[p.623] el Dhafary [Arabic]; it is sometimes frequented by the Arabs,
because it furnishes the only sweet water between Tor and Suez, though
it is out of the direct road, and the well of Morkha is at no great
distance. Some rain had fallen here in the winter, and water was
therefore met with in several ponds among the rocks. This is the lowest
part of the primitive chain of mountains, and, I believe, the only
place, on the road between Tor and Suez, where they approach the sea,
which is only three miles distant, with a stony plain ascending from it.
A slave of a Towara Bedouin here partook of our breakfast; he had been
sent to these mountains by his master several weeks ago, to collect wood
and burn charcoal, which he was doing quite alone, with no other
provision than a sack of meal. Charcoal, commonly called Fahm in Arabic,
is by these Bedouins called Habesh, a term which I never heard given to
it by any other Arabs; this word may perhaps be the origin of the name
of Abyssinia, which may have been called Habesh by the Arabs from the
colour of its inhabitants. Travellers will do well to enquire for the
Dhafary, in their way to Feiran, as the water of the Morkha is of the
very worst kind; this memorandum would be particularly useful to any
person intending to copy the inscriptions of Wady Mokatteb.
We reached Morkha, [Arabic], which bears from Dhafary N.W. b. N. in half
an hour, the road leading over level but very rocky ground. Morkha is a
small pond in the sand-stone rock, close to the foot of the mountains.
Two date-trees grow near its margin. The bad taste of the water seems to
be owing partly to the weeds, moss, and dirt, with which the pond is
filled, but chiefly, no doubt, to the saline nature of the soil around
it. Next to Ayoun Mousa, in the vicinity of Suez, and Gharendel, it is
the principal station on this road. After watering our camels, which was
our only motive for coming to the Morkha, we returned to the