The Southern Sulphur-hill--the Cruise to El-Haurá--Notes on the
Baliyy Tribe and the Volcanic Centres of North--Western Arabia.
On the day of our arrival at El-Wijh I sent a hurried letter of
invitation to Mohammed Afnán, Shaykh of the Baliyy tribe;
inviting him to visit the Expedition, and to bring with him
seventy camels and dromedaries. His tents being pitched at a
distance of three days' long march in the interior, I determined
not to waste a precious week at the end of the cold season; and
the party was once more divided. Anton, the Greek, was left as
storekeeper, with orders to pitch a camp, to collect as much
munition de bouche as possible, and to prepare for this year's
last journey into the interior. MM. Marie and Philipin, with
Lieutenant Yusuf, Cook Giorji, and Body-servant Ali Marie, were
directed to march along the shore southwards. After inspecting a
third Jebel el-Kibrít, they would bring back notices of the Wady
Hamz, near whose banks I had heard vague reports of a Gasr
(Kasr), "palace" or "castle," built by one Gurayyim Sa'íd.
Meanwhile, the rest of us would proceed in the Sinnár to
El-Haurá, a roundabout cruise of a hundred miles to the south.
M. Philipin lost time in shoeing very imperfectly his four mules;
and M. Marie, who could have set out with eight camels at any
moment, delayed moving till March 26th. The party was composed of
a single Básh-Buzúk from the fort, and two quarrymen: the Ras
Káfilah was young Shaykh Sulaymán bin Afnán--of whom more
presently--while his brother-in-law Hammád acted guide. At 6.40
a.m. they struck to the south-east of the town, and passed the
two brackish pits or wells, Bir el-Isma'íl and El-Sannúsi, which
supply the poor of the port. Thence crossing the broad Wady
el-Wijh, they reached, after a mile's ride, Wady Melláhah, or
"the salina." It is an oval, measuring some eighteen hundred
yards from north to south: the banks are padded with brown slush
frosted white; which, in places, "bogs" the donkeys and admits
men to the knee. Beyond it lie dazzling blocks of pure
crystallized salt; and the middle of the pond is open, tenanted
by ducks and waterfowl, and visited by doves and partridges. At
the lower or northern end, a short divide separates it from the
sea; and the waves, during the high westerly gales, run far
inland: it would be easy to open a regular communication between
the harbour and its saltern. The head is formed by the large Wady
Surrah, whose many feeders at times discharge heavy torrents. The
walls of the valley-mouth are marked, somewhat like the Hárr,
with caverned and corniced cliffs of white, canary-yellow, and
light-pink sandstone.
They then left to the right the long point Ras el-Ma'llah,
fronting Mardúnah Island. Here, as at El-Akabah and Makná, sweet
water springs from the salt sands of the shore; a freak of
drainage, a kind of "Irish bull" of Nature, so common upon the
dangerous Somali seaboard. The tract leads to the south-east,
never further from the shore than four or five miles, but
separated by rolling ground which hides the main. For the same
reason the travellers were unable to sight the immense
development of granite-embedded quartz, which lurks amongst the
hills to the inland or east, and which here subtends the whole
coast-line. They imagined themselves to be in a purely Secondary
formation of gypsum and conglomerates, cut by a succession of
Wady-beds like the section between El-Muwaylah and Aynúnah. Thus
they crossed the mouths of the watercourses, whose heads we shall
sight during the inland march, and whose mid-lengths we shall
pass when marching back to El-Wijh.
These exceedingly broad beds are divided, as usual, by long lines
of Nature-metalled ground. The first important feature is the
Wady Surrah, which falls into the Wady el-Wijh a little above the
harbour-pier: its proper and direct mouth, El-Gá'h (Ká'h), or
"the Hall," runs along-shore into the Melláhah. It drains the
Hamíratayn, or "Two Reds;" the Hamírat Surrah in the Rughám or
Secondary formation, and the granitic mass Hamírat el-Nabwah,
where the plutonic outbreaks begin. Amongst the number of
important formations are:--the Wady el-Miyáh, which has a large
salt-well near the sea, and down whose upper bed we shall travel
after leaving Umm el-Karáyát; the Wady el-Kurr, whose
acquaintance we shall make in the eastern region; and the Wady
el-Argah (Arjah). The latter is the most interesting. Near its
head we shall find knots of ruins, and the quartz-reef
Abá'l-Marú; while lower down the bed, on the north-east side of a
hill facing the valley, Lieutenant Yusuf came upon a rock
scrawled over with religious formulæ, Tawakkaltu al' Allah ("I
rely upon Allah"), and so forth, all in a comparatively modern
Arabic character. The inscriptions lie to the left of the shore
road, and to the right of the pilgrim-highway; thus showing that
miners, not passing travellers, have here left their mark.
