From Shaghab to Zibá--ruins of El-Khandakí' and Umm Ámil--the
Turquoise MineReturn to El-Muwaylah.
Leaving Lieutenant Amir to map the principal ruins, we followed
the caravan up the Majrá el-Wághir, the long divide rising to the
west-north-west. The thin forest reminded me of the wooded slopes
of the Anti-Libanus about El-Kunaytarah: there, however,
terebinths and holm-oaks take the place of these unlovely and
uncomfortable thorn-trees. They are cruelly beaten--an operation
called El-Ramá--by the Bedawi camel-man, part of whose travelling
kit, and the most important part too, here as in Sinai, is the
flail (Murmár or Makhbat) and the mat to receive the leaves:
perhaps Acacias and Mimosas are not so much bettered by "bashing"
as the woman, the whelp, and the walnut-tree of the good old
English proverb. After three miles we passed, on the left, ruins
of long walls and Arab Wasm, with white memorial stones perched
on black. In front rose the tall Jebel Tulayh, buttressing the
right or northern bank of the Dámah; and behind it, stained
faint-blue by distance, floated in the flickering mirage the
familiar forms of the Tihámah range, a ridge now broken into half
a dozen blocks. I had ordered the caravan to march upon the
Tuwayl el-Súk; but, after one hour and fifteen minutes, we found
the tents pitched some three miles short of it, on a bleak and
ugly wave of the Wághir. The Shaykhs swore, by all holy things,
that this was the veritable Tuwayl; and a Bedawi, who declared
that he knew where water lay in the neighbourhood, refused to
show it sans the preliminary "bakhshísh." Mashallah! It is a
noble race.
Early next morning (six a.m., March 3rd) we followed the right
bank of the Wady el-Khandakí, which runs north with westing.
Beyond it lay the foot-hills of gloomy trap leading to the Jebel
el-Raydán, a typical granitic form, a short demi-pique saddleback
with inwards-sloping pommel like the Pao d'Assucar of picturesque
Rio de Janeiro. Here as elsewhere, the granites run parallel with
and seaward of the traps. The Tuwayl el-Súk is nothing but an
open and windy flat, where the Hajj-caravan used to camp an
adjoining ridge, the Hamrá el-Tuwayl, shows spalled quartz, Wasm
and memorial stones. The principal formation here is the
mauve-purple conglomerate before described.
After riding nine miles we came unexpectedly upon a large and
curious ruin, backed by the broad Wady Dámah gleaming white in
the sun. The first feature noticed was a pair of parallel walls,
or rather their foundations, thirty-five feet apart, and nearly a
kilometre in length: it looked like a vast hangar. To the left
lie three tracings of squares; the central is a work of earth and
stone, not unlike a rude battery; and, a few paces further north,
a similar fort has a cistern attached to its western curtain.
Heaps of rounded boulders, and the crumbling white-edged mounds
which, in these regions, always denote old habitations, run down
the right bank of the Wady el-Khandakí to its junction with the
Dámah. For want of a better name I called this old settlement
Kharábát (the "Ruins of") el-Khandakí, and greatly regretted that
we had not time enough to march down the whole line of the Dámah.
Half an hour more placed us at the great Wady, whose general
direction is here west with a little southing, and which still
merits its fame as an Arabian Arcadia. The banks were thickly
bordered with secular tamarisks (T. orientalis), those hardy
warriors with the Hebrew-Arabic name Asl (Athl), that battle
against wind and weather, as successfully at Dovercourt (Essex)
as at Haydarábád (Sind).
The tint was the normal grey-green, not unlike that of the traps
in arrière plan. The clumps sheltered goats, sheep, and camels;
and our mules now revel every day on green meat, growing fatter
and fatter upon the Aristida grass, the Panicum, the Hordeum
murinum, and the Bromus of many varieties. Fronting us rose the
twin granitic peaks of Jebel Mutadán, one with a stepped side
like an unfinished pyramid. They are separated from the Dámah by
a rough and stony divide; and ruins with furnaces are reported to
be found in their valley-drain, which feeds the great Wady Amúd.
