Down South--to El-WijhNotes on the Quarantine--the Hutaym Tribe.
There remained work to do before we could leave El-Muwaylah. The
two Shaykhs, Alayán and Hasan el-Ukbi, were to be paid off end
dismissed with due ceremony; provisions were to be brought from
the fort to the cove; useless implements to be placed in store;
mules to be embarked--no joke without a pier!--and last, but not
least, the ballastless Mukhbir was to be despatched with a mail
for Suez. The whole Expedition, except only the sick left at the
fort, was now bound southwards. The Sayyid and our friend Furayj
accepted formal invitations to accompany us: Bukhayt, my
"shadow," with Husayn, chef and romancer-general, were shipped as
their henchmen; and a score of soldiers and quarrymen represented
the escort and the working-hands. Briefly, the Sinnár, though
fretting her vitals out at the delay, was detained two days
(March 19--20) in the Sharm Yáhárr. Amongst other things that
consoled us for quitting the snug dock, was the total absence of
fish. At this season the shoals leave the coast, and gather round
their wonted spawning-grounds, the deep waters near the Sha'b
("reefs"), where they find luxuriant growths of seaweed, and
where no ships disturb them.
Bidding a temporary adieu to our old fellow voyagers on board the
Mukhbir, including the excellent engineer, Mr. David Duguid, we
steamed out of the quiet cove, at a somewhat late hour (6.30
a.m.) on March 21st; and, dashing into the dark and slaty sea,
stood to the south-east. For two days the equinoctial weather had
been detestable, dark, cloudy, and so damp that the dry and the
wet bulbs showed a difference of only 4°--5°. This morning, too,
the fire of colour had suddenly gone out; and the heavens were
hung with a gloomy curtain. The great Shárr, looming unusually
large and tall in the Scandinavian mountain-scene, grey of shadow
and glancing with sun-gleams that rent the thick veils of
mist-cloud, assumed a manner of Ossianic grandeur. After three
hours and a half we were abreast of Zibá, around whose dumpy
tower all the population had congregated. Thence the regular
coralline bank, whose beach is the Bab, runs some distance down
coast, allowing passage to our ugly old friend, Wady Salmá. The
next important mouth is the Wady Amúd, showing two Sambúks at
anchor, and a long line of vegetation like the palm-strips of the
Akabah Gulf: this valley, I have said, receives the Mutadán,
into which the Abú Marwah gorge discharges.[EN#30]
It would appear that this "Amúd" represents the "Wady el-Aúníd," a
name utterly unknown to the modern Arabs, citizens and Bedawin, at
least as far south as El-Haurá. Yet it is famed amongst mediaeval
geographers for its fine haven with potable water; and for its
flourishing city, where honey was especially abundant. El-Idrísí
settles the question of its site by placing it on the coast opposite
the island El-Na'mán (Nu'mán), but can El-Idrísí be trusted?
Sprenger (p. 24), induced, it would appear, by similarity of sound,
and justly observing that in Arabic the letters Ayn and Ghayn are
often interchanged, would here place the <Greek> (Rhaunathi Vicus)
of Ptolemy (north lat. 25 degrees 40'). According to my friend,
also, the Ras Abú Masárib, the long thin point north of which the
Wady Dámah, half-way to the Wady Azlam, falls in, represents the
<Greek> (Chersónesi Extrema) on the same parallel. I cannot help
suspecting that both lie further south--in fact, somewhere about El-
Haurá.[EN#31]
Here the maritime heights, known as the Jibál ("Mountains" of
the) Tihámat-Balawiyyah (of "the Baliyy tribe"), recede from the
sea, and become mere hills and hillocks; yet the continuity of
the chain is never completely broken. At noon we slipped into the
channel, about a mile and a half broad, which separates the
mainland from the Jebel ("Mount") Nu'mán, as the island is
called: so the Arabs speak of Jebel (never Jezírat)
Hassáni.[EN#32] The surface of the water was like oil after the
cross seas on all sides, the tail of an old gale which the Arab
pilots call Bahr madfún ("buried sea"), corresponding with the
Italian mar vecchio. On our return northwards we landed upon
Nu'mán, whose name derives from the red-flowered Euphorbia
retusa; bathed, despite the school of sharks occupying the waters
around; collected botany, and examined the ground carefully. Like
the Dalmatian Archipelago, it once formed part of the mainland,
probably separated by the process that raised the maritime range.
The rolling sandy plateau and the dwarf Wadys are strewed with
trap and quartz, neither of which could have been generated by
the new sandstones and the yellow corallines. It has two fine
bays, facing the shore and admirably defended from all winds; the
southern not a little resembles Sináfir-cove.
The "top," or dwarf plateau, commands a fine view of the coast
scenery; the "Pins" of the Shárr; the Mutadán Mountain, twin ridges
of grey white granite, and, further south, the darker forms of
Raydán and Zigláb. Here, during springtide, the Huwaytát transport
their flocks in the light craft called Katirah, and feed them till
the pasture is browsed down. We made extensive inquiries, but could
hear of no ruins. Yet the islet, some three to four miles long by
one broad, forming a natural breakwater to the coast, is important
enough to bear, according to Sprenger, a classical name, the <Greek>
(Timagenis Insula) of Ptolemy. If this be the case, either the
Pelusian or his manuscripts are greatly in error. He places the bank
in north lat. 25° 45', whilst its centre would be in north lat. 27°
5'; and the sixty miles of distance from the coast, evidently the
blunder of a copyist, must be reduced to a maximum of three.
