="linknoteref-59"><small>59</small></a> whose
+      blunders concerning the Umm el-Karáyát are really surprising, even for a
+      sailor on camel-back. He reaches the ruins after ten miles from the fort,
+      when they lie between twelve and thirteen from El-Wijh. He calls the
+      porphyritic trap "dark granite." He makes the grand quartz formation
+      "limestone, of which the materials used for constructing the town
+      (coralline!) appear to have been chiefly derived." He descends the "caves"
+      with ropes and lights; yet he does not perceive that they are mining
+      shafts and tunnels, puits d'air, adits for the workmen, and pits by which
+      the ore was "brought to grass." And the Hydrographic Chart is as bad. It
+      locates the inland fort six miles and three-quarters from the anchorage,
+      but the mine is thrust eastwards ten miles and a quarter from the fort;
+      the latter distance being, as has been seen, little more than the former.
+      Moreover, the ruins are placed to the north, when they lie nearly on the
+      same parallel of latitude as El-Wijh. Ahmed Kaptán fixed them, by solar
+      observations, in north lat. 26° 13', so that we made only one mile of
+      southing. It ignores the porphyritic sub-range in which the "Mother of the
+      Villages" lies: and it brings close to the east of it the tall peaks of
+      the Tihámat-Balawíyyah' which, from this point, rise like azure shadows on
+      the horizon. Finally, it corrupts Umm el-Karáyát to Feyrabat. "Impossible,
+      but true!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The night at the ruins was dry and cool, even cold; disturbed only by the
+      coughing of the men, the moaning of the camels, and the bleating of the
+      sheep. We would willingly have spent here another day, but water and
+      forage were absolutely wanting; and the guides assured us that even
+      greater marvels, in the shape of ruins and quartz-reefs, lay ahead. We set
+      out shortly after five a.m. (March 31st): the morning was pearly and rosy;
+      but puffs of a warmer wind announced the Dufún (local Khamsin), which
+      promised us three days of ugly working weather. Leaving Umm el-Karáyát by
+      the upper or eastern valley-fork, we soon fell into and descended its
+      absorbent, the broad (northern) Wady el-Khaur. Upon the right bank of the
+      latter rose the lesser "Mountain of Quartz," a cone white as snow, looking
+      shadowy and ghostly in the petit jour, the dim light of morning. For the
+      next two hours (= seven miles) we saw on both sides nothing but veins and
+      outcrops of "Marú," worked as well as unworked. All was bare and barren as
+      the gypsum: the hardy ‘Aushaz (Lycium), allied to the tea-tree, is the
+      only growth that takes root in humus-filled hollows of the stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the quartz made way for long lines and broad patches of a
+      yellow-white, heat-altered clay, often revetted with iron, and passably
+      aping the nobler rock: from one reef I picked up what appeared to be
+      trachyte, white like that of Shaghab. The hill-casing of the valley forms
+      no regular line; the heaps of black, red, and rusty trap are here detached
+      and pyramidal, there cliffing as if in presence of the sea. The vegetation
+      improved as we advanced; the trees were no longer black and heat-blasted;
+      and we recognized once more the dandelion, the thistle, the senna, the
+      Aristida grass, and other familiar growths. Tents, shepherds, and large
+      flocks of goats and kids showed that water was not distant; and, here in
+      Baliyy-land, even the few young women seemed to have no fear of the white
+      face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a slow, dull ride in the burning and sickly wind, we crossed the
+      head of our former route, Wady Zurayb the Ugly, and presently entered the
+      Wady el-Kubbah ("of the Cupola,"), where our immediate destination rose
+      before us. It is a grisly black saddleback, banded with two perpendicular
+      stripes of dark stone that shines like specular iron; and upon its tall
+      northern end, the pommel, stands a small ruin, the oft spoken of "Dome."
+      Sketches of paths wind up the western flank; but upon this line, we were
+      assured, no ruins are seen save a few pits. So we rounded the block by the
+      north, following the broad Wady to the Máyat el-Kubbah, water-pits in the
+      sand whose produce had not been libelled when described as salt, scanty,
+      and stinking. The track then turned up a short, broad branch-Wady, running
+      from south to north, and falling into the left bank of the "Dome Valley:"
+      a few yards brought us to a halt at the ruins of El-Kubbah. We had pushed
+      on sharply during the last half of the way, and our morning's ride had
+      lasted four hours (= thirteen miles).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The remains lie in the uneven quartzose basin at the head of the little
+      lateral watercourse: they are built with good cement, and they evidently
+      belong to the race that worked the "Mother of the Villages;" but there is
+      nothing to distinguish them except the ruins of a large Sákiyah
+      ("draw-well"), with its basin of weathered alabaster. We were perplexed by
+      the shallow conical pits in the porphyritic trap, to the east and west of
+      the "Dome Hill;" the ground is too porous for rain cisterns, and the depth
+      is not sufficient for quarrying. The furnaces showed the normal slag; but
+      the only "metals" lying around them were poor iron-clay, and a shining
+      black porphyry, onyxed with the whitest quartz. There were, however,
+      extensive scatters of Negro, which had evidently been brought there; and
+      presently we found large heaps of rosy-coloured, washed-out schist.<a
+      href="#linknote-60" name="linknoteref-60" id="linknoteref-60"><small>60</small></a>
+      These explained the raison d'être of this dreary and dismal hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the juniors ascended the rocky "Kubbah" hill, which proved to be
+      a small matter of 120 feet (aner. 29.34) above the valley-sole (aner.
+      29.46). The "Dome" was nothing but a truncated circle of wall, porphyry
+      and cement, just large enough to hold a man; the cupola-roof, if there
+      ever had been one, was clean gone; and adjoining it yawned a rock-cut pit
+      some fifteen feet deep. I came to the conclusion that here might have been
+      a look-out where, possibly, the "bale-fire" was also lit. The
+      "ascensionists" brought back a very healthy thirst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We rested till noon in the filmy shade of the thorn-trees. The caravan was
+      at once sent forward to reach the only good water, lying, said the guides,
+      many a mile beyond. We had made up our minds for a good long march; and I
+      was not a little vexed when, after half an hour, we were led out of the
+      Wady el-Kubbah, whose head, our proper line, lies to the north, into its
+      eastern influent, the Wady el-Dasnah. Here, after an afternoon "spell" of
+      forty-five minutes (= two miles and a half), and a total of four hours and
+      forty-five minutes (= fifteen miles and a half), a day nearly half wasted,
+      we found the tents pitched. The heat had strewed the Wady with soldiers
+      and quarrymen; and the large pit in the bed, supplying "water sweet as the
+      Nile,', showed a swarm of struggling blacks, which the Egyptian officers
+      compared with Aráfít or "demons;" we with large pismires. A sentinel was
+      placed to prevent waste and pollution at the Máyat el-Dasnah, whose
+      position is in north lat. 26° 23'.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April Fools' day was another that deserved to be marked with a white
+      stone. I aroused the camp at 3.30 a.m., in order that the camels might
+      load with abundance of water: we were to reach the springs of Umm Gezáz,
+      but a presentiment told me that we might want drink. At that hour the camp
+      was a melancholy sight: the Europeans surly because they had discussed a
+      bottle of cognac when they should have slept; the good Sayyid without his
+      coffee, and perhaps without his prayers; Wakíl Mohammed sorrowfully
+      attempting to gnaw tooth-breaking biscuit; and the Bedawin working and
+      walking like somnambules. However, at 5.10 a.m. we struck north, over a
+      low divide of trap hill, by a broad and evidently made road, and regained
+      the Wady el-Kubbah: here it is a pleasant spectacle rich in trees, and
+      vocal with the cooing of the turtle-dove. After an hour's sharp riding we
+      reached its head, a fair round plain some two miles across, and rimmed
+      with hills of red, green, and black plutonics, the latter much resembling
+      coal. It was a replica of the Sadr-basin below the Hismá, even to the
+      Khuraytah or "Pass" at the northern end. Here, however, the Col is a mere
+      bogus; that is, no raised plateau lies beyond it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We crossed a shallow prism and a feeding-basin: an ugly little gorge then
+      led to the important Wady Sirr. We are now in the hydrographic area of the
+      Wady Nejd,<a href="#linknote-61" name="linknoteref-61" id="linknoteref-61"><small>61</small></a>
+      which, numbering influents by the dozen, falls into the Salbah (Thalbah)
+      of Sharm Dumaghah. The Sirr, though still far from its mouth, is at least
+      three miles broad; and the guides speak of it as the Asl el-Balawíyyah, or
+      "Old Home of the Baliyy." The view from its bed is varied and extensive.
+      Behind us lies the Tihámat-Balawíyyah, the equivalent of the Gháts of
+      North Midian, from the Zahd to the Shárr. The items are the little Jebel
+      ‘Antar, which, peeping over the Fiumara's high left bank, is continued
+      south by the lower Libn. The latter attaches to the higher Libn, whose
+      triad of peaks, the central and highest built of three distinct
+      castellations, flush and blush with a delicate pink-white cheek as it
+      receives the hot caresses of the sun. We are now haunted by the Libn,
+      which, like its big brother the Shárr, seems everywhere to accompany us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beyond the neutral ground, over which we are travelling, appear in front
+      the pale-blue heights bordering the Wady Nejd to the north-west, and
+      apparently connected with the Jebelayn el-Jayy in the far north (30°
+      mag.). To the north-east the view is closed by the lumpy Jebel el-Kurr
+      (the Qorh of Arabian geographers?); followed southwards by the peaked wall
+      of the Jebel el-Ward, and by El-Safhah with its "Pins." For the last
+      eighteen miles we had seen no quartz, which, however, might have veined
+      the underground-rock. The sole of the Sirr now appeared spread with snow,
+      streaked and patched with thin white paint; the stones were mostly
+      water-rolled, the discharge of valleys draining from afar. The ground was
+      unpleasantly pitted and holed; the camels were weak with semi-starvation
+      and the depressing south-wester; Lieutenant Amir put his dromedary to
+      speed, resulting in a nose-flattening fall; and the Sayyid nearly followed
+      suit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is our second day of Khamsin; yet on the northern slope of the great
+      Fiumara we meet the cool land-wind. Either it or the sea-breeze generally
+      sets in between seven and eight a.m., when the stony, sandy world has been
+      thoroughly sunned. The short divide beyond the far bank of the Sirr is
+      strewn with glittering mica-schist that takes the forms of tree-trunks and
+      rotten wood; and with dark purple-blue fragments of clay-slate looking as
+      if they had been worked. A counterslope of the same material, which makes
+      excellent path-metal placed us in the Wady Rubayyigh ("the Little Rábigh"
+      or "Green-grown Spring"), a short and proportionally very broad branch
+      draining to the Sirr. Here large outcrops of quartz mingled with the clay
+      slate. A few yards further it abutted upon a small gravelly basin with
+      ruins and a huge white reef of "Mará," which caused a precipitate
+      dismounting. We had marched only four hours (= thirteen miles); but the
+      loss of time has its compensations. Our Arabs, who consider this a fair
+      day's work, will now, in hopes of a halt, show us every strew of quartz
+      and every fragment of wall. They congratulated us upon reaching a part of
+      their country absolutely unvisited by Europeans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The site of our discovery was the water-parting of the Wady Rubayyigh with
+      the Wady Rábigh, both feeders of the Sirr; this to the north, that to the
+      south. The ruins, known as Umm el-Haráb, "Mother of Desolation," are the
+      usual basement-lines: they lie in the utterly waterless basin, our
+      camping-ground, stretching west of Mará Rubayyigh, the big white reef.
+      This "Mother" bears nearly north of Umm el-Karáyát, in north lat. 26° 33'
+      36" (Ahmed Kaptán): her altitude was made upwards of a thousand feet above
+      sea-level (aner. 28.92)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Umm el-Haráb we saw for the first time an open mine, scientifically
+      worked by the men of old. They chose a pear-shaped quartz-reef; the upper
+      dome exposed, the converging slopes set and hidden in green trap to the
+      east and west, and the invisible stalk extending downwards, probably deep
+      into Earth's bowels. They began by sinking, as we see from certain rounded
+      apertures, a line of shafts striking north-north-east (45°&mdash;50° mag.)
+      to south-south-west across the summit, which may measure one hundred and
+      twenty yards. The intervening sections of the roof are now broken away;
+      and a great yawning crevasse in the hill-top gives this saddleback of bare
+      cream-coloured rock, spangled with white where recently fractured, the
+      semblance of a "comb" or cresting reef.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We descended into this chasm, whose slope varies from a maximum of 45° to
+      a minimum of 36° at the south. The depth apparently did not exceed thirty
+      feet, making allowance for the filling up of centuries; but in places the
+      hollow sound of the hammer suggested profounder pits and wells. I should
+      greatly doubt that such shallow sinking as this could have worked out any
+      beyond the upper part of the vein. Here it measures from six to eight feet
+      in diameter, diminishing to four and a half and even three below. The
+      sloping roof has been defended from collapse by large pillars of the rock,
+      left standing as in the old Egyptian quarries; it shows the clumsy but
+      efficient practice that preceded timbering. The material worked was
+      evidently the pink-coloured and silver-scaled micaceous schist; but there
+      was also a whitish quartz, rich in geodes and veinlets of dark-brown and
+      black dust. The only inhabitants of the cave, bats and lizards (Gongylus
+      ocellatus, L., etc.), did not prevent M. Lacaze making careful study of
+      the excavation; the necessity of brown shadows, however, robs the scene of
+      its charm, the delicate white which still shimmers under its transparent
+      veil of shade. Similar features exist at El-Muwaylah and El-Aujah, in the
+      wilderness of Kadesh: but those are latomiæ; these are gold mines.<a
+      href="#linknote-62" name="linknoteref-62" id="linknoteref-62"><small>62</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another sign of superior labour is shown by the quartz-crushing
+      implements. Here they are of three kinds: coarse and rough basaltic lava
+      for the first and rudest work; red granite and syenitic granite for the
+      next stage; and, lastly, an admirable handmill of the compactest grey
+      granite, smooth as glass and hard as iron. Around the pin-hole are raised
+      and depressed concentric circles intended for ornament; and the "dishing"
+      towards the rim is regular as if turned by machinery. We have seen as yet
+      nothing like this work; nor shall we see anything superior to it. All are
+      nether millstones, so carefully smashed that one can hardly help
+      suspecting the kind of superstitious feeling which suggested iconoclasm.
+      The venerable Shaykh ‘Afnán showed a touching ignorance concerning the
+      labours of the ancients; and, when lectured about the Nabat (Nabathæans),
+      only exclaimed, "Allah, Allah!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the evening we ascended the porphyry hills to the north of the little
+      camping-basin; and we found the heights striped by two large vertical
+      bands of quartz. The eastern vein, like the Jebel el-Marú, has a
+      north-east to south-west strike (45° mag.); the western runs east-west
+      with a dip to south. From the summit we could see that the
+      quartz-mountain, as usual an exaggerated vein, is hemmed in on both sides
+      by outcrops and hills of trap, black, green, and yellow, which culminate
+      eastward in the Jebel el-Guráb (Juráb). We had a fine bird's-eye view of
+      the Wady Rábigh, and of our next day's march towards the Shafah Mountains:
+      the former was white with quartz as if hail-strewn. Far beyond its right
+      bank rose an Ash'hab, or "grey head," which seemed to promise quartzose
+      granite: it will prove an important feature. Before sleeping, I despatched
+      to El-Wijh two boxes of micaceous schist and two bags of quartz, loads for
+      a pair of camels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XVII. &mdash; The March Continued to El-Badá–Description of the
+      Plain Badais.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      After the exciting scenes of the last three days, this stage was dull
+      riding, and consequently, I fear, it will be dull reading as well as
+      writing. We set off afoot betimes (5.10 a.m.) in the still warm morning
+      that augured Khamsín: the third day was now telling heavily on man and
+      beast. A walk of ten minutes led down the rough line of the little
+      water-course draining the Marú Rubayyigh to the Wady Rábigh. At a
+      re-entering angle of the junction, a shallow pit was sunk; the sand became
+      moist and red, and presently it was underlaid by a rubble of porphyritic
+      trap. Nothing more!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We then crossed the Wady Rábigh, another of the short broad valleys which
+      distinguish this section of South Midian. The bed sides, especially the
+      right, are heaps and mounds of snowy quartz, with glittering crowns of
+      block and boulder: all prove to be veins in the grey granite, whose large
+      coarse elements are decomposed by weather. The dark and rusty walls of the
+      valley also discharge the white stone in shunts and shoots: here and there
+      they might be mistaken for Goz ("sand-banks") heaped up by the wind,
+      except that these are clad in thin vegetation, whereas the "Maru'" is
+      mostly mother-naked. We halted here for rest and to examine these
+      features: despite the Khamsín, the Great Gaster became querulous; hunger
+      was now the chief complaint, and even the bon ordinaire had lost much of
+      its attraction. A harmless snake was killed and bottled; its silver robe
+      was beautifully banded with a line, pink as the circles of the "cobra
+      coral," which ran along the whole length of the back. It proved to be a
+      new species; and Dr. Gunther named it Zamenis elegantissimus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beyond the Rábigh, we ascended a lateral valley, whence a low divide led
+      to the Wady el-Bahrah ("of the Basin"), another feeder of the Sirr. It was
+      also snow-white, and on the right of the path lay black heaps, Hawáwít,
+      "ruins" not worth the delay of a visit. Then began a short up-slope with a
+      longer counterslope, on which we met a party of Huwaytát, camel-men and
+      foot-men going to buy grain at El-Wigh. Another apparition was a spear-man
+      bestriding a bare-backed colt; after reconnoitering us for some time, he
+      yielded to the temptations of curiosity. It afterwards struck us that,
+      mounted on our mules, preceded and followed by the Shaykhs riding their
+      dromedaries, we must have looked mighty like a party of prisoners being
+      marched inland. The horseman was followed by a rough-coated, bear-eared
+      hound of the kind described by Wellsted<a href="#linknote-63"
+      name="linknoteref-63" id="linknoteref-63"><small>63</small></a> as
+      "resembling the English mastiff"&mdash;he did not know how common is the
+      beast further north. The Kalb gasúr (jasur) or "bold dog," also called
+      Kalb el-hámi, or "the hot" (tempered), is found even amongst the Bedawin
+      to the east of the Suez Canal; but there the half-bred is more common than
+      the whole-blood. It is trained to tend the flocks; it never barks, nor
+      bites its charges; and it is said to work as well as the shepherd-dog of
+      Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wady Mulaybij shows fine specimens of mica dorí in the quartz-vein
+      streaking the slate: it deceived all the caravan, save those who tested it
+      with their daggers. The bed, after forming a basin, narrows to a sandy
+      gut, smooth and pleasant riding; and, after crossing several valley-heads,
+      the path debouches upon the Wady Abál-Gezaz. This "Father of Glass,"
+      though a day and a half's march from the sea, is even broader than the
+      great Sirr to which it is tributary. Its line, which reminded us of the
+      Dámah, is well marked by unusually fine vegetation: and the basin bears
+      large clumps of fan-palm, scattered Daum-trees, the giant asclepiad
+      El-‘Ushr,<a href="#linknote-64" name="linknoteref-64" id="linknoteref-64"><small>64</small></a>
+      thickets of tamarisk and scatters of the wild castor-plant, whose use is
+      unknown to the Arabs. Water wells up abundantly from a dozen shallow pits,
+      old and new, in the sand of the southern or left bank. Here the flow is
+      apparently arrested by a tall buttress of coarse granite, red with
+      orthose, and sliced by a trap-dyke striking north-south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our day's work had been only four slow hours; but we were compelled to
+      await the caravan, which did not arrive till after noon. It had passed
+      round by the Wady Rábigh, into and up the "Father of Glass;" in fact, it
+      had described an easy semicircle; while we had ridden in a series of
+      zigzags, over rough and difficult short cuts. A delay was also necessary
+      for our mappers to connect this march with their itinerary of the central
+      region. Already the Wady Mulaybij had shown us the familiar peak and
+      dorsum of Jebel Raydán; and we had "chaffed" Furayj about his sudden
+      return home. From our camp in the Abá'l-Gezáz, the Zigláb block of Shaghab
+      bore nearly north (350° mag.); and the adjoining Jebel el-Aslah, also a
+      blue cone on the horizon, rose about two degrees further north.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the big mess-tent had been duly blown down, and the usual discipline
+      had been administered for washing in the drinking-pool; we crossed to the
+      left of the Wady by way of an evening stroll, and at once came upon an
+      atelier of some importance. The guides seemed to ignore its existence, so
+      we christened it Mashghal Alá'l-Gezáz. On the slope of a trap-hill facing
+      the Wady el-Ghami's, the southern valley which we had last crossed, stood
+      a square of masonry scattered round with fragments of pottery, glass, and
+      basalt. Below it, on the "mesopotamian" plain, lay the foundations of
+      houses still showing their cemented floors. The lowlands and highlands
+      around the settlement looked white-patched with mounds, veins, and
+      scatters of quartz. The evening was stillness itself, broken only by the
+      cries of the Katás, which are now nesting, as they flocked to drink; and
+      the night was cool&mdash;a promise, and a false promise, that the Khamsín
+      had ended on its usual third day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning (April 3rd) showed us El-Bada', the whole march lying up
+      the Wady Abá'l-Gezáz, which changes its name with every water. The early
+      air was delightfully fresh and brisk, and the cattle stepped out as if
+      walking were a pleasure: yet the Arabs declared that neither camels nor
+      mules had found a full feed in the apparently luxuriant vegetation of the
+      Fiumara-bed. The tract began badly over loose sandy soil, so honeycombed
+      that neither man nor beast could tread safely: the Girdi (Jirdi), or
+      "field rat," is evidently nocturnal like the jerboa, during the whole
+      journey we never saw a specimen of either. A yellow wolf was descried
+      skulking among the bushes, and a fine large hare was shot;
+      porcupine-quills were common, and we picked up the mummy of a little
+      hedgehog. The birds were swift-winged hawks and owls, pigeons and
+      ring-doves; crows again became common, and the water-wagtail was tame as
+      the Brazilian thrush, João de Barros: it hopped about within a few feet of
+      us, quite ignoring the presence of Frenchmen armed with murderous guns. I
+      cannot discern the origin of the pseudo-Oriental legend which declares
+      that the "crow of the wilderness" (raven) taught Cain to bury his brother
+      by slaying a brother crow, and scraping a grave for it with beak and claw.
+      The murderous bird then perched upon a palm-tree, whose branches, before
+      erect, have ever drooped, and croaked the truth into Adam's ear: hence it
+      has ever been of evil augury to mankind. The hoopoe, which the French
+      absurdly call coq de montagne, also trotted by the path-side without
+      timidity; and the butcher-bird impudently reviewed the caravan from its
+      vantage-ground, a commanding tree. The large swift shot screaming
+      overhead; and the cries of the troops of Merops, with silver-lined wings,
+      resembled those of the sand-grouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After some five miles the "Father of Glass" changed his name to Abú Daumah
+      (of the "one Theban Palm"). Porphyritic trap lay on both sides of us. To
+      the right rose the Jebel ‘Ukbal, whose grey form (El-Ash'hab) we had seen
+      from the heights above Umm el-Haráb: the whole range of four heads,
+      forming the south-western rim of the Badá saucer, is known as El-‘Akábil.
+      Below these blocks the Wady-sides were cut into buttresses of yellow clay,
+      powdered white with Sabkh, or "impure salt." Charred circlets in the sand
+      showed where alkali had been burned: the ashes, packed in skins, are
+      shipped at El-Wijh for Syria, where they serve to make soap. The Bedawin
+      call it Aslah (Athlah); the Egyptians Ghassálah ("the washer"), because,
+      when rubbed in the hands, its succulent shoots clean the skin. Camels eat
+      it, whereas mules refuse it, unless half-starved. This plant apparently
+      did not extend all up the Wady. The water, where there is any, swings
+      under the left bank; an ample supply had been promised to us, with the
+      implied condition that we should camp at this Mahattat el-‘Urbán ("Halting
+      place of the Arabs"), after a marching day of two hours! Seeing that we
+      rode on, the Baliyy declared that they had searched for the two principal
+      pools, and that both were dry, or rather had been buried by the Bedawin.
+      But, with characteristic futility, they had allowed me to overhear their
+      conversation; and the word was passed to the soldiers, who at once filled
+      themselves and their water-skins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hitherto we had been marching south of east. Presently, where the pretty
+      green Wady el-Surám falls into the left bank, we turned a corner, and
+      sighted in front, or to the north, the great plain of Badá. The block,
+      El-‘Akábil, had projected a loop of some ten miles to be rounded, whereas
+      a short cut across it would not have exceeded three. And now the Wady Abá
+      Daumah abruptly changed formation. The red and green traps of the right
+      side made way for grey granite, known by its rounded bulging blocks on the
+      sides and summit, by its false stratification, by its veins of quartz that
+      strewed the sand, and by its quaint weathering&mdash;one rock exactly
+      resembled a sitting eagle; a second was a turtle, and a third showed a
+      sphinx in the rough. The Badá plain is backed by a curtain so tall that we
+      seemed, by a common optical delusion, to be descending when we were really
+      ascending rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anxiety to begin our studies of the spot made the ride across the basin,
+      soled with rises comfortably metalled, and with falls of sand unpleasantly
+      loose and honeycombed, appear very long. The palm-clump, where men camp,
+      with its two date-trees towering over the rest, receded as it were. At
+      last, after a total of four hours and forty-five minutes (= sixteen
+      miles), we dismounted at the celebrated groves, just before the ugly
+      Khamsín arose and made the world look dull, as though all its colours had
+      been washed out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dates form a kind of square with a sharp triangle to the south, upon
+      the left bank of the thalweg, which overflows them during floods. The
+      enceinte is the normal Arab "snake-fence" of dry and barked branches,
+      which imperfectly defends the nurseries of young trees and the plots of
+      Khubbayzah ("edible mallows") from the adjoining camping-place of bald
+      yellow clay. The wells, inside and outside the enclosure, are nine; three
+      stone-revetted, and the rest mere pits in the inchoate modern sandstone.
+      The trees want thinning; the undergrowth is so dense as to be
+      impenetrable; but the heads are all carefully trimmed, the first time we
+      have seen such industry in Midian. The shade attracts vipers, chiefly the
+      Echis: and I was startled by hearing the gay warble of the Bulbul&mdash;a
+      nightingale in Arabia!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day was devoted to inspecting this far-famed site, with the
+      following results. We have already seen a Bada' and a Badí'a , whilst
+      there is a Badí'ah <a href="#linknote-65" name="linknoteref-65"
+      id="linknoteref-65"><small>65</small></a> further north. We are now at a
+      Badá which fulfils all the conditions required by the centre and
+      head-quarters of "Thamuditis." The site of the Bújat Badá, "the Wide Plain
+      of Badá," as it is distinguished by the Arabs, represents, topographically
+      speaking, a bulge in the Wady Nejd, before it becomes the Wady Abú Daumah,
+      between the Shafah Mountains to the east and the Tihámah range seawards.
+      The latitude is 26° 45' 30" = 0° 31' 30" north of El-Wijh [Footnote: Ahmed
+      Kaptán's observation of Polaris. The (Bades) of Ptolemy is in north lat.
+      25° 30'.]. From its centre, a little south of our camping-place, the Jebel
+      Zigláb of Shaghab, distant, according to Yákút, one march, bears 32°, and
+      the Aslah (Athlah) cone 30° (both mag.): it lies therefore south of
+      Shuwák, with a little westing. The altitude is upwards of twelve hundred
+      feet above sea-level (aner. 28.72). The size of the oval is about nine
+      statute miles from north to south, where the main watercourse breaks; and
+      twelve miles from east to west, giving an area of some 108 square miles.
+      The general aspect of the basin suggests that of El-Haurá; the growth is
+      richer than the northern, but not equal to that of the southern country.
+      The ruins belong to the Magháir Shu'ayb category, and the guides compare
+      the Hawáwít with those of Madáin Sálih.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the great station on the Nabathæan overland highway between Leukè'
+      Kóme and Petra; the commercial and industrial, the agricultural and
+      mineral centre, which the Greeks called the Romans, Badanatha (Pliny, vi.
+      32); and the mediæval Arab geographers, Badá Ya'kúb, in the days when the
+      Hajj-caravan used to descend the Wadys Nejd and the "Father of Glass." Now
+      it is simply El-Badá: the name of the "Prophet" Jacob, supposed to have
+      visited it from Egypt or Syria, being clean forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rolling plain is floored with grey granite, underlying sandstones not
+      unlike coral-rag, and still in course of formation. Through this crust
+      outcrop curious hillocks, or rather piles of hard, red, and iron-revetted
+      rock, with a white or a rusty fracture&mdash;these are the characteristics
+      of the basin. The lower levels are furrowed with their threads of sand,
+      beds of rain-torrents discharged from the mountains; and each is edged by
+      brighter growths of thorn and fan-palm. The fattening Salíb grass is
+      scattered about the water; the large sorrel hugs the Fiumara-sides; the
+      hardy ‘Aushaz-thorn (Lycium), spangled with white bloom and red currants,
+      which the Arabs say taste like grapes, affects the drier levels; and
+      Tanzubs, almost all timber when old, become trees as large as the Jujube.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bújat is everywhere set in a regular rim of mountains. The Shafah
+      curtain to the north is fretted with a number of peaks, called as usual
+      after their Wadys;<a href="#linknote-66" name="linknoteref-66"
+      id="linknoteref-66"><small>66</small></a> the west is open with a great
+      slope, the Wady Manab, whose breadth is broken only by the "Magráh"
+      Naza'án, a remarkable saddleback with reclining cantle. It is distant a
+      ride of two hours, and we have now seen it for three marches. A little
+      south of east yawns the gorge-mouth of the Wady Nejd, the upper course of
+      the Abá'l-Gezáz: a jagged black curtain, the Jebel Dausal, forms its
+      southern jaw. Further south the Tihámah Mountains begin with the peaky
+      Jebel el-Kurr, another remarkable block which has long been in sight. Its
+      neighbour is the bluff-headed Jebel el-Wásil of Marwát; whilst the
+      trap-blocks, already mentioned as the Jibál el-‘Akábil, finish the circle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The better to understand the shape of the ruins, we will ascend the
+      irregular block which rises a few furlongs to the north-east of the
+      palm-orchard. It has only three names: ‘Araygat Badá ("Veinlet of Badá");
+      Zeba'yat Badá, "the Low-lying (Hill) of Badá;" and Shahíb el-Búm, "the
+      Ash-coloured (Hill) of the Owl." I will prefer the latter, as we actually
+      sighted one of those dear birds on its western flank. It is an outcrop of
+      grey granite, pigeon-holed by weather, and veined by a variety of dykes.