After riding five hours and forty minutes (= seventeen miles) the
party reached the base of the third sulphur-hill discovered by
the Expedition on the coast of Midian. Also known as the Tuwayyil
el-Kibrít, the "Little-long (Ridge) of Brimstone," it appears
from afar a reddish pyramid rising about two miles inland of an
inlet, which is said to be safe navigation. Thus far it resembles
the Jibbah find: on the other hand, it is not plutonic, but
chalky like those of Makná and Sinai, the crystals being
similarly diffused throughout the matrix. In the adjoining hills
and cliffs the Secondaries and the conglomerates take all shades
of colour, marvellous to behold when the mirage raises to giant
heights the white coast-banks patched with pink, red, mauve, and
dark brown. Moreover, the quarries of mottled alabaster, which
the Ancients worked for constructions, still show themselves.
The travellers slept at the base of the Tuwayyil. Next morning M.
Philipin proceeded to collect specimens of the sulphur and of the
chalcedony-agate strewed over the plain, and here seen for the
first time. M. Marie and Lieutenant Yusuf rode on to the banks of
the Wady Hamz; and, after three hours (= nine miles), they came
upon the "Castle" and unexpectedly turned up trumps. I had
carelessly written for them the name of a ruin which all,
naturally enough, believed would prove to be one of the normal
barbarous Hawáwít. They brought back specimens of civilized
architecture; and these at once determined one of the objectives
of our next journey. The party returned to El-Wijh on the next
day, in the highest of spirits, after a successful trip of more
than fifty miles.
Meanwhile I steamed southwards, accompanied by the rest of the
party, including the Sayyid, Shaykh Furayj, and the ex-Wakíl,
Mohammed Shahádah, who is trusted by the Bedawin, and who brought
with him a guide of the Fawá'idah-Juhaynah, one Rájih ibn Ayid.
This fellow was by no means a fair specimen of his race: the
cynocephalous countenance, the cobweb beard, and the shifting,
treacherous eyes were exceptional; the bellowing voice and the
greed of gain were not. He had a free passage for himself, his
child, and eight sacks of rice, with the promise of a napoleon by
way of "bakhshísh;" yet he complained aloud that he had no meat
to break his fast at dawn--an Arab of pure blood would rather
have starved. He shirked answering questions concerning the
number of his tribe. "Many, many!" was all the information we
could get from him; and his Arabic wanted the pure pronunciation,
and the choice vocabulary, that usually distinguish the Juhayni
pilots. Arrived at his own shore, he refused to make arrangements
for disembarking his rice; he ordered, with bawling accents and
pointed stick, the sailors of the man-of-war to land it at the
place chosen by himself; and he bit his finger when informed that
a sound flogging was the normal result of such impudence.
We set out at 4.30 p.m. (March 24th); and steamed due west till
we had rounded the northern head of El-Raykhah, a long low island
which, lying west-south-west of El-Wijh, may act breakwater in
that direction. Then we went south-west, and passed to port the
white rocks of Mardu'nah Isle, which fronts the Ras el-Ma'llah,
capping the ugly reefs and shoals that forbid tall ships to hug
this section of the shore. It is described as a narrow ridge of
coralline, broken into pointed masses two to three hundred feet
high, whose cliffs and hollows form breeding-places for wild
pigeons: the unusually rugged appearance is explained by the fact
that here the "Jinns" amuse themselves with hurling rocks at one
another. Before night we had sighted the Ras Kurkumah, so called
from its "Curcuma" (turmeric) hue, the yellow point facing the
islet-tomb of Shaykh Marbat.[EN#46] Upon this part of the shore,
I was told, are extensive ruins as yet unvisited by Europeans,
the dangerous Juhaynah being the obstacle. To the south-east
towered tall and misty forms, the Gháts of the
Tihámat-Jahaníyyah. Northernmost, and prolonging the Libn, that
miniature Shárr, is the regular wall of the Jebel el-Ward; then
come the peaks and pinnacles of the Jibál el-Safhah; and lastly,
the twin blocks El-Rál, between which passes the Egyptian Hajj
when returning from El-Medínah. Faint resemblances of these
features sprawl, like huge caterpillars, over the Hydrographic
Chart, but all sprawl unnamed.