Passing another old friend, the Aslah-Aznab, down whose head we
had ridden to Shaghab, about two p.m. we steamed along the mouth
of the Wady Azlam, the Ezlam of Wellsted,[EN#33] which he unduly
makes the southern frontier of the Huwaytát, and the northern of
the Baliyy tribes. Beyond it is the gape of the once populous
Wady Dukhán--of "the (furnace?) Smoke"--faced by a large splay of
tree-grown sand. Ruins are reported in its upper bed. Beyond
Marsá Zubaydah (not Zebaider), the sea is bordered by the
red-yellow coast-range; and the fretted sky line of peaks and
cones, "horses" and "hogs'-backs," is cut by deep valleys and
drained by dark "gates." The background presents a long, regular
curtain of black hill, whose white sheets and veins may be
granite and quartz. We were then shown the Mínat el-Marrah, one
of the many Wady-mouths grown with vegetation; and here the ruins
El-Nabagah (Nabakah) are spoken of. At four p.m. we doubled the
Ras Labayyiz (not Lebayhad), a long flat tongue projecting from
the coast range, and defending its valley to the south. In the
Fara't or upper part, some five hours' march from the mouth, lie
important remains of the Mutakkadimín ("ancients"). The report
was confirmed by an old Arab Básh-Buzúk at El-Wijh; he declared
that in his youth he had seen a tall furnace, and a quantity of
scoriæ from which copper could be extracted, lying northwards at
a distance of eighteen hours' march and five by sea.
The next important feature is the Wady Salbah, the Telbah of the
Chart, up whose inland continuation, the Wady el-Nejd, we shall
travel. Here the coast-range again veers off eastward; and the
regular line is cut up into an outbreak of dwarf cones, mere
thimbles. Above the gloomy range that bounds it southwards,
appear the granitic peaks and "Pins" of Jebel Libn, gleaming
white and pale in the livid half-light of a cloudy sunset. After
twelve hours' steaming over seventy to seventy-two knots of reefy
sea, we ran carefully into the Sharm Dumayghah.[EN#34] This
lake-like, land-locked cove is by far the best of the many good
dock-harbours which break the Midian coast. Its snug retreat gave
hospitality to half a dozen Juhayni Sambúks, fishers and divers
for mother-of-pearl, riding beyond sight of the outer world, and
utterly safe from the lighthouse dues of El-Wijh.
I resolved to pass a day at these old quarters of a certain Háji
Abdullah. The hydrographers have given enlarged plans of Yáhárr
and Jibbah, ports close to each other; while they have ignored
the far more deserving Sharm Dumayghah. Distant only thirty miles
of coasting navigation, a line almost clear of reefs and shoals,
it is the natural harbour for the pilgrim-ships, which ever run
the danger of being wrecked at El-Wijh; and it deserves more
notice than we have hitherto vouchsafed to it. The weather also
greatly improved on the next day (March 22nd): the cloud-canopy,
the excessive moisture, and the still sultriness which had
afflicted us since March 19th, were in process of being swept
away by the strong, cool, bright norther.
The survey of the Egyptian officers shows an oval extending from
north-west to south-east, with four baylets or bulges in the
northern shore. The length is upwards of a knot, and the breadth
twelve hundred yards. It may be described as the embouchure of
the Wady Dumayghah, which falls into its head, and which,
doubtless, in olden times, when the land was wooded, used to roll
a large and turbulent stream. As is often seen on this coast, the
entrance is defended by a natural breakwater which appears like a
dot upon the Chart. Capped with brown crust, falling bluff
inland, and sloping towards the main, where the usual stone-heaps
act as sea-marks, this bank of yellowish-white coralline,
measuring 310 metres by half that width, may be the remains of
the bed in which the torrents carved out the port. The northern
inlet is a mere ford of green water: my "Pilgrimage" made the
mistake of placing a fair-way passage on either side of the
islet. The southern channel, twenty-five fathoms deep and three
hundred metres broad, is garnished on both flanks with a hundred
metres of dangerous shallow, easily distinguished by green
blazoned upon blue. The bay is shoal to the south-east; the best
anchorage for ships lies to the north-west, almost touching land.
A reef or rock is reported to be in the middle ground, where we
lay with ten fathoms under us: it was seen, they say, at night,
by the aid of lanterns; but next morning Lieutenants Amir and
Yusuf were unable to find it. Native craft usually make fast in
three fathoms to a lumpy natural mole of modern sandstone, north
of the entrance: a little trimming would convert it into a
first-rate pier.
At this place we landed to prospect the country, and to gather
information from the Sambúk crews before they had time to hoist
sail and be off. The owners of the land are not Juhaynah, the
"Wild Men" with whom the Rais of the Golden Wire had threatened
us in 1853. The country belongs to the Baliyy; now an inoffensive
tribe well subject to Egypt, mixed with a few Kura'án-Huwaytát
and Karáizah-Hutaym. The fishermen complained that no fish was to
be caught, and the strong tides, setting upon the stony flank of
the mole, had broken most of the shells, not including, however,
the oysters. The usual eight-ribbed turtle appeared to be common.