We halted, after some sixteen to seventeen miles, at the water
El-Ziyayb, slightly brackish but relished by our animals; and
resumed our way in the cool sea-breeze at one p.m., passing the
Jebel Tulayh on the north bank. The track then left the Dámah and
turned up a short broad bed to the north-west. On the right rose
a block of syenite, ruddy with orthose, all rounded lumps and
twisted finials; it discharged a quantity of black sand that
streaked the gravel plain. At four p.m. we camped on a broad
divide, El-Kutayyifah, where an adjacent Sha'b, or "fold,"
supplied fresh rain-water. The march had teen long (seven hours =
twenty-two miles); and Shaykhs and camel-men looked, the Sayyid
said, as if they had "smelt Jehannum."
This divide, also called the Jayb el Sa'lúwwah, with granites to
the east, and traps mixed with granites on the west, shows signs
of labour. Hard by, to the south-west, some exceptionally
industrious Bedawi, of the Jeráfín-Huwaytát, had laid out a small
field with barley. In the evening we walked westward to the hills
that bound the slope; and came upon a rock-cut road leading to an
atalier, where "Marú" has been spalled from the stone in situ.
Some specimens had a light-bluish tinge, as if stained by cobalt,
a metal found in several slags; and there were veins of
crystalline amethyst-quartz, coloured, said the engineer by
chlorure of silver (?). The filons and filets cut the granite in
all directions; and the fiery action of frequent trap-dykes had
torn the ground-rock to tatters. The western side of
El-Kutayyifah also showed modern ruins.
The guides reported, as usual when too late, that to the
west-south-west lies a Nakb, called Abú'l Marwah ("Father of the
Quartz-place"), whose waters flow viâ the Mutadán to the Amúd
valley. For some days I had cold shudders lest this Pass, thus
left unvisited, might be the Zúl-Marwah, the classical
"Móchoura," one of the objects of our Expedition. The alarm
proved, however, as will be seen, false. A Bedawi youth also
volunteered a grand account of three "written stones;" a built
well surrounded by broken quartz; and, a little off the road from
El-Kutayyifah to Umm Ámil, the remains of El-Dayr ("the
Convent"). As Leake well knew, the latter is "a name which is
often indiscriminately applied by the Arabs to ancient ruins."
The lad said they were close by, but the Garíb ("near") and the
Gurayyib ("nearish") of the Midianite much resemble the Egyptian
Fellah's Taht el-Wish, "Under the face"--we should say "nose"--or
Taht el-Ka'b, "Under the heel." They may mean a handful of miles.
As he refused to guide us, we secured the services of an old
shepherd, who, objecting to sleep in camp, caused abundant
trouble and delay next morning.
From this divide two roads lead to the ruins of Umm Ámil: one
makes a considerable detour up a branch-valley in order to avoid
an ugly Pass on the direct line. I again refused the camel-men
permission to proceed by the indirect route, well knowing that
they would do their best to miss us. On March 4th, at six a.m., a
long descent and a similar rise led us to a Col, which presently
became a broad open plain, 2100 feet above sea-level (aner.
28.85). Tents were scattered about the valleys; the lads tended
their goats, and we greatly admired one fellow who had fallen
asleep in the hot ascending steams. Here the old guide halted us,
and declared that on the top of the dark trap-block the left
(south) was a Mashghal, or "work-place," with a strew of quartz
and nothing else. Thus ended the "built well." Descending to a
lower plane, bounded in front by low rolling hills, I sent
Lieutenant Amir to examine the "Convent" and the "written
stones." He came up with us at the halt; having been led over a
rough divide by an abominable path; and he had seen only a few
ruined heaps and three Arab Wusúm. Moreover, he had not dared to
show disappointment before the old shepherd, who would probably
have bolted in fear, and left him to find his own way.
Meanwhile the caravan continued its course down the broad smooth
Wady Ruways, on whose left side was a large atelier, with broken
walls and spalled quartz of the Negro variety. Here we found, for
the first time, the handmills made of the hardest grey granite,
so beautifully worked further south; they explained the fine and
carefully polished tube which had been brought to the first
Expedition at Zibá.[EN#10] Several of these articles were all but
whole, an exception in this land of "clasts." We then struck
over the stony divide to the left, towards a fine landmark--a
Khitm, or "block," shaped like a seal cut en cabochon: its name
is the barbarous sounding Khurm el-Badaríyyah. During the ascent,
which was easy, we passed a second strew and scatter of the white
stone broken into small pieces. From the Col, reached at 9.45
a.m., a descent, vile for camels not for mules, presently landed
us in the Wady Umm Ámil. The left bank of the hideous narrow
gorge showed a line of wells or water-pits, made, said Furayj, by
the Mutakaddimín (veteres),--the Ancients who were probably
Mediævals. Crossing the torrent-gully we left on its right bank
the ruins of large works, especially the upper parallelogram.
