thus showing the value attached to the only spot of cultivation in the vicinity of Suez, to which place they belonged. There were also a few cabbage-plants. Near the fountains is a low mound of rubbish with fragments of tiles and pottery, and some foundations visible on the top, apparently marking the site of a former village. Râs 'Atâkah bore from here S. 70° W.

Immediately south of these fountains, the path rises over sand-hills. At 9h 35' we crossed Wady erReiyâneh running towards the sea; as do all the following Wadys. An hour further on, a path branched off to the left, towards the mountain at the head of Wady Sudr, where the Arabs Terâbîn have their chief encampment. We came to Wady Kurdhîyeh at 11h 35'; not a plain as Burckhardt says;2 for the Bedawîn usually give names only to the Wadys, and not to the plains between. The road continues over a gravelly tract of several hours in extent. At 121 o'clock a path went off more to the right, which leads along the shore to the fountain Abu Suweirah near the mouth of Wady Wardân, and so to the warm springs of Jebel Hummâm. Soon after 1 o'clock we crossed Wady el-Ahtha coming down through the plain. All these Wadys are mere depressions in the desert, with only a few scattered herbs and shrubs, now withered and parched with drought. Along these plains we first saw scattered rocks of coralformation; which we afterwards found also in the adjacent hills. At 4h 10' we encamped near the middle of Wady Sŭdr, a broad tract on a level with the plain, along which the mountain-torrents sweep down to the sea. It is covered with drift-sand, which accu

1) M. Monge regards this as the former site of a pottery, where earthen vessels were manufac

tured on the spot, in order to carry

away water; Descr. de l'Egypte, 1. c.

2) Travels in Syria, etc. p. 470.

mulates im mounds around the shrubs and low trees. Here were a few stunted tamarisk-trees, and many herbs and shrubs; so that our camels found better pasture than heretofore. The peak Tâset Sŭdr bore nearly East, at the head of the Wady.'

The former mountain is so called (Cup of Sudr) from a fountain near it which runs towards Wady Sŭdr. Here are the head-quarters of the Terâbîn, who dwell chiefly in the mountains er-Râhah, but visit also the fountain Abu Suweirah, and claim the whole territory from opposite Suez to Wady Ghůrŭndel. They are poor and few, not numbering in all more than twenty-five tents or some forty families. These Terâbîn are regarded by the Tawarah as strangers here, a colony from the main tribe of the same name, which occupies the country south of Gaza, and is very rich in flocks and herds. Their territory as above described, besides the two fountains just mentioned, includes also those of Mab'ûk, Nâba' and 'Ayûn Mûsa in the north; as well as those of Hawârah and Wady Ghŭrundel in the south.

With our Tawarah guides, we had every reason to be satisfied. They were good-natured obliging fellows, ready and desirous to do for us every thing we wished, so far as it was in their power. Beshârah had the command, and took charge of the arrangements for encamping at night and setting off in the morning; but in other respects all seemed to be much on a footing. They walked lightly and gaily by our side; often outstripping the camels for a time, and then as often lagging behind; and they seldom seemed tired at night. Like all the Tawarah they wore turbans, and not the Kefiyeh of the northern and eastern

1) The northernmost peak of Jebel 'Atâkah bore N. 34° W. The northern end of Jebel Deraj or

Kulalah, N. 89 W. Southern end of the same S. 53° W.

deserts. Shoes and stockings are luxuries which neither their poverty nor their habits permit them to indulge in; and their sandals were of the rudest and most primitive kind, made of the thick skin of a species of fish caught in the Red Sea. Some of the men had old muskets with match-locks; the barrels mostly very long and apparently of Turkish or western manufacture; while the stocks and locks were ruder, and evidently made among themselves. Several of our Arabs and others whom we saw, carried in their hands a small stick or staff about three feet long, having a crook at the top with an oblong head parallel to the staff, and cut in a peculiar form. This is only worth mentioning, as presenting a remarkable instance of the permanency of oriental customs; for this very stick, precisely in the same form, appears in the hands of figures sculptured on the walls of the Theban temples.'