+      Here we find greenstone breccia'd with the blackest hornblende; there huge
+      filons of hard, red, heat-altered clays, faced with iron, whilst the
+      fracture is white as trachyte; and there filets of quartz, traversing
+      large curtains and sheets of light-coloured argils. This was evidently the
+      main quarry: the sides still show signs of made zigzags; and the red
+      blocks and boulders, all round the hill, bear the prayers and pious
+      ejaculations of the Faithful. The characters range between square Kufic,
+      hardly antedating four centuries, and the cursive form of our day. Some
+      are merely scraped; others are deeply and laboriously cut in the hard
+      material, a work more appropriate for the miner than for the passing
+      pilgrim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the ruined look-out on the summit the shape of the city shows a
+      highly irregular triangle of nine facets, forming an apex at the east end
+      of our "Owl's Hill:" the rises and falls of the ground have evidently
+      determined the outline. The palm-orchard, whose total circumference is
+      five hundred and thirty-six metres, occupies a small portion of its
+      south-eastern corner; and our camping-place, further east, was evidently
+      included in the ancient enceinte. The emplacement, extending along the
+      eastern bank of the main watercourse, is marked by a number of mounds
+      scattered over with broken glass and pottery of all kinds: no coins were
+      found, but rude bits of metal, all verdigris, were picked up north of the
+      palm-orchard. Here, too, lay queer fish-bones, with tusks and teeth,
+      chiefly the jaws of Scaridæ and Sparidæ (seabreams).<a href="#linknote-67"
+      name="linknoteref-67" id="linknoteref-67"><small>67</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Descending the Shahíb el-Búm, and passing a smaller black and white block
+      appended to its south-south-western side, we now cross to the left bank of
+      the main drain. Here lies the broken tank, the normal construction of
+      El-Islam's flourishing days. It is a square of thirty-two metres, whose
+      faces and angles do not front the cardinal points. At each corner a flight
+      of steps has been; two have almost disappeared, and the others are very
+      shaky. The floor, originally stone-paved, is now a sheet of hard silt,
+      growing trees and bush: dense Tanzub-clumps (Sodada decidua), with edible
+      red berries, sheltering a couple of birds'-nests, suggested a comparison
+      between the present and the past. At the east end is the Makhzan el-Máyah,
+      or "smaller reservoir," an oblong of 7.80 by 6.60 metres: the waggon-tilt
+      roof has disappeared, and the fissures show brick within the ashlar. Along
+      the eastern side are huge standing slabs of the coarse new sandstone with
+      which the tank is lined: these may be remains of a conduit. Around the
+      cistern lies a ruined graveyard, whose yawning graves supplied a couple of
+      skulls. A broken line of masonry, probably an aqueduct, runs
+      south-south-east (143° mag.) towards the palms: after two hundred metres
+      all traces of it are lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mining industry could not have been a prominent feature at Badá, or we
+      should have found, as in Shaghab and Shuwák, furnaces and scoriæ. Yet
+      about the tank we lit upon large scatters of spalled quartz, which,
+      according to the Baliyy, is brought from the neighbouring mountains. Some
+      of it was rosy outside: other specimens bore stains of copper; and others
+      showed, when broken, little pyramids of ore. Tested in England, it proved
+      to be pure lead, a metal so rare that some metallurgists have doubted its
+      existence: the finds have been mostly confined to auriferous lands. The
+      blow-pipe soon showed that it was not galena (the sulphide), but some of
+      it contained traces of silver. Without knowing the rarity of these
+      specimens, certain American officers at the Citadel, Cairo, compared them
+      with the true galenas of the Dár-Forian mines, called Mahattat el-Risás
+      (the "Deposit of Lead"), in the Wady Gotam, three days north-east of the
+      capital El-Fashr. The African metal is rich. Large quantities, analyzed by
+      Gastinel Bey, gave fifty per cent. of lead, and of silver fifty dollars
+      per ton; but the distance from any possible market will reserve these
+      diggings for the use of the future. Some were sanguine enough to propose
+      smelting the metal at Khartúm, where Risás is ever in demand; and
+      accordingly, for a time Dar-For was "run," by a mild "ring," against
+      Midian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The plain, I have said, is everywhere broken by piles of stone forming
+      knobby hills. Leaving the outlined sphinx to the right, we ascended a
+      second block, which rises on the west of the chief watercourse, further
+      down than the "Owl's Hill." This Tell el-Ahmar ("Red Hill"), alias Ja'dat
+      Badá (the "Curved Hill of Bada'"), is a quoin of grey granite bluff to the
+      south-west. The north-eastern flank shows the normal revetment of ruddy
+      and black heat-altered grit, which gives a red back to the pale-sided,
+      drab-coloured heap. Over the easy ascent is run a zigzag path; half-way,
+      up it passes piles of stone that denote building, and it abuts at the
+      summit upon one of those "look-outs" which are essentially Arab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, to the south-east of the palms is the Huzaybat Badá, the
+      "(Isolated) Hillock of Badá," a low ridge of naked grey granite, much
+      scaled and pigeon-holed. On the plain to its north stretch regular lines
+      of stone, probably the remnants of a work intended to defend the city's
+      eastern approach. South of the Huzaybah appear the usual signs of an
+      atelier: these workshops are doubtless scattered all around the centre;
+      but a week, not a day, would be required to examine them. On the very eve
+      of our departure the guides pointed northwards (350° mag.) to a "Mountain
+      of Marú," called El-Arayfát, and declared that it contained a Zaríbat
+      el-Nasárá, or "enclosure made by the Nazarenes." I offered a liberal
+      present for specimens; all, however, swore that the distance ranged from
+      two to three hours of dromedary, and that no mounted messenger could catch
+      us unless we halted the next day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bedawin, still relegated to the upper country, were sending their
+      scouts to ascertain if the water-supply was sufficient in Badá plain. The
+      adjacent valleys were dotted with she-camels and their colts. The adult
+      animal here sells for twelve to thirty dollars. During the cotton-full in
+      Egypt, and the cotton-famine of the United States, they fetched as many
+      pounds sterling at the frontier; and the traders of El-Wijh own to having
+      made two hundred per cent., which we may safely double. I asked them why
+      they did not import good stallions from the banks of the Nile; and the
+      reply was that of the North Country&mdash;the experiment had ended in the
+      death of the more civilized brutes. This is easily understood: the Baliyy
+      camel seems to live on sand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The camp was visited by a few Bedawi stragglers, and the reports of their
+      immense numbers were simply absurd. The males were not to be
+      distinguished, in costume and weapons, from their neighbours; and the
+      "females" were all dark and dressed in amorphous blue shirts. At last came
+      an old man and woman of the Huwaytát tribe, bringing for sale a quantity
+      of liquefied butter. They asked a price which would have been dear on the
+      seaboard; and naively confessed that they had taken us for pilgrims,&mdash;birds
+      to be plucked. But sheep and goats were not to be found in the
+      neighbourhood: yesterday we had failed to buy meat; and to-day the young
+      Shaykh, Sulaymán, was compelled to mount his dromedary and ride afar in
+      quest of it. The results were seven small sheep, which, lean with walking,
+      cost eleven dollars; and all were slaughtered before they had time to put
+      on fat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During our stay a pitiable object, with a hide- bandaged lower leg, often
+      limped past the tents; and, thinking the limb broken, I asked the history
+      of the accident. Our hero, it appears, was a doughty personage, famed for
+      valour, who had lately slipped into the Juhayni country with the laudable
+      intention of "lifting" a camel. He had, indeed, "taken his sword, and went
+      his way to rob and steal," under the profound conviction that nothing
+      could be more honourable&mdash;in case of success. He was driving off the
+      booty, when its master sallied out to recover the stolen goods by force
+      and by arms. Both bared their blades and exchanged cuts, when the Baliyy
+      found that his old flamberge was too blunt to do damage. Consequently he
+      had the worse of the affair; a slicing of the right hand forced him to
+      drop his "silly sword." He then closed with his adversary, who again
+      proved himself the better man, throwing the assailant, and at the same
+      time slashing open his left leg. The wounded man lay in the "bush" till he
+      gathered strength to "dot and go one" homewards. Amongst these tribes the
+      Diyat, or "blood-money," reaches eight hundred dollars; consequently men
+      will maim, but carefully avoid killing, one another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening of our halt, with its lurid haze and its ominous brooding
+      stillness, was distinguished by a storm, a regular Arab affair, consisting
+      of dust by the ton to water by the drop. This infliction of the "fearful
+      fiend, Samiel, fatal to caravans," began in the west. A cloud of red sand
+      advanced like a prairie-fire at headlong speed before the mighty rushing
+      wind, whose damp breath smelt of rain; and presently the mountain-rim was
+      veiled in brown and ruddy and purple earth-haze. A bow in the eastern sky
+      strongly suggested, in the apparent absence of a shower, refraction by
+      dust&mdash;if such thing be possible. We were disappointed, by the
+      sinister wind, in our hopes of collecting a bottle of rain-water for the
+      photographer; nor did the storm, though it had all the diffused violence
+      of a wintry gale, materially alter the weather. The next two nights were
+      brisk and cool, but the afternoons blew either the Khamsín
+      ("south-wester") or the Azyab ("south-easter").
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only Bedawi tradition concerning the Bada' plain is the following.
+      Many centuries ago, some say before the Apostle, the Baliyy held the land,
+      which was a valley of gardens, a foretaste of Irem; the people were happy
+      as the martyrs of Paradise, and the date-trees numbered two thousand. The
+      grove then belonged to a certain Ibn Mukarrib, who dwelt in it with his
+      son and a slave, not caring to maintain a large guard of Arabs.
+      Consequently he became on bad terms with the Ahámidah-Baliyy tribe, who
+      began systematically to rob his orchard. At last one of a large plundering
+      party said to him, "O Ibn Mukarrib! wilt thou sell this place of two
+      thousand (trees), and not retreat (from thy bargain)?" He responded "Buy!"
+      (i.e. make an offer). The other, taking off his sandal, exclaimed. "With
+      this!" and the proprietor, in wrath, rejoined, "I have sold!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ibn Mukarrib then arose and went forth, with his son and the slave, to the
+      place whence came the water (that fed the palms): this he closed up, and
+      fared towards the north. One day it so happened that the three were
+      sitting under the shade of a Marakh-tree and eating its berries. Quoth the
+      sire to the son, "Say, which is the sweeter, the eating of the Marakh
+      fruit or the dates of our orchard?" And the youth rejoined, "O my father!
+      far sweeter is the eating of the fruit of our palm-yard;" when his sire at
+      once arose and slew him with the sword (to wipe away the disgrace of such
+      want of manliness).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Ibn Mukarrib turned to the slave, and asked him the question which he
+      had asked of his son. Whereupon the slave replied in this quatrain:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      "Eating wild grain in the house of respect;
+      And not eating dates in the house of contempt:
+      And walking in honour but a single day;
+      And not sitting in disgrace for a thousand years!"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Ibn Mukarrib, pleased with these words, forthwith adopted the slave; both
+      marched to the north and dwelt there till the end of their days. The
+      palm-trees, deprived of irrigation, all died; and Bújat-Badá, the
+      beautiful, became a wilderness. About twenty years ago, the wells were
+      reopened and the dates were replanted. So much for the past: as for the
+      future, we may safely predict that, unless occupied by a civilized people,
+      the Badá plain will again see worse times. Nothing would be easier than to
+      rebuild the town, and to prepare the basin for irrigation and cultivation;
+      but destruction is more in the Bedawi line.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XVIII. &mdash; Coal a "Myth"&mdash;March to Marwát&mdash;Arrival
+      at the Wady Hamz.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Before leaving Badá I was careful to make all manner of inquiries
+      concerning stone-coal; and the guides confirmed the suspicions which had
+      long suggested themselves. His Highness the Viceroy had laid great stress
+      upon the search: the first question to me on return was whether the fuel
+      had been found; and a shade of disappointment appeared when the answer
+      distinctly declared it a myth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This coal, it appears, is an old story. My learned friend Sprenger wrote
+      to me (June 13, 1877): "It is likely that west of Marwa, on the way to
+      Hawrá (which lies on the sea-shore), coal is found: I confess that the
+      prospect of discovering much coal in Arabia does not appear to me very
+      great; still it would be worth while to make inquiries." Subsequently
+      (December 8, 1877), he gave up all hopes of the pure mineral, but he still
+      clave to bituminous schist. El-Mukaddasi (p. 103),<a href="#linknote-68"
+      name="linknoteref-68" id="linknoteref-68"><small>68</small></a> treating
+      of the marvels of the land, has the following passage unconnected with
+      those which precede and succeed it:&mdash;"A fire arose between El-Marwat
+      and El-Haurá, and it burned, even as charcoal (el-Fahm) burns." Probably
+      Sprenger had read, "and it (the stone) burned as charcoal burns,"
+      suggesting that the houses and huts were built of inflammable material,
+      like the bituminous schist of the Brazil; and that the Arabs were
+      surprised to find them taking fire. Evidently, however, the text refers to
+      an eruption in one of the many Harrahs or volcanic districts. El-Mukaddasi
+      describes the "houses artful (farihín, alluding to the Thamúdites in the
+      Koran, xxvi. 149), and made of admirable stone (alabaster?); over the
+      doors were knots (‘Ukúd), and ornaments (Turúh), and carvings (Nukúsh)."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Landing at El-Wijh, I at once consulted our intelligent friend, the Wakíl
+      Mohammed Shahádah. He had sent for a camel-load of the stuff, which, he
+      declared, would not burn, although it had burned his money. He then
+      travelled in person to the Jebel el-Muharrak ("Burnt Mountain"), five
+      short marches inland from El-Badá plain, and behind its northern curtain,
+      the Jibál el-Shafah. According to him, El-Muharrak is part of the great
+      Harrah; and the unexplored Jaww, which lies north (?) of it, is a
+      prolongation of the Hismá plateau, here belonging to the Balawíyyah or
+      Baliyy-land. The mountain is tall and black, apparently consisting of the
+      "coal." Near its summit lies the Bir el-Shifá' ("Well of Healing"), a pit
+      of cold sulphur-water, excellent for the eyes; and generally a "Pool of
+      Bethesda," whither Arabs flock from afar. At Abá'l-Gezáz, Mohammed
+      destroyed all our surviving hopes by picking up a black stone which, he
+      declared, belonged to El-Muharrak. It was schist, with a natural fracture
+      not unlike coal, and weathered into the semblance of wood: unfortunately
+      it was hard as iron, and it did not contain an atom of bitumen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Badá old Shaykh ‘Afnán, whose tents are now pitched one day ahead of
+      us, was taken into consultation upon the subject. He confirmed these
+      statements of the Wakíl, adding that the Shafah Mountains are a mere
+      ridge, not the seaward walls of a plateau, and that the land east of them
+      is exactly that which we have already traversed. He had bathed in the
+      sulphur-water; he spoke of brimstone being picked up on the hill-flanks,
+      and he had heard of El-Kohl (stibium, collyrium, antimony) being found
+      about El-Muharrak.<a href="#linknote-69" name="linknoteref-69"
+      id="linknoteref-69"><small>69</small></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These details, apparently authentic, did not tempt me to waste precious
+      time upon El-Muharrak. I do not yet despair, as has been said, of finding
+      coal in Arabia; but we must hardly expect volcanic ground to yield it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our preparations for a march southwards were made under difficulties. The
+      Baliyy evidently like the prospect of some £6 per diem; and do not like
+      the idea of approaching the frontier, where their camels may be stolen.
+      Every silly, childish pretext was used to suggest delay. We ought not to
+      move without seeing the "Nazarenes' Ruin" at El-‘Arayfát. Again, I had
+      sent a certain Salim, a cousin of the Shaykh, with orders for fresh
+      supplies from El-Wijh: he was certain to miss us if we marched. Still
+      again, old ‘Afnán's dromedary had a thorn in the foot&mdash;u. s. w.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, an order was given for the return march on April 5th.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No matter how philosophical the traveller may be, I defy him not to feel
+      some emotion when, his Desert work being duly done, he throws his leg over
+      the saddle, and turn the animal's head homewards&mdash;towards London.
+      Such was our pleasant predicament; for, though the détour would be
+      considerable, and the delay still more so, I could distinguish the bourne
+      at the far end of the very long perspective.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were now in excellent marching order, not, however, including the
+      mules, of which two had broken down with sore backs, and the others were
+      breaking fast. The réveillé sounded at 3 to 3.30 p.m.; the "general"
+      followed at four; and the start took place immediately afterwards. The
+      camels are wretched animals, that work equally badly full and fasting:
+      when hungry, they break their halters to graze along the path; and when
+      gorged they are too lazy to go beyond a saunter of two miles an hour. Yet
+      they can work well when pushed: the man Sa'lim came up with us on the
+      evening of the fourth day, after a forced march of thirty-two hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We took the track which crosses the Bújat-Badá to the south-east. For a
+      short way it was vilely rat-eaten; presently it issued upon good, hard,
+      stony ground; and, after four miles, it entered the Wady el-Marwát. This
+      gorge, marked by the Jebel Wásil, a round head to the north, is a
+      commonplace affair of trap and white clay; broad, rough, and
+      unpicturesque. The sole shows many piles of dry stone, ruins of "boxes,"
+      in which the travelling Arab passes the night, whilst his camels are
+      tethered outside. The watercourse heads in a Khuraytah, the usual
+      rock-ladder; we reached it after eleven miles' riding. Nájí, the
+      sea-lawyer of the party, assured us that we had not finished a third of
+      the way, when two-thirds would have been nearer the truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wady sides and head showed traces of hard work, especially where three
+      veins of snowy quartz had been deeply cut into. The summit of the Col,
+      some 2100 feet above sea-level, carried a fine reef of "Marú," measuring
+      eight feet at the widest, and trending 332° (mag.) Around it lay the usual
+      barbarous ruins, mere basements, surrounded by spalled stone: from this
+      place I carried off a portable Kufic inscription. The view down the
+      regular and tree-dotted slope of the Wady el-Marwát, as far as the flats
+      of Badá, was charming, an Argelèz without its over-verdure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the Col two roads lead to our day's destination. The short cut to the
+      right was reported stony: as most of our mules were casting their irons
+      and falling lame, I avoided it by the advice of Furayj, thereby giving
+      huge offence to old ‘Afnán. We followed the long slope trending to the
+      Wady el-Kurr, which drains the notable block of that name. Seeing the
+      Wakíl, and the others in front, cutting over the root to prevent rounding
+      a prodigiously long tongue-tip, I was on the qui vive for the normal
+      dodge; and presently the mulatto Abdullah screamed out that the Nakb must
+      be avoided, as it was all rock. We persisted and found the path almost as
+      smooth as a main road. The object was to halt for the night at a
+      neighbouring water-hole in the rocks; and, when their trick failed, the
+      Baliyy with a naive infantine candour, talked and laughed over their
+      failure, sans vergogne and within earshot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Despite the many Zawábahs ("dust-devils"), this was one of our finest
+      travelling days. After the usual ante-meridian halt, we pushed on down the
+      valley, meeting only a few donkey-drivers. At 2.15 p.m. (seven hours =
+      twenty miles and a half), we reached the beautiful ‘Ayn el-Kurr, some ten
+      direct miles east of the Wady Rábigh; and the caravan was only one hour
+      behind us. This Wady is a great and important affluent of the Wady
+      el-Miyáh already mentioned. The reach where we camped runs from north to
+      south; and the "gate" of porphyritic trap, red, green, yellow, and white
+      with clay, almost envelops the quartz-streaked granite. The walls are high
+      enough to give shade between eight a.m. and 2.15 p.m.; and the level sole
+      of the cleanest sand is dotted, near the right side, with holes and pools
+      of the sweetest water. Here "green grow the rushes," especially the
+      big-headed Kasbá (Arundo donax); the yellow-tipped Namas or flags (Scirpus
+      holoschænus) form a dense thicket; the ‘Ushr, with its cork-like bark
+      which makes the best tinder, is a tree, not a shrub; and there are large
+      natural plantations of the saffron-flowered, tobacco-like Verbascum, the
+      Arab's Uzn el-Humár ("Donkey's Ear"). Add scattered clusters of
+      date-trees, domineering over clumps of fan-palm; and, lastly, marvellous
+      to relate, a few hundred feet of greensward, of regular turf&mdash;a
+      luxury not expected in North-Western Arabia&mdash;a paradise for frogs and
+      toads (Bufo vulgaris), grasshoppers, and white pigeons; and you will
+      sympathize with our enjoyment at the ‘Ayn el-Kurr. In such a place
+      extensive ruins of the "Old Ones" were to be expected. Apparently there is
+      no trace of man beyond Wasm on the rocks; a few old Bedawi graves in a
+      dwarf Wady inflowing from the west; a rude modern watercourse close above
+      its mouth, and Arab fences round the trimmed dates and newly set palm
+      shoots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the afternoon the Shaykhs came to us with very long faces. At this
+      season, and as long as the Baliyy are in the Shafah uplands, the almost
+      deserted frontier districts, which we are about to enter, suffer from the
+      Gaum, or razzia, of the neighbouring ‘Anezah and the Juhaynah;&mdash;the
+      two tribes, however, not mixing. The bandits, numbering, they say, from
+      fifty to sixty, mounted on horses and dromedaries, only aspire to plunder
+      some poor devil-shepherd of a few camels, goats, and muttons. They never
+      attack in rear; they always sleep at night, save when every moment is
+      precious for "loot"-driving; and their weapons, which may be deadly in the
+      narrows, are despicable in the open country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I suspected at first that this was another "dodge" to enhance the services
+      of our Arabs, but the amount of risk we were to run was soon found out by
+      consulting Furayj. He said that we must march in rear of the caravan for a
+      day or two; and that such attacks were possible, but only once in a
+      hundred cases. There might have been treachery in camp; the Egyptian
+      officers suggested that a Baliyy scout could have been sent on to announce
+      the approach of a rich caravan. Accordingly, I ordered an evening review
+      of our "Remingtons;" and chose a large mark purposely, that the Bedawi
+      lookers-on might not have cause to scoff. The escort redeemed many a past
+      lâche, by showing that their weapons had been kept bright and clean, and
+      by firing neatly enough. The Baliyy, who had never seen a breech-loader,
+      were delighted; but one of our party so disliked the smell of powder, that
+      he almost quarrelled with me for bringing him into such imminent deadly
+      risk. He was hardly to be blamed; his nerves had been terribly shaken by a
+      viper killed in his tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next morning (April 6th) saw the most unpleasant of our marches. The young
+      Shaykh Sulaymán, accompanied by his cousin Sálim, set out in the dark as
+      éclaireurs: they were supposed to lead eight or ten of the best
+      matchlock-men, whereas I doubt whether the whole camp contained that
+      total. Presently it appeared that they were alone, and the farce was
+      hardly kept up through the next day. At 5.15 a.m. we followed them,
+      marching militairement, as my friend Sefer Pasha had strongly advised at
+      Cairo. It is no joke to follow starveling beasts whose best speed seldom
+      attains two miles and a half per hour. However, the effect was excellent:
+      never had there been so little straggling; never had the halting-places
+      been reached in such good time and good order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pleasant surprise awaited us in the grandest display of quartz that we
+      had yet seen. The descent of the Wady el-Kurr seemed to be as flat, stale,
+      and profitless as possible, when "Mará" appeared on the left side in
+      mounds, veins, and strews. Presently we turned south, and passed the
+      brackish well, El-Hufayrah ("the Little Pit"), in a bay of the left bank,
+      distant about eight miles from our last camp. Here the whole Wady, some
+      two miles broad, was barred with quartz, in gravel of the same rock, and
+      in veins which, protruding from the dark schist, suggested that it
+      underlies the whole surface. Nothing more remarkable than the variety of
+      forms and tints mingling in the mighty mass&mdash;the amorphous, the
+      crystallized, the hyaline, the burnt; here mottled and banded, there plain
+      red and pink, green and brown, slaty and chocolate, purple, kaolin-white;
+      and, rarest of all, honeycomb-yellow. The richest part was at the Majrá
+      el-Kabsh ("Divide of the Ram"), where we alighted and secured specimens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this point the Wady el-Kurr flows down the right side of its valley,
+      and disappears to the west; while the far side of the Majrá shows the Wady
+      Gámirah (Kámirah), another influent of the Wady el-Miyáh. Various minor
+      divides led to the Wady el-Laylah, where ruins were spoken of by our
+      confidant, ‘Audah, although his information was discredited by the
+      Shaykhs. Quartz-hills now appeared on either side, creamy-coated cones,
+      each capped by its own sparkle whose brilliancy was set off by the gloomy
+      traps which they sheeted and topped. In some places the material may have
+      been the usual hard, white, heat-altered clay; but the valley-sole showed
+      only the purest "Marú." The height of several hills was nearly double that
+      of the northern Jebel el-Abyaz; and the reef-crests were apparently
+      unworked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the march had extended to seven hours (= 18 miles), there were loud
+      complaints about its length, the venerable ‘Afnán himself begging us to
+      spare his camels&mdash;which, being interpreted, meant spoiling our
+      pockets. I therefore gave orders to camp in the broad and open Wady
+      Laylah. We were far from water, but the evening was pleasant, and the
+      night was still more agreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At five a.m. next day (April 7th) we rode up the Wady Laylah, which gave
+      us another surprise, and an unexpected joy, in the shifting scenery of the
+      Jibál el-Safhah. The "Mountains of the Plain," so called because they
+      start suddenly from a dead level, are a section of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah
+      range; yet they are worthy links of a chain which boasts of a Shárr.
+      Rising hard on our left, beyond the dull traps that hem in the Wadys,
+      these blocks, especially the lower features, the mere foot-hills, assume
+      every quaintest nuance of hue and form. The fawn-grey colour, here shining
+      as if polished by "slickensides," there dull and roughened by the rude
+      touch of Time, is a neutral ground that takes all the tints with which sun
+      and moon, mist and cloud, paint and glaze the world: changeable as the
+      chameleon's, the coating is never the same for two brief hours. The
+      protean shape, seen in profile and foreshortened from the north or south,
+      appears a block bristling with "Pins" and points, horns and beaks. Viewed
+      from the east the range splits into a double line, whose ranks have never
+      been "dressed" nor sized; whilst a diagonal prospect so alters their forms
+      and relations that they apparently belong to another range.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The background, lying upon the most distant visible plane, is the
+      white-streaked and regular wall of the Jebel el-Ward, which we have
+      already seen from the sea. Its northern foot-ranges are the pale-white and
+      jagged ‘Afayr, whose utter isolation makes it interesting; and the low and
+      long, the dark and dumpy Jebel Tufayyah. It is separated by a broad valley
+      from its southern neighbour, the Jebel el-Ughlub, or El-Ghalab as some
+      call it. This typical block consists chiefly of a monstrous "Parrot's
+      Beak" of granite, continued by a long dorsum to the south. Its outliers
+      number four. These are, first, the Umm Natash, two sets of perpendicular
+      buttresses pressed together like sausages or cigars. Then comes the Talát
+      Muhajjah, a broken saddleback, whose cantle from the south-east appears
+      split into a pair of steeple-like boulders&mdash;an architect of Alexander
+      the Great's day would have easily cut and trimmed them into such towers as
+      the world has never seen. Follows the Umm el-Natákah, bristling like the
+      fretful porcupine, and apparently disdaining to receive the foot of man;
+      while the last item, the Jebel el-Khausilah, has outlines so thoroughly
+      architectural that we seem to gaze upon a pile of building.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About five miles behind or south of El-Khausilah runs the Wady Hamz. Thus
+      the two blocks, El-Ward and El-Ughlub, form the Safhah proper. The line is
+      continued, after a considerable break, by the two blue and conical peaks
+      in the Tihámat-Jahaníyyah, known as the Jebelayn el-Rál. They are divided
+      and drained to the Wady Hamz by the broad Wady el-Sula'; and the latter is
+      the short cut down which the Egyptian Hajj, returning northwards from
+      El-Medínah, debouches upon the maritime plain of South Midian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wady Laylah, draining both the Shafah and the Tihámah ranges,
+      including the block El-Ward, assumes, as usual, various names: we shall
+      follow it till it is received into the mighty arms of the Wady Hamz, some
+      three miles from the sea. After riding eight hours, we sighted the long
+      line of Daum-palms which announce the approach to El-Birkah, "the Tank."
+      Here the huge Fiumara, sweeping grandly from north-east to south-west,
+      forms a charming narrow and a river-like run about a mile and a half long&mdash;phenomenal
+      again in sun-scorched Arabia. The water, collecting under the masses of
+      trap which wall in the left bank, flows down for some distance in threads,
+      à ciel ouvert, and finally combines in a single large blue-green pool on
+      the right side. A turquoise set in enamel of the brightest verdure, it
+      attracts by its dense and shady beds of rushes a variety of water-fowl&mdash;one
+      of our Bedawin killed a black-headed duck with a bullet, which spoilt it
+      as a specimen. About the water-run are dwarf enclosures, and even
+      water-melons were sown; unhappily the torrent came down and carried all
+      away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We halted near the upper spring at 8.20 a.m., after the usual accident
+      which now occurred daily about that hour. On this occasion Lieutenant
+      Yusuf's shoe stuck in the stirrup when he was dismounting from an unsteady
+      mule; the animal threw him, and he had a somewhat narrow escape from being
+      dragged to death. Man and beast would have lingered long over the
+      pleasures of watering and refection, but I forced them onwards at nine
+      a.m., whilst the hot sun-rays were still tempered by the cool land-breeze.
+      The threads of water and the wet ground extended some two kilometres
+      beyond the Birkat. Further on was another fine "gate," whose eastern or
+      right jamb was the Jibál el-Tibgh, fronting the Wady M'jirmah. The narrows
+      showed two Arab wells, with the usual platform of dry trunks that make a
+      footing round the mouth. There was no break in the continuity of the
+      quartz: the black trap enclosed, here sheets, there veins, and there
+      almonds in puddings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the halting-place a "cerastes" (Echis carinata, Merr.), so called from
+      the warty hollows over the eyes (?), was brought to me in a water-bag; the
+      bearer transferred it to the spirit-bottle by neatly thrusting a
+      packing-needle through the head. The pretty specimen of an amiable, and
+      much oppressed, race did not show an atom of vice. I cannot conceive what
+      has caused the absurd prejudice against snakes, even the most harmless.
+      Perhaps we must trace it to the curious resemblance of the profile, with
+      the flattened forehead, the steely bright eye, the formidable biting
+      apparatus, and the vanishing chin, to the genus woman, species Lorette. It
+      is hard to imagine that this little beast, which some one called a
+      "Cleopatra's hasp," could be fatal: its small bag can hardly contain a
+      couple of drops. Yet the vox populi is distinctly against me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Shaykhs were anxious to push on for another half-hour, where, they
+      declared, a rain-hole is found in the next ravine, the Sha'b el-Kahafah.
+      But we had been privily told of another further down the valley, at the
+      Sha'b el-Hárr; and, although we much wanted a bottleful for photography,
+      we determined to run the risk. The result is curious, showing how
+      jealously water-secrets are kept in these lands. The next thing I heard
+      was that the water had waxed salt; then it had dried up; and, lastly, it
+      was in the best condition, the truth being that there was none at all.
+      Consequently we were compelled to send back four camels and two cameleers
+      from our next camping-ground to the Kahafah. Venerable ‘Afnán made many a
+      difficulty, and an uncommon favour, of risking the plundering of the
+      dromedaries and the lives of his caterans by a razzia. The fellows set off
+      after nightfall towards the upper ravine, distant some two hours' slow
+      march: they must there have had a pleasant, refreshing sleep; and they did
+      not return, doubtless by order, till late next morning. This gave the
+      Shaykhs a good opportunity of fearing greatly for the safety of their
+      people, and of delaying our march as much as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Resuming the road at 2.30 p.m., we entered the western prolongation of the
+      Wady el-Birkah. Here it becomes the Wady Abá'l-‘Agág (‘Ajáj), and
+      preserves that name till it anastomoses with the Hamz. There have been
+      some wells in the bed; but all are now filled up, and water must be
+      carried from El-Birkah. We camped at a noble reach, garnished with a mimic
+      forest of old tamarisks, whose small voices, united in chorus, passably
+      imitated the mighty murmur of the sea. Our day's march had covered a score
+      of miles; hard work, considering the condition of the mules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a splendid night, we set out London-wards at five a.m., April 8th,
+      delayed, as has been said, by the politiké of the Shaykhs. Moreover, one
+      of the party, whose motto should have been halt's maul, had remarked that
+      the camels appeared fewer than before&mdash;another reason for stopping to
+      count them. Half an hour placed us at a lower and a grander carrefour,
+      abounding in fuel and seducing with tamarisk-shade: its water is known as
+      the Máyat el-Badí'ah. Presently the hilly encasement of the Wady el-‘Ajáj
+      ended with El-‘Adrá, a red butte to the left, and the Jebel el-Yakhmúm on
+      the right. This knob was copiously veined with quartz, of which a
+      prodigious depôt, explored on the next day, exists in the heights behind
+      it. The Wady now flares out; we have done with the Tihámah Mountains, and
+      we are again in maritime South Midian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although we were standing some four hundred feet above the wassersspiegel,
+      there was no view of the sea, and we had to cross a wave of ground before
+      we pulled off our hats to Father Neptune, as he lay smiling in front of
+      us. There was nothing monotonous in the scene. The mirage raised high in
+      air the yellow mound of Ras Kurkumah ("Turmeric Head"), which bounded the
+      water-line to the south. Nearer, but still far to the left, ran the high
+      right bank of the Wady Hamz, sweeping with a great curve from north-east
+      to west, till it stood athwart our path. Knobby hills were scattered over
+      the plain; and on our right rose El-Juwayy, a black mound with white-sided
+      and scarred head, whose peculiar shape, a crest upon a slope, showed us
+      once more the familiar Secondary formation of North-Western Arabia. Thus
+      the gypsum has been traced from the Sinaitic shore as far south as the
+      Wady Hamz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We rode sharply forwards, impatient to see the classical ruins, leaving
+      the caravan to follow us. The Girdi ("sand-rat") had ceased to burrow the
+      banks; but the jerboa had made regular rabbit-warrens. At half-past seven
+      we crossed a winding and broad-spreading track, the upper Hajj-road, by
+      which the Egyptian Mahmal passes when returning from El-Medi'nah viâ the
+      Wady Hamz. A few yards further on showed us a similar line, the route
+      taken by the caravan when going to Meccah viâ Yambú', now distant five
+      marches. The two meet at the Wady Wafdíyyah, to the north-east of the
+      Abá'l-Marú range, which we shall visit to-morrow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after 10 a.m. we crossed the deepest vein of the Wady Hamz, urged
+      the mules up the *stiff* left bank, and sprang from the saddle to enjoy a
+      first view of the Gasr (Kasr) Gurayyim Sa'id.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter XIX. &mdash; The Wady Hamz&mdash;the Classical Ruin&mdash;Abá'l-Marú,
+      the Mine of
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      "Marwah"&mdash;Return to El-Wijh&mdash;Résumé of the Southern Journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before describing the Palace of Sa'íd the Brave, I must devote a few lines
+      to a notice of the Wady Hamz. The Wady Hamz, which has been mentioned as
+      the southern frontier of Egyptian Midian, and the northern limit of the
+      Ottoman Hejaz, is the most notable feature of its kind upon the
+      North-Western Arabian shore. Yet Wallin has unjustifiably described and
+      inscribed it "Wady Nejd," confusing it with a northern basin, whose mouth,
+      the Salbah (Thalbah), we passed before reaching Sharm Dumayghah. He
+      appears to identify it with the classical Wady el-Kura. Sprenger clean
+      ignores the name, although he mentions its branches; and of course it is
+      utterly neglected by the Hydrographic Chart. This main approach to the
+      Arabian interior is not a fissure, like the vulgar Wadys, but rather an
+      opening where the Gháts, or maritime chain, break to the north and south.
+      Distant one long or two short marches from El-Wijh, its mouth is in north
+      lat. 25° 55'; and it is said to head fifteen days inland, in fact beyond
+      El-Medínah, towards which it curves with a south-easterly bend. It
+      receives a multitude of important secondary valleys; amongst which is the
+      Wady el-‘Uwaynid, universally so pronounced. I cannot help thinking that
+      this is El-‘Aúníd of El-Mukaddasi, which El-Idrísí (erroneously?) throws
+      into the sea opposite Nu'ma'n Island. If my conjecture prove true, we thus
+      have a reason why this important line has been inexplicably neglected.
+      Another branch is the Wady el-‘Is, Sprenger's "Al-‘Ys" (pp. 28, 29), which
+      he calls "a valley in the Juhaynah country," and makes the northern
+      boundary of that tribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ethnologically considered, the lower Wady Hamz is now the southern
+      boundary of the Balawíyyah (Baliyy country), and the northern limit of the
+      Jahaníyyah, or Juhaynah-land: the latter is popularly described as
+      stretching down coast to Wady Burmah, one march beyond Yambú' (?). Higher
+      up it belongs to the Alaydán-‘Anezahs, under Shaykh Mutlak&mdash;these
+      were the Bedawin who, during our stay at the port, brought their caravan
+      to El-Wijh. Both tribes are unsafe, and they will wax worse as they go
+      south. Yet there is no difficulty in travelling up the Hamz, at least for
+      those who can afford time and money to engage the escort of Shaykh Mutlak.
+      A delay of twelve days to a fortnight would be necessary, and common
+      prudence would suggest the normal precaution of detaining, as hostage in
+      the seaboard settlement, one of his Alaydán cousins. Water is to be found
+      the whole way, and the usual provisions are to be bought at certain
+      places.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following notes upon the ruins of the Wady Hamz were supplied to me by
+      the Baliyy Bedawin and the citizens of El-Wijh. Six stages up the lower
+      valley, whose direction lies nearly north-east, lead to El-‘Ilá, Wallin's
+      "Ela," which belongs to the ‘Anezah. Thence a short day, to the north with
+      easting, places the traveller at Madáin (not Madyan nor Medínat) Sálih&mdash;"the
+      cities of Sálih." The site is described to be somewhat off the main
+      valley, which is here broken by a Nakb (?); and those who have visited
+      both declared that it exactly resembles Nabathæan Magháir Shu'ayb in
+      extensive ruins and in catacombs caverning the hill-sides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Also called El-Hijr, it is made by Sprenger (p. 20) the capital of
+      Thamuditis. This province was the head-quarters of the giant race termed
+      the "Sons of Anak" (Joshua xi. 21); the Thamudeni and Thamudæ of
+      Agatharkides and Diodorus; the Tamudæi of Pliny; the Thamyditæ of Ptolemy;
+      and the Arabian Tamúd (Thamúd), who, extinct before the origin of
+      El-Islam, occupied the seaboard between El-Muwaylah and El-Wijh. Their
+      great centre was the plain El-Badá; and they were destroyed by a terrible
+      sound from heaven, the Beth-Kol of the Hebrews, after sinfully
+      slaughtering the miraculously produced camel of El-Sálih, the Righteous
+      Prophet (Koran, cap. vii.). The exploration of "Sálih's cities" will be
+      valuable if it lead to the collection of inscriptions sufficiently
+      numerous to determine whether the Tamúd were Edomites, or kin to the
+      Edomites; also which of the two races is the more ancient, the Horites of
+      Idumæa or the Horites in El-Hijr.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now to inspect the Gasr. The first sensation was one of surprise, of
+      the mental state which gave rise to the Italian's&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      "Dear Columns, what do you here?