After a thirteen miles' ride we halted at 10.40 a.m. under a rock
on the left side, opposite three couthless heaps of water-rolled
stones surrounded by fine quartz. By far the poorest thing we had
yet seen, this "town" had been grandiosely described to the first
Expedition at Zibá. Many blessings were heaped upon the head of
Ámil and his mother: the name, however, as the Sayyid suggested,
is evidently a corruption of Mu'ámil--"the workman, the
employee."[EN#11] I would conjecture that here the slave-miners
were stationed, Old Zibá being the master's abode: our caravan
entitled it El-Lomán--"the bagnio, the prison for galériens." On
the coast-town I procured some specimens of heavy red copper
which had been dug out of a ruined furnace; the metal is
admirable, and it retrieves to a certain extent the lost
reputation of Umm Ámil.
At noon we resumed a hot ride down the ugly, rocky watercourse,
both of whose banks showed long lines of ruins. Presently,
crossing a divide marked by two stone-heaps, we fell into the
broader but equally unpicturesque Wady Salmá. It is on about the
same parallel as Ziba' (north lat. 27° 20'); and more than the
usual allowance for the error of low latitude must be admitted if
we would identify it with the Mediterranean <Greek> of
Ptolemy (vi. 7), <Greek>, in north lat. 260°, or fifteen
miles south of Sóaka.
Wady Salmá is the smallest and the northernmost of the three
basins which we have just visited; the central being the Dámah,
and the southern Wady Shaghab-Aslah-Aznab. Steaming southwards we
shall note the mouths of all these watercourses. We presently
passed on the right bank the debouchure of the Wady Ruways, and
left there a guard to direct the caravan, in case it should
disobey orders, and march up to Umm Ámil. Here the valley gave
forage to a herd of milch-camels, apparently unguarded; each had
her foal, some newborn, others dating from January or February.
After one hour and forty-five minutes (= six miles) we camped on
the fine sands that floor the dull line hemmed in by tall masses
of red and green trap. The adjacent scatter of Arab wells in the
bed is known as the Má el-Badí'ah. I carefully inquired
concerning ruins in the neighbourhood; and we climbed the
torrent-sides to command a (very limited) bird's-eye view of the
hills. According to the guides, there are no remains of the "old
ones" nearer than Umm Ámil
Setting out early next morning (5.45 a.m., March 5th), after half
an hour down the Wady Salmá, we saw its lower course becoming a
mere gorge, constricted by two opposite rocks. On the left bank,
above this narrow, lies a group of Arab graves, which may have
been built upon older foundations. The right side here receives
the Wady Haraymal ("Little Peganum-plant"), the Haráímil of the
broad-speaking Bedawin. As we struck up its dull ascent, the
southern form of the Shárr-giant suddenly broke upon us, all
glorious in his morning robes of ethereal gauzy pink. The
foreshortened view, from the south as well as the north, shows a
compact prism-formed mass which has been compared with an
iceberg. The main peak, Abú Shenázir, here No. 4 from the north,
proudly bears a mural crown of granite towers, which it hides
from El-Muwaylah; and the southern end, a mere vanishing ridge at
this angle, but shown en face to the seaboard abreast of it,
breaks into three distinctly marked bluffs and heads.[EN#12]
A divide then led upwards and downwards to the Wady Abá Rikayy,
remarkable only for warm pools, and crystal-clear runners,
springing from the sole. The fringings of white show the presence
of salt; the shallows are covered with the greenest mosses, and
beetles chase one another over the depths where the waters sleep.
The lower course takes the name of Wady Kifáfí, and discharges
into the sea north of the Wady Salmá, with which it has
erroneously been united, as in Niebuhr's Selmá wa Kafâfa.