We had paid at Cairo one hundred Piastres in advance for each of our camels, with the express agreement that nothing more was to be demanded until the end of the journey; yet on arriving at Suez, Beshârah came to us in quite a humble mood, saying that all the money received at Cairo had been paid out for necessaries and for former debts, and that now they had nothing wherewith to buy provisions and fodder. To us it was a matter of indifference, whether we gave them money then or afterwards, so long as we took care not to advance them their full pay; and we therefore yielded to their entreaty in this respect. It was of course our wish and endeavour in all things to deal with them kindly, and treat them as men; and in this way we won their confidence and received from them kindness in return. Travellers often complain of the

1) See Rosellini Monumenti CXXII, CXXXIV, and several Storici, Plates XLII, CXXI, others.

obstinacy of the Bedawîn, and of the impositions attempted by them; and probably not without reason; but the fault, I apprehend, most frequently lies on the side of the traveller himself. He cannot usually converse with his guides except through an interpreter, who is to them an object of suspicion or contempt; and the traveller thus becomes himself suspected, and suspects them in turn, until even their most harmless movements are distorted and ascribed to hostile motives. Not unfrequently too, the stranger undertakes to carry his point by threats and violence; and he may thus succeed for the moment; but he will find in the end, that instead of friends, he has made enemies; and he will leave behind no good name, either for himself or for his countrymen who may come after him. Kind words and a timely appeal to their palates and stomachs, are a cheaper and far more efficacious means of carrying a point with the Bedawîn, than hard words and browbeating. Had we adopted the latter course with our guides, I doubt not we should have found them as wilful and obstinate as they have sometimes been represented.

Sunday, March 18th. We remained encamped all day in Wady Sudr. We had determined, before setting off from Cairo always to rest on the Christian Sabbath, if possible; and during all our journies in the Holy Land, we were never compelled to break over this rule but once. Strange as it may at first seem, these Sabbaths in the desert had a peculiar charm; and left upon the mind an impression that can never be forgotten.

We had made no agreement with our Arabs on this point; leaving it to time and circumstances to open the way for such an arrangement. On mentioning to them yesterday our wish to lie by for to-day, they made no objection, and were quite ready to gra

tify us. The poor fellows set no value on time; and when a bargain is once made, whether they spend ten days or fifteen upon the way, is a matter of no importance to them. We gave them rice for their dinner; and thus afforded them quite a feast. One of them had sore eyes; and we were glad for his sake and our own, that we had brought with us a supply of eyewater.

About noon three men on camels came up and stopped near us for the rest of the day and night. One was a young monk, a sort of noviciate in the Convent of Mount Sinai; another a Greek priest from Philippopolis; and the third a Wallachian pilgrim; all on their way to the Convent. They kept near us during several of the following days.

Monday, March 19th. We rose early and set off with the rising sun; which, throwing its mellow beams across the Gulf, gave us a distinct view of the dark face of 'Atâkah, and of the more southern Kulâlah (as our Arabs called it) with its long ridge, and of the broad Wady Tawârik between these two mountains. Keeping on our way over the same great plain, we reached at 9 o'clock the north side of Wady Wardân, a broad strip like Wady Sudr, marked by torrent-beds and drifts of sand. In it towards the seashore is the fountain Abu Suweirah, which usually affords a small quantity of sweet water; but dries up when the rains fail for a season. Here was the scene of an interesting story of Arab warfare, related by Burckhardt. The mountains on the east still bore the general name er-Râhah; but different parts were now named after the Wadys which descend from them; as Tâset Sŭdr, Jebel Wardân, and the like. Near the head of Wady Wardân, a range of hills comes off from these mountains in a S. W. direction; while near

1) Page 471. I shall recur to ing of the character of the Tawathe same story further on, in speak- rah.