+      ‘Not knowing, can't say, Mynheer!'"
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And this incongruous bit of Greece or Rome, in the Arabian wild, kept its
+      mystery to the last: the more we looked at it, the less we could explain
+      its presence. Not a line of inscription, not even a mason's mark&mdash;all
+      dark as the grave; deaf-dumb as "the olden gods."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The site of the Gasr is in north lat. 25° 55' 15";<a href="#linknote-70"
+      name="linknoteref-70" id="linknoteref-70"><small>70</small></a> and the
+      centre of the Libn block bears from it 339° (mag.). It stands upon the
+      very edge of its Wady's left bank, a clifflet some twenty-five feet high,
+      sloping inland with the usual dark metal disposed upon loose yellow sand.
+      Thus it commands a glorious view of the tree-grown valley, or rather
+      valleys, beneath it; and of the picturesque peaks of the
+      Tihámat-Balawíyyah in the background. The distance from the sea is now a
+      little over three miles&mdash;in ancient days it may have been much less.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The condition of the digging proves that the remains have not long been
+      opened: the Baliyy state less than half a century ago; but exactly when or
+      by whom is apparently unknown to them. Before that time the locale must
+      have shown a mere tumulus, a mound somewhat larger than the many which
+      pimple the raised valley-bank behind the building. A wall is said to have
+      projected above ground, as at Uriconium near the Wrekin.<a
+      href="#linknote-71" name="linknoteref-71" id="linknoteref-71"><small>71</small></a>
+      This may have suggested excavation, besides supplying material for the
+      Bedawi cemetery to the south-west. The torrent waters have swept away the
+      whole of the northern wall, and the treasure-seeker has left his mark upon
+      the interior. Columns and pilasters and bevelled stones have been hurled
+      into the Wady below; the large pavement-slabs have been torn up and tossed
+      about to a chaos; and the restless drifting of the loose yellow
+      Desert-sand will soon bury it again in oblivion. The result of all such
+      ruthless ruining was simply null. The imaginative Nájí declared, it is
+      true, that a stone dog had been found; but this animal went the way of the
+      "iron fish," which all at El-Muwaylah asserted to have been dug up at
+      El-Wijh&mdash;the latter place never having heard of it. Wallin (p. 316)
+      was also told of a black dog which haunts the ruins of Karáyyá, and acts
+      guardian to its hidden treasures. Years ago, when I visited the mouth of
+      the Volta river on the Gold Coast, the negroes of Cape Coast Castle were
+      pleased to report that I had unearthed a silver dog, at whose appearance
+      my companion, Colonel de Ruvignes, and myself fell dead. But why always a
+      dog? The "Palace" is a Roman building of pure style; whether temple or
+      nymphæum, we had no means of ascertaining. The material is the Rughám or
+      alabaster supplied by the Secondary formation; and this, as we saw,
+      readily crumbles to a white powder when burnt. The people, who in such
+      matters may be trusted, declare that the quarries are still open at Abú
+      Makhárír, under the hills embosoming Abá'l-Marú. We should have been less
+      surprised had the ruin been built of marble, which might have been
+      transported from Egypt; but this careful and classical treatment of the
+      common country stone, only added to the marvel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must have been a bright and brilliant bit of colouring in its best days&mdash;hence,
+      possibly, the local tradition that the stone sweats oil. The whole
+      building, from the pavement to the coping, notched to receive the
+      roof-joists, is of alabaster, plain-white and streaked with ruddy, mauve,
+      and dark bands, whose mottling gives the effect of marble. Perhaps in
+      places the gypsum has been subjected to plutonic action; and we thought
+      that the coloured was preferred to the clear for the bases of the columns.
+      The exposed foundations of the eastern and western walls, where the
+      torrent has washed away the northern enceinte, show that, after the
+      fashion of ancient Egypt, sandstone slabs have been laid underground, the
+      calcaire being reserved for the hypaethral part. The admirable hydraulic
+      cement is here and there made to take the place of broken corners, and
+      flaws have been remedied by carefully letting in small cubes of sound
+      stone. There are also cramp-holes for metal which, of course, has been
+      carried off by the Bedawin: the rusty stains suggest iron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The building is square-shaped, as we see from the western wall, and it
+      evidently faced eastward with 25° (mag.) of southing. This orientation,
+      probably borrowed from the Jews, was not thoroughly adopted in Christendom
+      till the early fifth century, when it became a mos. The southern wall,
+      whose basement is perfect, shows everywhere a thickness of 0.95
+      centimetre, and a total length of 8 metres 30 centimetres. At 2 metres 87
+      centimetres from the south-western corner is a slightly raised surface,
+      measuring in length 2 metres 15 centimetres. Mr. James Fergusson supposes
+      that this projection, which directly fronts the eastern entrance, was the
+      base of the niche intended for the image. On each side of the latter might
+      have been a smaller colonette, which would account for the capital carried
+      off by us to Egypt. Thus, adding 2 metres 87 centimetres for the northern
+      end swept into the valley, we have a length of 7 metres 89 centimetres;
+      and the additional half thickness of the east wall would bring it to a
+      total of 8 metres 30 centimetres.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrine was not in antis, and the site hardly admits of a peristyle;
+      besides which, excavations failed to find it. That it might have had a
+      small external atrium is made probable by the peculiarity of the entrance.
+      Two rounded pilasters, worked with the usual care inside, but left rough
+      in other parts because they could not be seen, were engaged in the
+      enceinte wall, measuring here, as elsewhere, 0.95 centimetre in thickness.
+      Nothing remained of them but their bases, whose lower diameters were 0.95
+      centimetre, and the upper 0.65; the drums found elsewhere also measured
+      0.65. The interval between the lowest rings was 1 metre 63 centimetres;
+      and this would give the measure of the doorway, here probably a
+      parallelogram. Lying on the sand-slope to the north, a single capital
+      showed signs of double brackets, although both have been broken off:<a
+      href="#linknote-72" name="linknoteref-72" id="linknoteref-72"><small>72</small></a>
+      the maximum diameter across the top was 0.60 centimetre, diminishing below
+      to 0.50 and 0.44, whilst the height was 0.40. The encircling wall was
+      probably adorned with pilasters measuring 0.62 centimetre below, 0.45
+      above, and 0.11 in height: they are not shown in the plan; and I leave
+      experts to determine whether they supported the inside or the outside
+      surface. Several stones, probably copings, are cut with three
+      mortice-joints or joist-holes, each measuring 0.15 centimetre, at
+      intervals of 0.14 to 0.15.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the tossed and tumbled interior of this maison carrée the
+      pavement-slabs, especially along the south-western side, appear in
+      tolerable order and not much disturbed; whilst further east a long trench
+      from north to south had been sunk by the treasure seeker. The breadth of
+      the free passage is 1 metre 92 centimetres; and the disposal suggested an
+      inner peristyle, forming an impluvium. Thus the cube could not have been a
+      heroön or tomb. Four bases of columns, with a number of drums, lie in the
+      heap of ruins, and in the torrent-bed six, of which we carried off four.
+      They are much smaller than the pilasters of the entrance; the lower tori
+      of the bases measure 0.60 centimetre in diameter, and 0.20 in height (to
+      0.90 and 0.25), while the drums are 0.45, instead of 0.65. It is an
+      enormous apparatus to support what must have been a very light matter of a
+      roof. The only specimen of a colonette-capital has an upper diameter of
+      0.26, a lower of 0.17, and a height of 0.16.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the Meccan Ka'bah is, as its name denotes, a "cube," this square
+      alabaster box did not give the impression of being either Arab or
+      Nabathæan. The work is far too curiously and conscientiously done; the
+      bases and drums, as the sundries carried to Cairo prove, look rather as if
+      turned by machinery than chiselled in the usual way. I could not but
+      conjecture that it belongs to the days of such Roman invasions as that of
+      Ælius Gallus. Strabo<a href="#linknote-73" name="linknoteref-73"
+      id="linknoteref-73"><small>73</small></a> tells us of his unfortunate
+      friend and companion, that, on the return march, after destroying Negrán<a
+      href="#linknote-74" name="linknoteref-74" id="linknoteref-74"><small>74</small></a>
+      (Pliny, vi. 32), he arrived at Egra or Hegra (El-‘Wijh), where he must
+      have delayed some time before he could embark "as much of his army as
+      could be saved," for the opposite African harbour, Myus Hormus. It is
+      within the limits of probability that this historical personage<a
+      href="#linknote-75" name="linknoteref-75" id="linknoteref-75"><small>75</small></a>
+      might have built the Gasr, either for a shrine or for a nymphæum, a
+      votive-offering to the Great Wady, which must have cheered his heart after
+      so many days of "Desert country, with only a few watering-places." Perhaps
+      an investigation of the ruins at Ras Kurkumah and the remains of Madáin
+      Sálih may throw some light upon the mystery. In our travel this bit of
+      classical temple was unique.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Fergusson, whose authority in such matters will not readily be
+      disputed, calls the building a small shrine; and determines that it can
+      hardly be a tomb, as it is hypæthral. The only similar temple known to him
+      is that of "Soueideh" (Suwaydah), in the Haurán (De Vogüé, "Syrie
+      Centrale," Plate IV.). The latter, which is Roman, and belonging to the
+      days of Herod Augustus, has a peristyle here wanting: in other respects
+      the resemblance is striking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      M. Lacaze photographed, under difficulties such as bad water and a most
+      unpleasant drift of sand-dust, the interior of the building, the stones
+      lying in the Wady below, and the various specimens which we carried off
+      for the inspection of his Highness the Viceroy. Meanwhile we "pottered
+      about," making small discoveries. The exposed foundations of the
+      north-western wall, where the slabs of grit rest upon the sands of the
+      cliff, afforded signs of man in the shape of a jaw-bone, with teeth
+      apparently modern; and above it, in the terreplein, we dug down upwards of
+      a yard, without any result beyond unearthing a fine black scorpion. The
+      adjoining Arab graveyard, adorned with the mutilated spoils of the
+      classical building, gave two imperfect skulls and four fragments. We
+      opened one of the many mounds that lie behind the Gasr, showing where most
+      probably stood the ruined town; and we found the interior traversed by a
+      crumbling wall of cut alabaster&mdash;regular excavation may some day
+      yield important results. A little to the south-west lies a kind of
+      ossuary, a tumulus slightly raised above the wavy level, and showing a
+      central pit choked with camels' bones: at least, we could find no other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here I was told the Arab legend by the Wakíl; who, openly deriding the
+      Bedawi idea that the building could be a "Castle," opined that it was a
+      Kanísah, a "Christian or pagan place of worship." Gurayyim Sa'íd, "Sa'íd
+      the Brave," was an African slave, belonging to an Arab Shaykh whose name
+      is forgotten. One day it so happened that a razzia came to plunder his
+      lord, when the black, whose strength and stature were equal to his courage
+      and, let us add, his appetite, did more than his duty. Thus he obtained as
+      a reward the promise of a bride, his master's daughter. But when the day
+      of danger was past, and the slave applied for the fair guerdon, the Shaykh
+      traitorously refused to keep his word. The Brave, finding a fit
+      opportunity, naturally enough carried off the girl to the mountains;
+      solemnly thrashed every pursuing party; and, having established a "reign
+      of terror," came to the banks of the Wady Hamz, and built the "Palace" for
+      himself and his wife. But his love for butcher's-meat did not allow him to
+      live happily ever after. As the land yielded little game, he took to
+      sallying out every day and carrying off a camel, which in the evening he
+      slew, and roasted, and ate, giving a small bit of it to his spouse. This
+      extravagance of flesh-diet ended by scandalizing the whole country-side,
+      till at last the owner of the plundered herds, Diyáb ibn Ghánim, one of
+      the notables celebrated in the romance called Sírat Abu' Zayd,<a
+      href="#linknote-76" name="linknoteref-76" id="linknoteref-76"><small>76</small></a>
+      assembled his merry men, attacked the Gurayyim, and slew him. Wa' s'
+      salám!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Egypt ends. We have done our work&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "And now the hills stretch home."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I must, however, beg the reader to tarry with me awhile. The next march to
+      the north will show him what I verily believe to be the old gold-mine
+      lying around El-Marwah. It acquires an especial interest from being the
+      northernmost known to the mediaeval geographers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      El-Mukaddasi (vol. I. p. 101), in an article kindly copied by my friend,
+      the Aulic Councillor, Alfred Von Kremer, says, "Between Yambú' and
+      El-Marwah are mines of gold;" adding ("Itinerary," vol. i. p. 107) the
+      following route directions: "And thou takest from El-Badr (‘the New Moon')<a
+      href="#linknote-77" name="linknoteref-77" id="linknoteref-77"><small>77</small></a>
+      to El-Yambú' two stages; thence to the Ras el-‘Ayn (?),<a
+      href="#linknote-78" name="linknoteref-78" id="linknoteref-78"><small>78</small></a>
+      one stage; again to the mine (subaudi, of gold), one stage; and, lastly,
+      to El-Marwah, two stages. And thou takest from El-Badr to El-Jár<a
+      href="#linknote-79" name="linknoteref-79" id="linknoteref-79"><small>79</small></a>
+      one stage; thence to El-Jahfah (?), or to El-Yambu', two stages each. And
+      thou takest from El-Jiddah (Jedda) to El-Jár, or to El-Surrayn (?), four
+      stages each. And thou takest from El-Yasrib (Jatrippa or El-Medínah) to
+      El-Suwaydíyyah (?), or to Batn el-Nakhil (?), two stages each; and from
+      El-Suwaydíyyah to El-Marwah, an equal distance (i.e. four marches); and
+      from the Batn el-Nakhil to the mine of silver, a similar distance. And if
+      thou seek the Jáddat Misr,<a href="#linknote-80" name="linknoteref-80"
+      id="linknoteref-80"><small>80</small></a> then take from El-Marwah to
+      El-Sukyá<a href="#linknote-81" name="linknoteref-81" id="linknoteref-81"><small>81</small></a>
+      (?), and thence to Badá Ya'kúb,<a href="#linknote-82" name="linknoteref-82"
+      id="linknoteref-82"><small>82</small></a> three marches; and thence to
+      El-‘Aúníd, one march." Hence Sprenger would place Zú'l-Marwah "four days
+      from El-Hijr, on the western road to Medina;" alluding to the western
+      (Syrian) road, now abandoned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now for our march. On the finest possible morning (April 9th), when
+      the world was all ablaze with living light, I walked down the Wady Hamz.
+      It has been abundantly supplied with water; in fact, the whole vein
+      (thalweg) subtending the left bank would respond to tapping. The well
+      El-Kusayr, just below the ruin, though at present closed, yielded till
+      lately a large quantity: about half a mile to the westward is, or rather
+      was, a saltish pit surrounded by four sweet. Almost all are now dry and
+      filled up with fuel. A sharp trudge of three-quarters of an hour leads to
+      the Bir el-Gurnah (Kurnah), the "Well of the Broad," in a district of the
+      same name, lying between the ruin and the shore. It is a great gash in the
+      sandy bed: the taste of the turbid produce is distinctly sulphurous; and
+      my old white mule, being dainty in her drink, steadfastly refused to touch
+      it. The distinct accents of the Red Sea told us that we were not more than
+      a mile from its marge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We then struck north-east, over the salt maritime plain, till we hit the
+      lower course of the Wady Umm Gilifayn (Jilifayn). It heads from the
+      seaward base of the neighbouring hills; and its mouth forms a Marsá, or
+      "anchorage-place," for native craft. A little to the north stands the
+      small pyramidal Tuwayyil el-Kibrít, the "little Sulphur Hill," which had
+      been carefully examined by MM. Marie and Philipin. A slow ride of eight
+      miles placed us in a safe gorge draining a dull-looking, unpromising
+      block. Here we at once found, and found in situ for the first time, the
+      chalcedony which strews the seaboard-flat. This agate, of which amulets
+      and signet-rings were and are still made, and which takes many varieties
+      of tints, lies in veins mostly striking east-west; and varying in
+      thickness from an inch to several feet. The sequence is grey granite
+      below, the band of chalcedony, and above it a curious schistose
+      gneiss-formation. The latter, composing the greater part of these hills,
+      is striped dark-brown and yellow; and in places it looks exactly like
+      rotten wood. The small specimens of chalcedony in my private collection
+      were examined at Trieste, and one of them contained dendritic gold,
+      visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately the engineer had neglected this
+      most important rock, and only a few ounces of it, instead of as many tons,
+      were brought back for analysis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short and easy ascent led to a little counter-slope, the Majrá Mujayrah
+      (Mukayrah), whose whitening sides spoke of quartz. We rode down towards a
+      granite island where the bed mouths into the broad Wady Mismáh, a feeder
+      of the Wady ‘Argah. Here, after some ten miles, the guide, Na'ji', who
+      thus far had been very misty in the matter of direction, suddenly halted
+      and, in his showman style, pointed to the left bank of the watercourse,
+      exclaiming, "Behold Abá'l-Marú!" (the "Father of Quartz"). It was another
+      surprise, and our last, this snowy reef with jagged crest, at least 500
+      metres long, forming the finest display of an exposed filon we had as yet
+      seen; but&mdash;the first glance told us that it had been worked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We gave the rest of the day to studying and blasting the quartz-wall. It
+      proved to be the normal vein in grey granite, running south-north and
+      gradually falling towards the valley-plain. Here a small white outlier
+      disappears below the surface, rising again in filets upon the further
+      side. The dip is easterly: in this direction a huge strew of ore-mass and
+      rubbish covers the slope which serves as base to the perpendicular reef.
+      The Negro quartz, which must have formed half the thickness, had been
+      carried bodily away. If anything be left for the moderns it is hidden
+      underground: the stone, blasted in the little outlier, looked barren. Not
+      the least curious part of this outcrop is the black thread of iron
+      silicate which, broken in places, subtends it to the east: some specimens
+      have geodes yielding brown powder, and venal cavities lined with
+      botryoidal quartz of amethystine tinge. In other parts of the same hills
+      we found, running along the "Mará," single and double lines of this
+      material, which looked uncommonly like slag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The open Wady Mismáh showed, to the east of our camp, the ruins of a large
+      settlement which has extended right across the bed: as the guides seemed
+      to ignore its existence, we named it the Kharábat Abá'l-Marú. Some of the
+      buildings had been on a large scale, and one square measured twenty yards.
+      Here the peculiarity was the careful mining of a granitic hillock on the
+      southern bank. The whole vein of Negro quartz had been cut out of three
+      sides, leaving caves that simulated catacombs. Further west another
+      excavation in the same kind of rock was probably the town-quarry. The two
+      lieutenants were directed next morning to survey this place, and also a
+      second ruin and reef reported to be found on the left bank, a little below
+      camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have now seen, lying within short distances, three several
+      quartz-fields, known as&mdash;Marwah, "the single Place or Hill of Maú'"
+      (quartz); Marwát, "the Places of Quartz;" and Abá'l-Marú, the "Father of
+      Quartz;" not to speak of a Nakb Abú Marwah<a href="#linknote-83"
+      name="linknoteref-83" id="linknoteref-83"><small>83</small></a> further
+      north. The conclusion forced itself upon me that the name of the
+      celebrated Arab mine Zú'l Marwah or El-Marwah, the more ancient (Mochura),
+      which Ptolemy places in north lat. 24° 30', applied to the whole district
+      in South Midian, and then came to denote the chief place and centre of
+      work. To judge by the extent of the ruins, and the signs of labour, this
+      focus was at Umm el-Karáyát (the "Mother of the Villages"), which, as has
+      been shown, is surrounded by a multitude of miner-towns and ateliers. And
+      the produce of the "diggings" would naturally gravitate to El-Badá, the
+      great commercial station upon the Nabathæan "Overland."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus El-Marwah would signify "the Place of Marú," or "Quartz-land," even
+      as Ophir means "Red Land." A reviewer of my first book on Midian objects
+      to the latter derivation; as Seetzen, among others, has conclusively shown
+      that Ophir, the true translation of which is ‘riches,' is to be looked for
+      in Southern Arabia." Connu! But I question the "true translation;" and,
+      whilst owning that one of the Ophirs or "Red Lands" lay in the modern
+      Yemen, somewhere between Sheba (Sabá) and Havilah (Khaulán), I see no
+      reason for concluding that this was the only Ophir. Had it been a single
+      large emporium on the Red Sea, which collected the produce of Arabia and
+      the exports of India and of West Africa, the traditional site could hardly
+      have escaped the notice of the inquiring Arabian geographers of our Middle
+      Ages. The ruins of a port would have been found, and we should not be
+      compelled theoretically to postulate its existence.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                          * * * * * *
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And now nothing remained but to escape as quickly as possible from the
+      ugly Wady Mismáh; with its violent, dusty wester, or sea-breeze, and its
+      sun-glare which, reflected and reverberated by the quartz, burned the
+      grass and made the trees resemble standing timber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April 10th saw the last of our marches, a hurry back to the stable, a
+      sauve qui peut. The camel-men, reckless of orders, began to load and to
+      slip away shortly after midnight. Ali Marie, who, as usual, had lost his
+      head, when ordered to enjoin silence gave the vain and vague direction,
+      "Tell the Arabs to tell the camels not to make so much noise." Even the
+      bugler sounded the "general" of his own accord; and the mules, now become
+      painfully intelligent, walked as if they knew themselves to be walking
+      homewards. Our last stage lay over the upper skirts of the maritime plain
+      which has already been noticed. At 10.15 am., after riding five hours and
+      thirty minutes (= seventeen miles), we found ourselves once more upon the
+      seaboard. Our kind host, Captain Hasan Bey, came to meet us in his gig:
+      the quarter-deck had been dressed with flags, as for a ball; and before
+      twelve bells struck, we had applied ourselves to an excellent breakfast in
+      the gun-room of our old favourite, the Sinnár. The auspicious day of
+      course ended with a fantasia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Résumé of Our Last Journey.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      We had left the Sharm Yáhárr on March 21st, and returned to it on April
+      13th; a total of twenty-four days. Our actual march through South Midian,
+      which had lasted thirteen days (March 29&mdash;April 10), described a
+      semicircle with El-Wijh about the middle of the chord. The length is
+      represented by 170 miles in round numbers: as usual, this does not include
+      the various offsets and the by-paths explored by the members; nor do the
+      voyages to El-Wijh and El-Haurá, going and coming, figure in the line of
+      route. The camels varied from fifty-eight to sixty-four, when specimens
+      were forwarded to the harbour-town. The expenditure amounted to£92 13s.,
+      including pay and "bakhshísh" to the Baliyy Shaykhs, but not including our
+      friends the Sayyid, Furayj, and the Wakíl Mohammed Shahádah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This southern region differs essentially from the northern, which was
+      twice visited, and which occupied us two months, mostly wasted. Had we
+      known what we do now, I should have begun with the south, and should have
+      devoted to it the greater part of our time. Both are essentially mining
+      countries; but, whilst the section near Egypt preserves few traces of the
+      miner, here we find the country carefully and conscientiously worked. The
+      whole eastern counterslope of the outliers that project from the
+      Ghát-section known as the mountains of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah, is one vast
+      outcrop of quartz. The parallelogram between north lat. 26 degrees,
+      including the mouth of the Wady Hamz, and north lat. 27°, which runs some
+      fifteen miles north of the Badá plain, would form a Southern Grant,
+      sufficiently large to be divided and subdivided as soon as judged
+      advisable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the characteristics of North Midian (Madyan Proper) are its
+      argentiferous, and especially its cupriferous ores, South Midian worked
+      chiefly gold and silver, both metals being mentioned by the mediaeval
+      geographers of Arabia. Free gold in paillettes was noticed by the
+      Expedition in the micaceous schists veining the quartz, and in the
+      chalcedony which parts the granite from the gneiss. The argentiferous
+      Negro quartz everywhere abounds, and near the ruins of Badá lie strews of
+      spalled "Marú," each fragment showing its little block of pure lead.
+      Saltpetre is plentiful, and a third "Sulphur hill" rises from the maritime
+      plain north of the Wady Hamz.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The principal ruins and ateliers number five; these, beginning from the
+      north, are the Umm el-Karáyát, the Umm el-Haráb, the Bújat-Badá, the
+      Kharábat Abá'l-Marú, and the old Nabathean port, E1-Haurá. Amongst them is
+      not included the gem of our discovery, the classical shrine, known as Gasr
+      Gurayyim Sa'íd, nor the minor ateliers, El-Kubbah, Abá'l-Gezáz, and the
+      remains upon the Marwát ridge. Good work was done by the Egyptian
+      Staff-officers in surveying the fine harbour of El-Dumayghah, so well
+      fitted as a refuge for pilgrim-ships when doing quarantine; and I venture
+      upon recommending, to the English and Egyptian Governments, my remarks
+      concerning the advisability of at once re-transferring the station to
+      El-Wijh. It is now at Tor; and, as has been said, it forms a standing
+      menace, not only to the Nile Valley, but to the whole of Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst abounding in wood, the Southern Country is not so well watered as
+      are Central and Northern Midian On the other hand, the tenants, confined
+      to the Baliyy tribe, with a few scatters of the despised Hutaym, are
+      milder and more tractable than the Huwaytát. As I have remarked, they are
+      of ancient strain, and they still conserve the instincts of their
+      predecessors, or their forefathers, the old mining race. It will be
+      necessary to defend them against the raids and incursions of the Juhaynah,
+      or "Sons of Dogs," who border upon them to the south, and from the
+      Alaydán-‘Anezah to the south-east; but nothing would be easier than to
+      come to terms with the respective Shaykhs. And the sooner we explore the
+      Jaww, or sandstone region in the interior, with its adjacent "Harrahs,"
+      the better for geography and, perhaps not less, for mineralogy. The great
+      ruins of Madáin Sálih upon the Wady Hamz still, I repeat, await the
+      discoverer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_CONC" id="link2H_CONC"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Conclusion.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The next day saw us at El-Wijh, dispensing pay and "bakhshísh" to the
+      companions of our Desert march; and shipping the men and mules, with the
+      material collected during the southern journey. The venerable Shaykh
+      ‘Afnán and his Baliyy were not difficult to deal with; and they went their
+      way homewards fully satisfied. We exchanged a friendly adieu, or rather an
+      au revoir, with our excellent travelling companion, Mohammed Shahádah; and
+      I expressed my sincere hopes to find him, at no distant time, governor of
+      the restored Quarantine-station.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the morning of April 12th we set out betimes, and anchored for the
+      night in one of the snug bays of Jebel Nu'man. The next day placed us at
+      the Sharm Yáhárr, where the process of general distribution happily ended.
+      Here the final parting took place with the gallant companions of our four
+      months' travel. Shaykh Furayj, delighted with the gift, in addition to his
+      pay, of a Styrian skean-dhu and an Austrian Werndl-carbine, at once set
+      off to rejoin the tribe up-country; while the Sayyid steadfastly stayed
+      with us to the last. These men had become our friends; and my sorrow at
+      leaving them was softened only by the prospect of presently seeing them
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately after my return to Cairo I strongly recommended the Sayyid for
+      promotion, in these words:&mdash;"First and foremost is the Sayyid ‘Abd
+      el-Rahím, the head of a noble family, settled for generations at
+      El-Muwayláh, where he is now Kátib (‘accountant') to the Fort. He knows
+      thoroughly the whole Land of Midian; he is loved and respected by all the
+      Arabs, and both he and his are devoted to the Government of your Highness.
+      Evidently it would be advantageous to promote such a man to the post of
+      governor of the place&mdash;a post which will presently become of high
+      importance, and which is actually held by an old officer, almost
+      bed-ridden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The second is Shaykh Mohammed Shahádah, of El-Wijh, a man of family and
+      position; known far and wide, and made generally popular by his generous
+      and charitable actions. He was formerly Wakíl, or ‘agent,' to the Fort
+      el-Wijh, until that office was abolished. The port will presently have its
+      custom-house; and I propose forwarding to her Britannic Majesty's
+      Government my notes upon the subject of the Quarantine-station, which has
+      imprudently been transferred from Arabia to Tor, in the Sinaitic
+      Peninsula. Meanwhile it would, I venture to suggest, be most advantageous
+      if Mohammed Shahádah were named governor of his native place."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Expedition, in its urgent desire to return northwards, was not
+      seconded by weather. Despite an ugly gale, the Sinnár boldly attempted
+      giving the slip to Arabia on April 16th, but she was beaten back before
+      she reached El-Muwaylah. After another stormy day, we again got up steam;
+      and, fighting hard against adverse winds and waves, greatly to the
+      distress of the unfortunate mules and gazelles, we reached Suez on April
+      20th.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Suez my wife had been awaiting me for long weeks, preferring the
+      simplicity of the Desert to the complex life of Cairo. Some delay was
+      again necessary in order to telegraph our arrival, to apply for a special
+      train, and to sort and pack in the travelling-cases our twenty-five tons
+      of specimens. As often happens, the return to civilization was in nowise
+      cheery. Everything seemed to go wrong. For instance, the Dragoman
+      despatched to town from the New Docks in order to lay in certain comforts,
+      such as beef and beer, prudently laid out the coin in a brand-new
+      travelling suit intended for his own service. Such an apology for a dinner
+      had not been seen during the last four months of wild travel&mdash;unpleasant
+      when guests have been bidden to a feast! The night at the Docks, also, was
+      a trifle mortuary, over-silent and tranquil: all hands, officers and men,
+      who could not get leave to sleep ashore, simply took leave&mdash;I believe
+      myself to have been for a time both captain and crew of the Sinnár. And,
+      lastly, we heard that both our dog-companions, Juno and Páijí, had died of
+      some canine epidemic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day ended our halt at Suez, with visits to slop-shops and a
+      general discussion of choppes. The old hotel, under the charge of Mr. and
+      Mrs. Adams, had greatly improved by the "elimination" of the offensive
+      Hindi element; and my old friends of a quarter-century's standing received
+      me with all their wonted heartiness. Sa'íd Bey was still a Bey, but none
+      the less jovial and genial; Captain Ali Bey, who had commanded the Sinnár,
+      was now acting commodore; and my only regret was having again missed
+      Colonel Gordon (Pasha).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      April 22nd convinced us that, even in these prosaic regions, our
+      misadventures and accidents had not reached their fated end. A special
+      train had been organized by Hanafi Effendi for eight a.m. About ten miles
+      from Suez one of the third-class carriages began "running hot;" and,
+      before we could dismount, the axle-box of a truck became a young Vesuvius
+      in the matter of vomiting smoke. I ordered the driver, who was driving
+      furiously, to make half speed; but even with this precaution there were
+      sundry stoppages; and at the Naffíshah station, where my Bolognese
+      acquaintances still throve, we could not be supplied with a change of
+      "rolling-stock." About Tell el-Kabír, the brake-van also waxed unsafely
+      warm; but it reached Zagázig without developing more caloric. Briefly, we
+      caught fire three times in one morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These accidents must always be expected, where spare carriages are placed
+      for months upon sidings to become tinder in the sun; and where the cracks
+      and crevices of the woodwork fill up with the silicious sand of the
+      Desert, an admirable succedaneum for flint and steel. One consolation,
+      however, remained to us: the Dragoman, brand-new clothes and all, was left
+      behind at Suez. His last chef d'œuvre of blundering has already been
+      noticed<a href="#linknote-84" name="linknoteref-84" id="linknoteref-84"><small>84</small></a>&mdash;the
+      barrel of Midianitish oysters sent to Admiral M'Killop (Pasha) had been so
+      carelessly headed up, and so carefully turned topsy-turvy, that the result
+      was, to use my friend's words, they could be nosed from the half-way
+      station. The "Kyrios" had probably passed a Bacchanalian night with his
+      Hellenic friends, and he subsequently made act of presence at Cairo with a
+      very British-looking black eye. His accident at Suez was a bit of
+      "poetical justice," which almost convinced one of the "moral government."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A succulent breakfast à la fourchette, in the charming garden of our
+      friend M. Vetter, of Zagázig, duly discussed, we again went "on board,"
+      amusing the lookers-on by our naive enjoyment of the Nile-valley: they had
+      not been in Arabia, and they found the "emerald-green" dusty and yellow.
+      We reached Cairo at 5.30 p.m. More troubles! Ten minutes after arrival we
+      found ourselves in possession, in sole charge of the gare. The train was
+      loaded with Government property, officers, soldiers and escort, mules,
+      boxes and bags of specimens whose collecting had cost money. Yet
+      station-master, agent, and employés at once went their ways, declining
+      even to show the room allotted to our goods, although a telegram from the
+      railway authorities had advised me that one had been made ready. The
+      assistant-agent, when at last hunted up, declared, before vanishing once
+      more, that the porters for whom we applied were busy loading cotton, and
+      that we must e'en do the best we could for ourselves. So the waggons were
+      shunted and unloaded by their tenants, and the minerals were deposited
+      under a kind of shed whose key was not forthcoming. We failed to find even
+      a light, till the local train from Suez was announced; and, when it began
+      whistling, the officials, who had returned like rats from their holes,
+      gave us peremptory directions to shunt again. This time, however, I had
+      the game in my hands; and replied by taking due precautions against being
+      turned out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first the soldier-escort worked as well as could be expected; but the
+      numbers fell off every quarter of an hour, till we were left with a very
+      select party; the only recipients, by-the-by, of "bakhshísh." The
+      Sub-Lieutenant Mohammed Effendi mounted a donkey the moment he stepped out
+      of the R.R. carriage; and, utterly disregarding so vexatious a frivolity
+      as asking leave, rode off to his home at Torah. His example was followed
+      by the Sergeant Mabrúk ‘Awaz. And yet both these men had the impudence to
+      call upon me at the hotel, and to apply for especial Shahádahs, or
+      "testimonials" of good conduct. In short, we were detained at the station
+      for three mortal hours, working with our own hands. If this be a fair
+      specimen of European management in Egypt, and I am told that it has now
+      become worse, much worse in every way, the sooner we return to Egyptian
+      mismanagement the better. The latter is, at any rate, cheap and civil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the next day the Viceroy graciously sent his junior Master of
+      Ceremonies, his Excellency Tonino Bey, to welcome me back; and I was at
+      once honoured with audiences at the Khedivial Palace, ‘Abidin, and by
+      Prince Husayn Kámil Pasha at Gizah (Jízah). The Khediv was pleased to
+      express satisfaction with my past exertions, and ordered several measures
+      to be carried out at once. Amongst them was a little exhibition of
+      mineralogy and archaeology, maps and plans, sketches and croquis, at the
+      Hippodrome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I need hardly say that his Highness at once saw the gist of the matter.
+      Many concessions had been applied for, even from Australia; but the
+      Viceroy determined that, before any could be granted, careful analyses of
+      the specimens must be made, at his Highness's private expense, in London.
+      M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, of world-wide fame, volunteered, in the most
+      friendly way, to submit échantillons of the rocks to the Parisian Académie
+      des Sciences, of which he is a distinguished member. The Viceroy was also
+      pleased spontaneously to remind me of, and to renew, the verbal promise
+      made upon my return from the first Expedition to Midian; namely, that I
+      should be honoured with a concession, or that a royalty of five per cent.
