[p.107]was therefore obliged to give up my project, but with the
intention of executing it at a future period.
November 28th.--I left Aaere in the company of a Druse; at parting the
Sheikh made me promise that I would again visit his village. The
direction of our route was to the N.W. In an hour and a quarter, over a
plain, in most parts cultivated, we reached El Kenneker [Arabic], a
solid building upon a hill, with a few habitations round it; all the
villages in this part are inhabited; we saw the traces of the Wahabi in
a burnt field. E. from hence one hour is Deir Ettereife [Arabic]. N.E.
half an hour, the village Hadid [Arabic]; half an hour farther passed
Ousserha [Arabic], a village with a copious spring. One hour and a half
E. we saw Walgha [Arabic]. Just before we reached Ousserha we passed the
Wady El Thaleth, which I have mentioned between Soueida and Zahouet.
Continuing on the side of the Wady for three quarters of an hour, we
came to Thaale [Arabic], where there is a Birket: here we stopped to
breakfast. It is inhabited by Mohammedans only.
In a building now used as a mosque, within which are four arches, and
three short pillars in the vestibule, I copied the two following
inscriptions placed opposite each other.
[Greek][A.D. 683, the twenty-third year of the Emperor Heraclius.].
On a long wall of a building entirely in ruins:
[Greek].
From Thaale one hour S.W. is Tel Sheikh Houssein, with the village Deir
Ibn Kheleif; to the W. of which is El Kerak. We