On the sands to the north, M. Lacaze picked up a large old and
bleached skull, which went into my collection; we failed to find
any neighbouring burial-ground. Striking inland, however, towards
the dotted square, marked "Fort (ruin)" in the Chart, we came
upon an ancient cemetery to the north of the bay, and concluded
that these graves had been mistaken for remains of building.
We then bent eastward towards the Jibál el-Salbah, and examined
the two dwarf valleys which, threading the heights, feed the Wady
Dumayghah. That to the south showed us a perfectly familiar
formation; conglomerates of water-rolled pebbles in the lower
levels, and hills of the normal dark porphyries, with large
quartz-seams of many colours trending in every direction. The
mouth of the northern gorge was blocked by a vein of finely
crystallized carbonate of lime, containing geodes and bunches.
The taste is astringent, probably from the alumina; and it is
based upon outcrops of a sandy calcaire apparently fit for
hydraulic cement. The only novelty in the vegetation was the
Fashak-tree, a creeper like a gigantic constrictor, with sweet
yellow wood somewhat resembling liquorice.
Signs of Arab everywhere appeared, but there were no tents.
Consequently we were unable to ascertain the extent of the
water-supply--an important matter if this is to become the port
of El-Wijh. The Sambúks might bring it, but the people on shore
would be dependent upon what they can find. The Hajj-road,
running some miles inland, is doubtless supplied with it. Even,
however, were the necessary wanting, the pilgrim-ships, whilst
taking refuge here, could easily transport it from the south.
Shaykh Furayj; pointed out to us the far northern blue peaks of
the Amúd Zafar, in whose branch-Wady lie the ruins of M'jirmah.
The day ended with a sudden trembling of the ship, as if
straining at anchor; but the crew was again performing fantasia,
and the earthquake or sea-quake rolled unheededly away.
Apparently the direction was from north to south: I noted the
hour, 9.10 p.m., and the duration, twenty seconds. According to
the Arabs the Zilzilah is not uncommon in Midian, especially
about the vernal equinox: on this occasion it ended the spell of
damp and muggy weather which began on March 19th, and which may
have been connected with it.
The survey soundings were not finished till nearly eight a.m.
(March 23rd), when the old corvette swung round on her heel; and,
with the black hills of Salbah to port, resumed her rolling,
rollicking way southwards. Her only ballast consisted of some six
hundred conical shot, or twelve tons for a ship of eight hundred.
After one hour of steaming (= seven miles) we passed the green
mouth of the Wady Antar, in whose Istabl ("stable"), or upper
valley-course, the pilgrimage-caravan camps. It drains a small
inland feature to the north-east, the true "Jebel Antar," which
the Hydrographic Chart has confounded with the great block,
applying, moreover, the term Istabl to the height instead of the
hollow. This Jebel Libn, along which we are now steaming, is a
counterpart on a small scale, a little brother, of the Shárr,
measuring 3733 instead of 6000 to 6500 feet. We first see from
the north a solid block capped with a mural crown of three peaks.
When abreast of us the range becomes a tall, fissured, and
perpendicular wall: this apical comb, bluff to the west, reposes
upon a base sloping, at the angle of rest, to the environing
sandy Wady. To complete the resemblance, even the queer "Pins"
are not wanting; and I should expect to find in it all the
accidents of the giant of El-Muwaylah.
The complexion of the Libn, which the people pronounce "Libin,"
suggests grey granite profusely intersected with white quartz:
hence, probably, the name, identical with Lebanon and
Libanus--"the Milk Mountain." The title covers a multitude of
peaks: the Bedawin have, doubtless, their own terms for every
head and every hollow. The citizens comprehensively divide the
block into two, El-Áli ("the Upper") being its southern, and
El-Asfal ("the Lower") its northern, section. It is said to
abound in water; and a Nakhil ("date-grove") is described as
growing near the summit. The Hutaym, who own most of it, claim
the lover and hero-poet, Antar, as one of their despised
tribe--hence, probably, his connection with the adjoining
mountain and "the stable."
"Jebel Libin" is the great feature of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah; for
many days it will appear to follow us, and this is the proper
place for assigning its rank and status to it. About El-Akabah,
the northern head of the Gháts or coast-range, we have prospected
the single chain of Jebel Shará'; the "Sa'ar of the tribes of the
Shasu" (Bedawin)[EN#35] in the papyri, and the Hebrew Mount Seir,
the "rough" or "rugged." Further south we have noted how this
tall eastern bulwark of the great Wady el-Arabah bifurcates;
forming the Shafah chain to the east, and westward of it, in
Madyan Proper, the Jibál el-Tihámah, of which the Shárr is
perhaps the culmination. We have noted the accidents of the
latter as far as Dumayghah Cove, and now we descry in the offing
the misty forms--how small they look!--of the Jebel el-Ward; the
Jibál el-Safhah; the two blocks, south of the Wady Hamz, known as
the Jibál el-Rál; and their neighbours still included in the
Tihámat-Balawíyyah. Lastly, we shall sight, behind El-Haurá, the
Abú Ghurayr and a number of blocks which, like the former, are
laid down, but are not named, in the Chart.