+      on the general produce of the mines should be the reward of discovery. The
+      young Minister of Finance, Prince Husayn Kámil Pasha, after courteously
+      congratulating me upon the successful result of our labours, put as usual
+      the most pertinent of questions.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+The opening of our little Exposition was delayed by sundry
+difficulties. The Greek Easter set in with its usual severity
+about later April. A general shop-shutting, a carouse unlimited,
+catholic, universal; and, despite stringent police orders, a
+bombardment of the town by squibs and crackers, were the
+principal features of the fête. The 29th was the classical Shamm
+el-Nasin, or "the Smelling of the Zephyr," a local May-day
+religiously kept with utter idleness. Mr. W. E. Hayns and I
+utilized it by going a flint-hunting on the left bank of the
+Nile.<a href="#linknote-85" name="linknoteref-85" id="linknoteref-85">85</a> Then the terrible "May coupon" gave immense trouble
+and annoyance to the rulers; who, so far from making merry with
+the lieges, had to work in person between five a.m. and midnight.
+After such exertion as this, rest was of course necessary.
+Subsequently, a grand review monopolized one day; another was
+spent by the Court in despatching the young Prince Fu'ád to
+Switzerland; and yet another was given to his Highness the Prince
+Hasan Pasha, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian auxiliaries, who,
+on the conclusion of the war, had returned to Cairo en route for
+Europe.
+
+ Briefly, it was not before May 9th that the Khediv, accompanied
+by the Prince héritier, Taufík Pasha, found leisure personally to
+open the Exhibition&mdash;the first, by-the-by, ever honoured with the
+Viceregal presence. Despite all my efforts, the rooms, which
+should have been kept clear till his Highness had passed through,
+were crowded at an early hour. The maps prepared at the Citadel
+by Lieutenants Amir and Yusuf, with the aid of three extra hands,
+were very imperfect, half finished at the last moment, and
+abounding in such atrocities as "Ouorh" for "El-Wijh." The
+engineer, M. Marie, when asked aloud, and with all publicity, by
+the Khediv whether he was sure that such and such specimens
+contained gold, shirked a direct reply, evasively declaring that
+"Midian is a fine mining country." He had pointed out to me the
+precious metal during our exploration of Umm el-Karáyat; but such
+is the wretched result of "knowing the people," instead of
+telling the truth like a man. And one of the many jealous, a mild
+Mephisto., whispered in the Viceregal ear, "There can't be much
+gold there, or ces messieurs would have said more about it."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Despite these small contretemps the Exhibition<a href="#linknote-86"
+      name="linknoteref-86" id="linknoteref-86"><small>86</small></a> was
+      pronounced a success, and served, as such things do, for a nine days'
+      wonder. Several travellers from England and Australia took the opportunity
+      of inspecting the rocks; and I was much encouraged to find the general
+      opinion so highly favourable. Locally there were dissidents, but this must
+      be expected where interests differ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile his Highness kept me hard at work. I was directed to draw up a
+      concise general description of the province; to report upon the political
+      and other measures by which the Midian country would be benefited; and,
+      lastly, to suggest the means which, in my humble opinion, were best
+      calculated for successfully working the mines. In former days the Viceroy
+      would at once have undertaken the task, and probably would have sent down
+      five thousand men to open the diggings. Now, however, the endless trickery
+      of European adventurers and speculators has made a wise precaution
+      absolutely necessary. During the last audience, his Highness ably and
+      lucidly resumed the history of the past measures, and the steps which he
+      proposed for the future. The first Khedivial Expedition had been simply
+      one of exploration, sent to ascertain whether the precious metals really
+      existed. The second was intrusted with the charge of laying down the
+      probable limits of the mining formation; and of bringing back varied
+      specimens, in quantities sufficient for scientific analysis. The third and
+      next step would be to organize a Compagnie de Recherche, with the object
+      of beginning a serious exploitation. The future thus settled, I was kindly
+      and courteously dismissed, with a desire that I should take charge of the
+      specimens, and personally superintend the work of assaying. Mr. Charles
+      Clarke received pay and leave for three months, and was ordered to convey
+      the boxes by "long sea."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On May 10th we left Cairo in company with our friend Mr. Garwood, C.E. At
+      Alexandria a great repose fell upon my spirit; it was like gliding into a
+      smooth port after a storm at sea. All the petty troubles and worries of
+      Cairo; the cancans, the intrigues, the silly reports of the envious and
+      the jealous, with the buzz and sting of mosquitoes; the weary waiting; the
+      visits of "friends" whose main object in life seemed to be tuer le ver;
+      and the exigencies of my late fellow-travellers, who, after liberal pay
+      and free living for four months, seemed determined to quarter themselves
+      upon the Egyptian Government for the rest of their natural lives;&mdash;all
+      these small cares, not the less annoying because they were small,
+      disappeared like magic at the first glimpse of blue water. I had barely
+      time to pass an afternoon at Ramleh, "the Sand-heap," with an intimate of
+      twenty-five years' standing, Hartley John Gisborne, an old servant of the
+      Egyptian "Crown," for whom new men and new measures have, I regret to see,
+      made the valley of the Nile no longer habitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next Sunday placed us on board the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's
+      screw-steamer Austria (Capitano Rossol). As usual, the commander and
+      officers did all they could to make their voyagers comfortable; the
+      Company did the contrary. At this spring season, true, the migratory host
+      of unfeathered bipeds crowds northwards; even as in autumn it accompanies
+      the birds southwards. But when berths are full, passengers should be
+      refused; and if the commercial director prefers dead to live goods,
+      travellers should be duly warned. The accommodation would have been
+      tolerable in a second-class or third-class English steamer, which charges
+      fifteen shillings to a sovereign per diem; here, however, we were paying
+      between £2 and £3.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Alexandrian agent had been asked to lodge us decently. My wife found
+      herself in a cabin occupied by two nurses. I was placed in a manner of
+      omnibus, a loose box for six, of whom one was an Armenian and two were
+      Circassians from Daghistán&mdash;good men enough, but not pleasant as
+      bedroom fellows. No extra service had been engaged for an extra cargo of
+      seventy-two; that is, forty-two first, and thirty second class. There were
+      only three stewards, including the stewardess; and the sick were left to
+      serve themselves. At least half a dozen were required; and, in such places
+      as Trieste and Alexandria, a large staff of cooks and waiters can always
+      be engaged in a few hours. On board any English ship some of the smartest
+      and handiest seamen would have been converted into temporary attendants&mdash;here
+      no one seemed to think of a proceeding so far out of the usual way. There
+      was only one, instead of three or four cooks; and the unfortunate had to
+      fill a total of one hundred and thirty-five mouths, the crew included,
+      three times a day. The other tenant of the close and wretched little
+      galley lay sick with spotted typhus; and, after barbarous neglect, he died
+      on the day following our arrival at Trieste&mdash;I did not hear that the
+      surgeon of the screw-steamer Austria had met with his deserts by summary
+      dismissal from the service. The Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's was once famed
+      for good living; over-economy and high dividends have now made the cuisine
+      worse than the cheapest of tables d'hôte. Provisions as well as their
+      preparation were so bad that Sefer Pasha, an invalid, confined himself to
+      a diet of potatoes and eggs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Add the quasi-impossibility of obtaining a bath; the uncleanliness of the
+      offices; the hard narrowness of the sofas; the small basins, or rather
+      bowls, and the tiny towels like napkins; the clamorous pets of the small
+      fry, cats and dogs; the crowding of second-class passengers on the
+      quarter-deck; and the noise of the Armenian lady beating her maid, who
+      objected to the process in truly dreadful language: throw in an engine
+      which, despite the efforts of her energetic English engineer, Mr.
+      Wilkinson, managed only nine instead of eleven and a half knots an hour;
+      an ugly north-easter off Cape Matapan, bringing tropical downfalls of
+      rain; and a muggy Scirocco off Istria, when we breathed almost as much
+      water as air: and I think that the short entry in my journal, "horridly
+      uncomfortable," was to a certain extent justified by the conduct of the
+      poor Austria. Yet the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's boasts a dividend of seven
+      per cent. She shall see no more of my money: until she mend her ways I
+      shall prefer the Genoese Rubattino.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, as the Persian poet has it, Ín níz bug'zared&mdash;"Even these things
+      pass away." At Corfu we were cheered by once more meeting Sir Charles
+      Sebright, who looked hale and hearty as of yore. When we reached Trieste,
+      his Excellency Baron Pino von Friendenthall, accompanied by the most
+      amiable of "better halves," came off in his galley, happily unconscious of
+      typhus; and carried us away without the usual troubles and delays of
+      landing in harbour bumboats. Friendly faces smiled a welcome; and, after
+      an absence of some seven months, I found myself once more in the good town
+      which has given us a home during the last five years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Trieste I was delayed for some time, awaiting the report that the
+      specimens collected by the Expedition had arrived at their destination,
+      the warehouses of the London Docks. Mr. Clarke met with obstacles at Suez;
+      and, consequently, did not reach England till June 20th, after
+      twenty-three rough days. As her Majesty's Foreign Office had been pleased
+      to accord me two months of leave to England, I determined to make the
+      voyage by "long sea." Both suffering from the same complaint, want of rest
+      and of roast-beef, as opposed to rosbif, we resolved to ship on board the
+      English steamer Hecla, of the B. and N. A. R. M. S. P. Company, the old
+      Cunard line, famous for never having lost a life, a ship, or a letter. We
+      left Trieste on July 7, 1878, in charge of our excellent commander,
+      Captain James Brown; and, after a cruise of twenty days, viâ Venice,
+      Palermo, and Gibraltar&mdash;a comfortable, cheery, hygienic cruise in
+      charming weather over summer seas&mdash;we found ourselves once more (July
+      26th) in the city of the Liver.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                                 Appendix I.
+
+        DATES OF THE THREE JOURNEYS (Northern, Central, and Southern)
+                   made by the Second Khedivial Expedition.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                                First Journey.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       (December 19, 1877, to February 13, 1878.)
+
+            December   6,  1877,     left Cairo.
+                      10   1877,     left Suez.
+                      14   1877,     reached El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yáhárr)
+                                     on the "Day of 'Arafát."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+<pre xml:space="preserve"> </pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            December  19,  1877,     landed    at   El-Muwaylah.
+                      21   1877,     marched   upon Wady Tiryam.
+                      22   1877,     marched   upon Wady Sharmá.
+                      23   1877,     marched   upon Jebel el-Abyaz.
+                      30   1877,     returned to Wady Sharmá.
+            January    7,  1878,     marched upon 'Aynúnah.
+                       8   1878,     halted at 'Aynúnah.
+                       9   1878,     halted at Wady el-'Usaylah.
+                      10   1878,     reached Magháir Shu'ayb.
+                      25   1878,     marched upon Makná.
+            February   3   1878,     embarked for the Marsá Dahab in the
+                                     Sinaitic Peninsula.
+                       4   1878,     to the anchorage of El-Nuwaybi'.
+                       5   1878,     anchored at Pharaoh's Island.
+                       6   1878,     halted at Pharaoh's Island.
+                       7   1878,     steamed to El-'Akabah town.
+                       8   1878,     ran down Gulf el-'Akabah.
+                       9   1878,     anchored under Tírán Island.
+                      10   1878,     halted at Tírán Island.
+            February  11,  1878,     ran from wrecking to Sináfir
+                                     Island.
+                      12   1878,     halted at Sinafir Island.
+                      13   1878,     returned to El-Muwaylah (Sharm
+                                     Yáhárr).
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                          Second Journey.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  (February 17, 1878, to March 8,1878.)
+
+       February  17,  1878 walked to ruins of Abú Hawáwít.
+                 18   ,,   marched upon the Safh Jebel Malíh in the
+                           Wady Surr.
+                 19   ,,   camped in the Sayl Wady el-Jimm.
+                 20   ,,   marched upon El-Nagwah.
+                 21   ,,   reached the head of the Wady Sadr.
+                 23   ,,   camped below the Col, "El-Khuraytah."
+                 24   ,,   reached the Hismá.
+                 25   ,,   descended the two Passes and camped in
+                           the "Jayb el-Khuraytah."
+                 26   ,,   marched upon the Majrá el-Ruways.
+                 27   ,,   ,,   ,,   ,,   Wady Damah.
+                 28   ,,   ,,   ,,   ,,   ruins of Shuwák.
+       March      1   ,,   halted at the ruins of Shuwák.
+                  2   ,,   visited the ruins of Shaghab and camped
+                           at the Majrá el-Wághir.
+                  3   ,,   visited the ruins El-Khandakí and camped
+                           at the plain El-Kutayyifah.
+                  4   ,,   marched down the Wady Salmá and camped
+                           at the Má el-Badíah.
+                  5   ,,   reached Zibá town.
+                  6   ,,   halted at Zibá.
+                  7   ,,   visited the turquoise-diggings of Zibá
+                           and camped at the Máyat el-Ghál.
+                  8   ,,   returned to El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yáhárr).
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+           Complementary Excursion to the Shárr Mountain.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       March     13, 1878, camped in the Wady el-Káimah.
+                 14   ,,   camped in the Wady el-Kusayb.
+                 15   ,,   camped in the Safhat el-Wu'ayrah.
+                 16   ,,   up the Shárr.
+                 17   ,,   camped in the Wady Kuwayd.
+                 18   ,,   returned to El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yáhárr).
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                           THIRD JOURNEY.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  March 21, 1878, to April 10, 1878.)
+
+       March     21,  1878,     left Sharm Yáhárr and made the
+                                Sharm Dumayghah.
+                 22   ,,   halted at El-Dumayghah.
+                 23   ,,   anchored in harbour of El-Wijh.
+                 24   ,,   set out in the Sinnár southwards.
+                 25   ,,   anchored at El-Haurá.
+                 26   ,,   halted at El-Haurá.
+
+  (On March 26th MM. Marie and Philipin marched from El-Wijh to the
+  Wady Hamz, and rejoined head-quarters on the 28th.)
+
+       March     27,  1878 returned to El-Wijh.
+                 29   ,,   left El-Wijh and camped at inner fort.
+                 30   ,,   to Umm el-Karáyát (ruins and mine).
+                 31   ,,   visited ruins of El-Kubbah; camped in
+                           Wady Dasnah.
+       April      1,  1878 to Umm el-Haráb (ruins and mine).
+                  2   ,,   camped in the Wady Abá'l-Gezáz.
+                  3   ,,   camped in the plain of Badá.
+                  4   ,,   halted at the plain of Badá.
+                  5   ,,   camped at the Ayn el-Kurr.
+                  6   ,,   camped in the Wady Laylah.
+                  7   ,,   camped in the Wady Abá'l-'Ajáj.
+                  8   ,,   to the ruins of the Gasr Gurayyim Sa'íd
+                           (classical temple).
+                  9   ,,   to the Abá'l-Marú (Marwah mine).
+                 1O   ,,   return to El-Wijh.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  THE RETURN TO EGYPT.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       April     12,  1878 steamed northwards to Nu'man Island.
+                 13   ,,   reached El-Muwaylah (Sharm Yáhárr).
+                 18   ,,   left El-Muwaylah, night at sea.
+                 19   ,,   in Gulf of Suez.
+                 20   ,,   reached Suez.
+                 22   ,,   reached Cairo.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                            Appendix II.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  EXPENSES OF THE EXPEDITION TO MIDIAN, commanded by Captain R. F.
+                  Burton, H.B.M. Consul, Trieste.
+
+  Cairo, November 1, 1877.
+
+                                                    £    s.   d.
+  Sum received from Egyptian Finance                1977 12   0
+
+  Amounts Paid out by Order of Captain Burton.      £    s.   d.
+
+  Hotel bills for five persons (thirty-six days)    149    6  9
+  Advanced to members of Expedition up to date
+     (May 3rd)<a href="#linknote-87" name="linknoteref-87" id="linknoteref-87">87</a>                                 74 12   3
+  Cost of provisions for journey to Midian,
+       fourteen persons                              314  8   9
+  Cost of tools, chemicals, instruments,
+       canteen, etc.                                 185 19   0
+  Medicine chest from Dr. Lowe                        10 10   0
+
+  Journey to Suez from Cairo, December 6th, 1878:&mdash;
+     Hotel bill for eleven persons (three days)       33  3   6
+     Tobacco for presents to Bedawin                   6   8  0
+     Sundries                                         13  10  6
+     Telegrams and post service                        3   9  0
+                                               __________________
+                                                    £791   7  9
+
+  El-Muwaylah, December 16th, to return, February 13th:&mdash;
+     Journey to north<a href="#linknote-88" name="linknoteref-88"
+      id="linknoteref-88">88</a>                        316  14   3
+     Post service                                    14   8   0
+     Cost of sheep<a href="#linknote-89" name="linknoteref-89"
+      id="linknoteref-89">89</a>                            32  14   0
+     Sundries<a href="#linknote-90" name="linknoteref-90" id="linknoteref-90">90</a>                                 20   7   7
+     Five foot-soldiers' salaries                     7   4   0
+
+  Eastern journey to the Hismá<a href="#linknote-91" name="linknoteref-91"
+      id="linknoteref-91">91</a>               187   6   6
+  Post service                                        3   8   0
+  Cost of sheep<a href="#linknote-92" name="linknoteref-92" id="linknoteref-92">92</a>                               11  19   0
+  Sundries                                            5  11   0
+  Sambúk from Suez, as per contract                   9   4   0
+  Soldiers from fort                                  3   0   0
+
+  Journey to Shárr<a href="#linknote-93" name="linknoteref-93"
+      id="linknoteref-93">93</a>                            44  11   6
+  Cost of sheep<a href="#linknote-94" name="linknoteref-94" id="linknoteref-94">94</a>                                3   4   0
+  Thirty pairs of boots for soldiers<a href="#linknote-95" name="linknoteref-95"
+      id="linknoteref-95">95</a>           6   0   0
+  Sundries                                            1   0   0
+  Journey to south<a href="#linknote-96" name="linknoteref-96"
+      id="linknoteref-96">96</a>                            92  13   0
+  Cost of sheep<a href="#linknote-97" name="linknoteref-97" id="linknoteref-97">97</a>                               15  16   0
+  Post service                                        2   0   0
+  Sundries<a href="#linknote-98" name="linknoteref-98" id="linknoteref-98">98</a>                                    18   3   6
+  Special payments:&mdash;
+     Sayyid 'Abd el-Rahím Effendi                    16   0   0
+     Bukhayt                                          1  12   0
+     Husayn                                           1  12   0
+     Shaykh Furayj                                    4   0   0
+     Shaykh Furayj salary for twenty-five days        5   0   0
+  Expenses at Suez, unloading, etc., and hotel bills
+       for ten persons                               39  17   0
+  Post and telegrams                                  1  16   0
+  Suez to Cairo                                       1  12   6
+                                           _________________
+                                                  £1658   1   7
+
+  Expenses at Cairo up to date May 5, 1878:&mdash;
+     Unloading, cartage, and preparing for Exhibition 24  5   5
+  Salaries of persons engaged from Cairo and Muwaylah:&mdash;
+     Anton Dimitri, Giorgi, and Petro<a href="#linknote-99" name="linknoteref-99"
+      id="linknoteref-99">99</a>         93  17   6
+     Magazine-man at El-Muwaylah<a href="#linknote-100" name="linknoteref-100"
+      id="linknoteref-100">100</a>              6   8   0
+     Sais from Suez, engaged through governor<a href="#linknote-101"
+      name="linknoteref-101" id="linknoteref-101">101</a> 9   0   0
+     Mr. Clarke's salary<a href="#linknote-102" name="linknoteref-102"
+      id="linknoteref-102">102</a>                    180   0   0
+                                            _________________
+                                                  £1971  12   6
+  In hand for small expenses not yet sent in
+       for payment                                    5  19   6
+                                                _________________
+                                                  £1977  12   0
+                                               _________________
+  Sent in May 6, 1878.
+
+  (Signed)       CHAS. CLARKE.
+  (Countersigned)     RICHARD F. BURTON.
+                      Commanding Expedition.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                           Appendix III.
+     PRESERVED PROVISIONS AND OTHER STORES, supplied by Messrs.
+              Voltéra Bros., of the Ezbekiyyah, Cairo.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                                                    £    s.   d.
+  95   okes potatoes, at 5d.                         1   19   7
+  670  okes best rice, at 8 1/2d.                   23   14   7
+  152  okes sugar, at 11 1/2d. per kilog.            8   19   6 1/2
+  60   okes ground coffee, at 4s. 6d.               13   10   0
+  120   tins milk, at 14s.                           7    0   0
+  120  bottles pickles                               6    0   0
+  15   tins butter (of 1 lb.), at 2s. 6d.            1   17   6
+  60   okes oil, at 2s. 6d.                          7   10   0
+  6    heads English cheese (60 1/4 lbs.) at 1s. 5d. 4   10   4 1/2
+  160  okes dried French beans, at 10d.              6   13   4
+  60   okes maccaroni and paste                      3    0   0
+  54   okes onions, at 7d.                           1   11   6
+  10   okes garlic, at 10d.                          0    8   4
+  50   packets candles                               2   10   0
+  5    okes cavendish tobacco, at 12s.               3    0   0
+  6    okes tobacco (Turkish), at 24s.               7    4   0
+  120  bottles soda-water, at 8d. per dozen          4    0   0
+  20   bottles syrups, at 2s.                        2    0   0
+  50   bottles vinegar                               2   10   0
+  10   dozen beer, at 11s.                           5   10   0
+  15   bars soap, at 1s. 6d.                         1    2   6
+  20   pots mustard, at 1s. 6d.                      1   10   0
+  6    bottles curry, at 1s. 6d.                     0    9   0
+  20    lbs. table raisins                           0   16   0
+  10   large bottles pepper, at 2s.                  1    0   0
+                                           _________________
+                                                   £118   6   3
+
+  10   small packets salt, at 1s.                    0   10   0
+  5    large packets salt at 1s. 6d.                 0    7   6
+  6    bottles sauces, at s. 12d.                    0    7   0
+  12   bottles lime-juice, at 2s. 6d.                1   10   0
+  12   umbrellas, at 4s.                             2    8   0
+  12   bottles blacking, at 1s.
+       (for tracing inscriptions)                    0   12   0
+  6    lanterns, at 1s. 6d.                          0    9   0
+  12   large tins sardines, at 1s. 6d.               0   18   0
+  2    corkscrews, at 1s. 3d.                        0    2   6
+  2    opening knives                                0    2   0
+  101 1/4 okes of biscuits, at 1s.                   5    1   3
+  1    case Mumm's champagne                         4    5   0
+  1    case cognac, XX                               2    8   0
+  1    case whisky                                   1   16   0
+  1    tin plum-pudding                              0    2   6
+  10   packets matches, at 1s. 2d.                   0   11   8
+  8    barrels flour, at L3                         24    0   0
+  4    okes Curani (Kora'ni) tobacco, at 16s.        3    4   0
+  30   lbs. tea, at 4s.                              6    0   0
+  24   tins green peas, at 1s.                       1    4   0
+  18   tins haricots verts, at 1s.                   0   18   0
+  18   tins haricots flageolets, at 1s.              0   18   0
+  18   tins champignons, at 1s. 2d.                  1    1   0
+  18   tins macedoine, at 1s.                        0   18   0
+  8    tins carrots, at 1s.                          0    8   0
+  16   tins asparagus (large), at 3s.                2    8   0
+  53 1/2 lbs. ham, at 1s. 6d.                        4    0   3
+  100  bottles 'Ráki, at 2s.                        10    0   0
+  100   tins meats, at 1s. 6d.                       7   10   0
+  4    dozen pints beer, at 8s.                      1   12   0
+  7    empty tins for coffee, at 1s. 6d.             0   10   6
+  17   empty bags                                    0   14   2
+  4    okes packing rope, at 2s.                     0    8   0
+  1/4  okes isinglass                                0    3   0
+  2    bottles spices                                0    2   0
+  10   nutmegs                                       0    1   0
+                                             _________________
+                                                    £205 16   7
+
+                                                    £    s.   d.
+  1    packet starch                                 0    3   0
+  1    oke twine                                     0    2   6
+  2    okes nails, at 10d.                           0    1   8
+  1    box cigarette papers                          0    8   0
+       Kitchen utensils                              0   13   6
+       Empty bags                                    0    2   0
+       Packing                                       2   10   0
+                                               _________________
+                                Total              £209  17   3
+                                               _________________
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                        Additional Supplies.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                                                  £  s.  d.
+  50   bottles 'Ráki, at 2s.                      5  0   0
+  95   okes potatoes, at 5d.                      1 19   7
+  16   lbs. tea, at 4s.                           3  4   0
+  50   tins preserved meats, at 1s. 6d.           3 15   0
+  20   tins green peas, at 1s.                    1  0   0
+  12   tins haricots verts, at 1s.                0 12   0
+  12   tins champignon, at 1s. 2d.                0 14   0
+  6    tins first size asparagus, at 4s.          1  4   0
+  10   tins butter (1 lb.), at 2s. 8d             1  6   8
+  36   lbs. English cheese, at 1s. 6d.            2 14   0
+  60   okes maccaroni                             3  0   0
+  126  okes onions, at 7d.                        3 13   6
+  20   packets candles                            1  0   0
+  50   boxes matches, at 1s. 2d. doz.             0  5   0
+  5    bars soap, at 1s. 6d.                      0  7   6
+  12   bottles sauces, at 1s. 2d.                 0 14   0
+  6    large bottles pepper, at 2s.               0 12   0
+  10   small packets salt, at 1s.                 0 10   0
+  5    bottles lime-juice, at 2s. 6d.             0 12   6
+  108  okes hard biscuits, at 1s.                 5  8   0
+  2 1/2     okes snuff                            2 10   0
+  16 lbs.   ginger-root, at 1s. 6d.               1  4   0
+  2 doz.    whisky, at 36s.                       3 12   0
+  2 doz.    Martel's cognac                       4  4   0
+  6    bottles absinthe, 2s. 6d.                  0 15   0
+                                          _________________
+                                                £49 16   9
+
+  5    bottles Oxley's essence of ginger, at 4s.  1  0   0
+  5    bottles pyretic saline, at 3s. 6d.         0 17   6
+  3    boxes seidlitz powders, at 2s.             0  6   0
+  1    bottle aconite                             0  2   6
+  4    iron tea and coffee kettles                1 14   0
+  2    empty tins for tea                         0  3   0
+       Packing                                    1 10   0
+       Carts, 2s.; railway fare, 82s.             4  4   0
+                                          _________________
+                           Total                £59 13   9
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                            APPENDIX IV.
+                    BOTANY AND LIST OF INSECTS.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  SECTION I.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  PROFESSOR D. OLIVER'S LIST OF DRIED PLANTS presented by Captain
+  Burton to the Herbarium, Royal Gardens, Kew, September, 1878.
+
+                                 Núman North   Middle  South
+                                 Isle.  Midian. Midian. Midian.
+
+  Anastatica hierochuntina, L.
+    Kaff maryam ................   -      I       -       -
+  Morettia parviflora, Boiss.
+    Eaten by cattle. Thagar;
+    Gaf'aa .....................   -      -       I   I
+  Matthiola oxyceras, DC.
+    forma gracilis. Animals
+    eat. Hazá; Muhawwil    .....    -      -       I       -
+  Malcolmia aegyptiaca, Spr.
+    Animals eat.      Tarbeh ......  -      I       -       -
+  Zilla myagroides, F. Silla.
+    Camels eat. ...............    -      I       -       -
+  Biscutella Columnae, Ten ....    -      -       I       -
+  Diplotaxis Harra? Hárrah.
+    Eaten by cattle. ..........    -      -       I       -
+  Diplotaxis acris, Boiss.
+    (Moricandia crassifolia,
+    Gay) ......................    -      I       -       -
+  Sisymbrium erysimoides, Desf.
+    Salih. Eaten by camels
+    and sheep .................    -      I       I       I
+  Farsetia Burtonae, Oliv.
+    sp. nov. Ghurayrá ........     -      I       I       -
+  Schimpera arabica, H. and
+    St. .......................    -      I       -       -
+  Enarthrocarpus lyratus, F.,
+    vel E. strangulatus,
+    Boiss .....................    -      I       -       -
+  Capparis Sodada, Br. (Sodada
+    decidua, Forsk.). Tanzub.
+    Red berries eaten. ........    -      -       -       I
+  Cleome chrysantha, Dcne.
+    Mashteh. Pounded and
+    drank for worms, etc. .....    -      -       -       I
+  Cleome arabica, L. 'Ubaysd.
+    Eaten by animals. .........    -      -       -       I
+  Papaver Decaisnei, H. and St.    -      -       I       -
+  Ochradenus baccatus, Del.
+    Gurzi. A large tree;
+    eaten by cattle ...........    -      I       -       I
+  Reseda (Caylusea) canescens,
+    L. Zanabán. Eaten by
+    cattle ....................    -      I       I       -
+  Reseda, an R. stenostachya(?),
+    Boiss. Khizám. Eaten by
+    animals ...................    -      I       -       -
+  Helianthemum Lippii, Pers.
+    Kazim. Cattle eat. ........    -      -       I       -
+  Silene villosa, Forsk.
+    'Abaysá. Too much coated
+    with sand to serve as
+    food for animals ..........    -      I       -       -
+  Gypsophila Rokejeka, Del. ...    -      -       I       -
+  Polycarpaea fragilis, Del.
+    Makr ......................    I      -       -       -
+  Portulaca oleracea, L. ......    -      -       -       I
+  Hibiscus micranthus, L. fil.
+    forma. Khusiyat Ráshid.
+    Eaten by animals. .........    -      -       I       I
+  Abutilon fruticosum, G. and
+    P. (Sida denticulata,
+    Fres.). ...................    -      -       -       I
+  Abutilon muticum, Don .......    -      -       -       I
+  Erodium laciniatum, Cav.
+    Garná. Eaten by cattle ...     -      I       I       I
+  Monsonia nivea, Gay .........    -      I       -       -
+  Geranium mascatense, Boiss.
+    Hiláwá. Eaten by man and
+    beast. ....................    -      -       I       -
+  Erodium cicutarium, L. ......    -      I       -       -
+  Tribulus terrestris, L.
+    Katbeh ....................    -      I       I       I
+  Zygophyllum simplex, L. .....    -      -       I       -
+  Zygophyllum album, L.
+    Gallúm. Camels eat. ......     I      -       -       -
+  Zygophyllum coccineum, L.
+    forma (Z. propinqiuum,
+    Dcne.). Muráká.
+    Animals eat. ..............    -      I       -       -
+  Fagonia cretica, L. van
+    (F. glutinosa, Del.).
+    Shikáá (North Midian);
+    Darmeh (Núman) ...........     I       I      -       -
+  Fagonia mollis, Del.
+    Warágá; and young plant
+    of same = Zarag. Animals
+    eat. ......................    -       I      I       -
+  Fagonia Bruguieri, DC.
+    Jamdeh. Animals eat. ......    -       I      -       -
+  Dodonmaea viscosa, L. var.
+    (D. arabica, H. and
+    St.). Athab ...............    -       -      I       -
+  Rhus oxyacanthoides, Dum.
+    'Ar'ar ....................    -       -      I       -
+  Neurada procumbens, L.
+    Sáadán. Eaten by man and
+    beast. Mountain region. ...    -       I      -       I
+  Trianthema pentandra, L. ....    -       -      -       I
+  Trianthema(?). (Imperfect
+    specimen.) Rumayh. Eaten by
+    sheep and cattle. .........    -       -      -       I
+  Aizoon canariense, L. Dááá.
+    Grain pounded and eaten. ..    -       -      -       I
+  Gisekia pharnaceoides, L. ...    -       I      -       -
+  Cucumis prophetarum, L.
+    Locality mislaid. .........
+  Cotyledon umbilicus, L.
+    forma .....................    -       -      I       -
+  Pimpinella arabica, Boiss.
+    Rujaylet el-Ghuráb (Little
+    Crow's-foot). Sheep eat.
+    Locality astray. ..........
+  Pimpinella (Tragium
+    palmetorum? St. and H.).
+    Very young. ...............    -       I      I       -
+  Ferula (? sp., leaf only).
+    Kalkh. Animals eat. High up
+    on SHÁRR. .................
+  Grammosciadium scandicinum,
+    Boiss. sp. nov. ............   -       -       I      I
+  Medicago laciniata, All. .....   -       -       I      -
+  Taverniera aegyptiaca, Boiss.
+    (ex descr.). Shibrig. Eaten
+    by animals. ................   I       -       -      -
+  Indigofera spinosa, Forsk.
+    Shibrig. Camels eat. Good
+    fodder. ....................   -       -       -      I
+  Indigofera paucifolia, D. ....   -       I       -      -
+  Indigofera (stunted specimen,
+    may be I. paucifolia).
+    'Afar. Animals eat. ........   -       I       -      -
+  Tephrosia Apollinea, DC.
+    Dalsam; Táwil. Animals eat.    -       I       I      I
+  Genista (Retama) monosperma,
+    Del. .......................   -       I       -      -
+  Lotononis Leobordea, Bth.
+    Hurbat. Eaten by cattle. ...   -       I       I      -
+  Trigonella stellata, Forsk.
+    (T. microcarpa, Fres.) .....   -       I       I      -
+  Onobrychis(?), possibly
+    O. Ptolemaica. (Barren
+    specimen). .................   -       I       -      -
+  Astragalus sparsus(?), Dcne. .   -       I       -      -
+  Astragalus Sieberi, DC.
+    Ghákeh. Dry and pounded
+    root mixed with clarified
+    butter. Drunk as a
+    restorative. ...............   -       I       -      I
+  Astragalus Forskahlei, Boiss.
+    Kidád. Camels eat. ........    -       I       -      -
+  Cassia obovata, Coll. Senna ..   -       I       I      I
+  Iphiona scabra, DC. Zafrah.
+    Camels eat. ................   -       I       -      -
+  Pulicaria undulata, DC.
+    Rabul. Fine perfume. .......   -       I       -      -
+  Blumea Bovei, DC.
+    (B. abyssinica, Sch.) ......   -       I       -      I
+  Ifloga spicata, Forsk.
+    Zenaymeh. Animals eat. .....   -       -       -      I
+  Asteriscus pygmaeus, C. and
+    Dur. .......................   -       -       -      I
+  Anvillaea Garcini, DC.
+    (fide Boissier). Nukud.
+    Eaten by camels and sheep. .   -       -       I      -
+  Anthemis, an A. deserti(?),
+    Boiss. Gahwán. Camels
+    eat: also called Gurrays,
+    pounded and eaten with
+    dates. .....................   -       I       I      I
+  Matricaria (Chamaemelum)
+    auriculata (Boiss.) ........   -       -       I      -
+  Senecio Decaisnei, DC.
+    Umm lewinayn ...............   -       -       I      I
+  Senecio coronopifolius, Desf.    -       I       I      -
+  Calendula aegyptiaca, Desf. .    -       -       I      -
+  Calendula aegyptiaca(?) .....    -       I       -      -
+  Calendula, an var.