According to the Kátib Chelebi, who, over two centuries ago, made
the "Kabr Shaykh el-Kifáfí" the second pilgrim-station south of
El-Muwaylah, a certain Bedawi chief, El-Kifáfí, was killed with a
spear, and his tomb became a place of pious visitation. It is
said still to exist between the Wadys Salmá and Kifáfí. A third
divide to the north led along the eastern flank of the Jebel Abú
Rísh, which exposes its head to the sea; and, reaching the Col,
we had the pleasure of once more greeting the blue cove that
forms the port of Zibá.
We then descended into the Wady Sidrah, whose left bank is formed
by the Safrá Zibá--"the Yellow (hill) of Zibá." This small
outlying peak is clad in the gaudiest of colours, especially a
vivid citron-yellow, set off by red and rusty surroundings, which
are streaked with a dead chalky-white. The citizens declare that
it is absolutely useless, because it does not supply sulphur.
During our day's halt at Zibá, M. Marie brought from it quartz of
several kinds; the waxy, the heat-altered, and the blue, stained
with carbonate of copper. Possibly this metal may be abundant at
a lower horizon
The "Valley of the (one) Jujube-tree," after narrowing to a stony
gut, suddenly flares out into the Wady Zibá, the vulgar feature of
these regions, provided with the normal "Gate" some three hundred
yards broad. Beyond it, the flat surrounding the head of the cove is
remarkably well grown with palms, clumps of the Daum, and scattered
date-trees, of which one is walled round. Hence I am disposed to
consider Zibá the <Greek>, or Phoenicon Vicus, of Ptolemy: although
he places it in north lat. 26° 20', or between Sharm Dumayghah and
El-Wijh, when it lies in north lat. 27° 20'. I have already
protested against the derivation of the word--which is written
"Dhoba" by Wallin, "Deba" by Niebuhr, and "Zibber" by the
Hydrographic Chart--proposed by my learned friend Sprenger.[EN#13]
His theory was probably suggested by El-Yákút (iii. 464), who, in
the twelfth century, describes "Dhabba" as "a village on the coast,
opposite to which is a settlement with flowing water, called Badá:
the two are separated by seventy miles." An older name for the
station is Bir el-Sultáni--the "Well of the Sultán" (Selim?): we
shall presently inspect these remains. Itineraries also give Kabr
el-Tawáshi, "the Eunuch's Tomb;" and this we still find near the
palms at the head of the inner baylet. It is a square measuring six
paces each way, mud and coralline showing traces of plaster outside.
Like Wellsted (II. X.) we failed to discover any sign of the Birkat
("tank") mentioned in a guide-book which Burckhardt quotes; nor had
the citizens ever heard of a "reservoir."
The camping-ground of the pilgrims lies between the "Gate" and
the cove-head. Around the wells sat at squat a small gathering of
the filthy "Moghrebin" (Allah yakharrib-hum!). About 260 of these
rufffians were being carried gratis, by some charitable merchant,
in a Sambúk that lay at the harbour-mouth. A party had lately
slaughtered a camel, of course not their own property; and yet
they wondered that the Bedawin shoot them. They showed their
insolence by threatening with an axe the dog Juno, when she
sportively sallied out to greet them; and were highly offended
because, in view of cholera and smallpox, I stationed sentries to
keep them at a distance. Had there been contagious disease among
them, it would have spread in no time. They haunted the wells,
which were visited all day by women driving asses from the
settlement; even the single old beggar of Zibá--unfailing sign of
civilization--was here; and the black tents of the Arabs, who
grazed their flocks at the cove-head, lay within easy shot of
infection. On the evening of the next day, when the Sambúk made
sail, the shouting and screaming, the brawling, cudgelling, and
fighting, heard a mile off, reminded me of the foul company of
Maghrabís on board the Golden Wire.
"Sultán Selim's Well" has now grown to four, all large and
masonry-lined. That to the south-east is dry; travellers are
confined to the western, whose strong coping they have managed to
tear down; whilst the northern shows hard old kerb-stones, deeply
grooved and rope-channelled like that of Beersheba. We
breakfasted at the head of the inner bay, whilst the Sayyid rode
forward to meet his brother Mahmúd, who had kindly brought us the
news from El-Muwaylah. Here we could see the townlet covering a
low point projecting into the Sharm; a few large and some small
tenements formed the body, whilst the head was the little Burj
built, some fourteen years ago, upon the tall sea-bank to the
north. It bore, by way of welcome, the Viceroy's flag.