Beyond El-Haurá the chain stretches southwards its mighty links
with smaller connections. The first is the bold range Jebel
Radwah, the "Yambo Hills" of the British sailor, some six
thousand feet high and lying twenty-five miles behind the new
port.[EN#36] Passing it to left on the route to El-Medínah, I
heard the fables which imposed upon Abyssinian Bruce: "All sorts
of Arabian fruits grew to perfection on the summit of these
hills; it is the paradise of the people of Yenbo, those of any
substance having country-houses there." This was hardly probable
in Bruce's day, and now it is impossible. The mountain is held by
the Beni Harb, a most turbulent tribe, for which see my
"Pilgrimage."[EN#37] Their head Shaykh, Sa'd the Robber, who
still flourished in 1853, is dead; but he has been succeeded by
one of his sons, Shaykh Hudayfah, who is described with simple
force as being a "dog more biting than his sire." Between these
ill-famed haunts of the Beni Harb and Jeddah rises the Jebel
Subh, "a mountain remarkable for its magnitude" (4500 feet),
inhabited by the Beni Subh, a fighting clan of the "Sons of
Battle."
The largest links of these West-Arabian Gháts are of white-grey
granite, veined and striped with quartz; and they are subtended
inland by the porphyritic traps of the Jibál el-Shafah, which we
shall trace to the parallel of El-Hamz, the end of Egypt. I
cannot, however, agree with Wellsted (II. xii.) that the ridges
increase in height as they recede from the sea; nor that the
veins of quartz run horizontally through the "dark granite." The
greater altitudes (three to six thousand feet) are visible from
an offing of forty to seventy miles; and they are connected by
minor heights: some of these, however, are considerable, and here
and there they break into detached pyramids. All are maritime,
now walling the shore, like the Tayyib Ism; then sheering away
from it, where a broad "false coast" has been built by Time.
These western Gháts, then, run down, either in single or in
double line, the whole length of occidental Arabia; and, meeting
a similar and equally important eastern line, they form a mighty
nucleus, the mountains of El-Yemen. After carefully inspecting,
and making close inquiries concerning, a section of some five
hundred miles, I cannot but think that the mines of precious
ores, mentioned by the mediæval Arabian geographers,[EN#38] lay
and lie in offsets from the flanks either of the maritime or the
inland chain; that is, either in the Tihámah, the coast lowlands,
or in the El-Nejd, the highland plateau of the interior.
What complicates the apparently simple ground is the long line of
volcanic action which, forming the eastern frontier of the
plutonic granites and of the modern grits, may put forth veins
even to the shores of the Akabah Gulf and the Red Sea.[EN#39]
The length, known to me by inquiry, would be about three degrees
between north lat. 28° and 25°, the latter being the parallel of
El-Medínah; others make them extend to near Yambú', in north lat.
24° 5'. They may stretch far to the north, and connect, as has
been suggested, with the Syrian centres of eruption, discovered
by the Palestine Exploration. I have already explained[EN#40] how
and why we were unable to visit "the Harrah" lying east of the
Hismá; but we repeatedly saw its outlines, and determined that
the lay is from north-west to south-east. Further south, as will
be noticed at El-Haurá, the vertebrae curve seawards or to the
south-west; and seem to mingle with the main range, the mountains
of the Tihámat-Jahaníyyah ("of the Juhaynah"). Thus the formation
assumes an importance which has never yet been attributed to it;
and the five several "Harrahs," reported to me by the Bedawin,
must be studied in connection with the mineralogical deposits of
the chains in contact with them. It must not be forgotten that a
fragment of porous basalt, picked up by the first Expedition near
Makná, yielded a small button of gold.[EN#41]
Dreadfully rolled the Sinnár, as she ran close in-shore before
the long heavy swell from the north-west, and the old saying, Bon
rouleur, bon marcheur, is cold consolation to an active man made
to idle malgré lui. This section of the coast, unlike that to the
north, is remarkably free from reefs. A little relief was felt
while sheltered by the short tract of channel between the
mainland and the shoals. But the nuisance returned in force as,
doubling the Ras Muraybit (not Marabat), we sighted the two
towers of El-Wijh, both beflagged, the round Burj of the fort,
and the cubical white-washed lighthouse crowning its rocky point.
And we were quiet once more when the Sinnár, having covered the
thirty miles in four hours and thirty minutes, cast anchor in the
usual place, south-east of the northern jaw. The main objection
to our berth is that the prevailing north wind drives in a
rolling sea from the open west. The log showed a total of 102
miles between the Sharms Yáhárr and El-Wijh, or 107 from the
latter to El-Muwaylah.