+    aegyptiacae(?) ............    -       -       -      I
+  Echinops spinosus, L.
+    Akhshir. Eaten by camels,
+    sheep, and asses. .........    -       -       I      I
+  Zoegea purpurea, Fres.
+    Rubayyán. Cattle eat. ....     -       -       I      -
+  Centaurea sinaica, DC.
+    Yemrár. Eaten by sheep,
+    asses, etc. ...............    -       I       -      I
+  Picridium tingitanum, Desf.
+    forma. Huwwá; Tiz
+    el-Kalbeh; El-Haudán.
+    Eaten by man and animals. .    -       I       I      I
+  Urospermum picroides, Desf. .    -       I       -      -
+  Microrhynchus nudicaulis,
+    Less. 'Azid ...............    I       -       I      I
+  Pterotheca bifida, F. and M.     -       I       I      -
+  Picris, conf. P. Saha*ae,
+    C. and K. .................    -       -       -      I
+  Picris cyanocarpa, Boiss. ...    -       -       I      -
+  Callipeltis cucullaria,
+    Stev. 'Ikrish. Cattle eat.
+    North or Central Midian.
+  Crucianella membranacea,
+    Boiss. ...................     -       -       I      -
+  Galium capillare, Dcne .....     -       -       I      -
+  Salvadora persica, L.
+    El-Arák .................      -       I       -      I
+  Rhazya stricta, Dcne.
+    Harjal. Eaten only by
+    mules. Very fragrant. ....     -       I       -      -
+  Daemia cordata, R. Br. .....     -       -       I      -
+  Steinheilia radians, Dcne.
+    Faká ....................      -       I       -      -
+  Convolvulus Hystrix, V.
+    Shibrim. Root used as a
+    purgative. Animals eat
+    upper part of plant. ....      -       -       -      I
+  Cuscuta, conf.
+    C. brevistyla, A. Br. ...      -       -       I      -
+  Withania somnifera, Dun.
+    Shajarat el-Dib .........      -       I       -      -
+  Lycium europaeum, L.
+    'Aushaz. Eaten by
+    animals. ................      -       -       I      I
+  Solanum coagulans(?),
+    Forsk. var. (A small
+    fragment only). .........      -       -       I      -
+  Hyoscyamus pusillus,
+    L. Saykrán .............       -       I       I      -
+  Heliotropium arbainense,
+    Fres. Rahháb. Cattle
+    eat. ....................      -       I       I      -
+  Trichodesma africanum,
+    R. Br. Ahmim. Camels and
+    other animals eat. ......      -       -       I      -
+  Echium longifolium(?), Del.
+    Kahlá. Animals eat. ....       -       -       I      -
+  Anchusa Milleri, W. .......      -       -       I      -
+  Anchusa Milleri(?) young
+    specimens. ..............      -       -       I      -
+  Anchusa Milleri(?) young
+    specimens. ..............      -       I       -      -
+  Gastrocotyle (Anchusa
+    hispida, Forsk.). Karir.
+    Camels eat. .............      -       -       -      I
+  Arnebia hispidissima,
+    A. DC. Fayná. Animals
+    eat. ....................      -       I       I      -
+  Lithospermum callosum, V. .      -       I       -      -
+  Lindenbergia sinaica,
+    Bth. Mallih. Cattle eat.       -       -       -      I
+  Verbascum (in bud), an
+    V. sinaiticum(?), Bth. .       -       -       -      I
+  Verbascum, sp. nov. Sammá        -       -       I      -
+  Herpestis Monniera,
+    Kth. Nafal. Animals eat.       -       I       -      -
+  Veronica Anagallis, L. ...       -       -       -      I
+  Linaria aegyptiaca, Dum. .       -       I       -      -
+  Linaria macilenta, Dcne.
+    Zuraymat el-Himar.
+    Eaten by animals. ......       -       -       I      -
+  Linaria (*§ Elatinoides),
+    sp. imperfect. .........       -       -       I      -
+  Linaria simplex(?), DC. ..       -       I       I      -
+  Linaria Haelava Chav.
+    (fide Boissier) ........       -       I       -      -
+  Blepharis edulis, Pers.
+    (Acanthodium spicatum,
+    Del.). Shauk el-Jemel.
+    Camels fond of it. .....       -       I       -      I
+  Lavandula coronopifolia,
+    Poir. Zayteh. All
+    animals eat. ...........       -       I       I      -
+  Mentha lavandulacea, W.
+    Habag. Animals do not
+    eat. Pounded and mixed
+    with fresh dates, "good
+    for stomach". ..........       -       I       -      -
+  Salvia aegyptiaca, L. ....       -       I       -      -
+  Salvia deserti, Dcne. ....       -       -       I      -
+  Salvia, an S. deserti(?).
+    Jáadeh. Pounded in
+    water and snuffed up
+    nose. ..................       -       -       I      -
+  Otostegia, var. O.
+    scariosae(?), Bth. (vel
+    O. repanda, Bth.)
+    Ghasseh. Sheep eat. ....       -       -       I      I
+  Statice axillaris, Forsk.
+    Annúm. Camels eat. ....        -       I       -      I
+  Plantago Psyllium, L.
+    Nez'i'ah. Animals eat. .       -       I       I      -
+  Plantago amplexicaulis,
+    Cav. Yanameh. Animals
+    eat. ...................       -       -       I      -
+  Aerwa javanica, Jass.
+    Rayl. Cattle eat. ......       -       I       -      I
+  Chenopodium murale, L.? ..       -       I       -      -
+  Chenopodium murale, L.?
+    (Small seedlings.)
+    Nafal. Cattle eat. .....       -       -       -      I
+  Atriplex dimorphostegia?
+    K. and K. Roghol.
+    Animals eat. ...........       -       I       -      -
+  Echinopsilon lanatum, Moq.
+    Garay'á. ...............       -       I       -      I
+  Suaeda sp.(?). (Small
+    fragment.) ..............      -       I       -      -
+  Suaeda sp.(?). (Barren
+    fragments, insect
+    punctured?) 'Aslá.
+    Forage plant. ...........      I       -       I      -
+  Suaeda monoica? Forsk.
+    Zuraygá. Forage plant. .       I       -       -      -
+  Salsola(?), cf. S.
+    longifolia, F. Hamz.
+    Camels eat. .............      I       -       -      -
+  Caroxylon(?) (barren
+    specimen), near C.,
+    foetidum. Akahrit.
+    Animals eat. ............      I       -       -      -
+  Rumex vesicarius, L.
+    (R. roseus, Del.).
+    Hammáz. Animals eat. ...       -       -       I      -
+  Emex spinosus, Camp. ......      -       I       -      -
+  Crozophora tinctoria, Juss.
+    Hinaydieh. Not eaten. ...      -       -       -      I
+  Euphorbia cornuta, Pers.
+    'Atir ...................      -       I       -      -
+  Euphorbia scordifolia,
+    Jacq. Gharghir. Animals
+    eat. ....................      -       I       -      -
+  Euphorbia (Anisophyllum)
+    granulata, Schf.
+    Rugaygeh. Animals eat. ..      -       -       -      I
+  Euphorbia (Anisophyllum)
+    granulata, forma(?).
+    Lubayneh. Cattle eat. ...      -       -       -      I
+  Juniperus phoenicea, L.
+    At four thousand feet on
+    Sharr. Trunk thicker
+    than a man's body.
+    Halibeh. ................      -       -       I      -
+  Parietaria alsinifolia,
+    Del. ....................      -       -       I      -
+  Forskahlea tenacissima, L.
+    Lissák. Animals eat. ...       -       -       I      -
+  Asphodelus fistulosus, L.
+    (var. tenuifolius,
+    Bker.). Bo'rak. Only
+    eaten by animals when
+    very hungry. Asses eat. .      -       I       I      -
+  Bellevalia flexuosa, Boiss.      -       I       -      -
+  Dipcadi erythraeum, Webb ..      -       I       -      -
+  Gagea reticulata, R. and S.      -       I       -      -
+  Juncus maritimus, L. ......      -       -       -      I
+  Scirpus Holoschoenus, L.
+    Namas. Sent to Egypt for
+    mats. ...................      -       -       -      I
+  Cyperus conglomeratus,
+    Rottb. (Young specimens)       -       I       -      -
+  Chloris villosa, Pers. ....      -       -       I      -
+  AEluropus repens ..........      -       I       -      -
+  Tricholaena micrantha,
+    Schrad. Ghazuiar. Eaten
+    by camels, etc. .........      -       -       I      I
+  Panicum turgidum, Forsk.
+    Zarram. Good fodder. ....      -       I       -      I
+  Arundo Donax, L. Kasbá ...       -       I       -      -
+  Polypogon monspeliensis,
+    Desf. Kháfúr. Sheep
+    eat. ....................      -       -       -      I
+  Stipa tortilis, Desf.
+    Pehmeh. Animals eat. ....      -       I       I      I
+  Aristida caerulescens,
+    Desf. Shárib el-Kale.
+    Animals eat. ............      -       I       I      -
+  Hordeum maritimum, L. .....      -       I       -      -
+  Pappophorum, an P.
+    phleoides(?), R. and S.
+    Nejil. Sheep eat. .......      -       -       -      I
+  Barren specimen.
+    Indeterminable. Grass ...      -       I       -      -
+  Grass(?). Root and leaves.
+    Hashmil. Animals eat. ...      I       -       -      -
+  Typha(?). Root and
+    fragments of leaves.
+    Birdi ...................      -       -       -      I
+  Grass. Fragmentary. Záeh.
+    Cattle eat. .............      -       -       -      I
+  Chara foetida, Braun.
+    'Ishnik .................      -       I       -      -
+  A barren fragment of
+    undershrub, with opposite
+    fleshy leaves with
+    recurved margins. Ajid.
+    Eaten by animals.
+    Doubtful. ...............      I       -       -       -
+
+  D. OLIVER.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  SECTION II.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The spirit-specimens submitted to Mr. William Carruthers, of the
+  British Museum, are described by him as follows:&mdash;
+
+  1. Phallus impudicus, Linn. (in Arab. Faswat el-'Ajúz). The common
+  "stinkhorn," extremely common in some districts of England, and obtruding
+  on the notice of every one from its detestable odour. It is widely
+  distributed over America and Africa, as well as Europe, but I find no
+  record of its occurring in Asia.
+
+  2. Tulostoma mammosum, Fr. Also British, but not so common. Widely
+  distributed.
+
+  3. Phelipoea lutea, Desf. A dark, fleshy broom-rape, with scaly leaves. We
+  have one species of the same genus in England. They are parasitic on
+  the roots of plants; and the Midianite species, which is found in North
+  Africa, Egypt, and Arabia, grows on the roots of a Chenopodium.
+
+  4. Cynomorium coccineum, Mich. A fleshy, leafless plant, also a root-
+  parasite. It was called by old writers Fungus Melitensis, and was of much
+  repute in medicine. It is known from the Himalayas to the Canary
+  Islands, and is said by Webb, in his history of the Canaries, to be eaten in
+  the Island of Lancerotte.
+
+  5. Doemia cordata, R. Br. A spiny shrub, with roundish leaves and small
+  sharp-pointed fruit, found in Egypt and Arabia.
+
+  6. Capparis galeata, Fres., with large fruit, long and pear-shaped. This
+  caper is well known; from Syria and Egypt.
+
+  (Signed) W. CARRUTHERS.
+
+  INSECTS COLLECTED IN MIDIAN BY CAPTAIN BURTON.
+  (Identified by Mr. Frederick Smith, of the British Museum.)
+
+  COLEOPTERA.
+
+  Geodephaga
+
+  l. Anthia 12 guttata.
+
+  Melolonthidoe.
+
+  2. Schizonycha reflexa.
+  3. Pachydema.
+
+  Dynastidoe.
+
+  4. Heteronychus.
+
+  Curculionidoe.
+
+  5. Cleonus arabs.
+
+  Heteromera.
+
+  6. Mesostenanear punctipennis.
+  7. Adesmia.
+  8. Akis Goryi?
+  9. Mylabris.
+
+  Hemiptera.
+
+  10. Nepa rubra.
+
+  Mantidoe.
+
+  11. Eremiaphila arenaria. 12. Blepharis mendica.
+
+  Orthoptera.
+
+  13. Acocera.
+  14. Acridium peregrinum. 15. Poecilocera bufonia.
+
+  Scorpionidea.
+
+  16. Androctonus funestus.
+  17.     "       leptochelys.
+  18.     "       quinquestriatus.
+
+  Arachnida.
+
+  19. Galeodes arabs, in spirit.
+  20. Clubiona Listeri, in spirit.
+
+  (Signed) FREDK. SMITH.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                            APPENDIX V.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL
+  (December 19, 1877, to April 17, 1878).
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  METEOROLOGICAL NOTES ON TRAVELLING IN MIDIAN.
+
+  Midian follows the rule of Syria&mdash;travel in the spring. The best time on the
+  seaboard is during the months of March, April, and May. In the mountains and
+  the Hismá plateau, April, May, and June are the most favourable. In Syria
+  (Damascus) the autumn is dangerous: the finest travelling weather is in March
+  to May. The second best season is between October and December.
+
+  January and February are cold; the latter also (sometimes) rainy.
+
+  March is stormy at first (El-'Uwweh), but afterwards gets warmer (El-Ni'ám).
+  Dews now begin, and last some three months: they wet everything like a sharp
+  shower, and make the air feel soppy.
+
+  In July the first dates come in. Fevers are prevalent during this month, and
+  also during August and September.
+
+  October is a month of heat and drought.
+
+  In November the first cold occurs.
+
+  December is the coldest month.
+
+  NOTES on TRAVELLING IN LOWER EGYPT.
+
+  September is very bad&mdash;all should escape who can. Fruits everywhere; sun hot;
+  air damp with irrigation water, white fogs and other horrors.
+
+  October is a good month, the weather being neither too hot nor too
+  cold.
+
+  November is the month of the "second water" irrigation about Cairo.
+
+  December is pleasant.
+
+  January is cold and sometimes wet.
+
+  February is stormy, and even foggy with sand-mist.
+
+  March is windy, but on the whole a good month, except for Khamsin, which
+  begins about March 20th.
+
+  April begins to feel warm (April 29, 1878, Shamm el-Nasim).
+
+  The winter presents a marvellous contrast to that of England, which
+  can often show one hour and five minutes' sunlight in the twenty-four, or
+  2.8 per cent. of its possible duration.
+
+  THE TIDES
+
+  In El-'Akabah are like Suez: first of month, flood, 6&mdash;12 a.m. and p.m.; ebb,
+  the rest. But at Suez the tides rise one metre, and at times two metres; at
+  El-'Akabah (February 7), one foot.
+
+  For the instruments NOT used in this Expedition, see Chap. I. p. 11.
+
+  The barometre aneroid sold by M. Ebner was partially repaired by M. Lacaze,
+  and served for Mr. David Duguid's observations.
+
+  My pocket set by Casella (maker to the Admiralty and Ordnance)
+  consisted of&mdash;
+
+  One watch aneroid (compensated, 1182).
+  Two sets wet and dry bulb thermometers (one broken).
+  One set maxima and minima thermometers, Nos. 12,877 and 12,906.
+  Two pocket hygrometers not numbered.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING FIRST MARCH BETWEEN DECEMBER
+  19, 1877, AND FEBRUARY 18, 1878
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  December 19, 1877, compared ship's (Mukhbir) mercurial barometer, 758
+  millimetres, with my aneroid by Casella (29.85) = 765 millimetres; difference
+  in
+  ship's, + 007 millimetre.
+
+  January 31, 1878, returned on board Mukhbir at Makná. Ship's mercurial
+  barometer, 773 millimetres; my aneroid by Casella, 764 millimetres; difference
+  in ship's, + 009 millimetre.
+
+  Date.   Time.  Aneroid Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hygr. Remarks.
+                 Inches. Milli.  (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+  Dec. 19. 7a.m.    29.85 765    76    -     -    58     On deck of gunboat
+                                                         Mukhbir, at Sharm
+                                                         Yahárr, steaming to El-
+                                                         Muwaylah. Morning ugly.
+                                                         Strong land-breeze,
+                                                         turned to Azyab ("south-
+                                                         easter"). Waves rising.
+                                                         Dark-blue clouds to
+                                                         windward.
+
+           Noon.    29.80 757    77    -     -    54     In big tent on shore,
+                                                         open east and west. Wind
+                                                         high. Everything feels
+                                                         damp; looks gloomy;
+                                                         mountains almost hidden
+                                                         by clouds. Landscape
+                                                         that of Europe. No sun
+                                                         nor sunshine all day.
+
+           3p.m.    29.09 -      86    -     -    51     In my small tent.
+                                                         Clearing to windward
+                                                         (north). Wind veering to
+                                                         north. Moon nearly full.
+                                                         High fleecy clouds. Sea
+                                                         high. No sun all day.
+
+  Azyab (the wet wind) generally lasts two or three days; veers round by west to
+  north. Much rain has already fallen (Arab lies). Land green (all brown); grass
+  plentiful (not a blade to be seen). Rains here December 15th to February 15th;
+  downfall one hour to four hours, then clears. On December 8th, violent rain
+  for one hour; filled all the torrents (Sayl).
+
+  Dec. 20. 7a.m.    29.80 758    63    -     -    40     In small tent open to
+                                                         east. Morning clear. Few
+                                                         fleecy clouds: cool and
+                                                         bright. "Misri" from
+                                                         north-west; cold and
+                                                         rain.
+
+           3p.m.    29.92 759    78    -     -    32     Hot in tents, cool in
+                                                         breeze. "Misri" high and
+                                                         strong sea. At 1.10 p.m.
+                                                         heavy clouds; expected
+                                                         rain&mdash;few heavy drops.
+
+  AT EL-MUWAYLAH AND RAS WADY TIRYAM.
+
+  Dec. 21. 6.35a.m. 30.02 763    71    -     -    35     Inside tent. Full moon
+                                                         and clear. Dawn, 6 a.m.;
+                                                         night, 6.30. Speckled
+                                                         clouds.
+
+           Noon.    30.48 764    76    -     -    48     Under umbrella. Air
+                                                         clear. Mottled clouds on
+                                                         mountains. Sea horizon.
+                                                         Low white bank of
+                                                         clouds.
+
+           3p.m.    30.05 763    77    -     -    39     "Misri." High cirri from
+                                                         west. Big black cloud
+                                                         over sea. Suspected
+                                                         rain: Arabs said no.
+                                                         Cloud dispersed.
+
+  AT RAS WADY TIRYAM.
+
+  Dec. 22. 7a.m.    30.01 760    57    -     -    32     Cold night. Clear
+                                                         morning. Cold sunrise.
+                                                         Dry north-wester.
+                                                         Instruments on paper,
+                                                         resting on the sand.
+                                                         Very dry.
+
+           Noon.    30.14 -      82    -     -    22     Very dry. Straight
+                                                         streaks of cirri
+                                                         everywhere.
+
+           4p.m.    30.00 763    72    -     -    17     At Wady Sharmá, on sand
+                                                         protected from west
+                                                         wind. Bright moon,
+                                                         showed halo.
+
+  Kayhak 14 begins the Coptic winter, properly speaking evening of 13th; after
+  sunset 1 hour 51 minutes. Sea-breeze and land-winds regular to-day and
+  throughout the month.
+
+  AT WADY SHARMÁ.
+
+  Dec. 23. 7a.m.    29.90 760    58    -     -    19     Instruments on box
+                                                         standing on sand. Moon
+                                                         with halo at night. Red
+                                                         sunrise, grey clouds.
+                                                         Mountains blue-grey,
+                                                         brightly defined. Before
+                                                         dawn moon two halos,
+                                                         large and small. Fleecy
+                                                         clouds. Nine a.m. clear,
+                                                         sun hot.
+
+           2.30p.m. 29.15 740    78    -     -    25     Under rock in upper Wady
+                                                         Sharmá. Streaky cirri.
+                                                         Sun hot; air cool.
+                                                         Little sea-breeze, kept
+                                                         off by hills.
+
+  Arrived at the "White Mountain," and stayed there a week.
+
+           4p.m.    29.12 740    75    -     -    28     At Jebel el-Abyaz, on
+                                                         box behind tent
+                                                         sheltered from wind. Air
+                                                         quite still; streaky
+                                                         cirri. Camp Jebel el-
+                                                         Abyaz, say, 800 feet
+                                                         above sea. Felt very
+                                                         dry.
+
+  AT JEBEL EL-ABYAZ.
+
+  Dec. 24  7a.m.    29.10 738    61    -     -    29     In mess tent on mess
+                                                         table. Cold. Mottled
+                                                         clouds east and zenith.
+                                                         Grey bank to sea
+                                                         reddened by sunrise,
+                                                         like storm clouds. Rain
+                                                         here from Azyab ("south-
+                                                         east"). Sunrise at
+                                                         Cairo, 6.55 a.m.
+
+           Noon.    29.00 737    64    63    55   33     Suspended instruments.
+                                                         Grey day: cold breeze
+                                                         from east. Cold comes
+                                                         only from wind; when no
+                                                         breeze, very mild.
+                                                         Getting greyer and
+                                                         colder. Very like rain&mdash;
+                                                         heavey clouds.
+
+           3.10p.m. 29.00 737    64    64    52   28     Wind west, cold and raw.
+                                                         Air grey and cold.
+                                                         Evening cold; clouds
+                                                         dispersed, sun came out.
+                                                         Wind to west, inclining
+                                                         to north.
+
+  Small thermometer shows higher than Casellás because in brass case; not so
+  well exposed to air.
+
+  Dec. 25. 7a.m.    29.10 739    50    50    45   29    Morning cool and clear.
+
+           Noon.    29.20 -      72    68    55   21     Very clear, still, and
+                                                         hot. Slight breeze from
+                                                         sea (west). Sun strong.
+                                                         Swarms of flies. Dry
+                                                         bulb in sun, 73 degrees;
+                                                         wet, 60 degrees.
+
+           3p.m.    29.16 741    72    69    54   15     Cool and gentle breeze
+                                                         from sea, dispersing the
+                                                         swarms of flies. At
+                                                         times "sand-devil" from
+                                                         north-west.
+
+  All this day's observations taken on writing table in large tent. Night cold:
+  cold severest after two a.m. and before sunrise. Sky at night perfectly clear.
+  Wind from north turning to east, a Barri ("land-breeze"). Height of Jebel el-
+  Abyaz above tents, by aneroid = 350 feet (29.20 - 28.85 = 0.35).
+
+  Dec. 26. 7.15a.m. 29.21 743    48    46    43   22     In tent. Sky perfectly
+                                                         clear.
+
+           Noon.    29.26 -      76    77    55   6      Sun very hot. Air quite
+                                                         still. Fleecy clouds
+                                                         from west over the sun.
+
+           4.45p.m. 29.23 743    73    69    55   8      Sun cooler. Air
+                                                         perfectly clear.
+
+  Dec. 27. 7a.m.    29.16 740    50    49    43 5 3      In tent. Morning cold
+                                                         and clear: few flecks of
+                                                         cloud to east. Air feels
+                                                         intensely dry.
+
+           12.30p.m.29.23 743    77    74    58   9      Fine cirri high up. Sky
+                                                         blue. Sun veiled at
+                                                         times. Very little wind,
+                                                         a breath from north.
+
+           3.20p.m. 59.16 742    80    77    56   6      Sky with filmy white
+                                                         clouds, thicker at west.
+                                                         Sun hidden; very hot at
+                                                         noon (rain-sun?). Not a
+                                                         breath of air. Sense of
+                                                         intense dryness. Ink
+                                                         evaporates at once. Cool
+                                                         breeze started up
+                                                         shortly after 3.30 p.m.
+                                                         from west, then clouds
+                                                         thickened. Thermometer
+                                                         fell 4 degrees.
+
+  Cool evening; quite clear. Fevers and feverish colds begin to show themselves
+  in camp. Minimum thermometer during night&mdash;No. 1, 45 degrees; No. 2, 46
+  degrees; French, 15-1/2 degrees (Centigrade).
+
+  Dec. 28  7a.m.    29.10 739    55    53    46   10     In tent. Still. Neither
+                                                         warm nor cold. Mottled
+                                                         clouds.
+
+           Noon.    29.13 740    78    72    58   4      Clouds thin. Sun very
+                                                         hot (rain-sun?). Light
+                                                         breeze from north-west.
+
+           3p.m.    29.10 739    79    72    58   -      Feels intensely dry.
+                                                         Hot, close. Heavy
+                                                         clouds, and purple to
+                                                         west. Gusts from west.
+
+  No wind. Morning and evening very mild. At eight p.m. dark cloud moving from
+  south-west to mountains. Drops of rain; then stars. Minimum thermometers
+  during night, both 48 degrees. None of the maximum will act.
+
+  Dec. 29. 7a.m.    29.10 738    58    58    54   9      In tent. Cool, clear.
+                                                         Blue-pink in west. Light
+                                                         sea-breezes from west.
+                                                         Must be awfully hot in
+                                                         summer. In closed tent
+                                                         at eleven a.m., 92
+                                                         degrees.
+
+           Noon.    29.13 -      77    75    60   10     Nice breeze from sea
+                                                         (west), bending to
+                                                         north.
+
+           4p.m.    29.00 739    82    79    59   5     Warm and quite still.
+
+  Mean of nineteen aneroid observations at Jebel el-Abyaz = 29.13.
+
+  MARCH FROM JEBEL EL-ABYAZ TO WADY SHARMÁ.
+
+  Dec. 30. 7a.m.    29.10 739    56    -     -    7      Clear, still. No speck
+                                                         of cloud. Moon Náim
+                                                         (sleeping = *[figure]).
+
+           5p.m.    29.88 758    66    -     -    8      Air quite clear. Camped
+                                                         at Sharmá. Change to
+                                                         shore pleasant and soft.
+
+  Noon on journey; sun very hot. Evening still. Violent weather at night; cold
+  and comfortless. Abated somewhat after sunrise.
+
+  AT SHARMÁ, IN BIG TENT OPEN NORTH AND SOUTH.
+
+  Dec. 31. 7a.m.    29.88 758    59    -     -    7      Wind cold and dusty. Sky
+                                                         perfectly clear. A few
+                                                         light mist-clouds on
+                                                         mountain-wall.
+
+           Noon.    29.94 760    75    73    58   6      Wind still. Sun much
+                                                         warmer.
+
+           3p.m.    29.90 -      74    71    58   3     Wind cool; some dust.
+
+  Clouds about sunset sailing out of Suez Gulf, forming archipelago of sky
+  islets. Dark bank to south. Minimum thermometer at night = 42 degrees.
+
+  AT SHARMÁ, IN BIG TENT OPEN NORTH AND SOUTH (about 100 feet
+  above sea-level).
+
+  Jan. 1.  7a.m.    29.90 759    53    50    45   10     Clear, fine, quite
+                                                         still. Nice breeze began
+                                                         about nine a.m.
+
+           Noon.    29.97 -      71    69    57   4      Cold. North wind high.
+                                                         Light clouds to west;
+                                                         the rest clear.
+
+           3p.m.    29.94 760    73    72    61   4      Clouds to west from Suez
+                                                         sea.
+
+  High wind fell before midnight. Cold&mdash;sat in tent. Flies troublesome
+  everywhere. Minimum at night, 42-43 degrees.
+
+  AT WADY SHARMÁ, IN BIG TENT.
+
+  Jan 2.   7a.m.    29.98 761    53    -     -    10
+
+           3p.m.    30.00 762    76    72    58   3      Cool breeze from north.
+                                                         No signs of clouds. Sun
+                                                         hot and air cool.
+
+  Evening no wind, no clouds. At night high cold wind from east, seems to pierce
+  clothes. Lasted till morning and sun well up. Minimum thermometer, No. 1 = 45
+  degrees; No. 2 = 46 degrees.
+
+  Jan. 3.  7a.m.    29.92 760    58    57    47   3      Dawn comfortless. Cold.
+                                                         Fire in tent. Sand
+                                                         blowing. Air highly
+                                                         electrical.
+
+           Noon.    29.90 762    77    76    61   2      Wind still. Hot sun.
+
+           3p.m.    29.91 759    76    74    58   4      Hot sun. Gentle breeze.
+                                                         Warm in tent.
+
+  Night very cold. Minimum thermometers, No. 1 = 40 degrees; No. 2 = 41 degrees.
+
+  Jan. 4.  "        29.83 -      52    50    -    5
+
+           Noon.    29.93 760    81    80    60   3      Decidedly hot. No
+                                                         breeze.
+
+           3p.m.    29.90 -      78    75    63   0     Very hot and still.
+
+  In evening few fleecy clouds to south-west. Appearance of Azyab. Minimum
+  thermometers at night, No. 1 = 36 degrees; No. 2 = 38 degrees.
+
+  AT WADY SHARMÁ.
+
+  Jan. 5.  7a.m.    29.90 -      48    45    43   6      Pink clouds south-west
+                                                         and south-east. Cirri
+                                                         everywhere.
+
+           Noon.    29.87 761    79    79    67   3      Hot and still. Clear;
+                                                         few cirri.
+
+           3p.m.    29.96 760    74    71    60   0      Cool wind. Cold in
+                                                         shade. Cirri to south,
+                                                         at times over the sun.
+
+  Very cold at night. Saw new moon; set in fire. Planets veiled in mist. Moon
+  Káim (points upwards = *[figure]).
+
+  Jan. 6.  7.20a.m. 29.94 760    53    51    46   8      Still, clear. Light
+                                                         breeze about 10.30 a.m.
+
+           Noon.    29.80 761    82    -     -    4
+
+           4p.m.    29.96 761    76    -     -    3      Clear and hot. Sunset,
+                                                         red cirri. Water very
+                                                         cold. Moon clear.
+
+  Jan. 7   "        29.98 758    52    -     -    18     At Sharmá. Cool and raw.
+                                                         Few clouds to south and
+                                                         south-west.
+
+           Noon.    30.08 764    78    -     -    26     At 'Aynúnah, in big
+                                                         tent. Fresh wind from
+                                                         north. Air much damper;
+                                                         more pleasant.
+
+  AT 'AYNÚNAH.
+
+  Jan. 8.  7a.m.    30.11 763    55    -     -    22     Morning still&mdash;windless
+                                                         Breath from east. Warm
+                                                         and pleasant.
+
+           Noon.    30.02 767    77    74    61   13     Quite clear and dry.
+                                                         Gusts of wind. Flies
+                                                         very bad, even in the
+                                                         waste.
+
+           3p.m.    30.15 767    77    76    63   7
+
+  Cold high wind at night.
+
+  LEFT 'AYNÚNAH.
+
+  Jan. 9.  7a.m.    30.04 -      63    -     -    10     Outside tent. Light
+                                                         clouds everywhere at
+                                                         dawn. Morning warm and
+                                                         close.
+
+           Noon.    29.91 759    80    -     -    48     At El-'Usaylah. Sky
+                                                         covered with clouds. Sun
+                                                         coming out.
+
+           4p.m.    29.87 758    53    -     -    23     In tent at El-'Usaylah.
+                                                         No wind.
+
+  Cool pleasant night. Rain in Mount Sinai(?).
+
+  Jan. 10. 6.45a.m. 29.85 -      56    -     -    15     Observations in open.
+                                                         Cold north wind. Clear
+                                                         and cirri.
+
+           3p.m.    29.30 745    77    -     -    1      At Magháir Shúayb, under
+                                                         a tree.
+
+  Night cold. High wind; shook the tents.
+
+  AT MAGHÁIR SHÚAYB.
+
+  Jan. 11. 7a.m.    29.37 747    60    -     -    20    In open, on box.
+
+           Noon.    29.40 748    82    -     -    8     In tent.
+
+           3p.m.    29.38 747    84    -     -    -4    Still. Air hot.
+
+  As a rule, at Magháir Shúayb we had land-breezes; cold from north and east.
+  Seabreezes during day, after noon.
+
+  Jan. 12. 7a.m.    29.35 746    59    -     -    3      In tent. Cool. Cirri. At
+                                                         two a.m. cool fresh wind
+                                                         from north.
+
+           Noon.    29.46 747    83    -     -    -5     In tent. Hot sun. Light
+                                                         clouds.
+
+           3p.m     29.30 746    83    81    64   -9     In tent. No sun, no
+                                                         wind. Thin clouds.
+
+  Night warm; wind towards morning. Mosquitoes in tamarisks of Wady. Minimum
+  thermometer, 52 degrees.
+
+  Jan. 13. 7a.m.    29.38 745    65    -     -    -4     Outside tent, on box.
+                                                         Cloudy; little wind. elt
+                                                         warm. Sun came out
+                                                         strong at ten a.m.
+
+           Noon.    29.27 744    87    87    67   -9     In big tent. Heat like
+                                                         summer. Flies
+                                                         troublesome, travel on
+                                                         our backs.
+
+           3p.m.    29.20 743    85    85    65   -15    Very hot. Thin clouds.
+                                                         Sea-breeze.
+
+  Very hot and sultry weather: Arabs say portends rain. Wind (generally) from
+  north in morning; afternoon from sea.
+
+  Jan. 14. 7a.m.    29.01 740    63    63    55   0      In tent. Land-breeze set
+                                                         in. Expected heavy rain,
+                                                         and pitched camp higher
+                                                         up.
+
+           2.30p.m. 29.15 -      81-1/279    68   0     Taken by Mr. Clarke.
+
+  Rain began 2.30 a.m. (Jan. 15), small drops, then heavy, lull, and again
+  heavy; ended about 4.30 a.m. A little wind from south-west rose after rain.
+
+  The last rain was on December 7-10, 1877; violent storms accompanied it.
+
+  Jan. 15. "        29.00 -      71-1/270    66   30     By Mr. Clarke at Magháir
+                                                         Shúayb. Sky all covered
+                                                         ; little clear to west.
+                                                         Mist all over north.
+                                                         Things feel damp.
+
+           Noon.    29.06 737    76    73    65   30     All cloudy. After rain,
+                                                         sultry heat of noon
+                                                         quite disappeared.
+
+           3p.m.    29.06 738    75    73    65   25     Still cloudy. Cool.
+
+  Cold nights and mornings.
+
+  Jan. 16. 7a.m.    29.20 -      48    45    42   18     No rain. Cold. Little
+                                                         wind. Cloudy. No wind.
+
+           Noon.    29.05 -      69    65    54   3      Sun hot. Cool breeze
+                                                         from north as usual. No
+                                                         clouds.
+
+           3p.m.    29.25 -      69    65    52   12
+
+  Night fine and clear. Stars and moon very bright.
+
+  Jan. 17. 7a.m.    29.30 -      42    42    39   17     Clear morning. Very
+                                                         cold. Land breeze.
+
+           Noon.    29.36 745    69    66    54   18     Fine stiff breeze from
+                                                         north-east.
+
+           3p.m.    29.34 745    73    70    59   16     Fine breeze falling.
+
+  Fine clear night, moon nearly full. No clouds. Not cold. Cool at night and
+  towards morning. Wind rose about four a.m.
