[p.452] a superstitious belief among the Bedouins, that the desert is
inhabited by invisible female demons, who carry off travellers tarrying
in the rear of the caravans, in order to enjoy their embraces. They call
them Om Megheylan (Arabic), from Ghoul (Arabic). The frequent loss of
men who, exhausted by fatigue, loiter behind the great pilgrim caravans,
and are cut off, stripped, and abandoned, by Bedouin robbers, may have
given rise to this fable, which afforded my companions a subject of
numerous jokes against me. You townsmen, said they, would be
exquisite morsels for these ladies, who are accustomed only to the food
of the desert.
We marched for four hours over uneven ground, and then reached a level
plain, consisting of rich red earth fit for culture, and similar to that
of the northern Syrian desert. We crossed several Wadys, in which we
started a number of hares. At every twenty yards lay heaps of bones of
camels, horses, and asses, by the side of the road. At six hours was a
chain of low hills to the S. of the road, and running parallel with it.
In seven hours we crossed Wady Nesyl (Arabic), overgrown with green
shrubs, but without trees. At the end of ten hours and a half we reached
the mountainous country called El Theghar (Arabic), or the mouths, which
forms a boundary of the Desert El Ty, and separates it from the
peninsula of Mount Sinai. We ascended for half an hour by a well formed
road, cut in several places in the rock, and then followed the windings
of a valley, in the bed of a winter torrent, gradually descending. On
both sides of the Hadj road we saw numerous heaps of stones, the tombs
of pilgrims who had died of fatigue; among others is shewn that of a
woman who here died in labour, and whose infant was carried the whole
way to Mekka, and back to Cairo in good health. At the end of fifteen
hours we alighted in a valley of the Theghar, where we found an
abundance of shrubs and trees.