"El-Wijh," meaning the face, a word which the Egyptian Fellah
perverts to "Wish," lies in north lat. 26° 14'. It is the
northernmost of the townlets on the West Arabian shore, which
gain importance as you go south; e.g., Yambá', Jeddah, Mocha, and
Aden. It was not wholly uncivilized during my first visit, a
quarter of a century ago, when I succeeded in buying opium for
feeble patients. Distant six stations from Yambá', and ten from
El-Medínah, it has been greatly altered and improved. The
pilgrim-caravan, which here did penance of quarantine till the
last two years, has given it a masonry pier for landing the
unfortunates to encamp upon the southern or uninhabited side of
the cove. A tall and well-built lighthouse, now five years old,
boasts of a good French lantern, wanting only soap and decent
oil. Finally, guardhouses and bakehouses, already falling to
ruins like the mole, and an establishment for condensing water,
still kept in working order, are the principal and costly
novelties of the southern shore.
The site of El-Wijh is evidently old, although the ruins have
been buried under modern buildings. Sprenger (p. 21) holds the
townlet to be the port of "Egra, a village" (El-Hajar, or "the
town, the townlet"?) "in the territory of Obodas," whence,
according to Strabo (xvi. c. 4, § 24), Ælius Gallus embarked his
baffled troops for Myus Hormus.[EN#42] Formerly he believed
El-Aúníd to be Strabo's "Egra," the haven for the north; as
El-Haurá was for the south, and El-Wijh for the central regions.
Pliny (vi. 32) also mentions the "Tamudæi, with their towns of
Domata and Hegra, and the town of Badanatha." It is generally
remarked that "Egra" does not appear in Ptolemy's lists; yet one
of the best texts (Nobbe, Lipsia, 1843) reads <Greek> instead
of the "Negran" which Pirckheymerus (Lugduni, MDXXXV.) and others
placed in north lat. 26°.
My learned friend writes to me--"El-Wijh, on the coast of Arabia,
is opposite to Qoçayr (El-Kusayr), where Ælius Gallus landed his
troops. We know that Egra' is the name of a town in the
interior, and it was the constant habit to call the port after
the capital of the country, e.g., Arabia Emporium = Aden. We have
now only to inquire whether El-Wijh had claims to be considered
the seaport of El-Hijr." This difficulty is easily settled.
El-Wijh is still the main, indeed the only, harbour in South
Midian; and, during our stay there, a large caravan brought
goods, as will be seen, from the upper Wady Hamz.
Under the influence of the quarantine, El-Wijh, the town on the
northern bank of its cove, has blossomed into a hauteville,
dating from the last dozen years. The ancient basseville,
probably the site of many former settlements, is now used chiefly
for shops and stores. Another and a more pretentious mosque has
supplanted the little old Záwiyah ("chapel") with its barbarous
minaret, whose finial, a series of inverted crescents, might be
taken for a cross; while a Jámi' or "cathedral," begun in the
upper town, has stopped short through want of funds. Some of the
best houses now extend towards the northern point. As usual in
Arab settlements, they are long, tall claret-cases of coral-rag
and burnt lime; flat-roofed, whitewashed in front, and provided
with wooden doors and shutters. Lastly, on the slope still
appears the smoky coffee-shed that witnessed the memorable
encounter between its surly proprietor and "Saad the
Devil."[EN#43]
Stony ramps, stiff as those of Gibraltar, connect the low with
the high town, the cool breezy new settlement upon the crest of
the northern cliff, whose noble view of the Jebel Libn and the
palm-scattered Wady el-Wijh were formerly monopolized by the fort
and its round tower. This work, only sixty-five years old, now
stands so perilously near the undermined edge of the
rock-cornice, that some day it will come down with a run. It is
used by the garrison, and serves as a jail; but lately a Bedawi
prisoner, like a certain Mamlúk Bey, jumped down the precipitous
cove-face and effected his escape. Behind it are the "Doctors'
Quarters," empty and desolate, because the sanitary officers have
been removed. They are sheds of white-washed boarding, brought
from the Crimea, like those of the Suez Canal; and comfortably
distributed into Harem, kitchens, offices, and other necessaries.
The inhabitants of El-Wijh may number twelve hundred, without
including chance travellers and the few wretched Bedawin, Hutaym
and others, who pitch their black tents, like those of
Alexandrian "Ramleh," about and beyond the town. The people live
well; and the merchants are large and portly men, who evidently
thrive upon meat and rice. Flesh is retailed in the bazar, and
mutton is cheap, especially when the Bedawin are near; a fine
large sheep being dear at ten shillings. Water is exceptionally
abundant, even without the condenser's aid. The poorer classes
and animals are watered at the pits and the two regular wells
near the valley's mouth, half an hour's trudge from the town. The
wealthy are supplied by the inland fort, which we shall presently
visit: the distance going and coming would be about four slow
hours, and the skinful costs five Khurdah, or copper piastres =
three halfpence. The inner gardens grow a small quantity of green
meat: water-melons are brought from Yambá(?): opium and Hashísh
abound, but no spirits are for sale since the one Greek Bakkál,
or petty shopkeeper, "made tracks." He borrowed from a certain
Surúr Selámah, negro merchant and head miser, 150 napoleons, in
order to buy on commission certain bales of cotton shipwrecked up
coast; he left in pledge the keys of his miserable store, which,
by-the-by, la loi refuses to open; he was never seen again, and
poor rich Surur is in the depths of despair.
One of the small industries of El-Wijh is the pearl trade. Mr.