The camp was pitched upon the northern shore of the inner cove,
behind the new town, and sheltered by the tall sea-cliff: here
stood Old Zibá, whose stones, buried for ages under the sand, are
now dug up to build its successor. I thought better of the
settlement and of the port after visiting them a second time. We
had looked forward to it even as to a petit Paris: so Damascus
and the Syrian cities appear centres of civilization to Westerns
coming from the East--not from the West. It is far superior,
especially in the article water, to El-Muwaylah; it exports
charcoal in large quantities, and it does a thriving business
with the Bedawi. Here are signs of a pier, and a mosque is to be
built. The fish is excellent and abundant; lobsters are caught by
night near the reef, and oysters in the bay when the tide is out.
We succeeded, at last, in having our batterie de cuisine properly
tinned, and we replenished our stores.[EN#14] As at El-Akabah,
"Hashísh" may be bought in any quantity, but no Ráki--hence,
perhaps, the paleness and pastiness of the local complexion--and
yet our old acquaintance, Mohammed el-Musalmáni, is a Copt who
finds it convenient to be a Moslem. He aided us in collecting
curiosities, especially a chalcedony (agate) intended for a
talisman and roughly inscribed in Kufic characters, archaic and
pointed like Bengali, with the Koranic chapter (xcii.) that
testifies the Unity, "Kul, Huw' Allah," etc. As regards the port,
Wellsted (Il. X.) is too severe upon it: "At Sherm Dhobá the
anchorage is small and inconvenient, and could only be made
available for boats or small vessels." Dredging the sand-bar and
cutting a passage in the soft coralline reef will give excellent
shelter and, some say, a depth of seventeen fathoms.
Our first care was to walk straight into the sea, travelling
clothes and all. I then received the notables, including Mohammed
Selámah of El-Wijh, and at once began to inquire about the Jebel
el-Fayrúz. The chief trader pleaded ignorance: he was a stranger,
a new-comer; he had never been out of the settlement. The others
opposed to me hard and unmitigated Iying: they knew nothing about
turquoises; there were no such stones; the mines were exhausted.
And yet I knew that this coast is visited for turquoises by
Europeans; and that the gem has been, and still is, sold at Suez
and Cairo. Mr. Clarke had many uncut specimens at Zagázig,
embedded in a dark gangue, which he called "porphyry," as opposed
to the limestone which bears the silicate of copper. Upon our
first Expedition, we had noticed a splendid specimen, set in a
Bedawi matchlock; and the people of El-Akabah praised highly the
produce of the Jebel el-Ghál. Lastly, I happened to have heard
that an Arab lately brought to Zibá a turquoise which sold there
for £3. Evidently the mine, like the gold-sands before alluded
to, would be carefully hidden from us. This reticence explained
how, on our first visit, the two Staff-officers sent to prospect
the diggings had been misdirected to a block lying north of the
townlet, the "Red Hills," alias the Jebel el-Shegayg.
Shortly after I left Egypt an Italian, Sig. F--, returned to Suez
from El-Muwaylah, with some fine pearls worth each from £20 to
£30, and turquoises which appeared equally good. He was then
bound for Italy, but he intended returning to Midian in a month
or two. These are the men who teach the ready natives the very
latest "dodges;" such as stimulating the peculiar properties of
the pearl-oyster by inserting grains of sand.
I also collected notes concerning the ruins of M'jirmah, of which
we had heard so many tales. The site, they said, is a branch of
the Wady Azlam, the first of the three marches between Zibá and
El-Wijh, and seven and a half hours' sail along the coast. This
watercourse shows, above the modern Hajj-station, the ruins of a
fort built by Sultán Selim: Wellsted (II. X.) also mentions a
castle lying three miles inland. From the head of the Sharm
Dumayghah, seventy to seventy-two knots south of El-Muwaylah,
Shaykh Furayj pointed out to us the pale-blue peaks of the Jebel
Zafar:[EN#15] in the upper part of its Wady, the Amúd Zafar, a
southern branch valley of the Azlam, lies the ruin. He made it
six hours' march from the seaboard. It was an ancient gold-mine
(?), whose house-foundations and a "well with steps" still
remain. "M'jirmah," which must not be confounded with the "Umm
Jirmah," an atelier that we shall visit to-morrow, has been
identified with the <Greek> (Rhaunathi Pagus) of Ptolemy
(north lat. 25° 40'). We will return to this subject when
steaming down coast.
