rich booty of coffee, wares, and camels. The Pasha sent to demand back the plunder. They meantime had revelled in their spoils, and eaten up or disposed of the whole; and their laconic answer was: "We were hungry and have eaten." The Pasha immediately despatched a force of two or three thousand men against them. The Arabs gathered at this place and built a wall, expecting the troops to come along the valley. But the latter divided and climbed along the tops of the mountains on each side in order to get round the Arabs; who of course were compelled to meet them on these heights; and they now pointed out to us the places on the summits of these rugged ridges, where the battle was fought. Almost as a matter of course, the Tawarah were routed with little slaughter; the troops marched to the Convent; the chief Sheikh came and surrendered; and peace was granted on condition of their paying the expenses of the war. Since that time, the Tawarah have remained in quiet subjection to the Pasha.1 We reached the top of the pass at the head of Wady Burk at a quarter past noon; and immediately descended along a gully for twenty-five minutes, when we reached Wady 'Akir, which, coming down from before us, here entered the mountains on our right, flowing off into the great Wady Feirân. This valley we now followed up on a course S. E. by S. Here the coloquintida (colocynthus) was growing, with its yellow fruit already ripe. At first the valley is narrow, but gradually grows wider. At 1 o'clock, the mouth of Wady Kineh was pointed out, coming in from the S. 1) Laborde relates the same story, as having occurred several years before his journey in 1828. He makes it refer to the caravan of the Haj on its return from VOL. I. 16 Mecca. This is probably an error. 2) Cucumis colocynthus of Linnæus; in Arabic Handhal. E. through the ridge on our left. Above this point the Wady we were in, loses the name 'Akir, and takes that of el-Lebweh, from a pass before us at its head. The two Wadys Lebweh and Kineh are parallel to each other; both spread out into wide plains; the ridge between them in some parts almost disappears; so that in several places they run together and form one great sloping plain several miles in breadth, covered with tufts of herbs, chiefly 'Abeithirân, but no trees; furnishing abundant pasturage in seasons when rain falls. In the upper part of the plain of Wady Kineh there is water; and Sheikh Sâlih, the head Sheikh of the Tawarah, with a part of his tribe, was encamped not far off, in sight of our road. The two vallies separate again; and near the pass at the head of elLebweh is a sharp isolated peak on the left, called Zub el-Bahry. The pass itself is a mere continuation of the plain, a broad water-shed, rising very gradually on one side and descending as gradually on the other. Burckhardt has noticed this as a peculiar conformation of the mountain ranges of the peninsula; "the vallies reaching to the very summits, where they form a plain, and thence descending on the other side." But the same general feature exists in the great Wady el'Arabah, and in various parts of Palestine. We reached the plain at the top of the ascent at 3 o'clock, where is a small Arab cemetery. The surface soon begins to slope towards the S. and opens out to an extensive plain with many shrubs, forming the head of Wady Berâh and surrounded by peaks of moderate 1) Travels in Syria, etc. pp. 483, 484. Burckhardt gives the name el-Lebweh to the pass at the head of Wady Burk; but our Arabs on being questioned were very posi tive that this was not the case, and said that Lebweh was the name of three different passes at and near the head of the Wadys Lebweh and Kineh. height. A long, high, dark-looking mountain was pointed out to us, called ez-Zebîr, bearing S. about two hours distant; on the top of which there was said to be table-land and pasturage for camels. Passing down the plain on the same course as before (S. E. by S.) we came at 4 o'clock to its S. E. part, where it contracts between noble granite cliffs; and entering Wady Berâh for a short distance, we encamped at 4h 15' on its western side. The rocks on both sides of this valley presented everywhere surfaces so well adapted for inscriptions, that leaving my companions to follow down the right side, I struck across to the left. Here on a large rock I found four short inscriptions in the usual unknown character. Over the longest of them was a cross, evidently of the same date. Just by our tent was also a huge detached rock covered with