Clarke bought for £4 (twenty dollars) a specimen of good round
form but rather yellow colour; and presently refused £5 for it.
Those of pear-shape easily fetch thirty-six to forty dollars.
Turquoises set in sealing-wax are sold cheap by the returning
Persian pilgrims: the Zib el-Bahr ("Sea-wolf"), an Egyptian
cruiser, had carried off the best shortly before our arrival. The
people speak of an Akík ("carnelian") which, rubbed down in
vinegar, enters into the composition of a favourite philtre--we
could not, however, find any for sale. On our return, an Anezah
caravan of some ninety camels, driven by a hundred or so of
spearmen and matchlockmen, came in loaded with valuable Samn or
clarified butter: the fact suggests that the time has come for
establishing a Gumruk ("custom-house") at El-Wijh. Another source
of wealth will be El-Melláhah, "the salina," along which we shall
travel: every man who has a donkey may carry off what he pleases,
and sell to pilgrims and Bedawin the kilogramme for four piastres
copper (= one piastre currency = five farthings). This again
should be taken in hand by Government; and regular "salterns,"
like those of Triestine Capodistria, would greatly increase the
quantity. Nothing can be better than the quality except
rock-salt. There is another salina about one hour down the coast,
formed by a reef, near the Ras el-Ma'llah.
The afternoon of arrival was spent in receiving visits. The
Muháfiz or "civil governor," Hasan Bey, calls himself a
Circassian: he is a handsome old man, whose straight features
suggest the Greek slave, and who served in the Syrian campaigns
under Ibrahim Pasha. Forty years ago he left his home; he has
been here six years, and yet he knows absolutely nothing of the
interior. He ought to reside at the inland fort, but he prefers
the harbour-town; and he had not the common-sense to ride out
with us. He shows his zeal by inventing obstacles; for instance,
he suggests that the Bedawin should leave, during our journey,
hostages at the fort: this is wholly unnecessary, and means only
piastres. The Yuzbáshi, or "military commandant," Sid-Ahmed
Effendi, has charge of the forty-five regulars, half a company,
who garrison the post and outpost. The chief merchant, who
afterwards volunteered to be our travelling companion, is
Mohammed Shahádah, formerly Wakil ("agent") of the fort, a charge
now abolished by a pound-foolish policy: he is an honest and
intelligent, a charitable and companionable man, who has
travelled far and wide over the interior, and who knows the
tribes by heart. I strongly recommended him to his Highness the
Viceroy. His brothers, Bedawi and Ali Shahádah, are also
open-handed to the poor; very unlike their brother-in-law Surúr
Selámah, formerly a slave to the father of Mohammed Selámah whom
we had met at Zibá. The list of notables ends with the Sayyid
Ibrahim El-Mara'í and with the sturdy Abd el-Hakk, pearl and
general merchant. All recognized our friend the Sayyid, whom even
the "gutter-boys" saluted by name; and, although the Arab manner
is blunt and independent, all showed perfect civility. It is
needless to say that our late work, and our future plans, were
known to everybody at El-Wijh as well as to ourselves; and that
the tariffs of pay and hire, established in the North Country, at
once became the norm of the South.
Our favourite walk at old "Egra" was to the quarantine-ground and
the lighthouse. The situation of the town is by no means
satisfactory, and the heavy dews of April, wetting the streets,
cause frequent fevers. En revanche, nothing can be more healthy
or exhilarating than the air of the tall plateau to the south of
the cove. The quarantine-ground, with its grand view of the
mountains inland, ends seawards in the Pharos that commands an
horizon of blue water. The latter, according to the charts, is
one hundred and six feet above sea-level, and is theoretically
visible for fourteen miles; practice would reduce this radius to
ten, and the least haze to six and even five.
The lighthouse-charges are strongly objected to by the skippers
of Arab fishing-boats, although very small in their case.
Square-rigged vessels pay per ton twenty parahs (tariff): thus it
costs a ship of five hundred tons £2 10s. (Turkish). The keeper.
under Admiral M'Killop (Pasha), a young Greek named "Gurjí," as
"George" here sounds, is assisted by a Moslem lad, Mohammed
Effendi of Alexandria. They serve for three years, and they look
forward to the end of them. The former also superintends the
condensing establishment: this office is a sinecure, except
during the three months of pilgrim-passage. The machine can
distil eighteen tons per diem; and there is another
water-magazine, an old paddle-wheeler moored to the beach under
the town. Behind the establishment lies the pilgrim-cemetery.
frequented by hyenas that prowl around the lighthouse,
threatening the canine guard. I found a new use for this vermin's
brain: it is administered by the fair ones at El-Wijh to jealous
husbands, upon whom, they tell me, it acts as a sedative.