+
+  Jan. 18. 7.30a.m. 29.28 745    55    55    50   26     In tent. Cool, clear.
+                                                         Gentle land-wind.
+
+           Noon.    29.30 -      79    79    63   16    Same weather.
+
+           3p.m.    29.25 -      81    79    62   8      Night cool. Hardly any
+                                                         wind.
+
+  Jan. 19. 7a.m.    29.15 -      53    52    45   16     In tent. Cold wind from
+                                                         north.
+
+           Noon.    29.17 -      81    79    63   9      Sun hot. Cool breeze
+                                                         from north. Sky clear.
+
+           3p.m.    29.15 -      80    77    60   5
+
+  Remarkably warm pleasant night.
+
+  Jan. 20. 7a.m.    29.05 -      50    48    45   19     In tent. No wind. Air
+                                                         sharp.
+
+           Noon.    29.10 -      79    75    63   12     Light wind (south-west).
+                                                         Sun hot. Sky clear.
+
+           3p.m.    29.10 -      73    73    60   8     Cool and pleasant.
+
+  Curious moonrise. Thin clouds like volcanic smoke, separated into cirri like
+  sheep-skin: all said sign of heat. Night still and warm. Few stratified clouds
+  to west.
+
+  Jan. 21. 8a.m.    29.13 740    56    54    50   20     In tent. Cold raw wind
+                                                         (El-Ayli) from north-
+                                                         east. High clouds. Worse
+                                                         near Gulf.
+
+           Noon.    29.20 743    68    66    55   16     High cold wind,
+                                                         continuous. Bright sun.
+                                                         Sky intensely blue and
+                                                         clear.
+
+           4.15p.m. 29.22 744    66    65    53   8      Cool. High wind.
+
+  Strong wind at night; fell about midnight; gusts at times. Very cold. Bad
+  weather at Sharm Yahárr. Fortuna ("strong wind") began January 21st, ended
+  January 23rd: the next gale was on night of January 28th. As a rule, the
+  people say; black clouds show that the wind will increase; light clouds the
+  contrary.
+
+  Jan. 22. 7a.m.    29.32 745    50    49    45   15     Cold and cloudy. El-Ayli
+                                                         continues.
+
+           Noon.    29.36 748    66    62    52   11     High cold north-easter
+                                                         rose about 11.30. Sun
+                                                         warm. Air cold.
+
+  Heavy purple clouds to north and west. Night still; occasional gusts. Eight
+  p.m. quite still. Mukhbir delayed by bad weather.
+
+  Jan. 23. 7.20a.m. 29.39 748    50    50    45   19     Gusts and calm. Nimbi to
+                                                         west. High north wind
+                                                         set in.
+
+           Noon.    29.40 747    66    64    54   14     Cold in shade, hot in
+                                                         sun. High wind.
+
+           4p.m.    -     -      66    65    52   9      Wind still high. Dust.
+
+  Night alternately gusty and still. Warm. Mukhbir steamed back to her
+  anchorage, Sharm Yáhárr.
+
+  Jan 24.  7a.m.    29.29 745    55    52    47   15     Gentle breeze from
+                                                         north. No clouds&mdash;sign
+                                                         of no wind.
+
+           1.30p.m. -     -      83    78    68   10     The normal hot,
+                                                         windless, cloudless day.
+
+           3p.m.    -     -      78    74    62   7      Pleasant sea-breeze. Sun
+                                                         hot; air coolish.
+
+  Night warm and pleasant.
+
+  MAGHáIR SHÚAYB TO MAKNÁ (March).
+
+  Jan. 25. 7a.m.    29.30 -      61     -     -   15     On box. Fine, and
+                                                         perfectly clear.
+
+           Noon.    29.45 -      78     -     -   -      On road to Wady Makná,
+                                                         riding mule. Sea-breeze
+                                                         about noon, strong.
+                                                         Shortly after noon heavy
+                                                         clouds (from north and
+                                                         west) hid the sun.
+
+           3p.m.    30.06 -      71     -     -   23     Arrived at Makná, on
+                                                         box.
+
+  Warm pleasant night. Appearance of rain. Wind from north. Moon clouded.
+
+  AT MAKNÁ.
+
+  Land and sea breezes regular. Morning and evening cool. Noon hot. Evaporation
+  immense. Healthy near shore; feverish up the valley. Damp air from
+  neighbourhood of Mount Sinai.
+
+  Jan. 26. 7a.m.    30.02 -      68    -     -    21     Cloudy. Heavy white
+                                                         waves on water. Wind
+                                                         west; dangerous for
+                                                         ships.
+
+           12.30p.m.30.07 -      80    77    62   21     Sun hot; sky clear.
+                                                         Light fleecy clouds on
+                                                         Sinai.
+
+           3.30p.m. 30.04 743    82    80    70   18     Air and sun hot. Clear.
+                                                         Sea-breeze. No gale.
+
+  Rain probably during the day in Sinai. Muttali, or "fort," of Makná showed
+  aneroid 760 (29).
+
+  Jan. 27. 7a.m.    30.02 -      60    59    55   35     In tent. Fine clear;
+                                                         nice land-breeze. Rush
+                                                         of wind at two a.m. Wind
+                                                         at four a.m. Loud noise
+                                                         of reef.
+
+           1.30p.m. 30.04 -      80    76    68   28     In big tent, opening to
+                                                         south. Quite clear and
+                                                         bright. No clouds.
+                                                         Slight sea-breeze.
+
+           3p.m.    30.02 -      80    79    70   26    Hot and still.
+
+  Night glorious. No wind. Only sigh and sound of reef.
+
+  Jan. 28. 7a.m.    29.98 -      58    58    53    30    Perfectly still and
+                                                         clear. Light land-
+                                                         breeze.
+
+           12.45p.m.30.00 -      80    78    66    20    Weather breaking. Clouds
+                                                         forming everywhere. High
+                                                         horizontal cirri. North
+                                                         wind, whistling over
+                                                         country.
+
+           3p.m.    29.98 -      80    79    67    20    Packed up wet and dry
+                                                         bulbs.
+
+  At sunset high streaky cirri of red colour: all said wind. Same as at Magháir
+  Shúayb (January 21-23). At eleven p.m. El-Ayli (north wind from 'Akabat-
+  Aylah?) came down upon us with a rush. Gravel like drops of rain. Tents at
+  once on the ground. Sky still clear&mdash;stars shining.
+
+  Jan. 29. 7.15a.m.30.02  -      62    -     -   19      In tent-hut. Wind
+                                                         violent. Cold and raw
+                                                         between moonrise and
+                                                         sunrise.
+
+           Noon.    30.04 -      81    -     -   13      In tent-hut. Wind (El-
+                                                         Ayli) gusty and violent.
+                                                         Sky quite clear.
+
+  They say this gale denotes end of Zamharir ("great cold"). Wind fell about
+  three p.m. Mild at sunset. Wind then increased, and became very violent at
+  night (l0-11 p.m.); seems to beat down from above. Summit of quartz-hills, 2
+  obs. = 29.40
+
+  Jan. 30  7a.m.    30.06 -      62    -     -    19     In tent-hut. Mountains
+                                                         perfectly clear. Fleecy
+                                                         clouds to north and
+                                                         south, sailing from west
+                                                         to east.
+
+           3p.m.    30.06 -      72    -     -    15     Clear and fine. Wind
+                                                         falling.
+
+  Wind fell during afternoon and evening, but rose again at night; was at its
+  worst about eleven p.m.
+
+  Jan. 31. 7a.m.    30.06 -      67    -     -    22     In tent-but. Wind worse;
+                                                         signs of blowing
+                                                         everywhere. Light clouds
+                                                         north and south. Mottled
+                                                         clouds (cirri, mackerel-
+                                                         back). Gusts violent
+                                                         after sunrise.
+
+           Noon.    30.08 -      73    -     -    19     In cabin on board
+                                                         Mukhbir. Wind violent.
+                                                         Sky clear. White clouds,
+                                                         as yet wind increasing.
+                                                         Sand and dust but
+                                                         mountains clear.
+
+           3p.m.    30.09 -      78    -     -    22     On board Mukhbir. Wind
+                                                         violent. Sky covered
+                                                         with grey clouds.
+
+  At sunset, gleams to west and round horizon; heavy to north. Hoped for rain,
+  but none came. Fires alight all night. Very bad night; perhaps the worst yet
+  seen. Chain dragging. At nine p.m. sky clear, but wind worse.
+
+  AT MAKNÁ, ON BOARD "MUKHBIR."
+
+  Feb. 1.  7a.m.    30.08 -      70    -     -    21     Wind worse than ever.
+                                                         Dark cirri to south.
+                                                         Mountains clear on all
+                                                         sides.
+
+           Noon.    30.06 -      74    70    63   21     Wind very bad, turning
+                                                         to east (?). Cirri
+                                                         everywere: to west
+                                                         formed ascending rays
+                                                         like sun, extending to
+                                                         zenith; to east were
+                                                         crosses and lozenges.
+
+           3p.m     30.04 -       -    70    65   -      Wind still bad. White
+                                                         clouds have thickened to
+                                                         south, and thinned to
+                                                         north. Bases of
+                                                         mountains blurred (by
+                                                         dust?); summits clear.
+
+  At sunset wind lighter. Dark clouds to south, going westward from Suez. Cirri
+  overhead, presently disappeared; also about the horizon. At night fine
+  zodiacal light. Wind increased. Observations in main cabin throughout voyage.
+
+  Feb. 2.  7a.m.    30.00 -      69    70    65   22     Perfectly clear. Wind
+                                                         worse.
+
+           Noon.    30.00 -      78    -     -    21     Clear sky; only cloud,
+                                                         thin white strata to
+                                                         north.
+
+           3p.m.    29.04 -      75    73    63   19     No clouds. Wind milder.
+                                                         Barometer falling (sign
+                                                         of wind ceasing?). Wind
+                                                         getting warmer, and
+                                                         bending east.
+
+  Wind less in evening, and warmer; ceased about midnight; lasted from eleven
+  p.m., January 28, to midnight, February 2 = five days and five nights.
+  Zodiacal light.
+
+  Feb. 3.  7a.m.    29.93 -      56    65    56   20     On deck (wet and dry
+                                                         bulbs in main cabin).
+                                                         Fresh breeze from east.
+                                                         Fleecy clouds south and
+                                                         east.
+
+           Noon.    29.96 -      74    -     -    25     On deck. Fine breeze
+                                                         from north.
+
+  In evening cirri to west and east. Black dots in regular lines. Night at Minat
+  Jinái. Very fine and clear; young moon and Venus. Deadly still. Zodiacal light
+  seen every night in the 'Akabah Gulf: not outside it.
+
+  Feb. 4.  7a.m.    29.92 -      74    70    67   24     En route to Nuwaybi',
+                                                         along Sinai shore.
+                                                         Morning grey; light
+                                                         clouds everywhere. Dull
+                                                         brassy sunrise. Water
+                                                         dark. Wind south, felt
+                                                         very damp. Sinai hills
+                                                         clouded over: cirri
+                                                         strata high up; nimbi in
+                                                         fragments below.
+
+           Noon.    29.86 -      74    73    68   28     Under awning on board;
+                                                         going north. Sickly sun.
+                                                         Cirri to east.
+
+           3p.m.    29.80 -      75    73    66   26     Main cabin South wind
+                                                         strong, increased after
+                                                         noon. Clear horizon
+                                                         then. Sea foaming: wind
+                                                         became very strong, and
+                                                         raised water about
+                                                         sunset, then fell.
+
+  A regular day of south wind, blasts, mists, and gusts; calmed down in evening.
+  Quiet night. All day cirri and strata high up from west. Wásit sand forming
+  cloud.
+
+  Feb. 5.  7a.m.    30.00 -      72    68    60   9      En route to Kaláh
+                                                         (Jezirat Faráun of
+                                                         maps), in main cabin.
+                                                         Wind north. Clouds on
+                                                         hill-tops and to north&mdash;
+                                                         effects of yesterday.
+                                                         East mountains misty;
+                                                         west clear. Mottle of
+                                                         clouds.
+
+           Noon.    29.94 -      73    70    61   7      On deck, steaming north.
+                                                         Dry and wet bulbs in
+                                                         main cabin. Clouds&mdash;
+                                                         light cumuli to north,
+                                                         east, and west; south
+                                                         clear. Wind north,
+                                                         light.
+
+           3p.m.    29.97 -      75    70    59   19     In main cabin off island
+                                                         El-Kaláh. Violent gusts
+                                                         from west, down valleys-
+                                                         -deflection of south
+                                                         wind, lasted only few
+                                                         minutes. Cloudy and
+                                                         clear.
+
+  Night clear. Violent gusts from south, lasting a few minutes, then still.
+
+  ON BOARD "MUKHBIR," OFF ISLAND EL-KALÁH.
+
+  Feb. 6.  7a.m.    30.12 -      70    66    59   15     In main cabin. A regular
+                                                         raw and gloomy English
+                                                         morning. Clouds
+                                                         everywhere&mdash;drops of
+                                                         rain. Wind south,
+                                                         deflected west. Gusts at
+                                                         times. All felt damp and
+                                                         uncomfortable.
+
+           Noon.    30.10 -      70    65    59   26     In main cabin. Sky all
+                                                         covered with clouds.
+                                                         Wind from north, gusty.
+                                                         Barometer rising.
+
+           3p.m.    30.12 -      66    68    60   21     In main cabin. Sky
+                                                         covered; gleams of sun.
+                                                         Clear to south. Wind
+                                                         north, mild.
+
+  A few drops of rain morning and evening. Pleasant quiet night.
+
+  Feb. 7.  6a.m.    30.13 -      -     62    57   19     In main cabin. Still;
+                                                         fresh air; no wind.
+                                                         Heavy clouds from west,
+                                                         covering east-west
+                                                         mountains. West mottled;
+                                                         north and south clear.
+
+           3p.m.    30.10 -      71    66    62   25     In main cabin. Cool
+                                                         breeze. Hot sun. Cloudy
+                                                         and clear.
+
+  Drops of rain at sunset. Wind west. Heavy rain twice at night; after midnight
+  wetted deck. Rain at 'Akabah from west, with clouds and winds.
+
+  FROM EL-'AKABAIT, GOING SOUTH.
+
+  Rise of tide off El-'Akabah town, one foot.
+
+  Feb. 8.  7a.m.    30.20 -      56    63    61   3      On deck. Dry and wet
+                                                         bulbs in main cabin. At
+                                                         sunrise heavy purple
+                                                         clouds drifting over
+                                                         plain, covering hills on
+                                                         both sides. Cold, raw,
+                                                         wet wind. Rain on Sinai
+                                                         to north-west and south-
+                                                         west. Saw rainbow. Wind
+                                                         gradually turning to
+                                                         east (favourable). Play
+                                                         of light and shade over
+                                                         plains and hills.
+
+           Noon.    30.15 -      65    64    57   22     In main cabin. Glorious
+                                                         day. Blue sky; bluer
+                                                         sea. Strong breeze.
+                                                         Cloudy and clear.
+
+           3p.m.    30.16 -      67    65    58   25     In main cabin. After
+                                                         noon wind gradually
+                                                         fell, and sky cleared;
+                                                         became much warmer.
+                                                         Steamer (five and a half
+                                                         knots) beat the sailing
+                                                         tender. North perfectly
+                                                         clear; south and east,
+                                                         fleecy clouds. Sun clear
+                                                         and warm.
+
+  At sunset red cirri. Wind increased greatly. Waves following us, high and
+  hollow. Bad night. Wind and water high. At midnight(?), rode with head to
+  gale. February 9th, four a.m., turned south. Six a.m. stood for Makná (right
+  angles, and nearly "turned turtle").
+
+  ON BOARD "MUKHBIR."
+
+  Feb. 9.  7a.m.    30.22 -      -     64    26   26     In main cabin, off Sharm
+                                                         Dabbah. Sky quite clear.
+                                                         North wind colder than
+                                                         ever, yet we are going
+                                                         south. Beginning of
+                                                         dangerous gale which
+                                                         lasted till February
+                                                         13th. Ugly hollow sea.
+
+           1p.m.    30.15 -      -     66    58   28     In main cabin. Out of
+                                                         'Akabah Gulf. Passed
+                                                         into a summer sea. Under
+                                                         lee of Tirán. On deck 63
+                                                         degrees (F.).
+
+           3p.m.    30.11 -      -     69    59   27     In main cabin, rounding
+                                                         south of Jezirat Tirán.
+                                                         Sky all clear, except
+                                                         wind cirri over 'Akabah
+                                                         Gulf and to west.
+
+  At nine p.m. halo round moon, and far from it&mdash;bad sign! Before midnight gusts
+  began. Increased at one a.m. (February 10). At four a.m. very violent north
+  wind from El-'Akabah.
+
+  Feb. 10  7a.m.    30.07 -      -     69    65   30     In cabin of Mukhbir,
+                                                         south of Tirán. Water
+                                                         ruffled. Clouds
+                                                         everywhere. Rain on the
+                                                         coast. Felt raw. Mottled
+                                                         sky.
+
+           Noon.    30.03 -      -     72    64   38     In cabin at Tirán. Sun
+                                                         out at nine a.m. Clouds
+                                                         and clear. Windy sky.
+                                                         Cirri to west and north-
+                                                         west. Dark clouds to
+                                                         leeward.
+
+           3p.m.    29.94 -      -     74    65   25     In cabin at Tirán. Rain-
+                                                         storm to south-west.
+                                                         Wind north. Sky cloudy
+                                                         and clear. Cool breeze,
+                                                         not high.
+
+  At four p.m. a few large drops fell. Heavy rain at El-'Akabah and on east
+  coast. Sand-veil over Sinaitic shore. Six p.m., wind gusty. Rain-clouds all
+  over coast. Wind becoming warm. At 1.15 a.m. (February 11), terrible rush and
+  fall of rain. Wind westing. Mild at first. Five a.m., hard Gharbi, threatening
+  Azyab. All mist&mdash;could hardly see the shore.
+
+  Feb. 11. 7a.m.    29.82 -      -     71    67   35     To windward of Tirán.
+                                                         Howling west wind. Sun
+                                                         like pale cheese.
+                                                         Aneroid falling. After
+                                                         seven a.m. the storm
+                                                         broke, and we narrowly
+                                                         escaped a wreck in two
+                                                         places, Tirán and
+                                                         Sináfir. Crisis of gale.
+
+           Noon.    29.80 -      -     70    60   30     In Sináfir port, main
+                                                         cabin. Wind west,
+                                                         bending to south on
+                                                         falling.
+
+           3p.m.    28.20 -      -     72    65   24     In main cabin. Mist and
+                                                         sand. English sun. Wind
+                                                         west and warm. Sea green
+                                                         and breaking.
+
+  At five p.m. the sand-mist began to clear off. Wind died away, then turned
+  north and north-north-east. Light scud over moon, going slowly. Patches of
+  blue, and stars. Barometer rising fast. Perfectly still night till midnight,
+  when it began to blow, about the setting of the moon. At Suez, during the
+  gale, red dust prevented ships seeing one another; and at Cairo trees were
+  uprooted.
+
+  AT SINÁFIR ISLAND.
+
+  Feb. 12  "        30.13 -      -     68    62   31     In main cabin. At 3.30
+                                                         a.m. a violent Ayli,
+                                                         like that of El-'Akabah,
+                                                         began to blow. Gusts and
+                                                         shivering water. Swept
+                                                         off all sand-fog.
+
+           Noon.    30.17 -      -     73    64   27     In main cabin. Howling
+                                                         wind. Sea less, because
+                                                         of ebb. Breeze fresh.
+                                                         Sky clear to south; few
+                                                         white clouds to north-
+                                                         east and west. Sun
+                                                         bright and warm.
+
+           3p.m.    30.14 -      -     75    65   24     In cabin. Wind violent
+                                                         as ever, and cold from
+                                                         north.
+
+  During the night the wind blew from all possible directions; north-east, and
+  at one time due west.
+
+  LEFT SINÁFIR FOR SOUTH.
+
+  Feb. 13. "        30.18 -      -     66    60   36     In main cabin. Howling
+                                                         north wind till four
+                                                         a.m., then milder.
+                                                         Hardly a speck of cloud.
+                                                         Fresh cool air from
+                                                         north. Sea very blue.
+                                                         All sail set. Mist-
+                                                         clouds on tallest peaks
+                                                         of coast-range. Wind
+                                                         diminished as we went
+                                                         south. Cirri everywhere,
+                                                         zenith and on horizon.
+
+           Noon.    30.12 -      -     69    59   26     On deck. Soft pleasant
+                                                         air; before cold and
+                                                         hard. Influence of
+                                                         El'Akabah. Thermometer
+                                                         on deck 69 degrees (F.).
+
+           3p.m     30.10 -      -     71    62   20     On board. Sky milky
+                                                         everywhere with cirri.
+                                                         Wind north-west, going
+                                                         west.
+
+  Red sunset. Distant halo round moon&mdash;cleared off soon (a good sign), and not
+  well marked. Light westerly gale (No. 2).
+
+  AT SHARM YÁHÁRR.
+
+  Feb. 14. 7a.m.    30.06 -      -     64    58   22     In cabin (open).
+                                                         Splendid morning. Wind
+                                                         west, set in hard before
+                                                         noon. Milk-and-water
+                                                         sky. Should have been
+                                                         kept at Sináfir.
+
+           Noon.    30.04 -      -     71    60   20     West wind increased. Sky
+                                                         clear; but SHÁRR
+                                                         Mountains cloudy&mdash;
+                                                         condensing moisture.
+
+           3p.m.    30.02 -      -     71    60   20     In cabin. North-west
+                                                         wind strong. Moved ship.
+                                                         Heavy black clouds on
+                                                         mountains.
+
+  ON BOARD "MUKHBIR" AT SHARM YÁHÁRR.
+
+  Feb 15.  "        30.10 -      -     66    58   30    In cabin.
+
+           Noon.    30.13 -      72    -     -    35    In cabin.
+
+           3p.m.    30.14 -      75    -     -    26     On deck. Clouds above
+                                                         the mountains.
+
+  Cold north-west breeze at five p.m. Sea high. Aneroid observations at Sulphur
+  Mountain&mdash;foot, 30.14; top, 29.90; difference .24 = 250 feet.
+
+  Feb. 16. 7.30a.m. 30.23 -      -     63    55   20     In cabin. Aneroid
+                                                         unusually high. Clear
+                                                         and cloudy at mountains.
+                                                         Cool air and light
+                                                         breeze.
+
+           12.50p.m. 30.23-      -     64    55   20     Cool. Wind north. In
+                                                         cabin.
+
+           3p.m.    30.20 -      -     66    56   18     In cabin. Cool. No
+                                                         clouds.
+
+  Splendid night. Not a sign of cloud. Cool. White streak on the water (milky
+  sea, like that of Bombay, caused by fish?). Finest weather yet seen.
+
+  ON BOARD "MUKHBIR."
+
+  Feb. 17. 6a.m.    30.17 -      66    -     -    15     In cabin. Cool, clear,
+                                                         splendid. Forenoon warm
+                                                         and still. Sea glassy.
+
+           Noon.    30.16 -      74    -     -    20     In cabin. Sea-breeze
+                                                         came up strong at eleven
+                                                         a.m.
+
+           3p.m.    30.13 -      -     -     -    23     In cabin. Sky clouded
+                                                         all the afternoon&mdash;did
+                                                         not see the sun. Moon
+                                                         veiled&mdash;not a nice look.
+
+  Night very cold (shivery). Wind Barri ("land-breeze").
+
+  IN MESS-TENT, OPEN TO EAST.
+
+  Feb. 18. 6.30a.m. 30.00 -      61    -     -    14     Cold and clear. Land-
+                                                         breeze.
+
+           Noon.    30.04 -      78    -     -    33     Sea-breeze setting;
+                                                         land-breeze stopped. Sky
+                                                         perfectly clear. Sun
+                                                         hot. No end of flies.
+
+           3p.m.    30.04 -      78    -     -    22     Fierce and violent west
+                                                         wind&mdash;a Gharbi, or
+                                                         exaggerated sea-breeze?
+                                                         Sky quite clear.
+
+  Night quite still. Cold wind stopped at nine p.m. rather suddenly.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING SECOND MARCH TO THE HIMSÁ PLATEAU, SOUTH-EASTERN
+  MIDIAN, BETWEEN FEBRUARY 19 AND MARCH 8, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The distance traversed comprised 222-1/4 statute miles, mostly through
+  unexplored country.
+
+  On return compared aneroids:&mdash;
+  French .............................. 763 millimetres.
+  My Casella .......................... 762     "
+
+  Difference .......................... .001    "
+
+  Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Hygr.   Remarks.
+                 Inches. (deg.)(deg.)
+
+  Feb. 19. 6.20a.m. 30.07 65     23  In big tent at El-Muwaylah. Cool land-
+                                     breeze. Sky quite clear.
+
+           Noon.    29.82 74     23  At Wady Surr, under tree in sea-breeze.
+                                     Clear sky, few white clouds. Cold land-
+                                     breeze in Wady Surr at ten a.m.; cold sea-
+                                     breeze at eleven a.m.
+
+           3.40p.m. 29.60 76     20  At Safh Wady Malayh (Malih), in big tent.
+                                     Feels as if high up.
+
+  Night perfectly still, except a gust about midnight.
+
+  Feb. 20. 6.25a.m. 29.53 60     21       In big tent at Safh Wady Malayh. Clear and
+                                          fine.
+
+           11.20a.m.29.40 73     43  Under tree at base of western Gháts. Fine
+                                     cool sea-breeze.
+
+           3p.m.    29.44 78     17  At Sayl Wady el-Jimm ("water-gathering").
+                                     Hot sun. Cold sea-breeze.
+
+  Night cold, with land-breeze.
+
+  Feb. 21. 6.15a.m. 29.38 64     7   In big tent at Sayl Wady el-Jimm. Clouds
+                                     to north and east; air damp. High wind and
+                                     clouds.
+
+           12.45p.m.28.82 71     25  On march up Wady Sadr, under tree. Cold
+                                     sea-breeze. Sky quite clear; sun warm.
+                                     Awful east winds down these Wadys form the
+                                     Goz or sand-heaps.
+
+           3.30p.m. 28.86 76     7   In small tent at El-Nagwah, in Wady Sadr.
+                                     Sun hot; breeze cold.
+
+  Night cold, but not so cold as we expected.
+
+  Feb. 22. 6a.m.    28.86 56     8   In big tent at El-Nagwah.
+
+           11.50a.m.25.40 65     4   Under tree in Wady Sadr; say, 1600 feet
+                                     high. White clouds. West wind (sea-breeze
+                                     deflected to north) blowing. Here cold
+                                     comes from wind.
+
+           3p.m.    27.80 74     3   In big tent at Amwáh el-Rikáb, Wady Sadr.
+
+  At four p.m. cold and clouds; cumuli and cirri. West wind deflected to north.
+  At five p.m. thermometer in tent 66 degrees. Fire in tent. Night cold, clear,
+  and still. A few gusts about midnight.
+
+  AT HEAD OF WADY SADR.
+
+  Feb. 23. 6.30a.m. 27.80 53     5   In big tent foot of Gháts. Weather lovely-
+                                     -clear, fine, and cold. At eight a.m. sun
+                                     warm, then cold wind.
+
+           1.30p.m. 26.88 72     5   In big tent. Cold easterly gale.
+
+           4p.m.    26.90 65     2   In small tent, same place.
+
+  Violent wind at midnight. Cold; thermometer 38 degrees.
+
+  Feb. 24. 6a.m.    26.95 48     0   At head of Wady Sadr.
+
+                    26.15 45     0   To summit of Khuraytat el-Jils (Pass).
+                                     Above the Pass, aneroid 26.25; below,
+                                     26.70: difference, .55 = 450 feet. Walked
+                                     down in twenty-six minutes.
+
+           11.30a.m.26.18 56     0        In the open, under shade. Perfectly clear
+                                          of clouds. Sun hot.
+
+           3p.m.    26.26 66     -2  In big tent on Hismá plateau (short
+                                     descent to camping-ground). Air clear; sun
+                                     hot.
+
+  Very cold when sun sets. Gusts from east at night.
+
+  ON HIMSÁ PLATEAU.
+
+  Feb. 25. 6.30a.m. 26.30 42     3   In big tent.
+
+           12.30p.m.27.84 74     12  At foot of Khuraytat el-Jils. Still, no
+                                     wind; no clouds.
+
+           3.30p.m. 27.83 78     17  No wind; no clouds.
+
+  Night splendidly clear and still. Felt warm.
+
+  Feb. 26. 6a.m.    27.72 64     2   In big tent on Hismá plateau. Glorious
+                                     orange-coloured dawn. Mild north wind.
+                                     Moon in last quarter. At eight a.m. good
+                                     breeze from north; at eleven a.m. cool and
+                                     pleasant breeze from east.
+
+           Noon.    28.00 70     -8  On march in Shafah Mountains. Hot sun.
+                                     Cold wind.
+
+           3p.m.    28.30 85     -4  Camp Majrá el-Ruways. In small tent.
+                                     Strong west breeze in gusts.
+
+  Night glorious at foot of the two Passes.
+
+  Feb. 27. 6a.m.    28.10 65     -4  On ground outside tent at Majrá el-Ruways.
+                                     Sky overhead quite clear; a few flecks to
+                                     south, low clouds to east. At 8.30 a.m.
+                                     wind south. Sun at first hot; then sky
+                                     cloudy.
+
+           11.45a.m.28.48 80     3   At El-Rahabah, head of Wady Dámah, under
+                                     tree. Fine sea-breeze. High white strata
+                                     to north-east and south. No clouds
+                                     elsewhere.
+
+           5p.m.    28.56 76     -5  Under thorn-tree at Wady Dámah. Fleeting
+                                     cirro-cumuli.
+
+  Night very cold. Not a sign of dew till we returned on board Mukhbir.
+
+  Feb. 28. 6a.m.    28.50 44     -5  At Wady Dámah, on box in open. Clouds and
+                                     sea-breeze at 8.45 a.m.
+
+           1p.m.    28.29 70     19  Under tree at Shuwák ruin. Thermometer in
+                                     sun, 82 degrees. Bits of cumuli from
+                                     south. At two p.m. furious wind and dust
+                                     (sand-devils) scouring up valley from
+                                     south, also deflected to west by Pass
+                                     gorge. "Sand-devils" in Wadys Surr, Sadr,
+                                     Dámah, Shuwák, and Salmá.
+
+           3p.m.    28.19 71     16       In big tent.
+
+  A few gusts during early part of night; the rest very still. Cold and clear.
+
+  AT SHUWÁK RUIN.
+  Mar. 1.  6.45a.m. 25.30 46     10  Very cold; hands chilled. Land-breeze at
+                                     eight a.m. At barrage (dam), aneroid
+                                     28.36.
+
+           Noon.    28.37 76     17  In small tent. Noon hot. Wind gusty&mdash;not
+                                     regular and strong as yesterday.
+
+           3p.m.    28.34 77     6   In small tent. Sky clear; air still and
+                                     sultry.
+
+  Mar. 2.  6a.m.    28.30 58     11  In big tent at Shuwák. Air still. Clouds
+                                     to east. Afterwards sky mottled, windy
+                                     striae. At seven a.m. rainbow without
+                                     rain; thin cloud north of sun;
+                                     perpendicular streak, brilliant enough:
+                                     lasted twenty minutes.
+
+           9a.m.    28.75 66     -   At Shaghab ruin. Sea-breeze at eleven a.m.
+                                     Clear and cool. Day slightly cloudy; sun
+                                     partly hidden.
+
+           3p.m.    28.60 86     15  In big tent at Majrá el-Wághir. Mild sea-
+                                     breeze. Hot sun. High clouds.
+
+  Night windless, except few occasional gusts. Stars veiled. Grand zodiacal
+  light (now the regular thing). Cool and pleasant.
+
+  Mar. 3.  6a.m.    28.55 66     14  At Majrá el-Wághir, outside tent. Sky
+                                     cloudy; mist to north, "mackerel's back"
+                                     to east. Sea-breeze at 9.30 a.m. in Wady
+                                     Dámah.
+
+           Noon.    29.13 75     26  Under tree in Wady Dámah. Cool wind from
+                                     south-west. A few clouds, getting
+                                     gradually darker to west and south-west.
+
+           4p.m.    29.20 78     15  At El-Kutayyifah (camp) under a tree. Cool
+                                     south-west wind.
+
+           6a.m.    29.30 63     16  Cold north wind. Sea-breeze at nine a.m,
+                                     In big tent at El-Kutayyifab.
+
+  Mar. 4. 11.30a.m. 29.33 68     11  In shade of rock, Umm ámil.
+
+           4p.m.    29.63 80     10  In small tent at Má el-Badi'h, Wady Salmá.
+                                     Cold, stiff gale: dust-laden sea-breeze up
+                                     the ugly gorge.
+
+           5.45a.m. 29.50 60     13  At Má el-Badi'h, on box in open air. Air
+                                     clear; thin threads to south.
+
+  Mar. 5. 12.30p.m. 30.06 84     -3  At Zibá, in big tent, open east and west,
+                                     fronting the bay.
+
+           2.45p.m. 30.00 82     4   At Zibá, in small tent.
+
+  AT ZIBÁ, IN CAMP (our second halt).
+
+  Mar. 6.  6a.m.    29.92 61     15  In big tent. Rather heavy clouds to east
+                                     and elsewhere. Sea-breeze began at ten
+                                     a.m.
+
+           Noon.    30.04 86     10  In big tent. Air dull and heavy. "Rain-
+                                     sun."
+
+           3.45p.m. 30.00 81     3   Sky quite clear.
+
+  Storm at sunset. Heavy clouds rising over arch from west to north: all said
+  meant wind. At seven p.m. violent gusty gale; nearly blew down tents. Rushing
+  and furious rain from north-west. Gusts lasted long. Fell about eleven p.m.
+  Rose again very violently at midnight; then blew itself out. Followed by cold
+  air. Rain lasted about one hour; damped the ground, and left deep puddles in
+  the rock-hollows.
+  Never had thunder and lightning in Midian.
+
+  Mar. 7.  6a.m.    31.12 58     15  At Zibá, on box. Cold and clear. A few
+                                     clouds to west.
+
+           11.30a.m.29.96 74     19  At Jebel el Ghál, in shade in the open.
+                                     Fine west wind.
+
+  Night and morning cold. On summit of Jebel el-Ghál, aneroid 29.75.
+
+  Mar. 8.  6a.m.    30.04 51     11  At Máyat el-Ghál (camp), on box.
+
+  March 8th is the 30th (last day of) Imshir (February), 1094.
+  March 9th is the 1st of Barmáhát (March). See Chap. I. p. 22.
+  In the early days of Barmáhát they expect the Husum or violent wind which
+  destroyed the tribe of Ad.
+  After seven nights and eight days begins the Bard el-Agúz, or "old man's
+  cold."