By way of extra precaution we stood to the south instead of the
south-east, thus lengthening to one hundred and twenty knots the
normal hundred (dir. geog. sixty-eight) separating El-Wijh from
the Jebel Hassáni. Moreover, we caught amidships a fine lumpy
sea, that threatened to roll the masts out of the stout old
corvette. As the Sinnár, which always reminded me of her
Majesty's steamship Zebra, is notably the steadiest ship in the
Egyptian navy, the captain was asked about his ballast. He
replied, "I have just taken command, but I don't think there is
any; the engine (El-iddah) is our Saburra"--evidently he had
never seen the hold. This state of things, which, combined with
open ports, foundered her Majesty's sailing frigate Eurydice,
appears the rule of the Egyptian war-navy. I commend the
consideration to English sailors.
The steering also was detestable; and the man at the wheel could
not see the waves--a sine quâ non to the mariner in these
latitudes, who "broaches to" whenever he can. A general remark:
The Egyptian sailor is first-rate in a Dahabiyyah (Nile-boat),
which he may capsize once in a generation; and ditto in a Red Sea
Sambúk, where he is also thoroughly at home. The same was the
case with the Sultan of Maskat's Arabo-English navy: the Arabs
and Sídís (negroes) were excellent at working their Mtepe-craft;
on frigates they were monkeys, poor copies of men. Our European
vessels are beyond and above the West Asiatic and the African. He
becomes at the best a kind of imitation Jack Tar. He will not, or
rather he cannot, take the necessary trouble, concentrate his
attention, fix his mind upon his "duties." He says "Inshallah;"
he relies upon Allah; and he prays five times a day, when he
should be giving or receiving orders. The younger generation of
officers, it is true, drinks wine, and does not indulge in
orisons whilst it should be working; but its efficiency is
impaired by the difficulties and delay in granting pensions. The
many grey beards, however carefully dyed, suggest an equipage de
vétérans.
The consequence of yawing and of running half-speed by night was
that we reached Jebel Hassáni just before noon, instead of eight
a.m., on the 25th. The island, whose profile slopes to the
south-eastward, is a long yellow-white ridge, a lump of coralline
four hundred feet high, bare and waterless in summer: yet it
feeds the Bedawi flocks at certain seasons. It is buttressed and
bluff to the south-west, whence the strongest winds blow; and it
is prolonged by a flat spit to the south-east, and by a long tail
of two vertebrae, a big and a little joint, trending north-west.
Thus it gives safe shelter from the Wester to Arab
barques;[EN#47] and still forms a landmark for those navigating
between Jeddah, Kusayr, and Suez. Its parallel runs a few miles
north of the Dædalus Light (north lat. 24° 55' 30") to the west;
and it lies a little south of El-Haurá on the coast, and of
El-Medínah, distant about one hundred and thirty direct miles in
the interior. If Ptolemy's latitudes are to be consulted, Jebel
Hassáni would be the Timagenes Island in north lat. 25° 40'; and
the corresponding Chersónesus Point is represented by the
important and well-marked projection "Abú Madd," which intercepts
the view to the south.
After rounding the southern spit, we turned to north-east and by
east, and passed, with a minimum of seven fathoms under keel,
between Hassáni the Giant and the dwarf Umm Sahr, a flat sandbank
hardly visible from the shore. This is the only good approach to
the secure and spacious bay that bore the southernmost Nabathæan
port-town: there are northern and north-western passages, but
both require skilful pilots; and every other adit, though
apparently open, is sealed by reefs and shoals. With the blue and
regular-lined curtain of Abú el-Ghurayr in front, stretching down
coast to Ras Abú Madd, we bent gradually round to the north-east
and east. We then left to starboard the settlement El-Amlij, a
long line of separate Ushash, the usual Ichthyophagan huts,
dull, dark-brown wigwams. They were apparently deserted; at
least, only two women appeared upon the shore, but sundry
Katírahs and canoes warned us that fishermen were about. We ran
for safety a mile and three-quarters north of the exposed Ras
el-Haurá; and at 1.30 p.m. (= twenty-one hours) we anchored, in
nine fathoms, under the Kutá'at el-Wazamah. The pea-green
shallows, which defended us to the north and south, had lately
given protection to the Khedivíyyah[EN#48] steamer El-Hidayyidah,
compelled by an accident to creep along-shore like a Sambúk.