El-Wijh has been heard of in England as the prophylactic against
the infected Hejaz. It is admirably suited for quarantine
purposes, and it has been abolished, very unwisely, in favour of
"Tor harbour." The latter, inhabited by a ring of thievish
Syro-Greek traders; backed by a wretched wilderness, alternately
swampy and sandy, is comfortless to an extent calculated to make
the healthiest lose health. Moreover, its climate, says Professor
Palmer (p. 222), is very malarious: "owing to the low and marshy
nature of the ground, there is a great deal of miasma even in the
winter season." Finally, and worst of all, it is near enough to
Suez for infection to travel easily. A wealthy pilgrim has only
to pay a few gold pieces, his escape to the mountains is winked
at; and thence he travels or voyages comfortably to Suez and
Cairo. Even without such irregularities, the transmission of
contaminated clothing, or other articles, would suffice to spread
cholera, typhus, and smallpox. Tor is, in fact, an excellent
medium for focussing and for propagating contagious disease; and
its vicinity to Egypt, and consequently to Europe, suggests that
it should at once be abolished.
At first I lent ear to the popular statement at El-Wijh; namely,
that the visiting doctors and the resident sanitary officers
naturally prefer the shorter to the longer voyage, and the nearer
station to that further from home. Moreover, inasmuch as, if
inclined to be dishonest, they find more opportunities in the
north, it was their interest to transfer the establishment to
Tor. The local authorities, the people assured me, were induced
to report that the single fort-well had run dry; that the
condensers had proved a failure, and that the old
steamer-magazine, into which they had poured brine, was leaky and
inefficient. But what was my astonishment when, after return to
Cairo, I was told that the change had been strongly advocated by
the English Government?
The objections to El-Wijh are two, both equally invalid. The port
is dangerous, especially when westerly winds are blowing: ships
during the pilgrimage-season must bank their fires, ever ready to
run out. True; but it has been shown that Sharm Dumayghah, the
best of its kind, lies only thirty knots to the north. The
second, want of water, or of good water, is even less cogent. We
have seen that the seaboard wells supply the poorer classes and
animals; and we shall presently see the Fort-wells, which, in
their day, have watered caravans containing twenty to thirty
thousand thirsty men and beasts. So far from the condensers being
a failure, the tank still holds about twenty tons of distilled
water, although it gives drink to some thirty mouths composing
the establishment. Finally, the old steamer has done its duty
well, and, like the proverbial Marine, is still ready to do its
duty again.[EN#44]
Thus the expense of laying out the quarantine-ground at El-Wijh
has been pitifully wasted. That, however, is a very small matter;
the neglect of choosing a proper position is serious, even
ominous. Unlike Tor, nothing can be healthier or freer from fever
than the pilgrims' plateau. From El-Wijh, too, escape is
hopeless: the richest would not give a piastre to levant;
because, if a solitary traveller left the caravan, a Bedawi
bullet would soon prevail on him to stop. This, then, should be
the first long halt for the "compromised" travelling northwards.
When contagious disease has completely disappeared, the second
precautionary delay might be either at Tor or, better still, at
the "Wells of Moses" (Uyun Músá), near the head of the Suez
Gulf: here sanitary conditions are far more favourable; and here
supplies, including medical comforts, would be cheaper as well as
more abundant. Briefly, it is my conviction that, under present
circumstances, "Tor" is a standing danger, not only to Egypt, but
to universal Europe.
The coast about El-Wijh is famed for shells; the numerous reefs
and shoals favouring the development of the molluscs. We were
promised a heavy haul by the citizens, who, however, contented
themselves with picking up the washed-out specimens found
everywhere on the shore: unfortunately we had no time to
superintend the work. A caseful was submitted to the British
Museum, and a few proved interesting on account of their
locality. The list printed at the end of this chapter was kindly
supplied to me by Mr. Edgar A. Smith, superintendent of the
Conchological Department.
I will conclude this chapter with a short notice the Hutaym or
Hitaym, a people extremely interesting to me. They are known to
travellers only as a low caste. Wellsted (II. xii.) tells us that
the "Huteimi," whom he would make the descendants of the
Ichthyophagi described by Diodorus Siculus and other classics,
are noticed by several Arabian authorities. "In one, the Kitab
el-Mush Serif[EN#45] (Musharrif?), they are styled Hooteïn,' the
descendants of Hooter,' a servant of Moses." He also relates a
legend that the Apostle of Allah pronounced them polluted,
because they ate the flesh of dogs. Others declare that they
opposed Mohammed when he was rebuilding the Ka'bah; and thereby
drew upon themselves the curse that they should be held the
"basest of the Arabs." These tales serve to prove one fact, the
antiquity of the race.
The Hutaym, meaning the "Broken" (tribe), hold, in Midian and
Egypt, the position of Pariahs, like the Akhdám "serviles", or
Helots, of Maskat and El-Yemen. No clan of pure Arabs will
intermarry with them; and when the Fellahs say, Tatahattim
(=tatamaskin or tatazalli), they mean, "Thou cringest, thou makest
thyself contemptible as a Hutaymi." Moreover, they must pay the
dishonouring Akháwat, or "brother-tax," to all the Bedawin
amongst whom they settle.
The Hutaym are scattered as they are numerous. They have
extended, probably in ancient times, to Upper Egypt, and occupy
parts of Nubia; about Sawákin they are an important clan. They
number few in the Sinaitic Peninsula and in Midian, but they
occupy the very heart of the Arabian Peninsula. Those settled on
Jebel Libn, we have seen, claim as their kinsman the legendary
Antar, who was probably a negro of the noble Semitic stock. A
few are camped about El-Wijh; and they become more important down
coast. In the eastern regions bordering upon Midian, they form
large and powerful bodies, such as the Nawámisah and the
Sharárát, whose numbers and bravery secure for them the respect
of their fighting equestrian neighbours, the Ruwalá-Anezah.