+  On Barmáhát 12 (March 20) is the Intikál el-Shams, or "vernal equinox;" after
+  which the weather becomes warmer.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD "MUKHBIR" IN SHARM YÁHÁRR, BETWEEN MARCH 8 AND
+  MARCH 12, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hygr. Remarks.
+                 Inches. (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+  Mar. 8.  12.40p.m.30.08 74     -     -     18   Main cabin, Mukhbir.
+
+  Mar. 9.  7a.m.    30.10 20     69    62    -    In cabin.
+
+           12.30p.m.30.13 73     72    64    -    Quite clear. Fresh sea-breeze.
+
+           3p.m.    30.11 75     74    64    -      Clouds white and streaky
+                                                    everywhere.
+
+  In the evening clouds on hills and mountains, especially the SHÁRR; elsewhere
+  clear. Red sunset, grand. At night dew heavy on board Mukhbir; gunwales wet in
+  morning. Moon with kind of half halo round her. Night very hot&mdash;sign of coming
+  storm.
+
+  At noon compared ship's (Mukhbir)
+  mercurial barometer .........................  773 millimetres.
+  With my aneroid by Casella ..................  765 millimetres.
+  And (Mr. Duguid's) aneroide .................  765 millimetres.
+  Difference .................................. -008 millimetres.
+  On December 19, 1877, ship's difference ..... +007 millimetres.
+  Difference .................................. +001 millimetres.
+
+  Mar. 10. 6.30p.m. 30.12 73     69    61    -      In cabin. Clouds on SHÁRR like
+                                                    flights of birds, low-lying
+                                                    banks to south. Morning
+                                                    slightly muggy: no breeze.
+
+           Noon.    30.12 76     75    60    -      In cabin. Gentle sea-breeze.
+                                                    Sky quite clear.
+
+           3p.m.    30.11 76     76    66    -      Cool, pleasant sea-breeze.
+
+  Fine night, pleasant and cool.
+
+  Mar. 11. 6a.m.    30.10 73     68    65    -      In cabin. Splendid morning.
+
+           Noon.    30.10 -      80    64    -      In cabin. Glorious day; sea-
+                                                    breeze cool and fresh.
+
+           3.30p.m. 30.05 78     77    65    -      In cabin. Sea-breeze lively
+                                                    and strong.
+
+  Mar. 12. 7a.m.    30.04 -      67    61    -      In cabin. Warmish. Splendid
+                                                    sunrise on SHÁRR; cold to
+                                                    north, warmer tints in centre,
+                                                    and glowing red-yellow flush
+                                                    to south.
+
+           3p.m.    30.03 78     77    70    -      In cabin. Fine cool sea-
+                                                    breeze.
+
+  Tides high and low (March) pier shows difference of three feet in rise, about
+  the midlength of Sharm Yáhárr.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING EXCURSION (SECOND MARCH) ON
+  AND AROUND THE SHÁRR MOUNTAIN, BETWEEN WEDNESDAY,
+  MARCH 18, AND MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  The distance traversed comprised 59 miles.
+
+  On return compared aneroids:&mdash;
+  French (left on board Mukhbir) .... 758 millimetres.
+  My Casella ........................ 756   "
+  Difference ........................ 002   "
+
+  Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Hygr.   Remarks.
+                 Inches. (deg.)(deg.)
+
+  Mar. 13. 6.20a.m. 29.96 66     23  On deck of Mukhbir. Cool land-breeze; hot
+                                     at nine a.m. Sea-breeze at 10.45. At Wady
+                                     Sanawiyyah aneroid 29.60.
+
+           3p.m.    29.26 82     13  Under tree (acacia, but shady). Grand sea-
+                                     breeze from one to three p.m.
+
+  Warm night under the SHÁRR, stones retaining heat. Moon misty. Very heavy dew,
+  like rain; wetted boxes; saw for the first time inland. Will last for some
+  three months, and must greatly assist vegetation.
+
+  Mar. 14. 6a.m.    29.30 68     28  In big tent. All the sky clouded over as
+                                     if rain coming. Sea-breeze 10.30.
+
+           Noon.    29.60 88     28  Camp at Safh Wady Kusayb. Cloudy and
+                                     sultry all day. Little sun, except from
+                                     nine till eleven a.m. Rain-heat; seems to
+                                     threaten rain.
+
+           3p.m.    29.56 86     23  In big tent. Sultry-feels like storm.
+
+  At night, violent storm of wind from north-east, with nasty warm gusts. The
+  people call it Sabáh, probably for Sabá, the "Zephyr"&mdash;the Bád-i-Sabá of
+  poetry; also El-Farawi, because it blows at night. Big tent down in a moment,
+  as at Makná. N.B.&mdash;No windstorm on the coast. At foot of Abú Sháar Pass,
+  aneroid 28.80; at foot of quartz-vein (wall), 28.50.
+
+  Mar. 15. 6a.m.    29.50 76     1   In big tent at Safh Wady Kusayb, north-
+                                     east wind still blowing. No dew in
+                                     morning.
+
+           11.45a.m.29.22 93     -5  In Wady Surr. Curious windy cirri to west.
+                                     Wind blew itself out in Wady Surr.
+                                     Pleasant sea-breeze from south.
+
+           3p.m.    28.93 100    14  In big tent at Safhat el-Wúayrah, Wady
+                                     Surr. Cloudy. Wind from south, a deflected
+                                     sea-breeze.
+
+  ASCENDING SHÁRR MOUNTAIN.
+
+  Mar. 16. 6a.m.    29.86 70     2   On box outside tent. Morning grand; still,
+                                     clear, warm, and dry. At seven a.m., going
+                                     uphill, aneroid 28.20; at 7.35, half-way
+                                     up, 27.70.
+
+           9a.m.    26.83 63     3
+
+           Noon.    26.70 82     -   Under rock. Pleasant sea-breeze from
+                                     north-east. Sun hot; day quite clear.
+
+           3p.m.    26.76 86     3   Shade of rock, summit of outlier. Strong
+                                     wind from west.
+
+  Mean of two observations on summit of outlier, 26.79 = 3,200 feet above sea-
+  level.
+
+  EN ROUTE TO THE COAST.
+
+  Mar. 17. 9a.m.    28.36 80     3   Under tree. Very hot sun that tired all.
+                                     Breeze at 8.30 a.m.
+
+           11a.m.  28.76(?)93    -   Same place. At summit of Pass el-Kuwayd,
+                                     aneroid 28.13; in Wady Kuwayd, 28.20. Very
+                                     small descent to 28.50, say 400 feet.
+
+           3.40p.m. 28.65 90     -9  In big tent.
+
+  ON THE RETURN MARCH TO SHARM YÁHÁRR.
+
+  Mar. 18. 4.20am   28.63 73     -4  Complete change of climate. No Khamsin to-
+                                     day. Fine sea-breeze in puffes at 9:30
+                                     a.m.; came up strong about noon.
+
+           11.45am  29.43 91     5   Under tree in Wady el-Bayzá.
+
+  On March 17th began what our Egyptians called the Khamsin, and the Arabs El-
+  Dufún (Bedawin, Dafún) generically; and specifically Dufún el-Suráyyá ("of the
+  Pleiades""). Sky dark without clouds. At night, yellow clouds over moon. Gusts
+  alternately hot and cold. Highly electrical; few could sleep at night. Tents
+  left open. It was followed by damp and gloomy weather, which the Arabs
+  attribute to the Intikál el-Shams ("vernal equinox"). This began on March
+  19th, and lasted till the 22nd. Aneroid falls lower than we have yet seen it.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "SINNÁR," BETWEEN MARCH 18 AND MARCH
+  20, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hygr.   Remarks.
+                 Inches. (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+  Mar. 18. 3p.m.    29.91 84     -     -     24     In main cabin. A few light
+                                                    clouds.
+
+  Mar. 19. 7a.m.    29.83 -      70    64    -      Under deck awning. Morning
+                                                    still, calm, and muggy. Clouds
+                                                    everywhere. Presently cool
+                                                    land-breeze came up. Regular
+                                                    Khamsin at eight a.m.
+
+           Noon.    29.80 -      79    71    -      In captain's cabin. Cloudy and
+                                                    cool.
+
+           3p.m.    29.76 -      79    70    -      In captain's cabin. Afternoon
+                                                    sultry. Wind Azyab, and from
+                                                    south. Seems to threaten a
+                                                    storm. Heavy clouds from west
+                                                    and north-west.
+
+  Mar. 20. 7a.m.    29.82 -      75    71    -      In captain's cabin. Sultry,
+                                                    "juicy" morning.
+
+           Noon.    29.75 -      76    70    -      Dark and cloudy. Cool wind
+                                                    from south-west.
+
+           4p.m.    29.80 -      76    68    -      In captain's cabin. Sultry
+                                                    air; no breeze; nasty and
+                                                    damp. Cloudy all over. A storm
+                                                    somewhere (Alexandria? Suez?).
+                                                    Swell on sea, breaking on
+                                                    south reef; comes from north-
+                                                    west. Weather looks like that
+                                                    of Europe.
+
+  About eight p.m. a cool draught from north. No moon or stars. Expect it to end
+  either in a gale or in heavy rain. It ended on morning of March 22nd, with a
+  fine north wind; and at 9.10 p.m. with slight earthquake.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "SINNÁR," DURING VOYAGE FROM SHARM
+  YÁHÁRR TO EL-WIJH, EL-HAURÁ, ETC., BETWEEN MARCH 21 AND MARCH 29, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hydg.   Remarks.
+                 Inches. (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+  STEAMING SOUTH.
+
+  Mar. 21. 7a.m.    29.76 -      75    71    -      In captain's cabin. Aneroid
+                                                    very low. Wind south-west.
+                                                    Ugly, gloomy weather.
+                                                    Mountains misty. Very slight
+                                                    roll in sea&mdash;became heavy in
+                                                    afternoon&mdash;mar vecchio (Bahr
+                                                    madfún). Bursts of half sun
+                                                    after nine a.m.
+
+           12.40p.m.29.84 -      77    71    -      Aneroid rising. At noon sea
+                                                    quite calm and oily. Shortly
+                                                    after, sea-breeze from west
+                                                    set in. About one p.m. made
+                                                    sail; rolling began. More sun.
+                                                    Sails down. At two p m.
+                                                    rolling heavy, cross sea (mar
+                                                    vecchio).
+
+           3.30p.m. 29.85 -      76    73    -      Damp increases.
+
+  After five p.m. sky clearer and weather finer, but still dark to south. Stars
+  veiled.
+
+  IN MARSÁ DUMAYGHAH.
+
+  Mar. 22. 6.15a.m. 29.92 -      73    66    -      In cabin. Morning cool. Wind
+                                                    north. Total change of
+                                                    weather. Sky clear, except
+                                                    cirri, and wind increased.
+                                                    White "horses" outside. All
+                                                    nature gay.
+
+           Noon.    30.01 -      79    65    -      In cabin. Damp disappeared.
+
+           3p.m.    30.90 -      74    64    -      Fine, strong, bright sea-
+                                                    breeze. North wind,
+                                                    threatening to blow hard.
+                                                    Cloudy and clear. Windy sky.
+
+  At 9.10 p.m. earthquake from north to south; lasted twenty seconds; followed
+  by strong north wind, which lasted only a short time. So end the Equinoctials.
+
+  Mar. 23. 6a.m.    30.00 -      70    61    -      At Dumayghah. In cabin.
+                                                    Glorious morning; cool, calm,
+                                                    bright. Zephyr from north. At
+                                                    noon a few wind-clouds and
+                                                    cirri to north and west. Very
+                                                    heavy rolling (mar vecchio)
+                                                    from north-west. Long waves.
+
+           3p.m.    29.98 -      74    65    -      At El-Wijh. Pleasant, cool
+                                                    north wind. Afternoon cloudy
+                                                    and cold, as if wind came
+                                                    through rain.
+
+  Cleared in the evening. Saw stars.
+
+  AT EL-WIJH, IN PORT.
+
+  Mar. 24. 5.45a.m. 29.94 -      71    68    -      In cabin. Grey, cloudy
+                                                    morning. No cold.
+
+           3p.m.    29.98 -      74    65    -      In cabin. Fine north breeze.
+                                                    Warm sun. Air cool. Wind-
+                                                    clouds to east; the rest blue.
+                                                    Sky wondrous clear.
+
+  At 4.30 p.m. left El-Wijh, and steamed nearly due south-west. Fine breeze and
+  long waves from north-west. Wind and waves fell. Rolled horridly from seven
+  p.m. to midnight: no ballast; very bad steering: then turned south-east, and
+  movement somewhat improved. Very heavy dew. Zodiacal light clear.
+
+  IN CABIN AT SEA.
+
+  Mar. 25. 7.30 a.m.30.04 -      73    68    -      Marvellous fine morning. Wind
+                                                    north. Glorious day.
+
+           12.15p.m.30.01 -      75    64    -      Near El-Haurá. Lovely day.
+                                                    Steady north breeze.
+
+           4p.m.    29.97 -      77    69    -
+
+  NEAR EL-HAURÁ.
+
+  Mar. 26  6a.m.    29.94 70     -     -     36     In cabin. Red morning, warm
+                                                    and still. Sea oily. Light
+                                                    mists. Venus throws shadow.
+                                                    Very heavy dew&mdash;all wet.
+
+           12.15p.m.29.91 -      74    70    -      Same place. Warm sun; cool
+                                                    breeze from north.
+
+           3.20p.m. 29.87 -      78    74    -      At sea. Cirri and wind-clouds
+                                                    to east and nearly everywhere.
+
+  Weather fine, yet glass falling. Damp air. Hence (possibly) many have colds,
+  coughs, and hoarseness. Wind-clouds, but clear to north. Dew very heavy.
+
+  RETURNING NORTH TO EL-WIJH.
+
+  Mar. 27. 7a.m.    29.87 -      73    68    -      In captain's cabin Dew-clouds
+                                                    everywhere. Air very damp.
+
+           11.45a.m.29.98 -      78    70    -      Air still and pleasant.
+
+           3p.m.    29.85 -      78    72    -      Day decidedly hot and damp.
+                                                    Aneroid very low.
+
+  Mar. 28. 6.30a.m. 29.89 -      70-1/2 68   -      In cabin. Dew wetted tents and
+                                                    decks like heavy shower. Sky
+                                                    all dew; air feels soppy.
+                                                    Violent wind from north-west.
+                                                    Ship rolling.
+
+           1p.m.    29.97 -      70-1/2 67   -
+
+  Mar. 29. 7a.m.    29.97 71     -     -     33     In cabin. Strong, cold north
+                                                    wind. Men coughing like cries
+                                                    of camels. Sky very clear.
+                                                    This kind of storm is called
+                                                    Hawwá el-'Uwwah ("last storm
+                                                    of March"), and blows fourteen
+                                                    days. Followed by El-Ni'ám el-
+                                                    Kabir ("greater"), and El-
+                                                    Saghir ("less"); continues
+                                                    forty days.
+
+           6p.m.    28.78 74     -     -     30     At Fort El-Wijh, two hours'
+                                                    journey up the valley.
+
+  Fine day on seaboard&mdash;not much gale. Wind north-west. Night cool, but no dew.
+       Ship's barometer,   6 a.m.,   30.7 Wind north-west. Ther. (F.) 64 deg.
+       Ship's barometer,   noon,     30.7 Wind north-west. Ther. (F.) 76 deg.
+       Ship's barometer,   3 p.m.,   30.7 Wind north-west. Ther. (F.) 76 deg.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING THIRD MARCH, FROM EL-WIJH TO EL-BADÁ AND BACK,
+  BETWEEN MARCH 30 AND APRIL 11, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Compared ship's (Sinnár) mercurial barometer, 30.07 (64 deg. F.), with
+  anerold, 30.01; difference, aneroid,&mdash;0.06.
+
+  On return compared ship's (Sinnár) mercurial barometer, 29.99, with aneroid,
+  29.86; difference, aneroid,&mdash;0.13.
+
+  Date.   Time.  Aneroid Ther. Dry   Wet  Hydg.   Remarks.
+                 Inches. (deg.)Bulb. Bulb.(deg.)
+
+  Mar. 30. 5.30a.m. 29.70 64     -     -     24     At Fort El-Wijh, on box before
+                                                    tent. Cold and cloudy morning.
+                                                    Moon and stars veiled.
+
+           Noon.    29.55 90     -     -     43     In camp at Umm el-Karáyát&mdash;
+                                                    deep valley. Puffs of sea-
+                                                    breeze from south. Strong sun.
+
+           3.15p.m. 29.50 86     -     -     29     In big tent at Umm el-Karáyát-
+                                                    -lat. 26 deg. 13'. Sun very
+                                                    hot. Fresh and strong sea-
+                                                    breeze from east (?).
+
+  Cool and pleasant night. No sign of dew. Climate healthy. Garrison at Fort El-
+  Wijh in excellent condition.
+
+  Mar. 31. 5a.m.    29.44 45     -     -     19     In big tent at Umm el-Karáyát.
+                                                    Very clear, still morning.
+                                                    West pink. At sunrise wind,
+                                                    and hot and cold puffs (south-
+                                                    east and land-breeze).
+
+           11.10p.m.29.46 90     -     -     -3     At Wady el-Kubbah, under tree.
+                                                    Very hot. Wind shifting from
+                                                    east to west (sea-breeze).
+                                                    Stones in sun so hot that they
+                                                    cannot be held. At noon
+                                                    regular Khamsin; air sandy.
+
+  Top of Jebel el-Kubbah, aneroid 29.34; in valley below, aneroid 29.46 (47?);
+  height, 120 feet.
+
+           3p.m.    29.30 94     -     -     -20    At Máyat el-Dasnah. Hot west
+                                                    wind. Thermometer in big tent,
+                                                    unwalled.
+
+  Night cool.
+
+  April 1.  "       29.30 63     -     -     -12    At Máyat el-Dasnah. Morning
+                                                    pleasant, still, and quite
+                                                    clear. No sign of dew or
+                                                    Khamsin. Hygrometer
+                                                    exceedingly dry. Sun rose hot.
+                                                    Slight breeze from eight a.m.
+                                                    to 8.30 a.m., when the rocks
+                                                    and stones have become
+                                                    thoroughly heated. Very
+                                                    refreshing: cools head; stops
+                                                    perspiration.
+
+           9.30a.m. 28.96 83     -     -     -10    At foot of Marú Rábigh, in
+                                                    shade of rock.
+
+           12.30p.m.28.92 99     -     -     -8     At Marú Rábigh, under big tent
+                                                    awning. About noon a medley of
+                                                    winds; hot blasts of Khamsin
+                                                    from south-west, suddenly
+                                                    changed to north.
+
+           3p.m.    28.88 100    -     -     -25    At Marú Rábigh. Hot sun. Wind
+                                                    in puffs, mostly south-west.
+                                                    No sand in air. Stones in
+                                                    sunshine too hot to hold; yet
+                                                    there are flies.
+
+  This is second day of Khamsin. Comes up about ten a.m.; wind either too much
+  or too little. At 2.5 p.m. nearly blew tent down.
+
+  April 2. 5.10a.m. 28.98 70     -     -     -6     At foot of Marú Rubayyigh in
+                                                    Wady Rábigh. Morning perfectly
+                                                    still. All appearance of
+                                                    Khamsin. Light horizontal
+                                                    striae to north.
+
+           Noon.    29.15 92     -     -     -18    At Abú Gezáz valley, under
+                                                    tree. Much bothered by small
+                                                    flies.
+
+           3.10p.m. 29.14 100    -     -     -25    In big tent, which was again
+                                                    blown down.
+
+  Third day of Khamsin. All animals weak and worn out. Wind comes up later&mdash;
+  11.30 a.m. to noon. Gives feeling of faintness and awful thirst. "Devils"
+  (Zawábah) rose high in valley with electrical whirl. Evening lowering. Wind or
+  rain clouds from west and north. Night still and cool. Threatening clouds east
+  and west.
+
+  April 3. 5a.m.    29.20 65     -     -     -13    At Abú Gezáz valley. Morning
+                                                    cool (sign Khamsin gone). Sun
+                                                    pleasant. Red wind-clouds to
+                                                    north and east. At six a.m.
+                                                    pleasant, cool land-breeze
+                                                    from south.
+
+           Noon.    28.80 90     -     -     -16    At El-Badá, under palm-tree.
+                                                    Wind west. Milky sky, all
+                                                    white.
+
+           3p.m.    28.75 95     -     -     -24    In big tent. Regular Khamsin&mdash;
+                                                    very nasty. Clouds to west.
+
+  Night still. Neither warm nor cool. climate fine. Colds and coughs
+  disappeared.
+
+  AT EL-BADÁ.
+
+  April 4. 5.30a.m. 28.70 68     -     -     -7     On box outside tent. Traces of
+                                                    dew. White clouds. Looked
+                                                    regularly like a Khamsin day.
+
+           Noon.    28.74 90     -     -     2      In big tent. No sun. Air
+                                                    muggy. White gleams. View
+                                                    poor; like rain. Strong blast
+                                                    from south-west. Heavy clouds
+                                                    west and north. Drops of rain
+                                                    fell three times between one
+                                                    p.m. and three p.m.
+
+           3p.m.    28.70 90     -     -     -8
+
+  At four p.m. in west a dust like general or prairie fire. A few drops of rain
+  fell at long intervals&mdash;could not catch any for photographs. Broad parallel
+  veins of white, red, and black cloud rising from east to west. Puffs of cold
+  wind came on, soon growing to blasts; then storm came down upon us. No thunder
+  or lightning. Kind of "dust-bow" in west (no rain), half the arc. Wind then
+  turned north and felt cold and rainy. Heavy cloud-bank to west. Forms of
+  mountains crept out of the brown and purple mist, half dust, half rain. All
+  enjoyed storm. No rain for two years has fallen here. Rainbows at El-'Akabah
+  (double) and at Shuwák (single). Cool and pleasant night, with dew. Mean of
+  six aneroid observations at El-Badá, 28.78. After leaving El-Badá mornings and
+  evenings delightful; sun warm in day; nights cool and pleasant. Dust at times.
+
+  April 5. 4.30a.m. 28.65 -      -     -     -8     In big tent at Badá. Dust
+                                                    "devils." Great change after
+                                                    rain. Very damp.
+
+           3p.m.    28.58 86     -     -     -3     At 'Ayn el-Kurr, under shade
+                                                    of rock. Strong north wind.
+
+  Though all prophesied Azyab or "south-easter," this was perhaps the finest of
+  all our days. Night cool. Cold wind at one a.m., of which all complained.
+
+  April 6. 5.45a.m. 28.59 58     -     -     6      At 'Ayn el-Kurr, on box
+                                                    outside tent. White clouds to
+                                                    south. No wind. False sea-
+                                                    breeze at seven a.m.; true at
+                                                    ten a.m. Cloudy forenoon.
+
+           11.45a.m.28.90 84     -     -     -    In Wady el-Kurr.
+
+           3p.m.    28.87 87     -     -     -3     At Wady Laylah, in big tent.
+                                                    Afternoon windy as usual.
+                                                    Puffs from west (sea-breeze),
+                                                    cold. Sky quite clear.
+                                                    Mountains milky.
+
+  Night cool, but not cold.
+
+  April 7. 4.15a.m. 28.80 60     -     -     +5     In big tent at Wady Laylah.
+                                                    Morning especially bright.
+                                                    Lucifer like a little moon.
+                                                    Breeze at eight a.m.
+
+           Noon.    29.39 54     -     -     +2     Wady Birkat, under rock. Going
+                                                    down seawards fast. Cool west
+                                                    wind. Good sea-breeze. Sky and
+                                                    sun clear&mdash;sun not unpleasant.
+                                                    Hot in sheltered bends.
+
+           3.10p.m. 29.46 81     -     -      4     At Abál-Ajáj, under tamarisks.
+
+  Dew at night.
+
+  April 8. 5a.m.    29.55 60     -      -    27     Outside tent at Abál-Ajáj.
+                                                    Cool morning; warmer at eight
+                                                    a.m. before breeze set in.
+
+           Noon.    29.94 83     -     -     22     At the temple (El-Gasr), Wady
+                                                    Hamz. Sand-dust with sea-
+                                                    breeze, terrible at temple and
+                                                    around it. Eyes filled,
+                                                    clothes covered. Saw mirage&mdash;
+                                                    well defined for first time.
+
+           3p.m.    29.90 52     -     -     20     At Wady Hamz. Hygrometer damp
+                                                    on account of sea-breeze.
+
+  April 9. 4a.m.    29.92 70     -     -     25     Still, clear, and beautiful,
+                                                    like all these mornings. Hot
+                                                    sun. Blue sea, glassy near the
+                                                    shore. Puffs of wind from
+                                                    east.
+
+           Noon.    29.90 96     -     -     -8     In big tent at Wady Mismáh.
+                                                    Cool breeze from north-cast.
+                                                    Heat strongly reflected from
+                                                    quartz. Vegetation dreadfully
+                                                    dry; plants look dead. Two bad
+                                                    years.
+
+           3p.m.    29.74 92     -     -     -18    In big tent at Abál-Marú.
+                                                    Another nasty afternoon. High
+                                                    west wind&mdash;sea-breeze, not
+                                                    Khamsin; tent almost blown
+                                                    down. Dust dreadful.
+
+  Evening charming. Night admirably cool.
+
+  April 10 4.20a.m. 29.74 -      -     -     0      In big tent at Abál-Marú.
+                                                    Splendid morning; few striae
+                                                    in east. Will be hot.
+
+           4.30p.m. 29.95 -      76    73    -      On board Sinnár, captain's
+                                                    cabin. Pleasant afternoon.
+                                                    Cool sea-breeze.
+
+  ON BOARD "SINNÁR."
+
+  April 11.6a.m.    29.86 -      70    66    -      In captain's cabin. Felt damp
+                                                    strongly after the Desert.
+
+           12.30p.m.29.87 -      78    74    -      All complaining of heat (white
+                                                    heat); damp is the cause. No
+                                                    sea-breeze to speak of.
+
+           3.15p.m. 29.83 -      79    75    -      White clouds everywhere.
+                                                    Curious wind-clouds, not a
+                                                    little like comets.
+
+  Heavy dew. Streets of El-Wijh wet.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STREAMER "SINNÁR," EN ROUTE FROM EL-WIJH TO
+  SUEZ, FROM APRIL 12 TO APRIL 17, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Date.     Time.     Aneroid  Dry   Wet    Remarks.
+                      Inches.  Bulb. Bulb.
+
+  April 12. 6.20 a.m.  29.89   78    73        En route to El-Muwaylah, captain's
+                                               cabin. Red sunrise. Clouds thin all
+                                               about horizon. Looks like regular
+                                               Khamsin day. Feels exceedingly damp.
+
+            12.20 p.m. 20.80   79    70        In dead calm. Sea oily, like mirror.
+                                               No winds. Thin white clouds
+                                               everywhere.
+
+            3.35 p.m.  29.78   81    76        In captain's cabin. Wretched day at
+                                               El-Wijh and ashore. Very muggy.
+
+  At night a "bruch" (halo) of clouds round moon, and far from it.  Expect
+  storm. "Bruchs" round moon on 13th, 14th, and 15th.
+
+  April 13. Noon.      29.84   78    70        Anchored before El-Muwaylah. No dew
+                                               in morning, and clouds everywhere.
+                                               No sun seen. Very hot at noon. White
+                                               clouds everywhere. Smoke of steamer
+                                               hangs low. Mountains look very high.
+                                               Muggy. Fine drinkytite.
+
+            3 p.m.     29.80   83    73        At Sharm Yáhárr. Hot and sweaty.
+                                               Light west wind rose after noon;
+                                               soon fell.
+
+  At night clouds and "bruch."  Clear to north, thick to south.
+
+  April 14. 6.30 a.m.  29.82   78    72        At Sharm Yáhárr.  Nasty muggy
+                                               morning. Light north breeze set in.
+
+            12.40 p.m. 29.88   82    75
+
+            3 p.m.     29.85   83    76        Warm and cloudy.
+
+  Weather threatening. The same storm that found us at Makná last year.
+
+  April 15.  "         -       -     -         Water flooded pier, and waves broke
+                                               on shore.
+
+  April 16.  "         -       -     -         Ran to El-Muwaylah. Had to return to
+                                               Sharm Yáhárr. Furious wind from west
+                                               (Gharbi) began about nine a.m.
+
+  April 17. Noon.      29.98   77    65        In captain's cabin, Sharm Yáhárr.
+
+            3 p.m.     29.92   76    65
+
+  Wind changed to north.  Weather became cool and pleasant. Gale still, but
+  shows signs of abating.
+
+  On April 18th weather somewhat abated. Stopped at El-Mawaylah to drop Sayyid
+  'Abd el-Rahim; and steamed off for Suez, where we arrived on 20th.  Voyage
+  very slow in teeth of north wind. Yet at Suez had had south wind for some
+  days, and congratulated us upon the fact.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN BY MR. DAVID DUGUID, BETWEEN JANUARY 8 AND FEBRUARY 1, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  (He used the French aneroide and the Centigrade thermometer bought at Cairo.)
+
+  Date.     Time.     Aneroid      Thermometer  Remarks.
+                      Millimetres. Centigrade.
+                                   (deg.)
+
+  Jan. 8.   Noon.     768          25           At Sharmá camp.
+
+  Jan. 9.   Noon.     768          25           Ditto.
+
+  Jan. 10.  Noon.     761          26           Ditto.
+
+  Jan. 11.  Noon.     763          19           Ditto.
+
+  Jan. 12.  Noon.     763          19           Ditto.
+
+  Jan. 13.  Noon.     760          30           Ditto. Very hot.
+
+  Jan. 14.  Daylight  760          20
+             (?)      755          25           Very hot.
+            8 p.m.    758          23
+
+  Jan. 15.   (?)      757          21
+             (?)      757          25           Hot.
+            Nightfall 759          20
+
+  Jan. 16.  Daylight  762          18           Mr. Duguid marched from Sharmá to El-Muwaylah.
+
+  Jan. 17.  Sunset.   768          25           On board Mukhbir at Sharm Yáhárr.
+
+  Jan. 18.  Sunrise.  766          22           On board Mukhbir.
+             (?)      766          23           Ditto.
+            Sunset.   764          28           Ditto. Hot.
+
+  ON BOARD.
+
+  Jan. 19.  Sunrise.  763          21
+            Noon.     762          25
+            Sunset.   763          25
+
+  Jan. 20.  Sunrise.  761          21
+            Noon.     762          25
+            Nightfall 762          28           Hot
+
+  Jan. 21.  Sunrise.  763          23           Bad weather at Sharm Yáhárr.
+            Noon.     763          24
+            Sunset.   767          25
+
+  Jan. 22.  Sunrise.  769          19           Mukhbir delayed by bad weather.
+            Noon.     768          24
+
+  Jan. 24.  Noon.     767          24
+
+  Mr. Duguid steamed out of Yáhárr for Makná. Anchored off Sináfir Island.
+
+  Jan. 25.  Sunrise.  767          23           Reached Makná.
+            Noon.     766          24
+            Sunset.   765          25
+
+  Jan. 26.  Sunrise.  764          23           On board Mukhbir.
+            Noon.     763          27
+            Sunset.   763          29
+
+  Jan. 27.  Sunrise.  765          22           Ditto.
+            Noon.     763          23
+            Sunset.   763          27
+
+  Jan. 28.  Sunrise.  763          21           Ditto.
+            Noon.     762          24
+            Sunset.   762          22
+
+  Jan. 29.  Sunrise.  763          20           Ditto.
+            Noon.     762          22
+            Sunset.   762          23
+
+  Jan. 30.  Sunrise.  766          20           Ditto.
+            Noon.     764          24
+            Sunset.   765          24
+
+  Jan. 31.  Sunrise.  765          22           Ditto.
+            Noon.     764          23
+            Sunset.   764          23
+
+  Feb. 1.   Sunrise.  765          21           Ditto.
+            Noon.     764          22
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "MUKHBIR," BY MR DAVID DUGUID (DURING OUR SECOND
+  JOURNEY), BETWEEN FEBRUARY 18 AND MARCH 8, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Date.     Time.     Aneroid      Thermometer   Remarks.
+                      Millimetres. Centigrade.
+                                   (deg.)
+
+  Feb. 18.  7 a.m.     764           18          Clear sky. Light breeze.
+            Noon.      763           23          Same weather.
+            5 p.m.     764           23          Clear sky. Good breeze.
+
+  Feb. 19.  7 a.m.     764           20          Clear sky. Light wind.
+            Noon.      764           23          Light wind. Few clouds in east.
+            5 p.m.     764           24          Clear sky. Light wind.
+
+  Feb. 20.  7 a.m.     765           20          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+            Noon.      765           21          Clear sky. Light north-west wind.
+            5 p.m.     764           23          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+
+  Feb. 21.  7 a.m.     765           20          White clouds all round. Light east wind.
+            Noon.      766           23          Few clouds to south. Light north-west wind.
+
+  Feb. 22.  7 a.m.     765           20          Few clouds to east. Light west wind.
+            Noon.      764           22          Few clouds to east. Good north-west breeze.
+            5 p.m.     764           22          Few clouds to west. Light north wind.
+
+  Feb. 23.  7 a.m.     764           19          Clouds to south-west. No wind.
+            Noon.      765           21          Clouds to east. Light north-west wind.
+            5 p.m.     765           22          Few clouds to east. Light north-west wind.
+
+  Feb. 24.  7 a.m.     767           19          Clear sky. No wind.
+            Noon.      768           22          Clear sky. Light north wind.
+            5 p.m.     768           24          Same weather.
+
+  Feb. 25   7 a.m.     769           20          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+            Noon.      769           22          Clear sky. Light west wind.
+            5 p.m.     768           24          Clear sky. No wind.
+
+  Feb. 26.  7 a.m.     766           20          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+            5 p.m.     766           20          Same weather.
+
+  Feb. 27.  7 a.m.     762           20          Few clouds to south. Light north-east wind.
+            Noon.      762           23          Clear sky. Light north wind.
+            5 p.m.     761           25          Clear sky. Light west wind.
+
+  Feb. 28.  5.p.m.     764           23          Heavy clouds to west. Strong west wind.
+
+  Mar. 1.   7 a.m.     767           20          Few clouds in south. Light north wind.
+            Noon.      767           23          Clear sky. Good north-west breeze.
+            5 p.m.     765           22          Few clouds to west. Light wind from west.
+
+  Mar. 2.   7 a.m.     765           20          Clouds all round. Light east wind.
+            Noon.      765           23          Clouds all round. Light west wind.
+            5 p.m.     764           24          Clouds all round. Light north wind.
+
+  Mar. 3.   7 a.m.     762           20          Few clouds to east. No wind.
+            Noon.      763           22          Few clouds to south. Good north-west breeze.
+            5 p.m.     763           23          Few clouds to north. Good west breeze.
+
+  Mar. 4.   7 a.m.     767           21          Clear sky. Light breeze from east.
+            Noon.      768           23          Clear sky. Light breeze from west.
+            5 p.m.     767           24          Clear sky. Light breeze from north.