similar inscriptions much obliterated. Here were two crosses, apparently of later date, or else retouched. This evening our Arabs again brought us good water from a spring in the small Wady Retâmeh, which enters the Berâh opposite our encampment. They had shown themselves every day more and more obliging; and commonly took as active a part in pitching the tent and arranging the luggage for the night, as our servants. In all these matters, our resolute Komeh was master and director, and made the Arabs do his bidding. He found the less difficulty in this, as being cook and purveyor he knew how to distribute the fragments in his department with great nicety and discrimination; so that it was an object of some importance to a hungry Bedawy to keep on good terms with him. Among the many plants we had noted on this and the preceding days, some of the most frequent besides the 'Abeithirân were the Retem, a species of the broom plant, Genista raetam of Forskal,' with small whitish variegated blossoms, growing in the water-courses of the Wadys; the Kirdhy, a green thorny plant with small yellow flowers, which our camels cropped with avidity; the Silleh, apparently the Zilla myagrioides of Forskal; the Shih or Artemisia Judaica of Sprengel; and the 'Ajram, from which the Arabs obtain a substitute for soap, by pounding it when dry between stones, and mixing it with the water in which they wash their linen. Friday, March 23d. We set off again at 6h 25' down Wady Berâh, our course being S. S. E.E. We had ever wished to set off earlier in the morning, than we had yet been able to do. The Arabs were never in a hurry to break up; and this morning especially they were occupied with Beshârah's camel, which had come up late at evening, and was now sent home to their encampment. As we were approaching Sinai, and no longer needed to carry a load of water, this caused us little inconvenience. But let us rise as early as we would, we found it difficult to start under an hour and a half or two hours. It was decidedly a saving of time, on the whole, to breakfast before setting off, rather than stop on our way for that purpose; and this with the delay of packing the utensils and tent, and loading the camels, always made our departure later than the time appointed. As we proceeded down the valley, the rocks on the right presented several inscriptions in the same unknown writing. Indeed we found them at almost every point where the overhanging or projecting rocks seemed to indicate a convenient resting place. The mountains on either side continued of the same character as those we had passed yesterday, chiefly porphyry 1) Flora Aegypt. Arab. p. 214. 2) Ibid. p. 121. and red granite, with an occasional vein of gray granite. The rock was mostly of a coarse texture, much disintegrated and often worn away by the weather, like sandstone. Not unfrequently thin perpendicular veins apparently of grünstein or porphyry were to be seen, projecting above the granite and running through the rocks in a straight line over mountains and vallies for miles, and presenting the appearance of low walls. They reminded me strongly of the stone-fences of New England.-At a quarter past 7 o'clock the Wady spread out into a plain, where the peak of Jebel Mûsa was first pointed out to us bearing S. E. while the left hand peak of Serbâl bore S. W. Ten minutes later Wady 'Ösh, a side valley, entered the Berâh from the left, in which sweet water is found at some distance. Opposite its mouth, on our right, was an old cemetery, apparently no longer used by the Arabs. The heaps of stones which mark the graves are larger than usual, and our guides referred them back to the times of the Franks; as the Bedawîn do every thing of which they know nothing themselves. They seem to have a general impression, not perhaps a distinct tradition, that the country was once in the possession of Frank Christians. At 7 o'clock Wady el-Akhdar came in from the N. E. It was said to begin near Jebel et-Tîh, where there is a spring of the same name, 'Ain el-Akhdar; and uniting here with the Berâh, it passes on S. W. to join Wady esh-Sheikh. The united valley after this junction takes the name of Wady Feirân. The point where the Berâh and Akhdar unite, is a broad open space covered with herbs and surrounded by low hills. Here is a fine view of Mount Serbâl, which rose in full majesty upon our right at the distance of twelve or fifteen miles, being separated from us only by a low ridge or tract beyond which lies Wady Feirân. As thus seen, it |