[p.539] lie so close as to impart to him a share of the vermin with
which they are sure to be infested. To sleep in the open air before the
tent is difficult, on account of the fierce dogs of the encampment, who
have as great an aversion for townsmen as their masters have; the
Bedouins too dislike this practice, because a sight of the female
apartment may thus be obtained. I found the women here much more
reserved than among other Bedouins; I could not induce any of them to
converse with me, and soon perceived that both themselves and their
husbands disliked their being noticed; a fastidiousness of manners for
which they are no doubt indebted to the frequent visits of their
husbands to the capital of Egypt.
We had another shower in the night; flying showers are frequent during
the summer, but they are never sufficiently copious in that season to
produce torrents.
May 18th left the tent before dawn, and proceeded along a Wady and then
N.W. up an ascent, whose summit we reached in two hours. From thence a
fine view opened upon a broad Wady called Sebaye [Arabic], and towards
the mountain of Tyh. We crossed Wady Sebaye, and then ascended the
mountain which commands the convent on the south side, and descending
again, reached the convent at the end of three hours and a half. Our
march during the whole of this journey had been slow, except on the day
of our flight from the robbers; for our camels were weak and tired, and
one of us usually walked. There is a more northern road from Sherm to
the convent, which branches off from that by which we came, at Wady
Orta; it passes by the two watering places of Naszeb [Arabic], and Ara-
yne [Arabic]; the former, which is in a fruitful valley, where date-
trees grow, must not be confounded with the western Naszeb, already
mentioned.
Hamd, afraid of being liable to pay the fine of blood, if it should
become known that the robber had fallen by his hand, had