Our day of rest ended, at seven p.m., with a heavy storm of wind
and rain from the north: the sun had been unusually hot for some
days, and the sky looked ugly in the evening. As usual, all
assured us that the clouds contained wind, not rain. Despite
which, when the mess-tent had been nearly blown down, owing to
our men being unwilling to leave their warm retreats, a heavy
drenching downfall set in, and continued till eleven p.m. After a
short lull, wind and rain again raged at midnight; and then the
gale gradually blew itself out. The next two mornings were
delightfully brisk and bracing; and deep puddles dotted the
rocks.
On March 7th the caravan marched straight northwards, by the
Hajj-road, along the shore to its camping-ground, an affair of
two hours, while M. Marie and I set off for the turquoise mine.
Furayj, who had never passed that way, engaged as guide one
Sulaym el-Makrafi; and this old dromedary-rider's son had been
sent on to bring into camp all the Fayruz he could find. Crossing
at six a.m. the broad pilgrim-track, we struck eastward at a
place where the Secondary gypsum subtends the old coralline
cliff. After three-quarters of an hour, we traversed the Wady
Zahakán, the southernmost Pass over the Shárr (proper); and
presently we ascended a branch that falls into the right bank. As
we advanced, it became a rock-walled, stonesoled tunnel; winding,
contracting and widening, rising and flattening, and generally
interesting, compared with the dull flat breadth of such features
as the Wady Salmá. The overfalls of rock and the unfriendly
thorn-trees, selfishly taking up all the room, necessitate
frequent zigzags up and down the rocky, precipitous banks. After
a number of divides we entered the Wady Háskshah, which was wider
and good for riding; and at 8.30 a.m. we passed into the Wady Umm
Jirmah.
In this broad basin we found none of the ruins so often reported;
but immense quantities of broken quartz showed the Mashghal or
atelier. The material was distinguished, from all the outcrops
hitherto observed, by its pretty pink, stained with oxide of
iron: it appeared in large ramifications mostly striking
east-west, and in little pitons dotting the valley sole and
sides. A subsequent visit to Wady Umm Jirmah found many furnaces
surrounded by well-worked scoriae; of these, specimens were
secured.
After another half-hour, we dismounted at the watershed of the
Wady el-Ghál, where the old guide lost no time in losing his
head. The Jebel el-Ghál, whose folds fall into its watercourse,
is a detached block, rising nearly due south of the "Sharp Peak,"
as the Chart calls Abú Kusayb, the northernmost horn of the
Shárr; while the Ghál cove, breaking the sea-cliff, bears 270°
(mag.) from the summit. The hill, which may measure 250 feet
above sea-level (aner. 29.75), is composed of porphyritic trap
and of the hardest felspars, veined with chocolate-coloured
quartz, the true gangue. While we examined the formation, Furayj
and old Sulaym, who became more and more "moony," ransacked the
block in all directions, and notably failed to find a trace of
mining. Evidently Athor, the genius of the "Turquoise Mountain,"
was not to be conquered by a coup de main; so I determined to
tire her out.
After building a stone-man on the finial of the Jebel el-Ghál,
and a short rest in the north-western Wady, we remounted and
struck seawards. Some ugly divides led us, after half an hour, to
a broad Fiumara, well grown with palm-bush, the veritable Wady
el-Ghál. From this point a total of four miles, and a grand total
of fourteen, led us to the camp: it had been pitched at the
Mahattat el-Gha'l, on the north bank, where the "winter-torrent,"
falling into the cove, has broken through the sea cliff.
Here the best of news was in store for us. Lieutenant Yusuf, who
had this morning rejoined the Expedition, brought our mails from
the Sambúk, which I had ordered by letter at El-Akabah; and
reported that his Highness's frigate Sinnár, an old friend, would
relieve the lively Mukhbir in taking us to our last journey
southwards. Rations for men and mules, and supplies for
ourselves, all were coming. We felt truly grateful to the Viceroy
and the Prince Minister for the gracious interest they had taken
in the Expedition; and we looked forward with excitement to the
proper finish of our labours. Without the third march, the
exploration of Midian would have been Abtar, as the Arabs say,
"tail-less;" that is, lame and impotent in point of conclusion.