El-Haura' is not found either in the charts, or in Ptolemy's and
Sprenger's maps. It lies in north lat. 25° 6', about the same
parallel as El-Medínah; and in east long. (Gr.) 37° 13'
30".[EN#49] Wellsted (II. x.) heard of its ruins, but never saw
it: at least, he says, "In the vicinity of El-Haurá, according to
the Arabs, are some remains of buildings and columns, but our
stay on the coast was too limited to permit our examining the
spot." He is, however, greatly in error when he adds, "Near this
station the encampments of the Bili' (Baliyy) tribe to the
southward terminate, and those of the Joheïnah commence." As has
been seen, the frontier is nearly fifty miles further north. He
notices (chap. ix.) the "White Village" to differ with Vincent,
who would place it at El-Muwaylah; but he translates the word
(ii. 461) "the bright-eyed girl," instead of Albus (Vicus). He
quotes, however, the other name, Dár el-ishrin ("Twentieth
Station"), so called because the Cairo caravan formerly reached
it in a score of days, now reduced to nineteen. He seems,
finally, to have landed in order to inspect "a ruined town on the
main," and to have missed it.
According to Sprenger, the "White Village, or Castle," was not a
Thamudite, but a Nabathæan port. Here Æelius Gallius disembarked
his troops from Egypt. Strabo (xvi. c. 4, § 24) shows that
<Greek> was the starting-place of the caravans which, before
the Nile route to Alexandria was opened, carried to Petra the
merchandise of India and of Southern Arabia. Thence the imports
were passed on to Phoenicia and Egypt:--these pages have shown
why the journey would be preferred to the voyage northward. He is
confirmed by the "Periplus," which relates (chap. xix.) that
"from the port, and the castellum of Leukè Kóme, a road leads to
Petra, the capital of the Malicha (El-Malik), King of the
Nabathæans: it also serves as an emporium to those who bring
wares in smaller ships from Arabia (Mocha, Múza, and Aden). For
the latter reason, a Perceptor or toll-taker, who levies
twenty-five per cent. ad valorem, and a Hekatontarches
(centurion), with a garrison, are there stationed." As the Nabatæ
were vassals of Rome, and the whole region had been ceded to the
Romans (Byzantines) by a chief of the Beni Kudá' tribe, this
Yuzbáshi or "military commandant" was probably a Roman.
El-Haurá, like most of the ruined settlements upon this coast,
shows two distinct "quarters;" a harbour-town and what may be
called a country-town. The latter, whose site is by far the more
picturesque and amene, lay upon a long tongue of land backing the
slope of the sea-cliff, and attached to the low whitish hillocks
and pitons rising down south. It is now a luxuriant orchard of
emerald palms forming three large patches. Behind it swells a
dorsum of golden-yellow sand; and the horizon is closed by ranges
of hills and highlands, red and white, blue and black. Our eyes
are somewhat startled by the amount of bright and vivid green:
for some reason, unknown to us, the shore is far more riant than
the northern section; and the land might be called
quasi-agricultural. The whole coast seems to be broken with
verdant valleys; from the Wady el-Ayn, with its numerous
branches beautifying the north, to the Wady el-Daghaybaj in the
south, supplying water between its two paps.
On the evening of our arrival, we landed in a shallow bay bearing
north-north-east (30° mag.) from the roads where the corvette lay
at anchor; and walked a few yards inland to the left bank of the
Wady el-Samnah, the unimportant Fiumara draining low hills of the
same name. The loose sand is everywhere strewed with bits of
light porous lava, which comes from the Harrat el-Buhayr, a bluff
quoin to the north-west. About El-Haurá, I have said, the
volcanic formations, some sixty miles inland on the parallel of
El-Muwaylah, approach the coast.
We were guided to the ruins by the shouts of sundry Arabs
defending their harvest against a dangerous enemy, the
birds--rattles and scarecrows were anything but scarce.
