Saturday, 4th March.—We were put to much trouble this morning in the assortment of the loads of our new animals, which, for the evident object of extorting money from us, but under the pretence of sparing their breeding camels, the Tiyáhah insisted should be light to absolute mockery. We were compelled to accept of twenty beasts, even though, including those which we required for the conveyance of our own persons, we had not proper burdens for more than a dozen. Most of the brutes which were given to us were quite unbroken ; and it was no easy matter to drive them from their accustomed pasturages. That which was selected in the first instance as my dromedary was quite furious, and

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for some time far beyond the management of one of our leaders, who gave me his own animal in its place. A third sheikh was introduced to our notice; and we were obliged to promise to remunerate his dignity, as we had covenanted to do in the case of those who were present at the making of our bargain. We were obliged, contrary to all precedent, to advance nearly the whole sum promised for the journey, and thus to put ourselves entirely at the mercy of those whose fidelity and serviceableness had yet to be tested. When we began to get under weigh, a young Arab from another tribe, said to be a murderer, robber, and outlaw, to whom the Tiyáhah had given shelter, came to pay us his respects; and on our declining to give him any present, the Tiyáhah gave him a couple of dollars, along with his dismission. It was half-past nine in the morning before we got fairly in motion. Our course lay almost directly east. At twelve o'clock Jebel Harím, the Jehrimm of Dr. Robinson's map, was opposite to us on the north or our left hand, apparently about two miles distant. It stretches to a good extent east and west ; for we were two hours before we cleared it in the line of our meridian. To our surprise, Jebel Helál, apparently some fifteen or sixteen miles distant from us, appeared to the north a few minutes after we had passed Jebel Harm. In the maps it is laid to the west of the hill last mentioned. A low chalk or limestone range, running to the east, named Tarf el-Mahashem, intervened between us and Helal. The Rás el-Bahah, or the “ Headland of

. Beauty,” a corresponding range, ran in the same direction a little to the south. We pitched in Wádí el-Maheshem, hitherto set down Meshehem, at sunset. The ground over which we passed in the course of the day was nearly level ; and the branch Wadís, which we saw, but which we were unable to trace, are merely slight depressions in the sands.

Sabbath, 5th March.-The want of water,--our Badawín, under the allegation that it could easily be procured in the desert here, having emptied our skins,—forced us to make a short march to day. We had social worship, however, together, before starting at nine o'clock. Our course was still to the east. At mid-day we came upon a small encampment. It consisted of four tents of Tiyahah. We entered the best of these tabernacles, on the invitation of its owner,

à venerable old man, apparently of some consequence among his fellows, and whom Sheikh Husein introduced to us as his uncle. It did not differ from the others beside it, except in size, it being a little larger. It was “black like the tents of Kedar;"1 in fact, like all the tents which we noticed in the desert,-consisting of cloth of goat's hair stretched longitudinally on three small poles, at each of its ends, and supported by three poles in the middle. It consisted of two divisions. Into that allotted to the females, and called the Haram, we were forbidden to look. We were squatted on a rug spread for our accommodation over the men's apartment; and sour milk, which we found most refreshing, was served up in wooden dishes or troughs about a foot long, and six inches broad, with an extended mouth-piece at each end to facilitate the operation of drinking. We entered into a peaceful, and, I trust, a profitable conversation with the sheikh. It aroused the curiosity of his lady; and she was not long in coming forth from her obscurity. By way of concealing, as she thought, her own intrusion upon us, she dragged in her affrighted children, and presented them for our blessing. We made each of them a little present, and were speedily friends. We explained to the sheikh the reasons of our travelling; and, unexpectedly to us, he appeared at once, in some degree, to comprehend them. Such honour as our visit paid him, he said, he had never received ; and

VISIT TO AN ENCAMPMENT OF ARABS- RATHAM- -COMET. 279

it was his wish that the English, in all time coming, should go straight through his country from Egypt to Jebel Hárún, or the Mount of Aaron, and Wádí Musá. There was a degree of frankness, and sincerity, and kindness about him, which we much liked, and which strongly contrasted with the rudeness and bluster of our guides.

We were glad to be able to halt at four o'clock. Our encampment was in Wádí Kareishí1 Jebel Aráif en-Náķah, a remarkable conical hill, bore N.N.W. of us. The valley in which we rested had a good deal of herbaceous and ligneous vegetation, and some beautiful and large specimens of the white broom or Ratham. We dined under the shade of one of these bushes, with its branches spreading over us. This plant, to which I have already referred, has for some time been acknowledged to be the of Scripture.2 It was under such a bush that Elijah, when he had gone a day's journey into the wilderness, came and sat down, and requested for himself that he might die, and under which he lay and slept.3 Job speaks of its roots affording food in the time of want and famine. At sunset, we observed the Badawín spread their mats and turn their faces towards Mecca. Such an act of regular worship-if the mere repetition of the Muhammadan creed for some dozen of times, for it was nothing more, can be called by the name-we had never observed among the Tawarahs, who did nothing of a religious kind, in our presence at least, but mutter a sentence or two on passing a tomb, or heap of stones, or on killing some animal. The unexpected devotion of the Tiyáhah, we found had a peculiar cause. They had observed a "sign in the heavens," and they were dismayed." They called us to look at a long

luminous streak in the sky, and anxiously asked of us if we knew its import. We told them that it was a comet, though we did not distinctly observe its nucleus till the following evening. I believe that the unclouded clearness of the atmosphere enabled us to see this great comet of March 1843, before it was noticed in any other part of the world.

6th March 1843.—Before day-break, our Arabs set upon quarrelling with one another, the occasion of their dispute being the division of the money which they had received in advance as part of the payment for their camels. We really thought that they would come to blows; but it is their fashion to bluster rather than to strike. One of their number, who was deaf and dumb, gesticulated and groaned most extravagantly, and appeared to be the individual most sensible of injury. He blamed the sheikhs for withholding from him what was his due; but we could not interfere in his behalf, except by advice and remonstrance. A poor African slave boy was the only individual belonging to the body seemingly peaceably disposed.1 The treatment which he received, if it might be taken as a specimen of that generally experienced from the Badawín, showed us that the slavery of the barren desert is essentially the same as that of the fertile plantation," still a bitter draught.” He was constantly overwrought, half-starved, and clothed in tattered and dirty garments. A Țarbush, or Fez cap which Dhanji gave to him, was stolen from him in our very presence.

In consequence of the dissensions of our guides, they were long in getting in motion in the morning. We passed on before them till we came to the Wádí el-Heikabah, near the place, we supposed, where it must have been crossed by Dr. Robinson and his companion, Mr Smith, on their route from Akabah to Hebron in 1838. It is on their map, but not