But I would not be beaten by the enemy upon the subject of the
lapis Pharanitis mine. During the course of the day, a Jeráfín
Bedawi, Selím ibn Musallim, brought in scoriae of copper and
iron; and on the morrow I sent him as guide to Lieutenant Yusuf,
with an escort of two soldiers and eight quarrymen on seven
camels. After three days' absence (March 8--10) the officer
rejoined us and reported as follows:--
Leaving the Mahattat el-Ghál, he rode up its watercourse, and
then turned southwards into the long Wady Umm Jirmah. After seven
miles and a half (= direct five and three-quarters), he came upon
the Jebel el-Fayrúz. It is a rounded eminence of no great height,
showing many signs of work, especially three or four cuttings
some twenty metres deep. A hillock to the north-west supplied the
scoriæ before mentioned. Lieutenant Yusuf blasted the
chocolate-coloured quartzose rock in four places, filled as many
sacks, and struck the pilgrim-road in the Wady el-Mu'arrash,
leaving its red block, the Hamrá el-Mu'arrash, to the left. His
specimens were very satisfactory; except to the learned
geologists of the Citadel, Cairo, who pronounced them to be
carbonate of copper! Dr. L. Karl Moser, of Trieste, examined them
and found crystals of turquoise, or rather "johnite," as Dana has
it, embedded in or spread upon the quartz. One specimen,
moreover, contained silver. So much for the Zibá or southern
turquoise-diggings.
Our journey ended on March 8th with a dull ride along the
Hajj-road northwards. Passing the creek Abú Sharír, which, like
many upon this coast, is rendered futile by a wall of coral reef,
we threaded a long flat, and after two hours (= seven miles) we
entered a valley where the Secondary formation again showed its
débris. Here is the Mahattat el-Husan ("the Stallion's Leap"), a
large boulder lying to the left of the track, and pitted with
holes which a little imagination may convert into hoof-prints.
The name of the noble animal was El-Mashhúr; that of its owner
is, characteristically enough, forgotten by the Arabs: it lived
in the Days of Ignorance; others add, more vaguely still, when
the Beni Ukbah, the lords of the land, were warring with the
Baliyy. The gorge was then a mere cutting, blocked up by this
rock. El-Mashhúr "negotiated" it, alighting upon the surface like
a Galway hunter taking a stone wall; and carried to Wady Tiryam
its rider, whose throat was incontinently cut by the foeman in
pursuit. The legend is known to all, and the Bedawin still scrape
away the sands which threaten to bury the boulder: it has its
value, showing that in regions where the horse is now unknown,
where, in fact, nothing but a donkey can live, noble blood was
once bred. The same remark is made by Professor Palmer ("The
Desert of the Exodus," p. 42) concerning the Mangaz Hisán Abú
Zená ("Leap of the Stallion of the Father of Adultery"), two
heaps of stone near the Sinaitic Wady Gharandal. There, however,
the animal is cursed, while here it is blessed: perhaps, also,
the Midianite tradition may descend from a source which, still
older, named the <Greek>. Is this too far-fetched? And yet,
peradventure, it may be true.
We then fell into the Wady Jibbah; passed the Jebel el-Kibrít,
examined M. Philipin's work, and, led over a very vile and very
long "short cut," found ourselves once more on board the Mukhbir.
Note on the Supplies Procurable at Zibá.
The chief stores are:--
Rice (good Yemani), per Kis, or bag of five and a half Kaylah
(each twenty-one Ratl = eighteen pounds), four to six dollars.
Durrah (Sorghum), per Ardebb (each = twelve Kaylah), seven and a
half to eight dollars.
Dukhn (millet), not common, per Ardebb, eight dollars.
Wheat, always procurable, per Ardebb, ten to twelve dollars.
Barley, always procurable, per Ardebb, five to six dollars.
Adas (lentils, Revalenta Arabica), per Ardebb, ten to twelve
Samn (liquified butter), per Ratl, seven and a half to eight
dollars.
Coffee (green), per pound, eighteen-pence.
Ajwah (pressed dates), 100 to 110 piastres per Kantar (= 100
Ratl).
Eggs, thirty-five to the shilling.
It is generally possible to buy small quantities of Hummus
(lupins or chick-peas), Kharru'b (carob-pods), "hot" and coarse
tobacco for the Arabs, and cigarette-paper, matches, etc.