Apparently the sand contains some fertilizing matter. A field of
dry and stunted Dukhn (Holcus Dochna), or small millet, nearly
covers the site of the old castle, whose outline, nearly buried
under the drift of ages, we could still trace. There are two
elevations, eastern and western; and a third lies to the north,
on the right side of the Wady Samnah. Scatters of the usual
fragments lay about, and the blocks of white coralline explained
the old names--Whitton, Whitworth, Whitby. The Bedawin preserve
the tradition that this was the most important part of the
settlement, which extended southwards nearly four miles. The
dwarf valley-mouth is still a roadstead, where two small craft
were anchored; and here, doubtless, was the corner of the hive
allotted to the community's working-bees. An old fibster, Hámid
el-Fá'idi, declared that he would bring us from the adjacent
hills a stone which, when heated, would pour forth metal like
water--and never appeared again. It was curious to remark how
completely the acute Furayj believed him, because both were Arabs
and brother Bedawin.
Next morning we set out, shortly after the red and dewy sunrise,
to visit the south end of Leukè Kóme. The party consisted of
twenty marines under an officer, besides our escort of ten negro
"Remingtons:" the land was open, and with these thirty I would
willingly have met three hundred Bedawin. Our repulse from the
Hismá had rankled in our memories, and we only wanted an
opportunity of showing fight. After rowing a mile we landed,
south-east of the anchorage (127° mag.), at a modern ruin, four
blocks of the rudest masonry, built as a store by a Yambú'
merchant. Unfortunately he had leased the ground from the
Fawá'idah clan, when the Hámidah claim it: the result was a
"faction fight"--and nothing done.
A few minutes' walking, over unpleasantly deep sand, placed us
upon the Hajj-road. It is paved, like the shore, with natural
slabs and ledges of soft modern sandstone; and, being foot-worn,
it makes a far better road than that which connects Alexandria
with Ramleh. The broad highway, scattered with quartz and basalt,
greenstone, and serpentine, crossed one of the many branches of
the Wady el-Ayn: in the rich and saltish sand grew crops of
Dukhn, and the Halfá-grass (Cynosures durus) of the Nile Valley,
with tamarisk-thickets, and tufts of fan-palm. On its left bank a
lamp-black vein of stark-naked basalt, capped by jagged blocks,
ran down to the sea, and formed a conspicuous buttress. The
guides spoke of a similar volcanic outcrop above Point Abú Madd
to the south; and of a third close to Yambá' harbour.
An hour of "stravaguing" walk showed us the first sign of the
ruins: wall-bases built with fine cement, crowning the summit of
a dwarf mound to the left of the road; well-worked scoriæ were
also scattered over its slopes. We now entered the date orchards
conspicuous from the sea: on both sides of us were fences of
thorn, tamped earth, and dry stone; young trees had been planted,
and, beyond the dates, large fields of Dukhn again gave an
agricultural touch to the scene. Flocks of sheep and goats were
being grazed all around us; and the owners made no difficulty, as
they would have done further north, in selling us half a dozen.
We then entered the Wady Haurá, where the caravan camps. It is a
cheery charming site for rich citizens, with its plain of rich
vegetation everywhere, say the natives, undermined by water; its
open sea-view to the west; its mound of clean yellow sand behind,
extending to the rocky horizon; and its pure fresh breezes
blowing from the Nejd with an indescribable sense of lightness
and health and enjoyment. In fact, it has all the accessories of
an "eligible position." At the third or southern palm patch, we
found the only public work which remains visible in the great
Nabathaean port. It was formerly a Káríz, the
underground-aqueduct so common in Persia; and it conducted
towards the sea the drainage of the Jebel Turham, a round knob
shown in the Chart, which bears south-east (121° mag.) from the
conduit-head. The line has long ago been broken down by the
Arabs; and the open waters still supply the Hajj-caravan. The
Ayn ("fountain") may be seen issuing from a dark cavern of white
coralline: the water then hides itself under several filled-up
pits, which represent the old air-holes; and, after flowing below
sundry natural arches, the remains of the conduit-ceiling, it
emerges in a deep fissure of saltish stone. From this part of its
banks we picked up fair specimens of saltpetre. The lower course
abounds in water-beetles, and is choked with three kinds of
aquatic weeds. After flowing a few yards it ends in a shallow
pool, surrounded by palms and paved with mud, which attracts
flights of snipes, sandpipers, and sandgrouse.
The turbulent "Dog's Sons"[EN#50] were mostly in the upper lands;
but a few wretched fellows, with swords, old spears, and
ridiculous matchlocks, assembled and managed to get up a squabble
about the right of leading strangers into "our country"
(Bilád-ná). The doughty Rájih ibn Ayid, who, mounted upon a mean
dromedary, affected to be chief guide, seemed to treat their
pretensions as a serious matter, when we laughed them to scorn.