Like other Arabs, the Hutaym tribe is divided into a multitude of
clans, septs, and families, each under its own Shaykh. All are
Moslems, after the Desert pattern, a very rude and inchoate
article. Wellsted knew them by their remarkably broad chins: the
Bedawi recognize them by their look; by their peculiar accent,
and by the use of certain peculiar words, as Harr! when
donkey-driving. The men are unwashed and filthy; the women walk
abroad unveiled, and never refuse themselves, I am told, to the
higher blood.
The Arabs of Midian always compare the Hutaym with the Ghagar
(Ghajar) or Gypsies of Egypt; and this is the point which gives
the outcasts a passing interest. I have not yet had an
opportunity of carefully studying the race; nor can I say whether
it shows any traces of skill in metal-working. Meanwhile, we must
inquire whether these Helots, now so dispersed, are not old
immigrants of Indian descent, who have lost their Aryan language,
like the Egyptian Ghajar. In that case they would represent the
descendants of the wandering tribes who worked the most ancient
ateliers. Perhaps they may prove to be congeners of the men of
the Bronze Age, and of the earliest waves of Gypsy-immigration
into Europe.
NOTE.
A list of the shells collected by the second Khedivial Expedition
on the shore of Midian and the Gulf of Akabah, by Edgar A.
Smith, Esq., British Museum.
I. Gastropoda.
1. Conus textile, Linné.
2. Conus sumatrensis, Hwass.
3. Conus catus var., Hwass.
4. Conus larenatus, Hwass.
5. Conus hebræus, Linné.
6. Conus ividus(?), Hwass.
6a. Conus ceylanensis, Hwass.
7. Terebra maculata, Linné.
8. Terebra dimidiata, Linné.
9. Terebra consobrina, Deshayes.
10. Terebra (Impages) cærulescens, Lamarck.
11. Pleurotoma cingulifera, Lamarck.
11a. Murex tribulus, Linn.
12. Murex (Chicoreus) inflatus, Lamarck.
13. Cassidulus paradisiacus, Reeve.
14. Nassa coronata, Lamarck.
15. Nassa pulla, Linné.
16. Engina (Pusiostoma) mendicaria, Lamarck.
17. Cantharus (Tritonidea) sp. juv.
18. Purpura hippocastanum, Lamarck.
19. Sistrum arachnoides, Lamarck.
20. Sistrum fiscellum, Chemnitz.
21. Sistrum tuberculatum, Blainville.
22. Harpa solida, A. Adams.
23. Fasciolaria trapezium, Lamarck.
24. Turbinella cornigera, Lamarck.
25. Dolium (Malea) pomum, Linné.
26. Triton maculosus, Reeve.
27. Triton aquatilis, Reeve.
28. Triton (Persona) anus, Lamarck.
29. Natica (Polinices) mamilla, Linné.
30. Natica albula(?), Récluz.
31. Natica (Mamilla) melanostoma, Lamarck.
32. Solarium perspectivum, Linné.
33. Cypræa arabica, Linné.
34. Cypræa pantherina, Linné.
35. Cypræa camelopardalis, Perry.
36. Cypræa carneola, Linné.
37. Cypræa scurra, Chemnitz.
38. Cypræa erosa, Linné.
39. Cypræa tabescens(?), Solander.
40. Cypræa caurica, Linné.
41. Cypræa talpa, Linné.
41B. Cypraea lynx, Linné.
42. Cerithium tuberosum, Fabricius.
43. Turritella torulosa(?), Kiener.
44. Strombus tricornis, Lamarck.
45. Strombus gibberulus, Linné.
46. Strombus floridus, Lamarck.
47. Strombus fasciatus, Born.
48. Pterocera truncatum, Lamarck.
49. Planaxis breviculus, Deshayes.
50. Nerita marmorata, Reeve.
51. Nerita quadricolor, Gmelin.
52. Nerita rumphii Récluz.
53. Turbo petholatus, Linné.
54. Turbo chrysostoma var.(?), Linné.
55. Trochus (Pyramis) dentatus, Forskâl.
56. Trochus (Cardinalia) virgatus, Gmelin.
57. Trochus (Polydonta) sanguinolentus, Chemnitz.
58. Trochus (Clanculus) pharaonis, Linné.
59. Trochus (Monodonta) sp.
60. Patella variabilis(?), Krauss.
61. Chiton sp.
62. Bulla ampulla, Linné.
II. Conchifera
63. Dione florida, Lamarck.
64. Dione sp.
65. Tellina staurella, Lamarck.
66. Paphia glabrata, Gmelin.
67. Chama Ruppellii, Reeve.
68. Arca (Barbatia) sp.
68a Arca (Senilia) sp.
69. Cardium leucostoma, Born.
70. Venericardia Cumingii, Deshayes.
71. Modiola auriculata, Krauss.
72. Pectunculus lividus, Reeve.
73. Pectunculus pectenoides, Deshayes.
74. Avicula margaritifera, Linné.
75. Tridacna gigas, Linné.