[p.419] a person therefore like myself, coming from the latter place,
without any papers to shew who I was, or why I had taken that circuitous
route, would certainly have roused the suspicions of the officer
commanding at Akaba, and the consequences might have been dangerous to
me among the savage soldiery of that garrison. The road from Shobak to
Akaba, which is tolerably good, and might easily be rendered practicable
even to artillery, lies to the E. of Wady Mousa; and to have quitted it,
out of mere curiosity to see the Wady, would have looked very suspicious
in the eyes of the Arabs; I therefore pretended to have made a vow to
slaughter a goat in honour of Haroun (Aaron), whose tomb I knew was
situated at the extremity of the valley, and by this stratagem I thought
that I should have the means of seeing the valley in my way to the tomb.
To this my guide had nothing to oppose; the dread of drawing upon
himself, by resistance, the wrath of Haroun, completely silenced him.
We left the Refaya early in the morning, and travelled over hilly
ground. At the end of two hours we reached an encampment of Arabs
Saoudye (Arabic), who are also Fellahein or cultivators, and the
strongest of the peasant tribes, though they pay tribute to the
Howeytat. Like the Refaya they dry large quantities of grapes. They lay
up the produce of their harvest in a kind of fortress called Oerak
(Arabic), not far from their camp, where are a few houses surrounded by
a stone wall. They have upwards of one hundred and twenty tents. We
breakfasted with the Saoudye, and then pursued the windings of a valley,
where I saw many vestiges of former cultivation, and here and there some
remains of walls and paved roads, all constructed of flints. The country
hereabouts is woody. In three hours and a half we passed a spring, from
whence we ascended a mountain, and travelled for some time along its
barren summit, in a S.W. direction, when we again descended, and reached
Ain