[p.536] barren the ground, vegetation is invariably found. Within the
enclosures of the date-groves I saw a few patches of onions, and of
hemp; the latter is used for smoking; some of the small leaves which
surround the hemp-seed being laid upon the tobacco in the pipe, produces
a more intoxicating smoke. The same custom prevails in Egypt, where the
hemp leaves as well as the plant itself are called Hashysh. In the
branches of one of the date-trees several baskets and a gun were
deposited, and some camels were feeding upon the grass near the rivulet,
but not a soul was to be seen in the valley; these Bedouins being under
no fear of robbers, leave their goods and allow their beasts to pasture
without any one to watch them; when they want the camels they send to
the springs in search of them, and if not found there, they trace their
footsteps through the valleys, for every Bedouin knows the print of the
foot of his own camel.
Notwithstanding its verdure, the Wady Kyd is an uncomfortable halting-
place, on account of the great number of gnats and ticks with which it
is infested. Beyond the source of the rivulet, which oozes out of the
ground, the vegetation ceases, and the valley widens. We rode on, and at
seven hours entered Wady Kheysy, a wild pass, in which the road is
covered with rocks, and the sides of the mountains are shattered by
torrents. We ascended through many windings, in the general direction of
W.N.W. until we found the valley shut up by a high mountain, called
Djebel Mordam [Arabic]. The rocks are granite and porphyry; in many
parts of the valley grow wild fig-trees, called by the Arabs Hamad; here
also grows the Aszef [Arabic], a tree which I had already seen in
several of the Wadys; it springs from the fissures in the rocks, and its
crooked stem creeps up the mountains side like a parasitic plant; it
produces, according to the Arabs, a fruit of the size of a walnut, of a
blackish colour, and very sweet to the taste. The bark of the tree