+
+  Mar. 5.   7 a.m.     764           20          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+            Noon.      764           22          Clear sky. Good breeze from east.
+            5 p.m.     762           25          Light clouds all round. North-west wind.
+
+  Mar. 6.   7 a.m.     763           20          Heavy clouds to east. Light east wind.
+            Noon.      763           23          A few clouds to east. Light west wind.
+            5 p.m.     762           24             Dark clouds all round.  Strong west wind. At ten
+                                          p.m. gale from west, with some flashes of
+                                          lightning.
+
+  Mar. 7.   7 a.m.     766           19          Clouds to south. Wind north.
+            Noon.      767           23          Clear sky. Good breeze from north-west.
+            5 p.m.     766           24          Clear sky. Wind north.
+
+  Mar. 8.   7 a.m.     763           19          Clear sky. Light east wind.
+            Noon.      763           23          Clear sky. Light west wind.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "MUKHBIR," BY MR. DAVID DUGUID (DURING OUR WEEK IN EL-
+  SHÁRR), BETWEEN MARCH 13 AND MARCH 19, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Date.     Time.     Aneroid      Thermometer    Remarks.
+                      Millimetres. Centigrade.
+                                   (deg.)
+
+  Mar. 13.  6 a.m.     762           25           Clear sky. Good breeze. Wind west.
+            Noon.      761           26           Clear sky. Light breeze. Wind west.
+
+  Mar. 14.  6 a.m.     762           21           Light clouds all over. Wind east. Light breeze.
+            Noon.      764           24           Same cloudy weather, but wind from east (?).
+            3 p.m.     763           26           Light clouds all round. Wind west and light.
+
+  Mar. 15.  6 a.m.     762           21           A few clouds to south. Wind east and light.
+            Noon.      761           26             Light clouds all round. Moderate breeze from
+                                                    west.
+            3 p.m.     760           27-1/2       Same weather.
+
+  Mar. 16.  6 a.m.     760           24           A few clouds to south. Light east wind.
+            Noon.      760           26           Clear sky. Wind south-west. Light breeze.
+            3 p.m.     759           29           Clear sky. Wind west. Very light breeze.
+
+  Mar. 17.  6 a.m.     759           24           Clear sky. Light breeze from east.
+            Noon.      760           26           Clear sky. Wind west. Very light breeze.
+            3 p.m.     760           27           Same weather.
+
+  Mar. 18.  6 a.m.     760           23           Same weather, by wind west.
+            Noon.       -             -           Clear sky. Wind west. Very light breeze.
+
+  Mar. 19.  6 a.m.     759           23           Few clouds to north. Wind east, and very light.
+            Noon.      758           19           Clouds to north-west. Good breeze from west.
+            3 p.m.     758           29           Clouds all round. Wind south-west. Good breeze.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  OBSERVATIONS TAKEN ON BOARD SCREW-STEAMER "SINNÁR," BY CAPTAIN NÁSIR AHMED, BETWEEN MARCH 29 AND
+  APRIL 10, 1878.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  Date.     Time.   Mercurial    Thermometer.   Remarks.
+                    Barometer.   Fahr.
+
+  Mar. 29.  6 a.m.   30.7         64
+            Noon.    30.7         76
+            3 p.m.   30.7         76
+
+  Mar. 30.  6 a.m.   30.00        61            White clouds to north-east. Wind north-east.
+            Noon.    30.05        77
+            3 p.m.   30.00        80            Air very damp from noon to sunset. Wind west.
+
+  Mar. 31.  6 a.m.   29.9         63            Wind north-east. Never saw barometer so low.
+            Noon.    30.00        80            Dry and fine.
+            3 p.m.   29.98        82
+
+  April 1.  6 a.m.   29.94        66            Wind east. Fine day.
+            Noon.    29.95        83
+            3 p.m.   29.92        83            Damp from noon to sunset.
+
+  April 2.  6 a.m.   29.90        68            Wind east. Fine day.
+            Noon.    30.00        80            Damp.
+            3 p.m.   29.90        81            Red clouds at sunset.
+
+  Gale of wind at El-Wijh from north-east, began at seven p.m. Ship under shelter. Rain for half
+  an hour.
+
+  April 3.  6 a.m.   30.00        69            Wind north.
+            Noon.    30.20        80            Damp.
+            3 p.m.   30.00        79            Wind north-west at sunset.
+
+  April 4.  6 a.m.   30.00        73            Wind north-west.
+            Noon.    30.03        76            Wind north-west all day.
+            3 p.m.   30.00        77
+
+  Storm on seaboard. Heavy clouds, wind, and gale all day from north-west. Sinnár rolling.
+
+  April 5.  6 a.m.   29.93        66            Wind north-west.
+            Noon.    30.00        76            Wind north-west.
+            3 p.m.   30.00        75            Fine day.
+
+  April 6.  6 a.m.   29.93        62            Wind north.
+            Noon.    30.00        74            Wind north-west.
+            3 p.m.   30.00        74            Same weather.
+
+  April 7.  6 a.m.   29.94        64            Wind north.
+            Noon.    30.00        79            Fine day.
+            3 p.m.   30.00        76            Wind north-west from noon to sunset. Fine weather.
+
+  April 8.  6 a.m.   30.02        61            Wind east.
+            Noon.    30.04        73            Fine day.
+            3 p.m.   30.04        78            From noon to sunset, fine but damp.
+
+  April 9.  6 a.m.   30.04        68            Wind east.
+            Noon.    30.06        77
+            3 p.m.   30.06        81            Damp from noon to sunset.
+
+  April 10. 6 a.m.   30.06        64            Wind north. Fine day. Damp and north-west wind
+                                         from noon to sunset.
+
+  CAIRO.
+
+  Reaching Cairo, I found Dr. T. E. Maclean from Thebes, with good instruments. He kindly compared
+  mine with his, and gave me the following results:&mdash;The difference between my aneroid (Casella)
+  and his is very slight, varying generally from 0.05 to -0.10. He advises me to neglect this
+  slight difference. The dry bulb is, on the whole, a little higher than his; and we have not
+  sufficient observations for the wet bulb. The pocket thermometer wants correction; it reads from
+  +1 deg. to +2 deg. 15'.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  LIST OF OBSERVATIONS.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  N&amp;Z = Negretti and Zambra
+  No obs. = No observation.
+
+  Date.     Time.     N&amp;Z's    My       Differ-   Casellás  Differ-  N&amp;Z's     Casellás  Differ- N&amp;Z's  Casellás  Differ-
+  (1878)              standard Casella. ence for  portable  ence for dry bulb. dry bulb. ence.   wet    wet       ence for
+                      aneroid.          correc-   thermo-   correc-  No.                         bulb.  bulb.     correc-
+                      No.1140.          tions.    meter     tions.   39,518.                                      tions.
+                                                  (deg.).
+
+  April 28. 12.30p.m. No obs.  No obs.     -      91        -1.6       89.4      90.0     -0.6   71.75  71.0      +0.75
+            3p.m.     No obs.  No obs.     -      84        -2.1       81.9      82.5     -0.6   69.0   69.0       0.0
+            6.30p.m.  No obs.  No obs.     -      73        -2.5       70.5      71.0     -0.5   61.0   61.0       0.0
+
+  April 29. 9a.m.     No obs.  No obs.     -      69        -2.4       66.6      67.0     -0.4   59.1   59.0      +0.1
+            11.30p.m. 29.796   29.850   -.054     77.5      -2.0       75.5      76.0     -0.5   63.5   64.0      -0.5
+            3p.m.     29.755   29.752   +.003     77.5      -1.5       76.0      76.0      0.0   62.75  62.0      -0.75
+
+  April 30. 9a.m.     29.828   29.850   -.022     67.5      -2.15      65.0      66.0     -1.0   59.5   60.5      -1.0
+            12.30p.m. 29.822   29.850   -.028     76        -1.5       74.5      75.0     -0.5   63.75  63.5      +0.25
+            3p.m.     29.799   29.802   -.003     77        -2.0       75.0      73.5     -0.5   64.0   58.0      +1.5
+
+  May 1.    9a.m.     29.959   30.100   -.141     66.5      -1.75      64.75     65.5     -0.75  57.5   58.0      -0.5
+            12.30p.m. 29.945   29.952   -.007     76        -2.5       73.5      74.5     -1.0   61.5   62.0      -0.5
+            3p.m.     29.984   29.902   +.082     77.5      -1.75      75.75     76.5     -0.75  61.75  61.5      +0.25
+
+  May 2.    9a.m.     30.051   30.102   -.051     66        -1.25      64.75     65.0     -0.25  58.0   58.5      -0.5
+            12.30p.m. 29.978   30.000   -.022     78        -2.0       76.0      76.0      0.0   63.0   66.5      -2.5
+            3p.m.     29.936   29.950   -.014     78        -1.5       76.5      No obs.   -     63.75  No obs.    -
+
+  May 3.    9a.m.     29.961   29.952   +.009     71.5      -1.5       70.0      No obs.   -     58.5   No obs.    -
+            12.30p.m. 29.880   29.900   -.020     83        -2.5       80.5      81.0     -0.5   63.23  62.0      +1.25
+            3p.m.     29.820   29.850   -.030     83        -1.1       81.9      82.5     -0.6   62.0   62.5      -0.5
+
+  May 4.    9a.m.     29.716   29.750   -.024     71.5      -1.25      70.25     71.0     -0.75  63.25  63.0      +0.25
+            12.30p.m. 29.679   29.700   -.021     89.5      -1.25      87.75     88.0     -0.25  70.25  69.5      +0.75
+            3.30p.m.  29.617   29.650   -.033     89.5      -1.0       88.5      89.0     -0.5   70.0   69.0      +1.0
+
+  May 5.    9.30a.m.  29.586   29.600   -.014     76.5      -1.5       75.0      No obs.    -    No obs.No obs.    -
+            12.30p.m. No obs.  No obs.   -        83        -2.0       81.0      82.0     -1.0   69.75  68.5      +1.25
+            3p.m.     29.603   29.602   -.001     82        -1.5       80.5      81.0     -0.5   69.0   67.0      +2.0
+
+  May 6.    9a.m.     29.780   29.800   -.020     70        -1.75      68.25     69.0     -0.75  63.0   63.0       0.0
+            12.30p.m. 29.785   29.800   -.015     77        -2.0       75.0      76.0     -1.0   65.25  65.0      +0.25
+            3p.m.     29.778   29.800   -.022     79        -2.0       77.0      77.5     -0.5   67.5   66.0      +1.5
+
+  May 7.    9a.m.     29.854   29.850   +.004     67        -2.0       65.0      66.0     -1.0   60.75  61.0      -0.25
+            12.30p.m. 29.822   29.802   -.020     80.5      -1.5       79.0      79.0      0.0   66.0   65.0      +1.0
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_FOOT" id="link2H_FOOT"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      FOOTNOTES:
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ The word is explained in my
+      "Itineraries," part ii. sect. 3.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ See Appendix IV. "Botanical
+      Notes."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ "Opens," i.e. the door for
+      a higher price: it is the usual formula of refusing to sell.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. XVI.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ The Saturday Review, in a
+      courteous notice of my first volume (May 25, 1878), has the following
+      remarks:&mdash;"The Arabs talk of some (?) Nazarenes, and a 'King of the
+      Franks,' having built the stone huts and the tombs in a neighbouring
+      cemetery ('Aynúnah). But there can be no local tradition worth repeating
+      in this instance." Here we differ completely; and those will agree with me
+      who know how immutable and, in certain cases, imperishable Arab tradition
+      is. The reviewer, true, speaks of North Midian, where all the tribes,
+      except the Beni 'Ukbah, are new. Yet legend can survive the destruction
+      and disappearance of a race: witness the folk-traditions of the
+      North-Eastern Italians and the adjacent Slavs. Here, however, in South
+      Midian we have an ancient race, the Baliyy. And what strengthens the
+      Christian legend is that it is known to man, woman, and child throughout
+      the length and breadth of the land.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ In Sinai "Shinnár" is also
+      applied to a partridge, but I am unable to distinguish the species&mdash;caccabis,
+      Desert partridge, (Ammoperdix heyi, the Arab Hajl), or the black partridge
+      (Francolinus vulgaris).]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. IX. has already
+      noticed Ptolemy's short measure.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. XVII.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ Helix desertorum (Forsk.)
+      and Helix (sp. incert.)]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ See "The Gold Mines of
+      Midian,'' Chap. II.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ So in Moab the ruins of
+      "Méron" or Mérou of the Greeks has degenerated into Umm Rasás, "the Mother
+      of Lead."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ Their names will be given
+      in Chap. XIII.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-13" id="linknote-13"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      13 (<a href="#linknoteref-13">return</a>)<br /> [ A. G., p. 24. See "The
+      Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. XI. Sprenger spells the word either with a
+      Zád or a Zá: I have discussed the question in my "Itineraries," part ii.
+      sect. 4.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-14" id="linknote-14"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      14 (<a href="#linknoteref-14">return</a>)<br /> [ See the end of this
+      Chapter for a list.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-15" id="linknote-15"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      15 (<a href="#linknoteref-15">return</a>)<br /> [ See Chap. XIV.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-16" id="linknote-16"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      16 (<a href="#linknoteref-16">return</a>)<br /> [ "Irwin's Voyage," 1777.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-17" id="linknote-17"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      17 (<a href="#linknoteref-17">return</a>)<br /> [ This was probably a
+      misprint originally, but it has been repeated in subsequent editions.
+      Hence it imposed upon even such careful workmen as the late Lieutenant
+      Henry Raper, "The Practice of Navigation," etc., p. 527, 6th edition.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-18" id="linknote-18"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      18 (<a href="#linknoteref-18">return</a>)<br /> [ See an excellent
+      description of the phenomenon in that honest and courageous work, "Through
+      Bosnia and the Herzegovina on Foot," by Arthur J. Evans, B.A., F.S.A.
+      London: Longmans, 1877.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-19" id="linknote-19"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      19 (<a href="#linknoteref-19">return</a>)<br /> [ There is, however,
+      nothing to prevent its being eaten.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-20" id="linknote-20"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      20 (<a href="#linknoteref-20">return</a>)<br /> [ See Chap. X.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-21" id="linknote-21"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      21 (<a href="#linknoteref-21">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. X.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-22" id="linknote-22"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      22 (<a href="#linknoteref-22">return</a>)<br /> [ Not to be confounded with
+      the luguminous "Tanúb" mentioned by Forskâl ("Flora," etc., p. 197).]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-23" id="linknote-23"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      23 (<a href="#linknoteref-23">return</a>)<br /> [ The word classically
+      means the cypress or the juniper-tree: in Jeremiah, where it occurs twice
+      (xvii. 6 and xlviii. 6), the Authorized Version renders it by "heath." It
+      is now generally translated "savin" (Juniperus sabina), a shrub whose
+      purple berries have a strong turpentine flavour. When shall we have a
+      reasonable version of Hebrew Holy Writ, which will retain the original
+      names of words either untranslatable or to be translated only by
+      guess-work?]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-24" id="linknote-24"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      24 (<a href="#linknoteref-24">return</a>)<br /> [ In Cairo generally called
+      Espadrilles, and sold for 1.25 francs. Nothing punishes the feet at these
+      altitudes so much as leather, black leather.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-25" id="linknote-25"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      25 (<a href="#linknoteref-25">return</a>)<br /> [ The explorers laid this
+      down at a few hundred feet. But they judged from the eye; and probably
+      they did not sight the true culmination. Unfortunately, and by my fault,
+      they were not provided with an aneroid.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-26" id="linknote-26"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      26 (<a href="#linknoteref-26">return</a>)<br /> [ See Chap. V.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-27" id="linknote-27"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      27 (<a href="#linknoteref-27">return</a>)<br /> [ For the usual
+      interpretations see Chapter I. The Egyptians, like other nations, often
+      apply their own names, which have a meaning, to the older terms which have
+      become unintelligible. Thus, near Cairo, the old goddess, Athor el-Núbí
+      ("of the Gold"), became Asr el-Nabi ("the Footprint of the Apostle").]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-28" id="linknote-28"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      28 (<a href="#linknoteref-28">return</a>)<br /> [ "The Gold-Mines of
+      Midian," Chap. XI.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-29" id="linknote-29"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      29 (<a href="#linknoteref-29">return</a>)<br /> [ See Chap. XI.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-30" id="linknote-30"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      30 (<a href="#linknoteref-30">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. XII.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-31" id="linknote-31"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      31 (<a href="#linknoteref-31">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap XV.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-32" id="linknote-32"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      32 (<a href="#linknoteref-32">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. XV.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-33" id="linknote-33"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      33 (<a href="#linknoteref-33">return</a>)<br /> [ Vol. ii. Chap. X. I have
+      also quoted him in "The Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. VI.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-34" id="linknote-34"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      34 (<a href="#linknoteref-34">return</a>)<br /> [ My "Pilgrimage" (Vol. I.
+      Chap. XI.) called it "Sherm Damghah": it is the "Demerah" of Moresby and
+      the "Demeg" of 'Ali Bey el-'Abbási (the unfortunate Spaniard Badia).]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-35" id="linknote-35"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      35 (<a href="#linknoteref-35">return</a>)<br /> [ See "The Gold-Mines of
+      Midian," Chap. VII.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-36" id="linknote-36"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      36 (<a href="#linknoteref-36">return</a>)<br /> [ The old being the
+      classical (Iambia Vicus), in north lat. 24°. This is Yambú' el-Nakhil, in
+      Ptolemy's time a seaport, now fifteen miles to the north-east (north lat.
+      24° 12' 3"?) of the modern town. The latter lies in north lat. 24° 5' 30"
+      (Wellsted, ii. II), and, according to the Arabs, six hours' march from the
+      sea.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-37" id="linknote-37"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      37 (<a href="#linknoteref-37">return</a>)<br /> [ Vol. I. pp. 364, 365.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-38" id="linknote-38"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      38 (<a href="#linknoteref-38">return</a>)<br /> [ "The Gold-Mines of
+      Midian," Chap. IX.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-39" id="linknote-39"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      39 (<a href="#linknoteref-39">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. VI. describes one
+      of the sporadic (?) outcrops near Tayyib Ism; and Chap. IX notices the
+      apparently volcanic sulphur-mount near El-Muwaylah.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-40" id="linknote-40"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      40 (<a href="#linknoteref-40">return</a>)<br /> [ See Chap. IX.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-41" id="linknote-41"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      41 (<a href="#linknoteref-41">return</a>)<br /> [ "The Gold-Mines of
+      Midian," Chap. XII.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-42" id="linknote-42"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      42 (<a href="#linknoteref-42">return</a>)<br /> [ See "The Gold-Mines of
+      Midian," Chap. VIII.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-43" id="linknote-43"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      43 (<a href="#linknoteref-43">return</a>)<br /> [ "Pilgrimage," Vol. I.
+      Chap. XI.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-44" id="linknote-44"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      44 (<a href="#linknoteref-44">return</a>)<br /> [ In "The Gold Mines of
+      Midian" (Chap. IV.) I unconsciously re-echoed the voice of the vulgar
+      about "the harbour being bad and the water worse" at El-Wijh.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-45" id="linknote-45"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      45 (<a href="#linknoteref-45">return</a>)<br /> [ This style of writing
+      reminds me of the inch allah (Inshallah!) in the pages of a learned "war
+      correspondent"&mdash;a race whose naive ignorance and whose rare
+      self-sufficiency so completely perverted public opinion during the
+      Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-46" id="linknote-46"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      46 (<a href="#linknoteref-46">return</a>)<br /> [ Not Shaykh Hasan
+      el-Marábit&mdash;"Pilgrimage," Vol. I. Chap. XI.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-47" id="linknote-47"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      47 (<a href="#linknoteref-47">return</a>)<br /> [ "Pilgrimage," Vol. I.
+      Chap. XI., where it is erroneously called "Jebel Hasan;" others prefer
+      Hasa'ni&mdash;equally wrong. Voyagers put in here to buy fish, which
+      formerly was dried, salted, and sent to Egypt; and, during the Hajj
+      season, the Juhaynah occupy a long straggling village of huts on the south
+      side of the island.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-48" id="linknote-48"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      48 (<a href="#linknoteref-48">return</a>)<br /> [ There are now no less
+      than three lines of steamers that connect the western coast of Arabia with
+      the north. The first is the Egyptian Company, successively called
+      Mejidíyyah, Azízíyyah, and Khedivíyyah, from its chief actionnaire: the
+      packets, mostly three-masted screws, start from Suez to Jeddah every
+      fortnight. Secondly, the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd which, with the subvention
+      of £1400 per voyage, began in 1870 to ply monthly between Constantinople,
+      Port Sa'íd, Suez, Jeddah, and Hodaydah: it has been suspended since the
+      beginning of the Russo-Turkish war. Thirdly, the British India Steam
+      Navigation Company sends every three weeks a ship from London viâ the
+      Canal to Jeddah, Hodaydah, and Aden. A fourth is proposed; Bymen's
+      (Winan's?) steamers are establishing a London-Basrah (Bassorah) line, in
+      whose itinerary will be Jeddah.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-49" id="linknote-49"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      49 (<a href="#linknoteref-49">return</a>)<br /> [ The observation was taken
+      on board the Sinnár, by the first lieutenant Násir Effendi Ahmed: of
+      course I am not answerable for its correctness, although the latitude
+      cannot be far out. Thus the difference of parallel between it and El-Wijh
+      (north lat. 26° 14') would be sixty-eight direct geographical miles.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-50" id="linknote-50"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      50 (<a href="#linknoteref-50">return</a>)<br /> [ Beni Kalb: so the Juhaynah
+      were called in the Apostle's day.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-51" id="linknote-51"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      51 (<a href="#linknoteref-51">return</a>)<br /> [ The site was probably
+      near the Shaykh's tomb, where there are wells which in winter supply
+      water.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-52" id="linknote-52"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      52 (<a href="#linknoteref-52">return</a>)<br /> [ This is the volume which
+      I have translated: see also Dr. Beke's papers in the Athenæum (February 8
+      and 15, 1873).]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-53" id="linknote-53"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      53 (<a href="#linknoteref-53">return</a>)<br /> [ See "Mount Sinai a
+      Volcano" (Tinsleys). For a list of Yakut's volcanoes, see Dr. Beke, "Sinai
+      in Arabia," Appendix, p. 535.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-54" id="linknote-54"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      54 (<a href="#linknoteref-54">return</a>)<br /> [ Vol. II. p. 187.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-55" id="linknote-55"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      55 (<a href="#linknoteref-55">return</a>)<br /> [ "The Gold-Mines of
+      Midian," p. 213.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-56" id="linknote-56"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      56 (<a href="#linknoteref-56">return</a>)<br /> [ As regards these and
+      similar graffiti see (Athenaeum, March 16, 1878) an excerpt from the last
+      Comptes Rendues of the Acad. des Inscript. et B. Lettres, Paris. The
+      celebrated M. Joseph Halévy attacked in their entirety (about 680) the
+      rock-writings in the Safá desert, south-east of Damascus. The German
+      savants, mostly attributing them to the Sabá tribes, who immigrated from
+      Yemen about our first century, tried the Himyaritic syllabaries and
+      failed. M. Halévy traces them to the Beni Tamúd (Thamudites), who served
+      as mercenaries in the Roman army, and whose head-quarters we are now
+      approaching. They contain, according to him, mostly proper names, with
+      devotional formulae, similar to those of the Sinaitic inscriptions and the
+      Kufic and later epigraphs which we discovered. For instance, "By A., son
+      of B., in memory of his mother; he has accomplished his vow, may he be
+      pardoned." The language is held to be intermediate between Arabic and the
+      northern Semitic branches. Names of the Deity (El and Loo or La'?) are
+      found only in composition, as in Abd-El ("Abdallah, slave of El"); and the
+      significant absence of the cross and religious symbols remarked in the
+      Syrian inscriptions, denotes the era of heathenism, which lasted till the
+      establishment of Christianity, about the end of the third century. "At
+      that time," M. Halévy says, "Christianity became the official religion of
+      the Empire; doubt and scepticism penetrated amongst those Arabic tribes
+      which were the allies of Rome, and amongst whom, for a certain time, a
+      kind of vague Deism was prevalent until the day when they disappeared,
+      having been absorbed by the great migrations which had taken place in
+      those countries."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-57" id="linknote-57"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      57 (<a href="#linknoteref-57">return</a>)<br /> [ Some call it so; others
+      Umm Karáyát: I have preferred the former&mdash;"Mother of the Villages,"
+      not "of Villages"&mdash;as being perhaps the more common.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-58" id="linknote-58"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      58 (<a href="#linknoteref-58">return</a>)<br /> [ See Chap. XIX.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-59" id="linknote-59"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      59 (<a href="#linknoteref-59">return</a>)<br /> [ Vol. II. Chap. X.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-60" id="linknote-60"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      60 (<a href="#linknoteref-60">return</a>)<br /> [ This rock, assayed in
+      England, produced no precious metal. As has been said, gold was found in
+      its containing walls of quartz.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-61" id="linknote-61"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      61 (<a href="#linknoteref-61">return</a>)<br /> [ This is the valley
+      confounded by Wallin and those who followed him (e.g. Keith Johnston) with
+      the Wady Hamz, some forty miles to the south.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-62" id="linknote-62"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      62 (<a href="#linknoteref-62">return</a>)<br /> [ See the illustration,
+      "Desert of the Exodus," p. 306.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-63" id="linknote-63"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      63 (<a href="#linknoteref-63">return</a>)<br /> [ Vol. II. Chap. X.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-64" id="linknote-64"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      64 (<a href="#linknoteref-64">return</a>)<br /> [ Described in "The
+      Gold-Mines of Midian," Chap. XII.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-65" id="linknote-65"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      65 (<a href="#linknoteref-65">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. XVIII.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-66" id="linknote-66"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      66 (<a href="#linknoteref-66">return</a>)<br /> [ The barbarous names,
+      beginning from the west, are Jebels Sehayyir, 'Unká ("of the griffon"),
+      Marákh (name of a shrub), Genayy (Jenayy), El-Hazzah, El-Madhanah,
+      Buza'mah, and Urnuwah.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-67" id="linknote-67"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      67 (<a href="#linknoteref-67">return</a>)<br /> [ Dr. C. Carter Blake
+      examined the four brought home, and identified No. 1, superior pharyngeal
+      bone and teeth (Scarus); No. 2, inferior bone and teeth of a large fish
+      allied to Labrus or Chrysophrys; No. 3, left side, pre-maxillary, possibly
+      same species; and No. 4, lower right mandible of Sphœrodon grandoculis,
+      Rüppell.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-68" id="linknote-68"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      68 (<a href="#linknoteref-68">return</a>)<br /> [ The MS. of this
+      geographer was brought to light by Professor Sprenger, and Part I. has
+      been published by Professor de Goeje in his "Bibliotheca Geographarum
+      Arabicorum," here alluded to.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-69" id="linknote-69"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      69 (<a href="#linknoteref-69">return</a>)<br /> [ We have seen (Chap. II.)
+      that the Arabs of Midian mistake iron for antimony; and the same is the
+      case in the Sinaitic Peninsula.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-70" id="linknote-70"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      70 (<a href="#linknoteref-70">return</a>)<br /> [ Ahmed Kaptán's solar
+      observation.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-71" id="linknote-71"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      71 (<a href="#linknoteref-71">return</a>)<br /> [ Written in pleasant
+      memory of two visits to Uriconium, the favourite "find" of poor Thomas
+      Wright, under the guidance of our steadfast and hospitable friend, Mr.
+      Henry Wace, of Brooklands, Shrewsbury.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-72" id="linknote-72"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      72 (<a href="#linknoteref-72">return</a>)<br /> [ The capital was also
+      transported to Cairo; it could not have been voluted as there were only
+      two projections.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-73" id="linknote-73"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      73 (<a href="#linknoteref-73">return</a>)<br /> [ Lib. xvi. c. iv. § 24.
+      The MSS. differ in the name of the "village situated on the sea;" some
+      call it Egra, others Negra, after the inland settlement; and the
+      commentator Kramer remarks, Mire corrupta est h?c ultima libri pars.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-74" id="linknote-74"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      74 (<a href="#linknoteref-74">return</a>)<br /> [ North lat. 26°, which
+      would correspond with that of the Abá'l-Maru' ruins.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-75" id="linknote-75"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      75 (<a href="#linknoteref-75">return</a>)<br /> [ My friend Sprenger
+      strongly protests against Ælius Gallus, begging me to abandon him, as the
+      Romans must long have held the whole coast to El-Haurá, their chief
+      settlement.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-76" id="linknote-76"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      76 (<a href="#linknoteref-76">return</a>)<br /> [ For a specimen of the
+      superficiality which characterizes Lane's "Modern Egyptians," and of the
+      benefits which, despite the proverbial difficulty of changing an old book
+      into a new one, an edition, much enlarged and almost rewritten, would
+      confer upon students, see Vol. III. Chap. XXI. Instead of a short abstract
+      of all this celebrated story, we have only popular excerpts from the first
+      volume.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-77" id="linknote-77"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      77 (<a href="#linknoteref-77">return</a>)<br /> [ On the maritime road
+      between Meccah and El-Medínah, celebrated for the apostolic battle which
+      took place in A.H. 2.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-78" id="linknote-78"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      78 (<a href="#linknoteref-78">return</a>)<br /> [ The names marked with
+      interrogations are unknown to all the Arabs whom I consulted : they are
+      probably obsolete.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-79" id="linknote-79"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      79 (<a href="#linknoteref-79">return</a>)<br /> [ Identified by Niebuhr and
+      Wellsted with certains ruins south of Yambú'. See Chap. IV.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-80" id="linknote-80"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      80 (<a href="#linknoteref-80">return</a>)<br /> [ The straight path, the
+      highway to Egypt or Cairo.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-81" id="linknote-81"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      81 (<a href="#linknoteref-81">return</a>)<br /> [ Elsewhere called Sukyat
+      Yezíd, a name now forgotten.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-82" id="linknote-82"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      82 (<a href="#linknoteref-82">return</a>)<br /> [ I have remarked that the
+      name of the Patriarch Jacob is no longer connected with the Badá plain.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-83" id="linknote-83"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      83 (<a href="#linknoteref-83">return</a>)<br /> [ Schweinfurth (the
+      Athenæum, July 6, 1878) speaks of a "Wadi Abu Marwa ('Quartz Valley')"
+      south of the Galalah block.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-84" id="linknote-84"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      84 (<a href="#linknoteref-84">return</a>)<br /> [ Chap. IX.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-85" id="linknote-85"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      85 (<a href="#linknoteref-85">return</a>)<br /> [ A paper describing our
+      "finds" was read before the Anthropological Section of the British
+      Association Meeting at Dublin on August 21, 1878, and subsequently before
+      the Anthropological Institute of London (December 10, 1878).]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-86" id="linknote-86"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      86 (<a href="#linknoteref-86">return</a>)<br /> [ The following was the
+      announcement offered to the public:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "La collection minéralogique et archéologique rapportée par le Capitaine
+      Burton, de sa seconde Expédition au pays de Midian, est exposée dans les
+      salles de l'Hippodrome, avant d'être envoyée à l'Exposition Universelle de
+      Paris, sous la direction de M. G. Marie, inge'nieur des mines.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "La salle du sud renferme les croquis et les aquarelles faits par M. E.
+      Lacaze.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "La partie du nord commence avec Akabah, point extrême atteint par
+      l'Expédition; elle contient les résultats du premier voyage de
+      l'Expédition, c'est-à-dire: Shermá, Djebel el-Abiat, Aynouneh,
+      Moghair-Schuaib, Mokna et Akabah.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "Le mur de l'est contient tout ce qui se rapporte à la seconde
+      exploration, c'est-à-dire l'Hismá et le grand massif du Shárr.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "Le mur du sud contient les principaux points de vue pris au sud du pays
+      de Midian: Wedje, la forteresse, la montagne de Omm-el-Karáyát, travaillée
+      par les anciens, la mine de Omm el-Hárab, le temple antique, etc., etc.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "Sur la table sont les médailles et la collection anthropologique fait par
+      le Capitaine Burton.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "La salle du nord contient la collection géologique et minéralogique faite
+      par M. G. Marie; les minéraux sont classés suivant l'ordre des pays
+      parcourus, c'est-à-dire en commencant à Akabah et finissant au Ouadi Hamz,
+      frontière du Hedjaz.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "Tout autour de la salle sont rangées les vingt caisses contenant des
+      échantillons que Son Altesse le Khédive envoie en Angleterre pour y être
+      analysés. Près de la porte de l'est sont placés les restes du temple de
+      l'Ouadi Hamz, les moulins pour écraser le quartz, les briques
+      réfractaires, et enfin les inscriptions Nabathéennes.
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      "Dans les loges de l'Hippodrome, derrière les deux salles, sont déposés
+      environ quinze tonnes d'échantillons, destinès a être analysés par une
+      Commission locale, nommée par Son Altesse le Khédive."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-87" id="linknote-87"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      87 (<a href="#linknoteref-87">return</a>)<br /> [ M. Marie, £35 12s.; Haji
+      Wali, £23; M. Philipin, £12 4s.; M. Lacaze, £3 16s.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-88" id="linknote-88"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      88 (<a href="#linknoteref-88">return</a>)<br /> [ Starting with a hundred
+      camels and three Shaykhs.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-89" id="linknote-89"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      89 (<a href="#linknoteref-89">return</a>)<br /> [ For all hands.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-90" id="linknote-90"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      90 (<a href="#linknoteref-90">return</a>)<br /> [ Includes "bakhshísh."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-91" id="linknote-91"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      91 (<a href="#linknoteref-91">return</a>)<br /> [ Sixty-one camels, four
+      Shaykhs.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-92" id="linknote-92"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      92 (<a href="#linknoteref-92">return</a>)<br /> [ For all hands.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-93" id="linknote-93"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      93 (<a href="#linknoteref-93">return</a>)<br /> [ Fifty camels, three
+      Shaykhs.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-94" id="linknote-94"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      94 (<a href="#linknoteref-94">return</a>)<br /> [ For all hands.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-95" id="linknote-95"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      95 (<a href="#linknoteref-95">return</a>)<br /> [ Got from Mukhbir.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-96" id="linknote-96"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      96 (<a href="#linknoteref-96">return</a>)<br /> [ Fifty-eight camels, three
+      Shaykhs.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-97" id="linknote-97"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      97 (<a href="#linknoteref-97">return</a>)<br /> [ For all hands.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-98" id="linknote-98"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      98 (<a href="#linknoteref-98">return</a>)<br /> [ Includes "bakhshísh."]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-99" id="linknote-99"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      99 (<a href="#linknoteref-99">return</a>)<br /> [ Six months' pay.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-100" id="linknote-100"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      100 (<a href="#linknoteref-100">return</a>)<br /> [ Four months.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-101" id="linknote-101"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      101 (<a href="#linknoteref-101">return</a>)<br /> [ Four months and a
+      half.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linknote-102" id="linknote-102"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="foot">
+      102 (<a href="#linknoteref-102">return</a>)<br /> [ Employed on special
+      service.]
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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