He and all the other experts gave us wholly discouraging details
concerning a ruin represented to lie, some hours off, in the
nearest of the southern Harrah. According to them, the Kasr
el-Bint ("Maiden's Palace") was in the same condition as
El-Haurá; showing only a single pillar, perhaps the "columns" to
which Wellsted alludes. We could learn nothing concerning the
young person whose vague name it bears; except that she preferred
settling on the mainland, whereas her brother built a
corresponding castle upon the islet Jebel Hassáni.[EN#51] He is
locally called Warakat ibn Naufal, a venerated name in the
Fatrah, or "interval," between Jesus and Mohammed; he was the
uncle of Khadijah the widow, and he is popularly supposed to have
been a Christian. Here, as at other places, I inquired, at the
suggestion of a friend, but of course in vain, about the human
skeleton which Ibn Mujáwar, some six centuries ago, found
embedded in a rock near the sea-shore.
Such is the present condition of the once famous emporium Leukè
Kóme. We returned along the shore to embark; and, shortly after
noon, the old corvette of Crimean date again swung round on her
heel, and resumed her wanderings, this time northwards. The run
of eighteen hours and fifteen minutes was semicircular, but the
sea had subsided to a dead calm. The return to El-Wijh felt like
being restored to civilization; we actually had a salad of radish
leaves--delicious!
Our travel will now lie through the Baliyy country, and a few
words concerning this ancient and noble tribe may here be given.
Although they apparently retain no traditions of their origin,
they are known to genealogists as a branch of the Beni Kudá',
who, some fifteen centuries ago, emigrated from Southern Arabia,
and eventually exterminated the Thamudites. I have noted their
northern and southern frontiers: to the north-east they are
bounded by the vicious Ma'ázah and the Ruwalá-Anezahs, and to
the south-east by the Alaydán-Anezahs, under Shaykh Mutlak. Like
their northern nomadic neighbours, they have passed over to
Egypt, and even the guide-books speak of the "Billi" in the
valley of the Nile.
The Baliyy modestly rate their numbers at four thousand muskets,
by which understand four hundred. Yet they divide themselves into
a multitude of clans; our companion, the Wakíl Mohammed Shahádah,
can enumerate them by the score; and I wrote down the
twenty-three principal, which are common both to South Midian and
to Egypt. The chief Shaykh, Mohammed Afnán ibn Ammár, can reckon
backwards seven generations, beginning from a certain Shaykh
Sultán. About ten years ago he allowed the tribe to indulge in
such dangerous amusements as "cutting the road" and plundering
merchants. It is even asserted, privily, that they captured the
fort of El-Wijh, by bribing the Turkish Topji ("head gunner"), to
fire high--like the half-caste artilleryman who commanded the
Talpúr cannoneers at Sir Charles Napier's Battle of "Meeanee." A
regiment of eight hundred bayonets was sent from Egypt, and the
Shaykh was secured by a Hílah, or "stratagem;" that is, he was
promised safe conduct: he trusted himself like a fool, he was
seized, clapped in irons, and sent to jail in the Citadel of
Cairo. Here he remained some seven months in carcere duro, daily
expecting death, when Fate suddenly turned in his favour; he was
sent for by the authorities, pardoned for the past, cautioned for
the future, and restored to his home with a Murátibah ("regular
pension") of eight hundred piastres per mensem, besides rations
and raiment. The remedy was, like cutting off the nose of a
wicked Hindú wife, sharp but effective. Shaykh Afnan and his
tribe are now models of courtesy to strangers; and the traveller
must devoutly wish that every Shaykh in Arabia could be subjected
to the same discipline.
The Baliyy are a good study of an Arab tribe in the rough. The
Huwaytát, for example, know their way to Suez and to Cairo; they
have seen civilization; they have learned, after a fashion, the
outlandish ways of the Frank, the Fellah, and the Turk-fellow.
The Baliyy have to be taught all these rudiments. Cunning,
tricky, and "dodgy," as is all the Wild-Man-race, they lie like
the "childish-foolish," deceiving nobody but themselves. An
instance: Hours and miles are of course unknown to them, but they
began with us by affecting an extreme ignorance of comparative
distances; they could not, or rather they would not, adopt as a
standard the two short hours' march between the Port and the
inland Fort of El-Wijh. When, however, the trick was pointed out
to them, they at once threw it aside as useless. No pretext was
too flimsy to shorten a march or to cause a halt--the northerners
did the same, but with them we had a controlling power in the
shape of Shaykh Furayj. And like the citizens, they hate our
manner of travelling: they love to sit up and chat through half
the night; and to rise before dawn is an abomination to them.
At first their manners, gentle and pliable, contrast pleasantly
with the roughness of the half-breds, Huwaytát and Maknáwi, who
have many of the demerits of the Fellah, without acquiring the
merits of the Bedawi. As camel-men they were not difficult to
deal with; nor did they wrangle about their hire. Presently they
turned out to be "poor devils," badly armed, and not trained to
the use of matchlocks. Their want of energy in beating the bushes
and providing forage for their camels, compared with that of the
northerners, struck us strongly. On the other hand, they seem to
preserve a flavour of ancient civilization, which it is not easy
to describe; and they certainly have inherited the instincts and
tastes of the old metal-workers: they are a race of born miners.
That sharpest of tests, the experience of travel, at last
suggested to us that the Baliyy is too old a breed; and that its
blue blood wants a "racial baptism," a large infusion of
something newer and stronger.
Note on the "Harrahs" of Arabia.
The learned Dr. J. G. Wetzstein, in the appendix to his
"Reisebericht," etc.,[EN#52] records a conversation with A. von
Humboldt and Carl Ritter (April, 1859), respecting the specimens
which he had brought from the classical Trachonitis. Their
appearance led the latter to question whether the latest
eruptions of the Harrat Rájil, as it is called from an adjoining
valley, may not have taken place within the historic period; and
he referred to Psalm xviii. as seeming to note the occurrence,
during David's reign, of such a phenomenon in or near Palestine.
Humboldt deemed it probable that the Koranic legend (chap. iv.)
of the Abyssinian host under Abraha destroyed by a shower of
stones baked in hell-fire, referred, not to small-pox as is
generally supposed, but to an actual volcanic eruption in Arabia.
"With what interest would that great man have learnt," writes Dr.
Wetzstein, "that, as I was turning over the leaves of Yákút's
Geographical Lexicon,' only a few days ago, I found that the
Arabians knew of the existence of twenty-eight different volcanic
regions between Hauran and Bab el-Mandeb!" Later still, Dr. Otto
Loth published an elaborate paper "On the Volcanic Regions
(Harras) of Arabia, according to Yakut" (thirteenth century), in
which these eruptive sites are nearly all identified and
described.
"Among the numerous volcanoes thus found to exist within the
Arabian Peninsula," remarks Dr. Beke,[EN#53] "the only one
recorded as having been in activity within the historic period is
the Harrat-el-Nar (Fire Harra'), situate to the north-east of
Medina, in the neighbourhood of Khaibur (Khaybar), in about 26°.
30' north lat., and 40°. east long.; which, being traditionally
said to have been in an active state six centuries before
Mohammed, had actually an eruption in the time of the Prophet's
successor, Omar. To the north-west of this Fire Harra' lies that
known as the Harra of (the tribe of) Udhra' (Azra): again, to
the north of this is the Harra of Tabuk,' so called from the
station of that name on the Hajj-road from Damascus to Mekka, the
position of which is in about 28 deg. 15' north lat. and 37 deg.
east long.; and beyond this last, further to the north, and
consequently between it and the northernmost Harra of the Râdjil,
or Trachonitis, is the Harra Radjlâ. . . . Its designation, which
means rough,' pathless,' seems to indicate its peculiarly
rugged surface, and to lead to the inference that it is an
immense field of lava." He cites Irby and Mangles ("Travels in
Egypt," pp. 115, 116; reprinted by Murray, London, 1868),
describing their route between Kerak and Petra, on the east side
of the Ghor or Wady Arabah. "We noticed three dark volcanic
summits, very distinguishable from the land. The lava that had
streamed from them forms a sort of island in the plain."
Hence my late friend concluded that his "true Mount Sinai" was
the focus and origin of this volcanic region; and that the latter
was the "great and terrible wilderness" (Deut. i. 19) through
which the children of Israel were led on their way to mysterious
Kadesh-Barnea. Thus, too, he explained the "pillar of the cloud
by day," and the "pillow of fire by night" (Exod. xiii. 21).